Kentucky basketball is bringing back its iconic denim uniforms
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- The Kentucky men’s basketball will wear its iconic retro denim uniforms against Tennessee
- UK previously wore the denim uniforms during the 1995-96 season.
- Coach Mark Pope was a player at Kentucky that season, which ended with an NCAA title.
Denim is back in fashion for Kentucky basketball.
The 1995-96 season — overseen by Rick Pitino and featuring players such as Tony Delk, Antoine Walker, Ron Mercer and current UK coach Mark Pope — ended in a national championship for UK. Along the way, the Wildcats wore distinct denim-themed uniforms that wove their way into the hearts of Wildcat fans.
Now, those threads are back. Kentucky is sporting a denim uniform for a game against rival Tennessee on Feb. 7 at Rupp Arena, UK announced as a gift to fans Christmas morning on its basketball Instagram page.
Since Pope — who averaged 7.6 points and 5.2 rebounds per game as a bench contributor on that 1996 title team — returned to his alma mater as the head coach in April 2024, there have been rumors of a potential return for the denim uniforms.
Pope brought one of his old denim uniform jerseys to his introductory press conference at a packed Rupp Arena. Since then, he’s continued to leave the door open for the potential of the Cats sporting the look again on the court.
In December 2024, Pope said on his weekly radio show that he was working to make a denim return happen.
“It’s amazing the red tape that we have to go through to make this happen, but we’re pretty passionate about trying to make that happen,” Pope said last year. “We’ll see what we come up with. It is definitely on my agenda of things to get accomplished.”
The breadcrumbs continued this season, which is the 30th anniversary of that 1995-96 title run. Specifically, Kentucky’s CBS Sports Classic matchup against St. John’s — with the Red Storm being coached by Pitino — made plenty of sense as the occasion to bring the denim back for.
In the lead up to that game, Pope was asked about the possibility of the denim jerseys returning.
“I’ve got to leave that one up to suspense,” Pope said. “... I’m contractually obligated by Nike to continue to dance on that.”
Kentucky’s return to on-court denim is just one aspect in which the look is back in the basketball zeitgeist. In September, ex-Cat Devin Booker gifted denim-themed sneakers to his old school. Furthermore, Converse is set to bring back the denim-styled shoes the 1995-96 Wildcats wore. A report from this past summer indicated the shoes would be available as soon as spring 2026.
But the most prominent way in which denim was set to return was always going to be via an in-game uniform worn by the current collection of Kentucky players.
Pope’s mission in this regard has been realized.
This story was originally published December 25, 2025 at 9:46 AM.
