The Northwestern men’s basketball program on Thursday afternoon announced it will wear the latest rendition of its “By The Players” uniform during Saturday’s Senior Day tilt with Penn State (4 p.m. ET on Big Ten Network).
This marks the fourth time in program history the Wildcats have collaborated with Under Armour to create the special uniforms, with this year’s set designed by seniors Tino Malnati, Pat Spencer and A.J. Turner. It pays homage to Chicago with a sublimated skyline inside the motion-style wordmark, which is a nod to the city’s Windy City nickname.
The first iteration of Northwestern’s “By The Players” uniform was a gray set designed by the entire 2013-14 team that featured various slogans and imagery associated with program and the Chicago area. That has since evolved into a seniors-only tradition, with the 2018 squad wearing a white-pinstriped uniform that included the Wildcats logo from the football team’s helmet and an angled Northwestern stripe on the shorts to “symbolize the trajectory of the program.”
Last season, the Wildcats channeled the 1990s with a black uniform that featured a retro-style font reminiscent of the Vancouver Grizzlies clawed-up wordmark. Under Armour also created a new logo for Northwestern, as a Wildcat clutching a basketball adorned the shorts.
This year’s uniform is obviously the first purple uniform in the series, and it comes with lavender trim that “highlight the uniform like the city lights of the downtown skyline.” The triangle-shaped trim on the shorts, specifically, is supposed to reflect the aerial view of Chicago’s beaches along Lake Shore Drive.
The alternate look is complete with a special shooting shirt that also features the skyline atop a motion-style Chicago wordmark on the front and the program’s motto, “Pound The Rock,” on the sleeve.
Check out more photos of Northwestern’s latest “By The Players” uniforms below:
Photos via @NUMensBball on Twitter.