Retail version of Florida's black uniforms for 2023 season hits shelves
Florida is expected to wear black uniforms for the first time during the 2023 season and the official team sport shop has unveiled retail versions of the jersey on campus.
It’s unclear how closely the retail versions on the rack will mirror the jerseys the Gators are expected to wear this fall.
Check out the offerings, courtesy of GatorsOnline’s Nick de la Torre on the On3 Network.
The black jersey is broken up by white letters and stripes with corresponding blue and orange trim. A script ‘Gators’ sits just above the numbering on the front of the jersey, while an orange Jumpman logo appears on the left breast of the jersey.
It’s unclear what the rest of the ensemble might look like this fall.
Florida is unofficially expected to debut the jerseys against Arkansas on Nov. 4, though the program has not made that official just yet.
Coach Billy Napier more or less confirmed that during a spring speaking tour stop earlier this year, asked by a fan when the team would break out the black on black.
“We will do it in the 2023 season,” he said. “This will be become a little bit of a tradition. We’ll do it one time a year. It will be the next to last home game and it will always be around Veterans Day, that part of the year, for military appreciation.”
The program will be hosting its Saluting Those Who Serve & UF Family Weekend on that date, which lines up nicely with Napier’s reasoning behind wanting to wear black jerseys in the first place. He outlined that reasoning after he took the job at Florida.
Napier explained why he’s keen on the Florida black uniforms.
“We’re going to use it as a deliberate opportunity to educate the players and really make a big deal about our branches of military, first responders even,” he said. “We’re going to take these black jerseys every year and we’re going to auction some of them off. We’re going to take the money and we’re going to give it families of people in the military that were wounded or maybe had some type of setback.”
The Northwest Florida Gator Club where Napier revealed the plan to exploded with applause. Clearly the idea for the Florida black uniforms is a big hit in the Gator Nation.
“So, it’s a win-win for everybody,” Napier continued. “We get to black out the Swamp. We get military appreciation. We get to create some awareness and education so we can be grateful for these freedoms that sometimes I think we take for granted.”