The Arizona Wildcats were selected as one of seven men’s basketball programs to receive Nike’s Hyper Elite Platinum uniforms, which were revealed in New York City on Wednesday.
Duke, Florida, UConn, Kentucky, North Carolina and Syracuse also received the jerseys, which are said to be 5 percent lighter than the jerseys that Nike debuted a little more than a year ago. Baylor and UConn’s womens’ team also will wear the jerseys at least once this year.
According to a Nike press release, the uniforms are made out of more sustainable materials, like recycled polyester.
“Nike is committed to producing top-of-the-line performance attire with reduced sacrifice to the environment,” said Phil Cook, Nike’s brand manager for basketball. “With our Nike Hyper Elite Platinum design, Nike is maintaining its long-standing obligations to our fans to not only produce the best on-court looks, but also a design that makes use of the resources we already have.”
The jerseys feature a “platinum” grey color with the word “Zona” in white, with red trimming on the front of the jersey and the full block “A” on the other side. The back paneling also has a star with the year “97” inside, representing the year the Wildcats won the NCAA Championship. Both the tops and bottoms of the jersey feature red paneling down the sides. Unlike Arizona’s current jerseys, the new jerseys do not feature any navy blue.
In addition, Arizona also received grey warm-ups that have “NCAA Champions 1997” and a red basketball with white laces on the back.
The Wildcats are scheduled to wear the uniform only once this season, on Feb. 25 against UCLA. All the schools will debut their Hyper Elite Platinum Uniforms against non-Nike schools, like the Bruins, who are an Adidas school.