Out With the Old, In With the New: Band Gets New Uniforms

Media by Kaylin Knost

After 8 years with their old uniforms, the marching band will start the 2021-2022 school year with new uniforms. The uniform’s design represents how individual’s lives intersect through band.

Marching band is getting a new look this summer after eight years of waiting. 

The new uniforms will have pointed shoulder pads, a half green, half navy blue chest and sleeves, and entirely navy blue pants. The green part on the chest will have criss crossing white lines and the navy part will have the band’s logo.

Kaylin Knost, band teacher, said she wanted the white lines to “represent how all of our students have different lives and different experiences and are involved in different things, but we have the one thing that brings us all together and that is band.” 

It has taken eight years for the marching band to get new uniforms because of the rotation system in Rockwood where a different high school at a time  is allowed to get new uniforms with an allocated amount of money to spend. 

Next, the band directors design the new look. The first step is to choose a base. Then, modifications are made to it and a design is drawn. Knost and Christian Pierce, the band directors, went through 10 to 20 drafts before settling on the final design. 

The uniforms will have a detachable piece of fabric hanging from the hip and several other new modifications. Knost said the uniforms are entirely unique.

To debut the new uniforms to the band students, the band directors put together a reveal video and invited students to watch it in the Theatre after school one day. Knost said the students were excited about the reveal. 

Junior Nathan Gilbert, trumpet player, attended the reveal.

“It was really cool to see the uniforms and get hyped for them,” Gilbert said.

Gilbert said he likes the new design and concept of duality with the uniforms. He is excited to get a new look because their old uniforms were starting to get dirty and worn out. 

“I think the worst part of the old uniforms was how out-of-style they were,” junior Will Rose, trumpet player, said. “The uniforms looked like something from the late 80s to early 90s, they had no characteristic to them, they were dull compared to the other bands’ more vibrant costumes.”

Rose’s favorite part of the new uniforms are the customizable parts. 

“I think it’s the coolest thing to be wearing one thing in the beginning and look like you are wearing a whole new thing at the end,” he said.