Scholar-created designs showcased as a part of drop of Rutgers-Newark’s brandnew Scarlet Raider mascot

NEWARK, N.J., Feb. 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Rutgers College-Newark the day past unveiled its brandnew mascot, a fox named Scarlet Raider–in conjunction with a sequence of Raider-branded attire created via prime schoolers from the Newark Faculty of Style Design.

Scholars modeled the mascot-branded attire, a sequence of athletic put on, that includes a lettermark impressed via the well-known “Newark” marquee of the worn Paramount Theatre on Marketplace Side road and designs incorporating Scarlet Raider’s vivid id. The pieces will probably be offered at an online store.

“Partnering with Newark School of Fashion & Design (NSFD) was a natural fit, allowing students to apply their skills in a real-world branding project while shaping the university’s evolving identity,” said Kimberlee Williams, Director of the Rutgers-Newark Workplace of Communications, who initiated and co-led the struggle.

Newark scholars from Rutgers Industry Faculty had been additionally concerned within the venture, creating promotional methods, running with Advertising Mentor Yla Eason.

She is the author of Solar-Guy, the primary mass-market African American superhero motion determine, now a part of Mattel’s Masters of the Universe assortment.
Rutgers-Newark’s collaboration with the Newark People Faculty district displays its historical past of family partnerships that create upon the skill and concepts of town adolescence.

Newark Faculties Superintendent León, “This collaboration is a shining example of what’s possible when we invest in our students’ creativity and talent. Our young designers had the opportunity to work on a real-world branding project, showcasing their skills and entrepreneurial spirit while contributing to the evolving identity of a major university. Their work is not just fashion—it’s a statement of Newark pride, innovation, and excellence.”

“Our dating with the Newark family faculties is going past nowadays’s match. It comprises our Newark People Faculty scholars being concerned with Rutgers-Newark,” stated Rutgers-Newark Intervening time Chancellor Jeffrey Robinson. “Each year, the new incoming class to Rutgers University -Newark has approximately 13 percent of new students from the city of Newark. Overall, Newark residents make up nearly 8 percent of the total undergraduate population.”

Along with that includes the attire sequence, Rutgers-Newark offered the campus to its brandnew mascot sooner than Raider made its first family look at a Rutgers-Newark girls’s basketball sport towards Kean College.

The mascot’s transformation started in 2017 when the coed frame voted for the brandnew Scarlet Raider to be a fox, an animal related to ingenuity, versatility, stability, and resilience. Groups of vivid design scholars from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences-Newark, Arts, Tradition, and Media branch competed to assemble the profitable rendition of Raider.

Their paintings served as the foundation for Scarlet Raider’s provide id, delivered to date via Phoenix Designs, an company that focuses on college mascot design. This used to be the foundation for the attire created via highschool scholars from the Newark Faculty of Style Design.

The highschool scholars additionally designed costumes for Scarlet Raider that come with a kilt, jersey, and zoot swimsuit.

“The inclusive process to create the new identity ensures that the Scarlet Raider is more than just a mascot—it’s a movement, a cultural icon, and a powerful connection point between RU-N and the broader Newark community,” said Williams.

The high schoolers worked on every stage of designing the apparel line, from researching trends among their target audience to incorporating insights on graphics, branding, and merchandising.

“One of the vital impactful issues I realized all the way through this venture used to be how remarkable the position of analysis performs within the foundation of a way assortment,” stated Maria Colodetti, a senior on the Newark Faculty of Style & Design. “We were able to truly give a fresh new look to the Rutgers Newark Mascot, which is the driving point of what it means to be a Scarlet Raider.”

One of the most highschool scholars’ first steps used to be collecting comments from Rutgers-Newark scholars, together with insights on taste personal tastes, faculty spirit, and what scholars search for in university-branded attire.

The scholars additionally visited the Rutgers-Newark Barnes & Noble book place to investigate current collegiate attire and achieve a greater figuring out of pricing, fabrics, and product show methods.

Past campus, they explored native model tendencies via enticing with Halsey Side road shops, together with Brown Mill and Marco Corridor, to be informed about design aesthetics, cloth possible choices, and client personal tastes within the Newark model scene.

All over the autumn and spring semester of latter while, scholars participated in brainstorming classes, idea construction, and prototype foundation.

They realized about trademark tips, college emblem utilization, and the dos and don’ts of collegiate branding from Aaron Spiegeland, Worker Director of Logos and Licensing at Rutgers College.

Additionally they gained steering on incorporating vivid design from Amy Skiles of Phoenix Design, the corporate that illustrated the brandnew Scarlet Raider mascot and lettermarks. She walked scholars thru a design procedure that reworked the mascot into its daring brandnew id and equipped perception into the way it may well be implemented throughout other mediums, together with attire.

Scholars participated in interactive workshops and comments classes, the place they offered their ideas and gained real-world branding reviews to refine their designs to align with Rutgers-Newark’s legitimate perceptible id.

“Having our students work in tandem with Rutgers University-Newark to reimagine the new Scarlet Raider has been a game-changer, opening new doors of possibilities for future collaborations. I look forward to seeing how the new look of the apparel our students designed will amplify what the true meaning of community is here in this great City of Newark,” said Sakina Pitts, principal of the Newark School of Fashion & Design. 

Said Williams, “This venture is a testomony to the ability of collaboration and what’s imaginable once we assemble alternatives for college students to supremacy. I used to be proud in order in combination Newark Faculty of Style & Design and Rutgers-Newark scholars. Their mixed skill units a brandnew usual for student-driven innovation, proving that once we put money into the nearest hour, they get up to the problem and redefine what’s imaginable.”

Costs for pieces dimension from $31 for tees within the collegiate assortment to $176 for a leather-based varsity jacket within the top class assortment. The starting of the total assortment will probably be to be had for a restricted presen.

SOURCE Newark Board of Schooling