Dean Smith, Michael Jordan and UNC: How argyle became a uniform centerpiece

Michael Jordan once expressed his love for an argyle pattern. Inevitably, the North Carolina Tar Heels would wear that argyle pattern on the basketball court. It was far from a Jordan-only decision, but more than 30 years ago, the uniform design thoughts of a university icon who became one of basketball’s all-time greatest players — many say the greatest — played a factor.

If anything, it might have helped sway the opinion of someone considered by some to be even more Tar Heel than Jordan — the opinion of one eventual Hall of Fame coach in Dean Smith. As a discussion among Hall of Famers in their respective fields resulted in planning a revised look for one of college basketball’s top programs, the voice of the legendary coach carried the most weight.

Fans of the past couldn’t miss the distinctive Carolina blue uniforms then, and fans of today recognize the argyle design that accompanies many of the university’s athletic uniforms. They have been on display in both the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments. The men’s team advanced to the Sweet 16 over the weekend with a win over Michigan State. The women’s team fell to undefeated overall top seed South Carolina in a second-round game Sunday.

Smith’s and Jordan’s endorsements of new North Carolina basketball uniforms in the early 1990s by fashion designer and Tar Heel alum Alexander Julian helped give the program a look that was different from any other in the country. The argyle print along the sides of the basketball uniforms made its debut with the Tar Heels during the 1991-92 season after conversations with Smith, Jordan and Julian. The change was Smith’s idea from the start, as he was looking to shift from the foot with a black heel on the shorts to a design that was more stylish.

It all began with a phone call to Julian in the spring of 1990 from Smith, who died in 2015, about changing the look.

“Coach Smith controlled everything about the uniforms,” said men’s basketball director of communications Steve Kirschner, who was the assistant director in 1991. “You know that we didn’t change a stitch on our basketball uniforms unless coach Smith said to do it.”

Julian still remembers Smith calling him to revamp the jerseys. Smith was impressed with Julian’s work with the Charlotte Hornets, as he designed their iconic jerseys for their NBA debut in 1988.

Julian said he did the uniforms and all the work for the school pro bono. He said it was simply an honor to design for Smith and for his alma mater.

The change was collaborative. Julian said Smith was truly interested in the opinions and granted voting rights to several people associated with the team, “including the uniform manager in the locker room.”

“In the design world, voting without any direction is a recipe for disaster,” Julian said, “So, I tried to figure out what I could do to polarize opinions.”

Julian then suggested to Smith to include Jordan in the conversation. Jordan at the time was one of the biggest stars in the NBA (not quite the icon he is today), and his brand with Nike was ascending. Jordan could not be reached for comment regarding his role in the uniform selection.

Julian wanted to make sure the shade of blue was best for television, as Carolina blue sometimes looked gray on TV screens with the lower-definition technology at the time. As a result, the color of the uniforms was slightly altered to give them more of a deeper, sky-blue look.

Kirschner said Smith was flexible in allowing Julian to tinker with the colors to give the school the right look on television. Julian sent samples to Jordan in Chicago and to Smith in Chapel Hill, N.C., which were discussed on the phone amongst the trio.

“Michael asked me what I liked the best. I said, ‘I like them all or I wouldn’t have submitted them,’” Julian said. “But I think the argyle has got the best legs. I think it’ll go anywhere. It’s different than anybody else in college sports, so it’s differentiating. It’s a quick visual that you see, and you know exactly who the team is.”

Julian said Jordan voted for the argyle print as his favorite design. Kirschner, however, acknowledged that while Smith might have wanted everyone’s input, the idea of swaying the final decision would have been extremely difficult.

“Some votes counted more than others,” Kirschner said. “Coach Smith’s vote counted the most, but Michael Jordan in 1991 had just won his first championship and had been established in the NBA as a great. So, yeah, you got some feedback from Michael, but it’s not like we took a team vote around the locker room and asked the players what they wanted.”

Eventually, the argyle would become a key part of the school’s deal with Nike. Before the uniform change, North Carolina was a Converse school for basketball. At the time, schools didn’t negotiate deals for the program; rather, shoe companies made deals with coaches, who then agreed to outfit their schools.

Former North Carolina athletic director Dick Baddour was an assistant under John Swofford when the argyle became part of the uniform. Julian’s design ended up being a part of the move to Nike. The move allowed the North Carolina basketball brand and the argyle to be showcased on a bigger scale while also providing shoes and gear for the rest of the sports program.

“The distinctive part for me was the North Carolina family coming together in a very different way to showcase Carolina basketball and help Carolina basketball establish its own brand in the Nike framework,” Baddour said. “They wanted to sell jerseys, and there’s certain things about they wanted it to look like a Nike product.”

Since then, the design on the side, coupled with the school’s colorway, has helped make North Carolina’s jersey popular with the public — and recognizable in pop culture. It would be seen in commercials, television shows and billboards. It even appeared in a music video featuring Jay-Z.

The Tar Heels have one of the most distinctive jerseys in college basketball, but had there been a players-only vote in the early ’90s, Carolina blue might have been presented a lot differently.

“We were trying to get black uniforms,” said longtime NBA forward George Lynch, who also was a standout on that 1991-92 team. “They wouldn’t do black for us.”

Lynch said at the time, he wasn’t familiar with Julian or the designing process. The team knew it would have new uniforms, but players weren’t sure how they’d look. New uniforms could have meant something as simple as subtle changes to the lettering or numbers.

