The Central Michigan Chippewas unveiled a new look for their football program on Wednesday afternoon after six seasons of no changes. The uniform set, teased earlier this morning with the tagline “Tradition Meets Today”, harkens back to the Herb Deromedi-era Chippewa programs, which won the national title in 1974.
Adidas and Central Michigan started work on the uniform set after new head coach Matt Drinkall’s hiring to get the new look approved and ready
for the 2025 season.
The biggest, most notable change is to the helmet, which now features a three-stripe look, with a large gold stripe in the middle and two smaller white stripes on either side, utilizing the gap between the two colored stripes to use the underlying maroon as additional “stripes”.
The helmet is meant to be a nod to the Chippewa tribe’s membership in the Anishinasbe’s Council of the Three Fires, with the Chippewa tribe represented by gold. The Ottawa and Potawatomi are represented in white.
The front bumper is also adorned with “1974” in bold, the year of Central Michigan’s national championship, while the back bumpers have the names of Herb Deromedi and Roy Kramer, former coaches who went on to be elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2007 and 2023, respectively.
This will be the first time since 2018 CMU will utilize a stripe motif on their helmet, when it was a triple-stripe with gold as the primary color and maroon secondary on a white helmet.
Central used to utilize a stripe in some shape or form every season from 1950 to 1972 before adopting a spear motif through the rest of the 1970’s. Stripes then disappeared for the next three decades, replaced by a uni-color maroon shell with various monogram logos on the side.
Stripes would make scattered appearances starting in 2012 under head coach Dan Enos, with a tapered stripe look with a maroon base and white accenting. That look lasted until bout 2017, when the three-stripe look and uni-color look alternated before the uni-color shell overtook it in 2019.
The other notable change is the emphasis on white; in years past, numbers were either gold or maroon on the home and road sets, respectively. The white will now adorn the maroon set, while maroon remains on the road set. The font number is also simplified to look more classic, with the “Central Michigan” and “Chippewas” word marks removed from the chest.
The socks and pants also have a double-stripe motif, new for Central Michigan’s modern era. The motif is meant to symbolize the partnership between the Saginaw Chippewa tribe and the university,
Also of note on the lower body is the fact the shoes are now primary white instead of black.
CMU is set to debut the new duds against San Jose State in front of a national audience on Friday, Aug. 29, at 10:30 p.m. Eastern time on FS1. A valid cable subscription is required for viewing.
