Opinions on Starfleet Uniforms part 3

Opinions on Star Trek's Starfleet Uniforms

Part 3: The Kelvin Timeline

Star Trek 2009 and Into Darkness

For J.J. Abrams reboot of the franchise, costume designer Michael Kaplan designed new uniforms for the main cast that paid homage to the TOS uniforms.  While the overall design was very much the TOS uniform design, the execution was quite different.  The department colored overshirts were patterned in a busy two tone Starfleet delta print which is honestly unnecessary and distracting.  Also the pants were needlessly over detailed and busy.

USS Kelvin

For the opening of Star Trek 2009 we see a new uniform style for the USS Kelvin in the 2230s. The color pallet is slightly reminiscent of the TOS pilot uniforms and the TMP uniforms.  the piping across the chest is very reminiscent of the "All Good Things" uniforms.  The pants not being black but a sort of olive green was a strange choice.

Star Trek Beyond

For Star Trek Beyond Sandra Hays redesigned the uniforms, making them look more structured and more like uniforms, with collars not unlike the collars of the TNG season 3-7 uniforms and solid colors for the body of the shirts (reducing the delta print).  A definite improvement.

USS Franklin

For the 22nd century starship USS Franklins crew a new uniform design was created.  This featured a grey/brown main color with shoulder stripes and other accents in the department colors.  The placement of the shoulder stripes is reminiscent of the Enterprise uniforms, while the color is more Vulcan uniforms or MACO uniforms.  A good design for the era just after the founding of the Federation.

Starbase Yorktown

The crew of Starbase Yorktown wore mostly grey, very utilitarian jumpsuits with dark grey boots.  Honestly these seem unnecessary as the crew were Starfleet and we already had a Starfleet uniform design.  These uniforms are very generic and not very trek.  Also they look very similar to the USS Franklin uniforms, which can be confusing.