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In fall of 2003, all of UCLA’s 22 varsity athletic teams will be “True Blue” for the first time.

This year, UCLA Athletics and Associated Students of UCLA will launch their “True Blue” campaign. True blue is a shade of blue – darker than powder blue and lighter than royal blue – which was developed by Adidas and the Athletics Department for UCLA’s football and basketball jerseys.

Beginning in 2003, True Blue will become a unifying brand name and tagline for all of UCLA athletics. It will become UCLA’s slogan on posters and advertisements, as well as the new shade of blue worn by UCLA’s athletic teams.

“This will provide a consistent approach with greater benefits than those offered by multiple single sport campaigns,” said Scott Mitchell, marketing director for the Athletics Department and leader of the campaign, describing the department’s hopes of increasing revenue by building the True Blue brand name.

“This approach gives UCLA the ability to leverage the promotional opportunities of our teams in a way that will increase awareness for all of our programs,” Mitchell said.

He added that having True Blue as a unifying theme and color for all of UCLA’s athletic teams would help to build it as a brand, and possibly increase clothing sales revenue and alumni appeal.

The Athletics Department theorizes that a unifying uniform color and slogan for all of UCLA’s varsity athletic teams could help increase recognition of UCLA athletics as a whole, leading to increased attendance at sporting events.

In addition, it could boost BearWear sales by encouraging fans to wear the same color blue as the athletic teams.

Mitchell said the True Blue campaign marks the first time all of UCLA’s athletic teams will share both a uniform color and marketing slogan. If the True Blue campaign is successful, it may be continued in coming years.

Blue has always been a UCLA color, but the shade of UCLA blue has not always been static. In 1949, UCLA’s powder blue football jerseys had their golden numbers changed to white. This made it difficult for opposing coaches to differentiate between UCLA players and their own players on black and white films, which made it difficult for them to record and chart UCLA’s plays.

However, with the advent of televised games, football numbers became gold once again because fans wanted to read them in order to know what specific players were doing.

In the 1980s, UCLA football players began wearing royal blue and orange-gold because the colors showed up better in print and video media, such as magazines and television.

In 2002, home football jerseys and away basketball jerseys changed again, to a darker, richer blue – true blue.

“We think it is a significant improvement,” said Glenn Toth an associate athletic director. “(True blue) looks richer, and makes the numbers easier to read on jerseys.”

Though the True Blue campaign is primarily an endeavor of the Athletics Department, ASUCLA is releasing T-shirts with the True Blue theme to support the Athletic Department, said Richelle Campbell, the buyer of Adidas merchandise for the UCLA store.

Athletic uniforms – especially football’s – are traditionally updated annually, so the switch to True Blue jerseys has not carried additional expense.

In addition to UCLA varsity athletes, 2003 ASUCLA orientation counselors are wearing True Blue shirts as they guide new students through UCLA’s campus.

“When we debuted the jersey, we thought that we would hear from traditionalists about the change from powder blue, but it seemed like everybody liked it,” Toth added.