Keanon Cooper was modeling the Gophers' new football uniforms Friday when he noticed his jersey, stretched across his frame like a rubber band around the Sunday newspaper, had a small wrinkle near the bottom.
Gophers' new football uniforms: Classic look for modern age
The new threads revisit the Gophers' glory years but also include 21st-century features.

Unacceptable, he said. "I need to get a size smaller," Cooper decided of the skin-tight material. "Tighter."
Yes, the Gophers went historical, traditional, sort of contemporary-throwback with their new uniforms, which were unveiled in the team's locker room. They are Minnesota Basic -- no new colors added to the gold-maroon-white palette, no redesigned logos or unorthodox styling -- but with a few subtle details that nod to the Gophers' long-ago glory days.
But no modern football team would ever wear true replicas of decades-old uniforms because, like the disappearance of short-shorts in basketball, the game and its players have changed.
As the Gophers' equipment managers worked with Josh Iverson, the Nike designer assigned to the project, "we looked at pictures from Tony Dungy's era [the mid-1970s], and everything was really loose, like practice jerseys," said Andy Harris, the team's assistant equipment manager. "Today, everyone is bigger, stronger, faster, and they want to look like it, so everything is much tighter, as tight as you can make them. And that's how these are designed."
The look of the uniforms is what fans will notice first. But the material they are made from -- it's called cordura, a super-stretch fabric that still allows the garment to breathe, the same stuff the Army uses for its modern fatigues -- is one advancement that the players will appreciate.
"It can be tighter without feeling restrictive, so there's nothing to grab on to," Harris said. "Instead of stretching two directions, like a cotton T-shirt, it stretches four ways. It's an equipment manager's nightmare when we play on grass, because the grass stains lock into it and we can't get them out. But it's great for the players."
And yes, they think the new look is great, too. "When you look good, you play better," said defensive end Ben Perry.
The three colors of jerseys and pants can be combined nine different ways, though the university apparently intends not to use gold-on-gold. If it's handled like last year, players appointed by coach Jerry Kill will choose which combination to wear each week.
The new uniforms eliminate the piping on the side that their old ones had; makes the numbers larger and in a new font designed to resemble those from the championship seasons in the 1930s; strips away borders around the numbers; replaces "Minnesota" across the front with a simple block "M" (albeit smaller than the adjacent Nike swoosh), and adds uniform numbers to the shoulders, easier for broadcasters to read.
One unique touch: The maroon numerals contain a brick pattern, intended to invoke old Memorial Stadium, which was torn down in 1992.
"The bricks also mean, 'It's how we're building up the program, brick by brick,' " said senior tight end John Rabe. "They look old-school, but also new. It's a clean look, just pretty cool."
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