Before coming to the University of Illinois, you need to have Illini gear. Students need to be able to wear that orange and blue proudly. Students who haven’t had the privilege to wear the school’s boastful colors can get great Illini shirts, jerseys, sweatpants and sweatshirts on campus.

One option to buy Illini clothing is Gameday Sports at 519 E. Green St. in Champaign. Gameday provides numerous deals on shirts and sweatshirts. You can buy a standard Illinois sporting team shirt and receive another free. This standard shirt has big bold letters of “Illinois” on the front and right below is the sport of your choice. These shirts also feature different schools at the University, such as ACES, Business and Aviation.

Along with the casual sweats and shirts, Gameday also has Nike jerseys of your favorite Illinois athletes. Jerseys of star players like Demetri McCamey and Juice Williams can be purchased for $60.

Given that $60 is a common price for a Nike jersey, one would have a hard time arguing that buying online is better than at school. The College Football Store Web site lists McCamey and Williams’ jerseys for exactly the same price as Gameday.

Some students still want to buy Chief clothes. Matt Arredondo, senior in LAS and Gameday employee, said after the University disassociated themselves with the Chief in the fall of 2007, Gameday was not allowed to make more chief clothes. However, Gameday still has Chief clothes that they made before the ruling and are able to sell them until they run out.

The other common place that students buy Illini gear is at the local bookstores.

Any bookstore on campus has a wide variety of not only Illinois pants and shirts, but ties, shoes, sandals and much more. The bookstores include the Illini Union Bookstore, 809 S. Wright St., T.I.S. College Bookstore, 707 S. Sixth St. and Follet’s Bookstore at 627 S. Wright St.

No matter the place, this campus has it covered when it comes to sporting the orange and blue.