New Nike gear sports a different shade of South Carolina garnet. Here’s why
South Carolina, like almost every university in America, is extremely particular.
Which is understandable — color is a quite distinctive feature. Anyone’s who painted a bedroom can attest to the importance of matching hues ... and the agonizing eyesore that comes from being a smidge off.
So of course South Carolina is meticulous about its school’s colors. The Gamecocks do not just wear garnet. As laid out in meticulous detail on their marketing and communications department website, they wear Pantone 202 (USC also provides specifics for three other color ID systems).
You get the point. There is no guessing about South Carolina’s garnet.
Which meant it didn’t take a magnifying glass and personal color wheel to recognize that the garnet that Nike is using for South Carolina is — different, which is to say it’s not exactly Pantone 202. It is a few shades lighter than the garnet most Gamecock fans are accustomed to, but the discrepancies vary drastically.
On South Carolina’s football jerseys and dri-fit T-shirts, the difference is minimal. In the same vein, garnet lettering on items with a black or white base look very similar to Under Armour garnet. But the change becomes apparent on garnet cotton T-shirts, which resemble Alabama crimson more than Gamecock garnet.
‘It’s a challenge with a color so unique’
It should be known: This is not an issue exclusive to South Carolina and/or Nike.
Just as South Carolina transitioned from Under Armour to Nike on Wednesday, Penn State flipped from Nike to Adidas. Sure enough, the Nittany Lions’ jersey is a different color. Heck, look through old Gamecock football pictures. Every era has a new shade of garnet.
Even as recent as April, when the Gamecocks were still with Under Armour, South Carolina’s players and coaches held press conferences where their shirts, the podium and background all appeared to be three distinct shades of garnet. This is nothing new.
But you may be wondering: That’s all fine and well, but why can’t Nike just take South Carolina’s exact Pantone number and slap it on everything?
Because Nike doesn’t have that exact color. The company has its own color wheel/palate and puts its partner schools into color teams. You have “Team Royal Blue,” “Team Purple,” “Team Scarlet University Red,” “Team Orange,” etc. That process, it should be known, is not unique to Nike. While it was with Under Armour, South Carolina was a part of “Team Cardinal.”
So far, none of Nike’s “teams” exactly matches South Carolina’s garnet. What likely happened is that Nike put South Carolina into the team it thought was closest — likely “Team Crimson” — and worked to bring it as close to Gamecock garnet as possible.
“It’s a challenge with a color so unique,” South Carolina athletic director Jeremiah Donati told The Post and Courier. “It shows up different in different materials, on paper vs. paint, on clothes vs. uniforms. It’s a great challenge that any apparel provider has to match ... We’re happy with where they landed.”
There is also the chance that as the partnership between Nike and South Carolina grows, and the company fulfills its obligation of completing a full redesign of the Gamecocks’ football jerseys, the Nike garnet becomes closer to Gamecock garnet. And not for nothing: Some folks on Wednesday, who were loading up on anything with a Swoosh, were more than willing to give Nike the benefit of the doubt.
“I like new colors,” South Carolina fan Zack Henderson told The State. “I’ve heard it took some time for Under Armour to dial that color in, and I’ve heard Nike might have to do the same. But I’m not a stickler on it if it’s a shade or two off. I think it looks clean. I think it looks good, looks strong.”
This story was originally published July 2, 2026 at 8:00 AM with the headline "New Nike gear sports a different shade of South Carolina garnet. Here’s why."
