Justin Williams Stands in the Background, But His Work is Totally Out Front

STILLWATER – This is about as front line as you will find Oklahoma State Coordinator of Football Equipment Justin Williams. The guy who normally rides the 18-wheeler equipment truck to games, is one of the last to come out of the equipment room for games, and one of the first to head to the locker room towards the end of games. Williams, deservedly so, will give ample credit to his staff and especially to assistants Len Magby and Matt Heinrichs. Williams was brought up in the role by good people like Wes Edwards and Matt “Chief” Davis. 

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Justin Williams

It was Davis and Williams who went to Nike and helped design the last football uniforms. The new ones revealed on May 10, 2023, were originally supposed to be released two seasons ago, but better late than never. Oklahoma State fans can be hard to please these days. That is a good thing because expectations haven’t always been as high, especially in football. Mike Gundy has changed that. However, I can honestly say that I have never seen anything come down as universally praised as these new uniforms. 

“It was a team effort; I appreciate the compliment, and it’s fun to see the excitement that it’s created,” Williams said. “Two seasons we pushed these back and you’re right it was the pandemic (COVID-19). Honestly, you get into the pattern of planning for the re-brand, and we got an email (from Nike) saying it was pushed back a year and then another email pushing it back another year. Supply chain issues and other factors and I was getting a lot of questions about when were we going to re-brand.

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The new black uniforms

“I’ve been hearing about shoulder numbers, and we wanted to get back to something for the family,” Williams said of the components to the new uniforms. “This puts Oklahoma State right across the chest. We proudly put that back on the uniform. We are proud of our look and proud of our history and had a lot of success in that look and we plan to expand and continue it.” 

Some of the really neat aspects of the new football threads for Oklahoma State. With three different color jerseys and pants there are still plenty of variations. The helmets will still change often as well, in color and logos. I personally love the two sets of white road jerseys. One with orange numbers and black trim. The other, my favorite, with black numbers and orange trim. Having two sets of road jerseys has a practical purpose, Williams explained. 

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The new white jersey with black numbers.

“It adds a twist and we’ve been fortunate over the years to be the centralized team,” Williams said getting to the practicality. “We’ve expanded and I think there is more expansion to come, that’s my personal opinion. It adds some flexibility in how we handle road games in the future.”

Oklahoma State plays three road games on grass this season, at Arizona State, at Iowa State, and at UCF. That UCF game is the week before a road game at Houston. This allows the equipment staff to pack ahead on back-to-back road games with the two sets of road jerseys. It also allows for extra time to get those nasty grass stains out of white jerseys,

The blending of past, present, and future is awesome. These are truly uniforms that I can see continuing and standing the test of time. Tradition that can truly be appreciated, honored, and for the men wearing them made to be so ever prideful.

“Even though we still have flexibility with the helmets and the script and standing Pete (logo). We have so many traditional looks that flow with it we felt it was time to put all this together,” Williams continued.

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Stripes and Oklahoma State.

“Nike just keeps tweaking the fabrics and materials to be more breathable and comfortable and by moving back two years we got a new Nike brand of uniform,” he said. “We are one of a handful in the country to have these. I don’t know how many NFL teams have these.”  

Bob Fenimore, Barry Sanders, Thurman Thomas, Hart Lee Dykes, Leslie O’Neal, John Washington, Mark Moore, Matt Monger, and all those great Cowboys these were your colors, your stripes, and now they are back for new generations of Cowboys to win in. We can thank the man in the background and his team for helping to bring them back.

“I hope the Cowboy family is proud of these because we are proud of them.”