Panther Talk: Pitt Identity Crisis, Resolved?

Pitt fans, we did it! After years of fighting for the return of script and "retro" colors, we finally have what we want. Ever since the day of Steve Pederson (Gross) and block Pitt, Pitt has struggled with its identity as a school. Getting a game day wardrobe together will no longer be stressful having to decide whether to wear blue and gold or the traditional royal blue and university gold because we finally have a concrete identity across athletics! At the uniform reveal, we could hardly contain our excitement as all the athletic teams showed off their new uniform colors and designs. One member of our group was not ecstatic about the new Panther logo, but by the end of that first week the background on his laptop was the Panther logo and he was ready to buy one of the shirts with the logo.  Pitt made a change for the better and we could go on and on about the positives of the change, but just like with any change, there will be some struggles, and we will go a little more into that here.

Our first bone to pick is with the newly renovated Pitt Shop.... Right now, we are not fans of the Pitt Shop, simply because it is so glorious and is like Disney World for a Pitt fan that we now are broke after spending all of our money there. We felt the need to spend so much at the Pitt store to get new gear because our closets are full of blue and gold Pitt gear that we have accumulated as students and alumni of the university. It is tough as a fan to have a bunch of gear in one color and all of the sudden those colors no longer represent the teams that you are going to support. Do these old Pitt shirt simply become shirts to wear to the gym and accumulate in the back of our closets? It will take a while to get enough royal blue and university gold gear to be able to wear all the time, which leads us into the biggest issue that Pitt is facing with the color change.

Pitt now has a concrete identity, but this identity change is going to take a long time. For years to come, you will still see fans at Pitt games wearing blue and gold. For example, we went to the Pitt vs. WVU baseball game at PNC and in one photo of us, there is our group of friends all wearing the new colors, then a guy sitting behind us in blue and gold Pitt AND there was even a guy in the top of the photo wearing block Pitt. When you change colors and logos in such a short period of time, it is bound to happen that many different people will be wearing different Pitt gear (as I sit here in a blue and gold t-shirt while I write this).

What makes it even more difficult to completely transition to this new identity is that the academic university still goes by blue and gold. The University has sent out surveys to alumnis and students asking what colors they best associate with the school, and it will depend on the response to these surveys whether the university as a whole goes to royal blue and university gold. In order for Pitt to reach that point in having a true singular identity, it is important for the university as a whole to adopt these colors.

Do you think the university as a whole should adopt the new athletic colors? Let us know what you think in the comments below. Thanks for reading, and Hail to Pitt and Heather Lyke!!!

-Aaron and Ryan, TGYK