One of Blackburn's charges has been to develop a coherent and consistent brand of internal philosophy and external messaging based on innovation and modernity. They are confident the first new uniforms in 17 years bring that to life.
"That's what the uniform does. The uniform should tie in with the vision and where this team is going," Blackburn says. "We designed it in a way for it to be around a long time and be recognizable like our helmet. Ultimately it's timeless. They're new and modern, but it has all the elements that tie into our founding and all the characteristics that made P.B. so excellent and great. We want the new uniform to embody that and carry us forward for a long time."
When Montague raised the possibility of new uniforms during one of his post-game meetings with ownership somewhere in the middle of the 2018 season, it was far from the first time executive vice president Katie Blackburn and her group had studied the issue.
"My mother has gone through evaluations several times," Elizabeth Blackburn says. "It takes years to complete."
Montague wryly admits, "I listen to sports talk radio probably too much and I'm on Twitter, unfortunately," and so he knew, as did everyone else at the meeting, that the fans were restless. In his research, Montague noted that the wildly popular uniforms of the early 1980s lasted for 16 years into the mid-1990s. In 2018, the 2004 uniforms were approaching the same landmark.
"The look in the early 2000s was great, but styles change," Montague says.
A group was formed to begin the push, consisting of ownership, vice president and chief marketing officer Brian Sells, Montague and Knollman.
Knollman, heading into his 14th season running the equipment room, knew the players were also ready for a change. "They see what other teams are wearing." His first year around the team had been 2005 and he saw how the 2004 re-design remained popular for years.
"It was time," says Knollman, who passed on the players' likes and dislikes.
That meant putting their thoughts on paper for NIKE and the NFL. And that meant not only communicating what they wanted the new uniform to look like, but what they wanted the brand convey. Plus, Montague put his Twitter skills to use with polls to rank fan favorites for jersey silhouettes and colors in order to find the right mix of color jerseys.
April 14, 2021 at 09:56PM
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