Behind The Scenes For The Doernbecher Uniform Design Process
08/24/17 | Football, @GoDucksMoseley
More than a year ago, three young cancer patients, three UO football players and designers from Nike collaborated on the uniform Oregon will wear Sept. 9 against Nebraska.
The design process for the uniforms Oregon will wear when the Ducks host Nebraska on Sept. 9 had its genesis during a meeting more than a year before, on a sunny summer afternoon in an annex to the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex dining hall.
There, on July 13, 2016, gathered designers from Nike; UO football players Khalil Oliver, Tyrell Crosby and Justin Hollins; and three vivacious young kids eager to put their own personal touches on an Oregon football uniform. The kids – Ethan Frank, Sophia Malinoski and Joe Macdonald – also were patients at Portland's Doernbecher Children's Hospital, receiving treatment for brain tumors.
More than a year after suggesting color combinations, design patterns and intricate detailing for a special uniform honoring the battle against children's cancers, the three kids will join Oregon football fans everywhere in seeing the Ducks don the uniforms when they take on the Cornhuskers. Ethan, Sophia and Joe will have put their literal stamp on the uniforms in the form of their signatures, on the back of the helmets and inside the gloves.
The full story behind this special partnership between @OHSUDoernbecher and @OregonFootball. Together we will overcome. #StompOutCancer pic.twitter.com/3415nVut85
— GoDucks (@GoDucks) August 24, 2017
"We're extremely privileged to wear such an inspiring uniform for our game against Nebraska," UO coach Willie Taggart said. "We'll do everything in our power to play with the same tenacity exemplified by Sophia, Ethan and Joe. Wearing this uniform is a great chance to honor them and their spirit and efforts."
The first design session for the uniforms took place on a Wednesday afternoon last July, during an off-day for players from their summer workouts. After touring the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex and Autzen Stadium, each kid was paired with a player and a designer from Nike. They spread out across tables in the dining hall annex, and got to work choosing colors and patterns for a uniform the Ducks would wear more than a year later.
Blank pieces of posterboard began to explode in a panorama of colors. While some of the parents chatted up the three UO players on hand, all three kids immersed themselves in coloring in socks and jerseys, and adding logos for the football program and the Doernbecher Children's Hospital on sleeves and socks.
"You doing good?" a Nike representative asked, checking in on Sophia. "You overwhelmed, or you doing good?"
"I'm good," Sophia answered with a smile.
Two weeks before the meeting, Nike sent sketches on which the kids began generating their ideas. Sophia, who was paired with Crosby at the meeting, arrived with a helmet painted electric blue. Nike's designers thus incorporated a reflective helmet that, for the 1:30 p.m. PT kickoff against the Huskers, will reflect the blue skies above Autzen Stadium.
Crosby stayed in touch with Sophia in the wake of the meeting. After he suffered a season-ending foot injury in 2016, the offensive lineman received a care package from her family, with a get-well-soon letter from Sophia.
"She went through so much more than I did at such a young age," Crosby said. "Pretty much every morning I read her letter, just to motivate me to get healthy and get back on the field."
Ethan's focus was on small design elements the likes of which pepper the finished product. He advocated for the use of wings on the helmet, for one. The helmet also features the word "Overcome," as do the gloves players will wear against Nebraska. A new Duck logo, imagined first by Sophia and featuring the mascot stomping out the word "cancer," is on the jersey sleeves and socks.
"This is exactly the process we go through at work," one of the Nike designers said while watching Ethan sketch out the design flourishes. "We have little hidden images, and a story behind them."
Later, another designer whistled in amazement: "He's ready to take somebody's job at Nike."
Joe, who was paired with Hollins, suggested early on that a camouflage pattern be employed. It wouldn't be the last time he did so.
"I don't know if you know this," he finally offered as a mea culpa, "but I like camo."
The final design includes a color splash on the socks and shoes resembling camouflage. Those are among several yellow accents throughout the jersey, which Joe suggested in a nod to the gold ribbon worn to bring attention to children's cancer research.
Oliver, who was paired with Ethan for the meeting last summer, called working with the kids on a new uniform design "one of the best opportunities I've had here at the university."
"To see him and how happy he was, he had no thought about what he had gone through," Oliver said. "This might be the best uniforms we've worn since I've been here, just because of the message and the fact that these are basically 100 percent custom-made by the Doernbecher kids."
