High School Your Ugliest Uniform

[Sterling von Shimmer]

We’ve all had one.

As much as I hate to say it, mine was the one UCA gave us for the all-star parade in London one year. It was hideous: the colors were red, yellow, blue, and white. The sweater fit like a baggy pullover, the skirt was too long, and we had leggings that came in red, yellow, or blue. Thankfully I got the blue ones which were the least offensive, but the yellow ones were grotesque. If you carried ANY weight in your legs, those leggings highlighted every inch of it.

The whole uni looked like it’d been designed in 1986, and this was in the early aughts. It was outdated, ill-fitting, and poorly conceived.

The one they gave us a few years later for the Paris trip was better — they’d dropped the yellow by that time at least — but for awhile there UCA was testing how much you really wanted to go to Europe by making you wear the ugliest uni imaginable during your trip.

 

[CoachTamara]

Oh yes, I have a hideous London uniform in storage as well. Man, those things were the worst. I don’t think I have any photos from the parade because it was so bad I didn’t want to remember it.

 

[tojofasho]

Some wouldn't consider this ugly, but as a die-hard Chicago Bears fan it was terrible wearing a uniform that was basically just the Packers logo. They bought these my senior year and we were all so stoked for new uniforms, only to end up with this monstrosity.

 

[coacha]

Unless you’re old enough to have lived through pleated skirts, ugly scratchy sweaters and turtle neck leotard liners (not crop tops....) you haven’t really experienced bad uniforms.

 

[CLynn]

Unless you’re old enough to have lived through pleated skirts, ugly scratchy sweaters and turtle neck leotard liners (not crop tops....) you haven’t really experienced bad uniforms.

Ha. well I'm old enough to have had all of that in addition to Wigwam socks and saddle shoes!! lol

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

Every single one that required the turtleneck one-piece bodyliner leotard.

 

[retiredl5cheer]

Every single one that required the turtleneck one-piece bodyliner leotard.

We had a shimmer turtleneck crop. Nearly as bad.

 

[DonnaM]

The YCOA ones CP had from age 4-10 weren’t ugly so much as uncomfortable-turtle neck bodysuit, polyester vest and skirt, bloomers or leggings, knee socks in various colors (socks and bow were the only things that distinguished teams, so it wasn’t uncommon to have a red and black uniform with bright pink floral knee socks and a big pink flower bow-in fact, CP had that exact combination for state at age 6). When our region became Champion Force, they upgraded to a motionwear, school-cheer type design that was much more wearable, the kneesocks were replaced by no-shows, and bows started matching.

 

[coacha]

Ha. well I'm old enough to have had all of that in addition to Wigwam socks and saddle shoes!! lol

I forgot about wigwam socks!!!! Had those, but I did miss the saddle shoes era, barely.

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

When my older niece first started cheering rec/youth football the youngest age group was like 5/6 year olds and it was no cut. So they had a ton of kids in that age bracket for both football and cheer. So there ended up being more than one flag football team and more than one flag cheer squad. All 3 cheer teams had the same navy or red shorts but used bow colors and tee shirt colors to distinguish between them. I don't know if the kids or the team moms chose the color but I definitely remember her team having red shorts with a pink bow and top with pink high knee tie dye socks.

 

[Cheermom1979]

When I did youth cheer I had the pleated skirt, white button down shirt with logo sweater over it, saddle shoe sneakers. Lol. My mom bought my Hutton Down from the boys section.

 

[DonnaM]

When I did youth cheer I had the pleated skirt, white button down shirt with logo sweater over it, saddle shoe sneakers. Lol. My mom bought my Hutton Down from the boys section.

I had that, too. We were North (the other three teams were South, East, and West), and wore blue. White sweatshirts with a school letter type N attached with snaps so the sweatshirt could be washed. Paper pompoms that shed everywhere.