Good morning! Hope everyone had a good Independence Day holiday, as I did. And now we get a short work week!
Now then: I don’t recall an NBA team ever unveiling new uniforms to coincide with the start of the NBA Summer League, nor do I recall a team in any league unveiling new uniforms on July 3 (a date when most of America is busy traveling, party planning, etc.). But that’s what the Kings did on Monday. I’ll say this much: Their promo video (shown above) is much, much better than the typical hype-video nonsense — and I’m not just saying that because it’s anti-purple.
Anyway, here’s a look at the new primary white uniform:
I think that’s a big improvement, in part because I think the script is an upgrade but mainly because I hated the purple/grey combo on the outgoing uni.
And here’s the primary colored uniform:
A huge upgrade. God, I hated that grey lettering and trim on the purple uniform.
The team is wearing simplified versions of the new designs in the NBA Summer League. In these photos, for example, you can see that the Summer League design has a slightly smaller chest script with no border and drop-down NOBs.
The new designs feature a the latest iteration of the Kings’ script, which has gone through a mild evolution over the years:
I don’t like how the underscore interacts with the “g” on the new script. For that matter, I’m not nuts about how those two elements interacted on the previous scripts. It seems obvious that the underscore should go through the loop of the “g,” but for some reason they haven’t done that. Hmmm.
The team will also have a new Statement alternate (which means this one is being retired). Although it hasn’t yet been revealed, SportsLogos.net is reporting that the jersey will look like this:
Yikes. That is, obviously, a shout-out to the team’s godawful two-tone uniform from the mid-1990s:
The new Statement uniform may be unveiled as soon as today (if so, I’ll add an update to this post). In addition, all NBA teams will once again get a new City uniform this season, so that will fill out the Kings’ new wardrobe.
Update: The Statement alternate has been unveiled, and it’s exactly what we expected:
PAST MEETS FUTURE 🔥
Introducing our 2023-24 Statement uniform 🟣👑 pic.twitter.com/rTpin10iCI
— Sacramento Kings (@SacramentoKings) July 5, 2023
“Yikes. That is, obviously, a shout-out to the team’s godawful two-tone uniform from the mid-1990s:”
Paul, you misspelled “awesome”.
Third jersey is definitely awesome.
I don’t remember that jersey at all! I’ll have to look out for it and see how it looks on the court, but I don’t good expectations.
Love the script though!
Third jersey is making my mouth water. So awesome.
Can’t wait to see the shorts with it. I’ll need to buy them too.
It seems odd to me that they kept the logo virtually unchanged (besides minor color changes). It’s still gray and purple with the old wordmark.
Big time upgrade, besides that city thing. Geez. And that can is AWESOME. “Excuse me sir do you have any canned, boned, chicken? I’d like the one with Guy Fawkes on the front.”
From a Kings fan perspective, the new unis are a huge upgrade. I like, but don’t love the script. The original 85-94 script was far better, IMO. The purple and black color scheme has never sat quite right for me though. I’d love to see the Kings return to the original colors.
I like the old script better too. And I don’t like how the g and s connect in the new one. I keep wanting to read it as “Kingus” or perhaps “Kinas” with the a having a cedilla under it.
The back of the summer league jersey with the big number and the name below it looks great. I’d use a more conventional number font, but I like how the number dominates the back.
Also I suppose we can give them props for making the advertiser just slightly smaller.
Not bad. I think they should have continued to use a crown to dot the I in Kings though
They still do. It’s just a little harder to see: link
This was the chance to fix the wordmark and put the swash through the descending loop on the “g”. SIGH… And I am firmly in the pro-purple camp as a rule, but a team named “the Kings” SHOULD wear the color of royalty, in the same way that a baseball team named for “purple mountains’ majesty” should wear that color. Now, we have another black/white team. Meh.
I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see a purple version of this uniform come soon.
I like the new Kings script compared to the old uniforms. I did like the removal of black from the old uniforms. I was a fan of the purple and grey trim colour scheme without the black. Overall, new uniform is good.
A little odd that they kept the very rectangular OCR-ish number with the script logo.
The alternate is awesome. If we’re applying the “is it stupid or is it good” test, then its really, really good.
Why isn’t the coloured uniform considered BFBS?
Black is listed as an official team color, but I see how it might be considered as such…kinda wish they went with a gray roadie.
The official team colour argument seems as inconsistent as the whole BFBS concept.
Wordmark could have clearly been improved by extending the loop on the “g” to become the swash without the awkward hook.
Overall I like these though I wish the primary uni was more purple than black. If you have purple in your color scheme, own it.
I love the statement uni, much better than the 90s version and the gradient actually works for me. Could have used a crown somethere (replacing the dot on the ‘i’?) to make it a chess/heraldry motif.
As a ska music fan I love anything with checkers on it, so even with that horrible gradient the new third jersey is OK with me. The original checkers one was a lot nicer, I think. As for the new set, I like it a lot. Now if they only get rid of that dribbling lion that looks more like a hieroglyphic this set will be one of my favorite Kings outfits. The promo video is a good one: feeding the beam…
College Inn Boned Chicken…no thanks!!!
Paul, I’ve been a uniwatcher for at least a decade now and I wanted to report that I FINALLY tried capers on a hot dog yesterday… not bad!
Excellent JohnMark — welcome to the club!
I almost joined the club the other day, but unfortunately my wife or daughter had thrown out the capers…they supposedly expired (I don’t buy it).
Interesting that “boned” and “deboned” mean exactly the same thing (w.r.t. chicken.)
ed
Like “flammable” and “inflammable.”
I think the Kings’ new home uni would look better if the black and purple were swapped on the numbers and letters, and it’s a bit weird that the only primarily-purple uni is the new two-tone one (which may not be quite as garish as the original ’90s version but will still definitely be odd-looking), but overall these are a big upgrade. Very happy to see the near-total elimination of gray on this new set. It always looked bad, just as it did on the 7 Seconds or Less Suns.
I don’t understand why they would make the crown on the dot of the “i” so much harder to see. Maybe there is some dumb storytelling with the 5 points as opposed to o the previous 4? But regardless, now it’s so small it might as well be nonexistent.
I have always liked the old script unis, and I loved a particular version of that 90s/00s arched block font with the shield and crossed jousting thingies logo (the SK shield variant of that logo from the same era was also great).
That said, none of these new sets equals any of those old sets. They changed just enough to make them unappealing, and oddly kept much of what they’ve been using (that super awkward number font, poorly executed medieval times style lion). Adding that gradient, the checkerboard, the slight alterations to the fonts, and the super-wide eastbay catalogue generic side panels are not helping the cause.
This is subtraction by addition.
I think the new script Kings is better than the old one. That previous iteration looked like Hings instead of Kings.
Speaking of tapered cans, I’ve heard that canned salmon cans are tapered so they can nest inside of one another on the Alaskan fishing boats. I’m sure that’s not the case with that boned chicken but imagine the shape when it comes out of the can. Like chicken Jell-O!
I think the script makes it look more like a baseball jersey than a basketball jersey. Although the previous wordmark wasn’t remarkable, it at least had a clean modern vibe to it.