Both the Abilene High School and Cooper High School bands are getting new uniforms, but fans of the two groups will have to wait until the fall of 2023 to see them in action.

Abilene ISD Executive Director of Fine Arts Jay Lester, AHS Band director Dr. Jon Kraemer, and Cooper director Jon Landin spent time last spring and early summer coming up with ideas, sketches, and designs for the uniforms. They then traveled to Wichita, Kansas, in June to meet with representatives from Fruhauf Company, which has outfitted bands across the country since 1910.

After going through a few different versions of each uniform, both directors finally settled on the final product. Fruhauf designers took it from there, creating one uniform for each school that was delivered to Lester at the Texas Bandmasters Conference in San Antonio in late July, and then modeled for the AISD Board of Trustees by band members Tate Eller (AHS) and Benjamin Weems (Cooper) at the Aug. 8 Board of Trustees Workshop meeting at One AISD Center.

The uniforms will now go into production and all 440 uniforms (220 per school) will be delivered sometime around the first of the year, and that means the bands will wear their newest set of uniforms beginning next fall.

AISD rotates band uniforms every 10 years for each school, but this rotation was pushed to 11 years because neither band wore uniforms in 2020 because of COVID. So, the district is getting one extra year out of this set, even though they will have only been worn for 10 seasons at each school.

“The last time the district did uniforms (2012), they came from two different companies: one out of New York and Fruhauf in Kansas,” Lester said. “This year we went with a format called Buy Board, which gives us pricing and is a much simpler process. It also allowed us to have one company do both uniforms.”

The process for getting the new uniforms ordered started during the 2021-22 school year when band students between 8th-11th grade were measured and sized so each school would have an idea of what sizes needed to be ordered. Fruhauf uses a bell curve system for the rest of the order, which will give each school several different sizing options.

Additionally, Fruhauf has a system on both its jackets and pants that will allow a band member to adjust the length of each according to their height or arm length without damaging either the jacket or pants. The pants and jacket can be put back to their original length and re-used the next year.

Lester has now been part of designing nine sets of band uniforms, including the ones at AHS and CHS in 2012 and now in 2022. He has seen them go from the old, uncomfortable, and hot wool uniforms to sleek polyester uniforms with screen-printed design elements. He emphasized that while he had input on these two sets, Kraemer and Landin were each responsible for the design of their school’s uniform.

“I wanted the directors to have the autonomy to do their designs,” Lester said. “The one thing I did insist on was an identifying marker on each uniform. Cooper has the Cougar logo on the front of the uniform and the interlocking ‘CC’ on the hat. Abilene High has ‘Abilene High Eagle Band’ on one sleeve and an Eagle logo on the hat.”

Kraemer said he and Landin were both glad to be able to take advantage of the technological advances that have occurred in the last 10 years.

“There have been quite a few changes in the way uniforms are manufactured since the last round was designed,” he said. “We were able to take advantage of those updates, including lighter materials, the ability to print colors onto fabric, and to do more with those colors in terms of shading and gradients.”

Lester said he’s already heard nothing but praise after the designs for each made their way to social media.

“We posted renderings to social media, and you can usually expect some criticism because people are nostalgic and they want to see it look like what they wore when they were in the bands,” he said. “But on the band alumni pages for both schools and in other venues we’ve been met with nothing but praise.”

Both directors said they felt honor-bound to strike the balance between what new techniques are available, while still honoring the history that each band enjoys.

“I met with my staff and brainstormed ideas with them before going into the design process,” said Landin, now in his second year as the director at CHS. “I wanted to honor the history of this program by selecting something new that still shouted ‘Awesome Cooper Band.’ We picked out elements that we all agreed needed to be included and excluded from the design. We gave that information to the artist at Fruhauf and they went to work. The artist at Fruhauf took a lot of the pressure away. I’m thankful for the opportunity to work closely with her to create a great design. I’m excited to get the kids into the uniforms next fall.”

Similarly, Kraemer wanted to keep a link alive in the uniform that former members of which the Oldest Marching Band in Texas can be proud.

“We wanted to keep a consistent color pallet with the traditions of Abilene High, while at the same time making them look a little more contemporary to stay relevant with current trends,” he said. “Abilene High has an amazing tradition, and we wanted to be respectful of that while also updating the look. We’re excited with how they turned out and know that our stakeholders will be pleased.”