The unofficial online home for fans of the Western Michigan University Broncos. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

Appears Black attire became a overused standard with more expensive & often unavailable BROWN.
I grew tired of Bronco black uniforms, shirts & sweatshirts etc.

Grey is much better alternative given still uncommon brown availability.
I was told the wholesale price of base BROWN clothing is more expensive

(02-18-2023 11:37 AM)okgc Wrote:  Appears Black attire became a overused standard with more expensive & often unavailable BROWN.
I grew tired of Bronco black uniforms, shirts & sweatshirts etc.

Grey is much better alternative given still uncommon brown availability.
I was told the wholesale price of base BROWN clothing is more expensive

Yep. I personally view the color of our uniforms and apparel as just a background color. Jersey wise you need a light and dark, white and black is the most common. You can also have alternate light and dark (brown, gold, gray) along with special occasion, ie. camo military, purple/pink cancer, etc.. It's just a background color and is not a key element of our branding, though a Brown jersey or apparel is more unique than Black and does help differentiate us from other schools.

(02-18-2023 02:10 PM)Brownandgoldlaker Wrote:  

(02-18-2023 11:37 AM)okgc Wrote:  Appears Black attire became a overused standard with more expensive & often unavailable BROWN.
I grew tired of Bronco black uniforms, shirts & sweatshirts etc.

Grey is much better alternative given still uncommon brown availability.
I was told the wholesale price of base BROWN clothing is more expensive

Yep. I personally view the color of our uniforms and apparel as just a background color. Jersey wise you need a light and dark, white and black is the most common. You can also have alternate light and dark (brown, gold, gray) along with special occasion, ie. camo military, purple/pink cancer, etc.. It's just a background color and is not a key element of our branding, though a Brown jersey or apparel is more unique than Black and does help differentiate us from other schools.

I don't necessarily have a problem with grey, but I feel like it adds another level complexity to our brand. The latest athletic home events I attended are a sea of black and vegas gold with hints of the new brown and yellow throughout the crowd. And now the athletes are sporting grey? Take a guess who also utilizes grey and yellow? CMU.

The Dunn administration laid down the foundation. The Montgomery administration only needed to refine it. All the components of the 2020 WMU Athletic Style Guide I linked to above could have been utilized and simplified. In fact, if you look through the guide, you'll notice there were a number of variations that were only single or two colors designs.

I've heard that the Bronco running across the W was "too busy" from a few different people. No problem -- separate them and be done. The typefaces utilized by Dunn administration for athletics and campus were both unique and strong brands. Did we really need to replace them or simply enlarge them?

Disagree? Take a look at Michigan State's strong branding. The blueprint is there.

(02-17-2023 11:19 AM)BroncoMD Wrote:  

(02-17-2023 10:26 AM)bronco1988 Wrote:  

(02-05-2023 08:36 PM)Cocksman Wrote:  

(02-05-2023 10:26 AM)BroncoMinor Wrote:  

(02-05-2023 07:52 AM)Brownandgoldlaker Wrote:  I see Proudfoot and company may have been following this thread, as CBSSN has finally updated the Spirit mark to the W.

To put this in perspective, it was cost a company around $300K per year to place their logo on a race car. That was almost two years of National TV broadcasts (free advertising) for WMU to promote its brand, no big deal. In the corporate world, if and advertising agency failed to to this, I assure you they would have lost a client about 18-20 months ago.

Do you really think Proudfoot has any say over this at this point? Don't you think Batholamae is making those decisions on how the Athletic Department is marketing their teams?

I would doubt Tony has much say these days from the athletics side of the rebrand. Athletics has rolled with the brown and white bronco and removed that stupid font/words for the most part. And they still often wear grey. I’m sure all not part of Tony’s big original plan.

Dan told me personally that he likes and we will continue to use grey as an alternative color.

Dan can like the grey all he wants but if the alumni and fans don't buy into it, his merchandise sales WILL suffer.

If they had simply stayed with the 2020 Athletics Style Guide and used brown, vegas gold, and black as an alternative color everyone would have been happy. See page 11, specifically, here: https://wmubroncos.com/documents/2020/7/..._FINAL.pdf

I'm fine with gray.

(02-18-2023 11:36 PM)BroncoMD Wrote:  

(02-18-2023 02:10 PM)Brownandgoldlaker Wrote:  

(02-18-2023 11:37 AM)okgc Wrote:  Appears Black attire became a overused standard with more expensive & often unavailable BROWN.
I grew tired of Bronco black uniforms, shirts & sweatshirts etc.

Grey is much better alternative given still uncommon brown availability.
I was told the wholesale price of base BROWN clothing is more expensive

Yep. I personally view the color of our uniforms and apparel as just a background color. Jersey wise you need a light and dark, white and black is the most common. You can also have alternate light and dark (brown, gold, gray) along with special occasion, ie. camo military, purple/pink cancer, etc.. It's just a background color and is not a key element of our branding, though a Brown jersey or apparel is more unique than Black and does help differentiate us from other schools.

I don't necessarily have a problem with grey, but I feel like it adds another level complexity to our brand. The latest athletic home events I attended are a sea of black and vegas gold with hints of the new brown and yellow throughout the crowd. And now the athletes are sporting grey? Take a guess who also utilizes grey and yellow? CMU.

The Dunn administration laid down the foundation. The Montgomery administration only needed to refine it. All the components of the 2020 WMU Athletic Style Guide I linked to above could have been utilized and simplified. In fact, if you look through the guide, you'll notice there were a number of variations that were only single or two colors designs.

