The colors of Auburn: orange, navy and white.
As fans step into Jordan-Hare they know what to expect. The traditional navy jerseys with white pants and some orange stripes on both. Away games feature the Tigers in all white. It’s always been that way in some form, it's predictable and it’s classic.
But there’s one Auburn sport where fans never know what uniform will be featured and that’s gymnastics. It’s tradition for gymnasts to unveil their leotards just hours before a meet. In some cases the gymnasts don't know what to expect until the week of. It’s a very unique part of the sport that makes it that much more interesting.
Ashley Johnston is the assistant coach for Auburn gymnastics and has a hand in the creative process for these leotards.
“Designing leotards can be a very fun and creative process,” Johnston said. “I typically involve the gymnasts so they can have input in the design and overall fit of the leotard. A lot of them are very artsy and have great ideas.”
One company Auburn works closely with is Ozone Leotards, specifically with Morgan Dennis who is a collegiate representative there and a former teammate of Johnston’s at the University of Alabama. Ozone has been working with Auburn for the last four seasons designing and producing leotards.
Dennis and her team are given creative freedoms within their designs. Inspiration is drawn from everything and anything while still playing on the themes of the school. In the beginning of working with Ozone, Johnston met them at their design headquarters in Dallas to work on over eight new concepts.
“Since then we use an interactive screen sharing platform,” Dennis said. “We get together and get on a call, similar to Zoom, where we are looking at the graphic designer’s screen and basically design in real time. Typically there is a concept that’s already been built based on inspiration that [Johnston] has given us.”
The screen sharing technology has saved both parties a lot of time as they can complete a concept on one phone call without having to go back and forth. Every detail down to the last stone has to be perfect and approved. The process is drawn out into the small details to make the leotards the best they can be.
The product also has to consider how manageable it is for the gymnast. Stitches, gems and other details have to be approved as to not compromise the functionality. The concepts are sampled and then put to the test by the gymnast. This allows Johnston to see if the athletes feel comfortable and confident.
“Each girl is able to try it on to see how comfortable it may or may not be,” Dennis said. “Sometimes from the first sample it’s approved and we go ahead and put it into production. Sometimes it takes a few iterations of it before we get it right and it feels good to [the gymnasts].”
Even though Auburn produces a new leotard for every meet of the season, Dennis said it’s not hard to continue to come up with new concepts. She said there’s so much to draw from and things that haven’t been done. Auburn works well with helping produce these concepts and keeping everything fresh.
One design from this season caused a little bit of an uproar and that was Auburn’s new ruffle leotard. Dennis and even the team loved the idea, but others did not. College Gym News ranks NCAA leotards each week and for the particular week of the ruffle leotard debut, Auburn came in last.
“I think I wore something like it for my pool party birthday when I was 5 years old,” said Editor-in-Chief Elizabeth Grimsley “I know most of the gymnasts liked this one, but it’s definitely not for me.”
Dennis said the most important thing is that the gymnasts love it and feel confident in it. That being said, many ideas have been completely axed because the gymnasts just didn’t like it. Dennis also said the ruffle leotard was probably her favorite from the season, however there are others ready on deck for next season that she’s excited for.
Overall, gymnasts leotards are part of who they are. It represents the team, the athletes, the school and the sport in general. It shows the beauty and elegance without taking away from the hard work and athleticism.
Pictures are not my own but rather belong to Auburn Gymnastics