Terps unveil Maryland Pride 2.0 at Baltimore ceremony

The Terps new Maryland Pride 2.0 jerseys are unveiled in Baltimore on Sept. 19, 2013.

BALTIMORE — In November, the Terrapins football team unveiled the final new uniform combination of the season against Florida State: the Black Ops look.

During the game, Adam Clement, Under Armour’s creative director of team sports happened to look up at a state flag waving in the breeze. He was captivated by the movement, and he wanted it on a Terps helmet.

Ten months later on a crisp September night, Clement saw his vision emerge from the smoke in front of the Under Armour Brand House in Harbor East. Under Armour, the apparel company founded by alumnus Kevin Plank, unveiled the Terps’ “Maryland Pride 2.0” uniforms before the team takes on West Virginia tomorrow at M&T Bank Stadium.

While it was not quite the flashy reveal of the original Maryland Pride uniforms in the 2011 season opener, Under Armour had a DJ, Terps cheerleaders, part of the school’s band and, of course, Testudo gathered in Baltimore for the event. People crowded onto the store’s small sidewalk, some clad in older Terps jerseys, while more took in the happenings from across President Street.

Promptly at 7:30 p.m., the front of the Under Armour Brand House lifted up, smoke poured out of machines and a voice came over the PA system, touting how the new iteration of the Terps uniform has never been seen before in college football. Moments later, a model wearing the new uniform — red jersey with flag details on the sleeves, red pants and a helmet featuring an incredibly detailed painting of the state flag — stepped out of the smoke and into an avalanche of flashbulbs.

The helmet highlighted the unveiling. Each one — there are 200 in all — was hand-painted and individually numbered. Clement said Under Armour worked with helmet-manufacturer Riddell for eight months to figure out the specifics of making a hand-painted helmet work on the field. Then, they “brought movement” to the helmet by using airbrush techniques to create the waving flag.

The new modifications to the jersey were more nuanced. There were the visible differences, such as the flag detail on each shoulder. But Under Armour has spent the past four years using a fabric called ArmourGrid with the Welsh Rugby Union, and now that fabric is making its debut in football.

ArmourGrid doesn’t stretch, meaning opposing players can’t grab onto the wearer. Rugby uniforms made out of the fabric were a success, but it has taken longer to bring it to football because of the unusual fitting around shoulder pads and the variety of body types on a football field. Under Armour’s Senior Vice President of Global Sports Marketing Matt Mirchin said it will give the Terps a performance advantage on the field.

“They’re sweet,” said Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Torrey Smith, a former Terp in attendance. “What I liked a lot was the way the jersey was, you really can’t grab. I wish I could have that right now.”

Many involved with the development of the new uniforms — which took about three years between the technology and aesthetic design — acknowledged that Maryland Pride 2.0 is the next step as the Terps, along with Under Armour, work to carve out a niche on the national landscape.

“If you look at all these other schools now, they’re throwing colors and everything else, but we have the theme,” athletic director Kevin Anderson said. “The Pride theme has been very consistent and from the school colors and the state flag. That makes us very unique, other than any other school in the nation.”

Nike, Adidas and even Russell Athletic have all debuted new series of uniforms in the past few years, while Under Armour has had campaigns this season with new uniforms for Texas Tech and South Carolina.

But for Anderson, one thing remains true: Under Armour and the Terps have stayed ahead of the curve, and it started Sept. 5, 2011.

“[Other schools have] been trying,” Anderson said. “I could say that that Monday night when we played Miami, you saw everyone trying to get variations of what we’ve done.”

The Terps’ new uniforms put them one step ahead of the rest of the country yet again. And Clement, a native New Yorker who has lived and worked in this state for most of the past 12 years, couldn’t help but come back to the theme Under Armour has put center stage when it comes to the Terps: pride.

“I’d say there’s two states that are most proud of their flag,” Clement said. “Texas and Maryland. I don’t know if we can beat Texas in that, but Maryland is certainly right up there.”