Good Sunday morning, Uni Watchers. I hope everyone’s Saturday was good.
After the rash of uni news this past week, we’re going to shift gears today and look at some concepts. I’m once again joined by Casey Vitelli, who — among other concepts — has created NBA “Earned” jerseys, as well as “NBA Refresh” concepts, Part I and Part II. We haven’t heard from Casey in a while, but he’s back today with his pal “Gav Swaps,” and together they have come up with a new twist on the NBA jersey, borrowing a page from the NHL, with their “NBA Reverse Retro” jersey concepts. I think you’ll enjoy these — I know there are more than a few I wouldn’t mind seeing as full uniforms on an NBA court in the future. If your curious as to what the original jerseys looked like, you can see all the NBA designs in the NBA Uniform Database.
Here’s Casey…
• • • • •
NBA Reverse Retro Jersey Concepts
by Casey Vitelli
@gavswaps and I were in the middle of talking about a colab. We were throwing out ideas and some good things came to mind. Gav started posting his “Retro Wishlist” and an idea sparked.
I remember the NHL doing their “Reverse Retro” series a year or so ago, and I wondered what that could look like in the NBA. I approached Gav with the idea and he loved it. We randomly drafted teams and each got to work bringing the idea of “Reverse Retro” to the NBA.
We were able to get this done pretty quickly, and we hope you all enjoy.
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Atlanta Hawks
Yellow colorway of the 82-92 jersey design
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Boston Celtics
Yellow colorway of the 51-68 jersey design
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Brooklyn Nets
Red colorway of the 72-90 jersey design
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Charlotte Hornets
Carolina blue colorway of the 88-02 jersey design
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Chicago Bulls
Black colorway of the 73-85 jersey design
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Cleveland Cavaliers
Light Blue colorway of the 92-99 jersey design
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Dallas Mavericks
White colorway of the 04-09 jersey design
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Denver Nuggets
Yellow colorway of the 85-93 jersey design
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Detroit Pistons
Black colorway of the 96-01 jersey design
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Golden State Warriors
Yellow colorway of the 88-97 jersey design
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Houston Rockets
Yellow colorway of the 80-95 jersey design
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Indiana Pacers
Yellow colorway of the 71-74 jersey design
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Los Angeles Clippers
Orange colorway of the 80-82 jersey design
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Los Angeles Lakers
Light Blue colorway of the 60-67 jersey design
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Memphis Grizzlies
Black colorway of the 95-00 jersey design
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Miami Heat
Pink colorway of the 71-72 jersey design
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Milwaukee Bucks
Purple colorway of the 96-99 jersey design
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Minnesota Timberwolves
Green colorway of the 96-08 jersey design
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New Orleans Pelicans
Gold colorway of the 11-13 jersey design
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New York Knicks
Orange colorway of the 53-62 jersey design
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Oklahoma City Thunder
White colorway of the 12-16 jersey design
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Orlando Magic
Black colorway of the 98-03 jersey design
__________
Philadelphia 76ers
Red colorway of the 70-71 jersey design
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Phoenix Suns
Orange colorway of the 92-00 jersey design
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Portland Trail Blazers
Black colorway of the 75-77 jersey design
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Sacramento Kings
Red colorway of the 81-94 jersey design
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San Antonio Spurs
Silver colorway of the 74-82 jersey design
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Toronto Raptors
Red colorway of the 96-99 jersey design
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Utah Jazz
Teal colorway of the 96-04 jersey design
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Washington Wizards
Gold colorway of the 97-10 jersey design
• • • • •
Thanks Casey and Gav! This was a fun one, and as I said at the beginning, I wouldn’t mind seeing more than a few of these on an NBA court in the future.
Readers? What say you?
Iowa State Unveils 2023 Jack Trice Legacy Game Uniforms
Yesterday the Iowa State Cyclones unveiled their 2023 Jack Trice Legacy Game Uniforms during their Spring game. The uniforms will be worn on October 7, against Texas Christian.