I've heard that the Bronco running across the W was "too busy" from a few different people. No problem -- separate them and be done. The typefaces utilized by Dunn administration for athletics and campus were both unique and strong brands. Did we really need to replace them or simply enlarge them?

Disagree? Take a look at Michigan State's strong branding. The blueprint is there.

Gray is not a part of anyone's brand. It's just a color you can use.

The Tigers have gray road uniforms. Is it a part of their brand?

They can't decide which "gold" to go with...

(02-19-2023 08:52 AM)HeatherF Wrote:  They can't decide which "gold" to go with...

Gross

(02-19-2023 02:10 PM)PezKingGL1 Wrote:  

(02-19-2023 08:52 AM)HeatherF Wrote:  They can't decide which "gold" to go with...

Gross

Gross indeed. We went from one of the best brands in the MAC to a low end Community College brand in only 2 years.

(02-19-2023 08:52 AM)HeatherF Wrote:  They can't decide which "gold" to go with...

Those look effing terrible. The incompetence is staggering.

Heard a lady shopping for some WMU gear this last weekend calling a lot of the options as “orange”. The color of yellow, gold, and orange is all over the place especially when you look at the different garment manufacturers. Adidas seems to be pretty consistent.

Circle W..............................

(02-19-2023 02:10 PM)PezKingGL1 Wrote:  

(02-19-2023 08:52 AM)HeatherF Wrote:  They can't decide which "gold" to go with...

Gross

Proudfeet!

(02-20-2023 08:26 PM)holybovine Wrote:  

(02-19-2023 02:10 PM)PezKingGL1 Wrote:  

(02-19-2023 08:52 AM)HeatherF Wrote:  They can't decide which "gold" to go with...

Gross

Proudfeet!

Ugh. Fire this clown already!

A lot of your fellow Broncos like the yellow-gold.

(02-21-2023 08:38 AM)MajorHoople Wrote:  A lot of your fellow Broncos like the yellow-gold.

Everyone is going to have their personal preference and a lot of that will have to do with a person's own experience or when they attended the school. I heard someone say that the Lebron/Jordan goat debate is pretty much two different generations just arguing. It's kinda of like that, but the yellow has been rejected by the current students/generation. Thats why the new bronco head is brown and white and we are pretty much using grey and white as a primary colors over gold. And now we have yet another gold(more orange)in the mix, which is actually closer to the classic university gold WMU used in the 70/80's which even further complicates things. My point is, it's all a cluster F. I actually think if they would of just kept the gold(even in the circle W) we had been using for the past 25 years there wouldn't of been as much of an uproar.

(02-21-2023 08:38 AM)MajorHoople Wrote:  A lot of your fellow Broncos like the yellow-gold.

I have no issue with the traditional yellow & gold being our University's primary color scheme. That is consistent with the history of our school.

I even can agree with Proudfoot's vision to simplify the brand & colors.

But, then you go to a hockey game and walk through that atrocity photographed above. There were at least 5 different shades of "gold". No consistency with the logos.

I have 100% bought into the new sports logo. I love it. Can I buy anything with the new sports logo? NOPE.

They better have this merchandise situation figured out by next year. Nobody wants anything with a Circle W on anything athletics related. Nobody wants anything with that brown & yellow Bronco that athletics has already rejected. Make it happen Western. If you get the right stuff, I'm probably due to spend $500 on Broncos gear.

(02-21-2023 12:30 PM)BroncoMinor Wrote:  

(02-21-2023 08:38 AM)MajorHoople Wrote:  A lot of your fellow Broncos like the yellow-gold.

I have no issue with the traditional yellow & gold being our University's primary color scheme. That is consistent with the history of our school.

There is a lot of evidence found in the early yearbooks which indicates the original WMU gold was a vegas/nugget/gold leaf color and not an athletic gold/golden/highway stripe yellow color.

(02-21-2023 02:04 PM)Brownandgoldlaker Wrote:  

(02-21-2023 12:30 PM)BroncoMinor Wrote:  

(02-21-2023 08:38 AM)MajorHoople Wrote:  A lot of your fellow Broncos like the yellow-gold.

I have no issue with the traditional yellow & gold being our University's primary color scheme. That is consistent with the history of our school.

There is a lot of evidence found in the early yearbooks which indicates the original WMU gold was a vegas/nugget/gold leaf color and not an athletic gold/golden/highway stripe yellow color.

Thst is true.

But then neither was black or grey.

So how is proudfoot still employed at WMU?

This guy created a problem to give himself an opportunity and then took that opportunity and threw it right in the garbage.

Because he’s not an educated marketing professional.

Yet that’s what he was hired to do.

Just straight incompetence across the board.

(02-21-2023 08:39 PM)flushtheherd Wrote:  So how is proudfoot still employed at WMU?

This guy created a problem to give himself an opportunity and then took that opportunity and threw it right in the garbage.

Because he’s not an educated marketing professional.

Yet that’s what he was hired to do.

Just straight incompetence across the board.

For some reason, Montgomery likes him.

The new Provost, however, does not appear to feel the same. He just announced that he is hiring his own marketing manager to work with Academic Affairs and Enrollment Management. This essentially neuters Proudfoot's influence in those areas.

All of it could be avoided if Montgomery would step up and show Proudfoot the door.

With a new AD, new VP of Enrollment, and new Provost, it's a perfect time to make a change and bring in a new VP of Marketing and Communication.