Alright, so I decided to really dive into the Texas Tech basketball uniforms recently. It wasn’t for any big project, just kinda got curious about how they’ve evolved, especially since Under Armour took over the outfitting duties some years back. You see bits and pieces during games, but I wanted to get a better sense of the whole picture.
First thing I did was just start searching online. Simple enough, right? I typed in the obvious stuff, looking for pictures mainly. My goal was to track the main home (white), away (red or black), and any alternates they’ve consistently used. I started trying to piece together a rough timeline in my head, thinking back to different eras – the Knight years, Tubby Smith, then Beard and now McCasland.
Finding images wasn’t the hard part. Finding consistent info or a dedicated archive? That was trickier. You get lots of fan photos, game highlights, stuff like that. But getting a clear, year-by-year breakdown from an official source seemed like a dead end. I spent a good while just scrolling through image results, trying to date pictures based on players or court designs.
Looking at the Details
What I started noticing was Under Armour’s influence becoming really clear. Their template designs definitely shaped the look for a while. I paid attention to a few things:
- The Double T logo: Where it sits on the jersey and shorts, how big it is. Seems pretty consistent, usually on the shorts and sometimes a small one near the collar or shoulder.
- Wordmarks: The “Texas Tech” or “Red Raiders” across the chest. The font styles have definitely changed subtly over the years. They brought back that cool cursive script font for throwbacks sometimes, which I always thought looked sharp.
- Side panels and trim: This is where a lot of variation happens. Different stripe patterns, sometimes incorporating that unique jagged pattern Tech uses in its branding. Colors change too – black accents on red, red on white, etc.
- Color Focus: Obviously Red, Black, and White are the core. They’ve had predominantly black alternates, sometimes grey, and those special edition uniforms pop up now and then. I remember seeing some interesting ones for specific causes or events.
Putting It Together (Sort Of)
I spent a couple of evenings just comparing photos from different seasons. I’d pull up pics from, say, the 2019 Final Four run and compare them to shots from maybe 2015 or the current season. You can really see the shifts in shoulder cuts, necklines, and the complexity of the designs.
It felt like they went through a phase of simpler, cleaner looks, maybe around the mid-2010s, and then started adding more detailed patterns back in more recently. Those black uniforms always seem popular, a really strong look. The classic white with red lettering is hard to beat, though. Timeless.
My main takeaway? It’s tough to find one single place that documents every single uniform variation Texas Tech hoops has worn, especially with detailed dates. You kind of have to be a detective, piecing it together from photos and memory. But spending that time looking through everything definitely gave me a better appreciation for the different styles they’ve sported on the court. Some hits, maybe a few misses depending on your taste, but they’ve definitely carved out a recognizable look. It was a fun little rabbit hole to go down, just wish the historical tracking was a bit easier to nail down.