If you’re not familiar with the tragic story of Jack Trice, you should be — he was Iowa State’s first Black football player (and a pioneer in many ways), and he played in a single, solitary game for the Cyclones. In that game, against Minnesota, he was basically trampled to death on the field. Iowa State has been honoring his memory for years (the stadium in Ames bears his name), but this season will mark the 100th anniversary of his death.
Here’s another look at the uniform:
I particularly like the helmet, which features “AMES” on the side.
The school has produced a video outlining the man and the uniform.
You can see additional photos here.
There is also an explainer of the uniform elements.
Ames Logo
In the early 1900s, Iowa State athletic teams were commonly referred to as “Ames.” The Ames logo will be featured on the helmet and uniform pants.
I Will Script
The “i will” script on the bumper of the helmet is taken from Jack Trice’s handwritten letter penned prior to the Iowa State-Minnesota game in 1923.
Jack Trice Logo
The chevron bars signify the uniform style worn by Jack Trice and Iowa State during the 1923 season.
Some MLB Concepts
This doesn’t quite fall into the usual “Uniform Concepts and Tweaks” motif, but it’s close enough.
Reader Brice Wallace has a couple suggestions for concepts for the Cincinnati Reds — when it comes time to unveil their “City Connect” uniforms, as well as a new logo for the Athletics, once the team moves from Oakland to Las Vegas. He didn’t provide any commentary on the concepts, but they’re pretty self-explanatory.
First up: Brice’s “Reds City Connect jersey idea”:
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Next up: Brice’s future logo for the Las Vegas A’s:
I won’t comment on the Skyline Chili jersey concept, but I’d love to hear from any Cincinnatians (past or present) how they feel this would work — even if it were modified to an actual CC jersey.
As far as the Vegas A’s concept — I happen to think it’s got great potential!
Your thoughts?
Guess the Game from the Uniform
Based on the suggestion of long-time reader/contributor Jimmy Corcoran, we’ve introduced a new “game” on Uni Watch, which is similar to the popular “Guess the Game from the Scoreboard” (GTGFTS), only this one asked readers to identify the game based on the uniforms worn by teams.
Like GTGFTS, readers will be asked to guess the date, location and final score of the game from the clues provided in the photo. Sometimes the game should be somewhat easy to ascertain, while in other instances, it might be quite difficult. There will usually be a visual clue (something odd or unique to one or both of the uniforms) that will make a positive identification of one and only one game possible. Other times, there may be something significant about the game in question, like the last time a particular uniform was ever worn (one of Jimmy’s original suggestions). It’s up to YOU to figure out the game and date.
Today’s GTGFTU comes from Chris Hickey.
Good luck and please post your guess/answer in the comments below.
And Now a Few Words from Paul
Hello! In case you missed it earlier this week, my latest Premium article is an in-depth look at an early-1990s MLB Style Guide that I recently acquired. Pure uni gold! You can read the first part of the article here. In order to read the entire thing, you’ll need to become a paying subscriber to my Substack (this will also give you access to my full Substack/Bulletin archives), which I hope you’ll consider doing. Thanks!
Also: If you want to see my assessment of the Cardinals’ new uniforms, you can see that here.
Also-also: You might have missed that the Seattle Mariners’ City Connect jersey appears to have leaked.
Okay, that’s it from me. Now back to Phil!
And finally...
… that’s it for today, and for me, for the weekend. Big thanks, again, to Casey and Gav for sharing their NBA “Reverse Retro” jersey concepts.
Everyone have a good Sunday and a better week, and I’ll catch you back here again next weekend.
Peace,
PH
So… this entire RR concept is a historical uniform with a new base color? I mean, the actual NHL RR did a good deal more than this, and incorporated a lot more elements than just recoloring an old uniform. And the Hawks set looks off, the angle of the text and the angle of the stripe don’t match. Sorry, it’s an expansive idea and I don’t want to discount the effort.
