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Big Blue marching band settles on new uniform design

Hamilton High school sophomore Sierra Conley models the new uniforms the band will by wearing this year, Wednesday, Jan. 20.

Staff photo by Greg Lynch. Hamilton High school sophomore Sierra Conley models the new uniforms the band will by wearing this year, Wednesday, Jan. 20.

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By Richard O Jones, Staff Writer 9:42 PM Thursday, January 21, 2010

HAMILTON — It took a year of planning, but the Hamilton High School Marching Band has settled on a design for a new set of uniforms.

“It’s been over 10 years since we’ve had new uniforms,” said director Charlene Alfaro. “The shelf life is eight years.”

Alfaro said that going into a redesign, she wanted the new uniforms to “pop,” so that people would know they were new.

But Laurin Sprague, director of fine arts for the district, said that Hamilton is deeply rooted in traditions and the new uniforms would have to honor those.

“So the first challenge was to come up with something that recognizes the traditions but also has a contemporary flair for the competitions,” Alfaro said.

The second challenge was to bring the band community on board with a new design.

“I met with an artist and came up with five sketches that I hung on the wall last February,” Alfaro said.

She said she also came up with design features to allow for easy alterations that would not show, such as having gauntlets for the sleeves that would hide hemming.

Alfaro then invited input from students, teachers and parents by creating a survey of what they liked and didn’t like.

“I wanted everyone to have a bit of ownership,” she said, and then continued the process with new sketches until she was confident enough to have a prototype made.

Even after debuting the new design, Alfaro continued to make minor adjustments: Another splash of color here, a bit of silver piping there instead of white. She decided that faceted crystal buttons would react to light better than the silver ones on the prototype.

The next step is to send out the specs to different uniform manufacturers to come up with a cost of making 120 uniforms. The bulk of the cost, Sprague said, will be paid for by money generated by band and booster fundraisers.

Donations can be made care of the Hamilton High School Band Parents, 1165 Eaton Ave., Hamilton, Ohio, 45013.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.

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