Lynch, along with teammate and current North Carolina head coach Hubert Davis, ended up being the models for the new look before they debuted. Lynch said players first saw the jerseys once they were given to them before the season by equipment managers.

“Once we saw the argyle on the side, it took it to that next level of  being sharper and cleaner,” Lynch said. “Everybody else had the traditional uniforms with their school logo on the side of the shorts. When we switched it up, going down the side of the jersey and the side of the shorts, it separated us from the rest of the ACC.”

Rick Brewer is a sports information director emeritus for North Carolina. He first worked with North Carolina sports information in 1968 and retired in 2000. He was there when Julian planned the design, and Smith ultimately approved it.

To Brewer, the argyle made a great product exceptional.

“Personally, I always thought we had the best-looking uniforms in all sports,” he said. “The shade of Carolina blue just looks good anywhere and on anything. Adding the argyle just made the uniforms stand out even more. It was simply different from what I had seen anywhere else.”

North Carolina’s Armando Bacot dunks in an ACC matchup against Pitt. (Geoff Burke / USA Today)

The argyle pattern has been incorporated throughout North Carolina athletics and not just men’s basketball. The athletic program made the pattern a secondary part of all the school’s team uniforms in 2015, shortly after Smith’s death. It’s been a part of the football team’s helmets and on the collar of the jerseys. The Tar Heels’ official athletic website features Julian’s creation with toggle options.

Julian, now 76 years old and a member of the Fashion Hall of Fame, knew more than 30 years ago what a huge undertaking this was. A native of Chapel Hill, Julian looked up to Smith, who had been friends with his father, also a North Carolina alum. The V-neck look on the Hornets jersey was a nod to Smith and the North Carolina jerseys.

In Julian’s mind, this was no minor ask.

“I felt like God was on the phone asking for new halos for the archangels,” Julian recalled. “It was that meaningful to me. I realized, if I (messed) this up, I can never go home.”

Julian already was an accomplished designer before working with Smith. He was the first American designer to create his own exclusive fabrics, and his textile design is part of the Smithsonian’s permanent collection. His use of the teal and purple in designing the uniforms of the expansion Hornets in 1988 quickly became popular beyond the state of North Carolina. The jerseys had unique details; the stripes were embroidered, and the shorts had pleats.

Julian originally was willing to design the jersey without charging a fee, with a stipulation of receiving 5 percent of the sales, but then-Hornets owner George Shinn informed Julian he could not receive revenue because of NBA rules. That’s how Julian came up with a different compromise, an unorthodox deal for his services.

“Carolina barbecue,” Julian said. “I made him an offer he couldn’t refuse: Five pounds of Carolina barbecue a month, FedExed to my place in Connecticut, and you’ve got a deal.”

What Julian didn’t know was exactly how popular that jersey would become. A different deal might have been cut.

“I had no idea that they would sell over $200 million worth of copies of my uniform,” Julian said. “At 5 percent, that’s $10 million. So, let me sum it up this way: George got rich, and I got fat.”

When discussing the Tar Heels, the 2015 decision to integrate the argyle into the design of the other teams on campus is proof Julian got it right in the ’90s. But why argyle?

Julian said argyle can always be found for men and women in any fashion magazine. It has always been a part of wardrobes.

“It’s a timeless pattern,” he said. “That was always my goal in fashion, to design clothes that are going to be cool for a long time. That’s the way you get the most wear out of it. That’s the way you can afford better things because they last longer and they’re more useful.”

Alexander Julian (center) in 2017 with then-North Carolina chancellor Carol Folt and athletic director Bubba Cunningham during a 25th-anniversary celebration of the argyle print. (Courtesy of Alexander Julian and John Lyon)

Lifelong Tar Heels fans now see Julian’s print all over Chapel Hill as it’s become synonymous with the university. Add to that his alumni status and that four of his seven children attended North Carolina, and Julian has plenty of reasons to love his school.

Julian’s influence on the school’s fashion extends beyond athletics. His designs are worn by North Carolina administrators and coaches, including Davis and previous Tar Heels coaches.

“I don’t know how it could be more true,” Julian said. “Roy Williams famously won three national championships wearing my outfits, some of which are in the basketball museum in Chapel Hill now.”

Julian’s fashion sense in the sports world leaked into designing racing suits for Michael Andretti. He also designed the uniforms and stadium seating for the Charlotte Knights Triple-A baseball team. The colors of the seats in the stadium made it the “world’s biggest shirt,” according to Julian.

Julian recently got back into designing college basketball game jerseys. High Point University in High Point, N.C., debuted its Julian-designed uniforms for men’s and women’s basketball for the 2022-23 season.

This design doesn’t feature argyle. Instead, Julian used High Point’s Panther mascot as a pattern.

“I did an exaggerated houndstooth, doubled the size, and we named it the ‘Panthers tooth.’ The design is trademarked,” Julian said. “It’s another one of those truisms that is a textile design that is associated with me, and it just works.”

Perhaps in 30-plus years, High Point’s uniforms will have similar prestige as North Carolina’s argyle gear. And if the Tar Heels have their way, college basketball fans will see the argyle even more during March Madness.

(Top photos: M. Anthony Nesmith / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images; and courtesy of Alexander Julian)