It’s essentially a redo of Nike Rewind, a retail only line of jerseys from about 20 years ago
GTGFTU: Buffalo Bills (24) at Pittsburgh Steelers (30) December 15, 1985 – Three Rivers Stadium.
Great looking matchup!
GTGFTU: The Bills were playing that day and their quarterback was wearing the number 7.
Correct, Morris!
That Bills helmet is hands-down my favorite. The blue facemask should have had a longer life span- at least longer than Bruce Mathison’s career! But those blue pants…woof! Thankfully, that was the last time they went red-over white-over-blue. Buffalo’s uniforms were firing on all cylinders in ‘86.
The Steelers…though under-represented in this pic… of course looked great as ever.
Honestly thanks for doing the reverse retro, but give me one white jersey one colored jersey and one that’s a different colored jersey 1 home, 1 away and 1 alternate and stick to just those 3 for 5 years just like the nfl
I’m not familiar with the NHL Reverse Retro, so it would have been nice to explain what RR is. From looking at these I assume it’s taking an accent color and making it the primary color.
I don’t want so sound pedantic, but if you’ve been reading Uni Watch for any length of time, I assume you know what RR is. link
But in a nutshell, they’re alternate jerseys “inspired by one worn by the team during a season with some historical significance”.
Apologies for not explaining it in the intro, but I had assumed everyone reading knows of the program (it’s been around for a few years).
That’s not a valid assumption. I’ve been a reader for many years and am a card-carrying Uni-Watcher, and I don’t really care about hockey, so I tend to skim over (or skip entirely) stuff about that league. I’m aware of the RR program’s existence, but I couldn’t tell you how RR differs from a standard alternate jersey — what the “rules” are that make it a cohesive jersey line.
I would appreciate always having a brief reminder of any lingo like this. I think it makes the site much more welcoming for those who are new and haven’t been following along, and it helps regulars (like me) catch up on things that they might not have paid attention to in the past.
Apologies.
But it is a subject that has been covered on here multiple times, so I thought you’d at least be familiar with it.
link
link
link
link
link
link
link
And there’s a lot more, but I guess if you skip it you skip it.
Guess the Game: Dec. 15, 1985, Buffalo Bills 24 Pittsburgh Steelers 30
Had the Bills gone with blue buckets(that would have required a logo color change), they would have looked much like the WFL Florida Blazers…what follows is another last-time matchup-one that may strike a nerve ; )
link^wbq
Will this work?
link^wbq
Is this what you want?
link
Much appreciated, thanks Phil!
If the New England Patriots of 1973-83 reversed the colors of their sleeve stripes they would have had Florida Blazers jerseys.
Way too many yellow unis in those mockups. I did like the Chicago one though.
The Iowa State tribute uniform is interesting. However, it seems the jersey number gets lost in the chevron striping.
Can that Reds jersey be worn five ways? I’ll see myself out now.
It might be wiser to link bballjerseys.com for the NBA uniform database, since that’s their new website.
Good call. Now updated.
Love these NBA RR uniform concepts! Who knew there were so many teams with yellow as a secondary color?
These are fantastic.
Maybe I’m just too in love with ABA styles, but the Heat and the Pacers should switch to these unis asap.
Would the Spurs RR jersey rendered here be better off with white letters and numbers?
Exactly my thought.
I’m no NBA uniform expert, but does the NO Pelicans RR/uniform it’s inspired by pay homage to the franchise’s history as the original Charlotte Hornets?
If so, I like that very much! If not, it’s still a nice looking top.
Nice work all around, Casey!
The New Orleans team was the hornets in 2011-13. I think the RR is a riff on this:
link
Might be some of my favorite concept articles I’ve seen on UW. I’d love to see pretty much any of these RR concepts on the court. Better than most City editions and throwbacks.
Yellow for Yellow sake
Pelícans and Jazz should apply this proposal right now.
On the other hand… Celtics in yellow is an absolute no.
Charlotte is the winner here for me, along with NOLA, Toronto and Houston. Warriors to make it five. But the overall winner is the Cyclones uniform. Hats off to Nike, for a change. Well done!