Uniforms are anything but?

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Why does Starfleet keep changing its uniforms so often? Do they ever ask for input from officers about what they need?

"Tricorder readings indicate a temperature of -35 degrees Celsius down here. Glad I wore my mini skirt."

"Let's go down to a planet whose race we know little about clad in skintight garb that leaves nothing to the imagination. Yeah, let's shock their modest sensibilities with our all-too-obvious body parts."

"The real reason everybody wears sweaters is because somebody forgot to divert power to the heating system."

"Let's remind our cadets of their mortality by dressing them all in red."

And so on...

 

[The Old Mixer]

Why does Starfleet keep changing its uniforms so often?

RL reason: MERCHANDISING!

In-universe reason:

In periods where there are no productions involved, they can keep basically the same uniform for as much as 70 years (the monster maroons from the Trek movie era to about a decade before TNG). For periods in which Trek is in production, they completely change their uniforms about every 3 years or so.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Women on TOS should have been shown wearing trousers while on landing parties, wearing variants not unlike the regular womens' uniforms in "The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before." In the background of season one episodes, there were women shown wearing trousers in the background. @GSchnitzer has a complete list.

 

[Kor]

It has been documented in other threads that real-life armies and navies change their uniforms about as often as Starfleet.

Kor

 

[C.E. Evans]

RL reason: MERCHANDISING!

What merchandising? Most of it is either recycled TOS or TNG seasons 4-7 stuff.

 

[ItIsGreen]

What merchandising? Most of it is either recycled TOS or TNG seasons 4-7 stuff.

Agreed. I wouldn't have thought there's much of a market for replica Starfleet uniforms.

Not to mention that all the commercially available replicas look terrible. Every time I see a photo of someone cosplaying in a shop bought uniform I die a little. Seriously if you're going to do it, either make it yourself or get one made especially.

I was going to say that I think the reason for the changes is more to visually set the series apart from each other, but that theory falls apart after TNG really. DS9 has its own internal consistency with uniforms I suppose, but it makes no sense when taken taken in context with the wider Trek universe. The crew start out with the black onesies but change into the TNG tunics when back on Earth, other starship crews are shown as still wearing the TNG uniforms while Generations had a mix of both. Over in Voyager land the crew are exclusively in the onesies, as are the Equinox crew - and they don't change to the black and grey uniforms after establishing contact with Starfleet. DS9 get the black and grey after it's debuted in First Contact, but Flag officers still wear their old TNG-style uniforms for a while before also switching to the black and grey - and Admiral Hayes is wearing a third, different uniform in his brief FC appearance. Honestly it gives me a headache.

I think the real-life reason is that the intention with DS9 was to make it visually different from TNG, then Voyager just went with it as the new 'current' duty uniform as DS9 was already on the air. DS9 had to follow the lead of the movies to keep things consistent, so when FC debuted new uniforms to match the new Enterprise and overall dark tone of the movie, they had to follow suit.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Not costumes...action figures.

 

[ItIsGreen]

Not costumes...action figures.

...Now that makes a lot more sense.
Though again, if that were the case I'd expect a lot MORE changes.

 

[Kor]

Admirals have a lot of leeway with their uniforms. My dad said that when he was in the army, a visiting general was wearing some archaic, ridiculous looking thing, and nobody dared say a word about it.

Kor

 

[Tracy Trek]

I always wondered why it was so necessary to have so many layers. It looked like the ones used on Voyager had an outer layer over a turtle neck and then I think they had a tank top.

 

[The Wormhole]

...Now that makes a lot more sense.
Though again, if that were the case I'd expect a lot MORE changes.

Throughout the 90s there were rapid changes in Starfleet uniforms generating lots of action figure potential, as reflected in the Trek line from Playmates. To start with, each TNG character had three potential action figures: season 1 and 2 uniform, season 3+ uniform, dress uniform. And with Picard there's also the captain's jacket. DS9 introduced new uniforms, but in Emissary we see most of the Starfleet characters wearing the TNG uniforms at one point, so in addition to the standard DS9 uniforms action figures can be done of them wearing TNG uniforms. Generations was going to introduce new uniforms, and indeed the action figures from the movie do have them wearing those uniforms. Since the movie includes TNG characters wearing the DS9 uniforms, well there's another variant for TNG action figures. Then First Contact does introduce new uniforms, which also get used on DS9, so guess what? New action figures for two Trek crews. By this point the Playmates line was winding down on account of Trek's popularity starting to dwindle, but I guarantee there was no shortage of action figure possibilities. I didn't even cover when the crews wore the future uniforms from AGT or the DS9 cast wearing TOS uniforms.

I always wondered why it was so necessary to have so many layers. It looked like the ones used on Voyager had an outer layer over a turtle neck and then I think they had a tank top.

It's even more ridiculous with the gray FC uniforms. Tank top, shirt, vest and jacket. And the vest is worn beneath the jacket, we can see Sisko disrobing in In the Pale Moonlight.

 

[ItIsGreen]

I always wondered why it was so necessary to have so many layers. It looked like the ones used on Voyager had an outer layer over a turtle neck and then I think they had a tank top.

Agreed, and you see it with the First Contact uniforms too, which are a much thicker and heavier looking material. Picard apparently wears a waistcoat beneath his uniform, as does Sisko.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Agreed, and you see it with the First Contact uniforms too, which are a much thicker and heavier looking material. Picard apparently wears a waistcoat beneath his uniform, as does Sisko.

They got layers man. Must be a bitch when the AC conks out.

 

[The Wormhole]

Must be a bitch when the AC conks out.

Not really, space is cold.

 

[ItIsGreen]

Not really, space is cold.

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[Nerys Myk]

Not really, space is cold.

If they're in space with only a uniform on, the've got bigger problems than a jacket over a vest.

 

[JRoss]

Unless they're Luxans.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Not costumes...action figures.

Very slim pickings on that front too. The heyday of Trek action figures was a brief period that ran from '93 to '96. After that, things kind of slowly dried up with only select action figures released sporadically afterward. The changes in uniforms definitely weren't made to sell action figures, although it didn't hurt that a few more action figures were sold as a result. But given that Trek figures eventually disappeared from most retail stores a little while later, well...

The change in uniforms really had to do with producers simply wanting a different look for different shows and movies.

I think the real-life reason is that the intention with DS9 was to make it visually different from TNG, then Voyager just went with it as the new 'current' duty uniform as DS9 was already on the air. DS9 had to follow the lead of the movies to keep things consistent, so when FC debuted new uniforms to match the new Enterprise and overall dark tone of the movie, they had to follow suit.

Pretty much it. But I think the First Contact uniforms was another creative choice by producers to give TNG a different look than it did as a TV series. They had new TNG uniforms made for Generations, but ultimately rejected them in lieu of reusing existing costumes.

 

[jamestyler]

I've always had the theory in my head that style and presentation changed due to influence from Federation members. So if the Pastelatons joined the Federation, and their military which was very proud of it';s Pastelian nation (or part of) was absorbed into Starfleet, then their culture would be absorbed into the uniform or other design.

And thus the pastel colours were used! And then the Maroontons caused a stir a few decades later when their high general wouldnt be seen in yellow.

 

[The Old Mixer]

The heyday of Trek action figures was a brief period that ran from '93 to '96.

But that's also the exact period that we went through multiple uniform changes in a few years...from later TNG to DS9/VGR to FC/DS9 uniforms.