The Cavs held a “Season Tip-Off” event last night and displayed their new City Edition uniform as part of the proceedings, as you can see in the photo shown above (taken by Bryan Shaw).
Here’s a video clip that shows the moment of the unveiling and provides a slightly better side view:
@UniWatch #Cavs new City Edition jerseys for 2023-24 pic.twitter.com/dih3RAHLmr
— Alex Wisniewski (@alexwisniewski) October 17, 2023
The trim is apparently based on a local theater:
Just adding in that the golden trim is the design on the carpet at Connor Palace at Playhouse Square. Image taken from Google images pic.twitter.com/NdWniWpI8f
— Evan Schulz (@schulz_EvanCP) October 18, 2023
This marks the second consecutive season, and the third time overall, that the Cavs have worn “The Land” on their City jersey. Here are the two previous examples:
More than half of this season’s City designs have now either leaked or, in a few cases, been legitimately revealed. The full slate of City uniforms will be unveiled on Nov. 2.
Awful. Nobody refers to Cleveland in that way, and in fact it makes natives cringe to see/hear it.
Exactly. The only people who use that term are marketing types and some media types who try to sound hip. Real people think it’s stupid and never say that.
It’s like those cringey mastiff logos the Browns keep trying to shove down our throats. Nobody likes them. The fans have created their own Dawg outfits and such, and those are great. But the sanitized corporate crap stinks.
But a team’s gotta have a logo, and most people really like the Elf.
The Browns already have a logo: it’s their helmet.
What made the Dawg Pound awesome was it was organically created by the players and fans. The minute corporate seal of approval and official merch drop it turned so lame.
I’m all in on Brownie. And those white face masks…
100% agree.
It looks like “The Land” slants upward and the numbers slant downward. Single digits will look fine. Double digits will probably be off balanced (double double digits will probably look fine though)
Very bad uniform with horrible lettering and some nondescript pattern in the collar, sleeves and right pipe of the shorts. Some sort of chain? These yearly uniforms keep looking cheaper and less inspired.
At this point, NBA uniforms to me are very much “if a tree falls in the woods”…..
The can on the other hand is fine, even if the cat looks more like an angry common cat than a jaguar. The lettering is nice and the circle with lines even reminds me of a basketball.
I was thinking bobcat
One issue with the can (or, rather, with the product it contained): I know what “virgin olive oil” and “extra-virgin olive oil” is, but what the hell is “virgin motor oil”??
A motor oil that has never known the supple loving touch of another motor oil…?
Is there a local who can tell me if “The Land” is actually a thing? Seems like a cringey contrived Nike thing but I wouldn’t knoslw
Tyler, see first two comments.
It is a thing. Not my favorite, but I always feel like I’m in the minority with that opinion.
It’s better than “The CLE,” but both are awful.
I’ve only ever heard talking news heads use those. Not real people.
The presentation of the uniform is also unintentionally funny. The countdown, the dropping curtain, the dummy turning around very slowly. It all adds to the total lacklusterness of the occasion.
Like something straight out of a Christopher Guest film.
Nailed it.
I think almost all hype videos and “reveals” are awful, but this is another level. It almost looks like someone purposefully sabotaging someone else’s design. I really can’t even form much of an opinion about the uniform because of how distracting the terrible quality of the presentation is. I don’t want to watch the video again, because it’s all so embarrassing.
As for the uniform itself, it looks like it was designed by AI. I actually don’t mind the big logo on the thigh, but my opinion of that may change when I see it for real. The colors, patterns, layout, and number style are… a bit confusing to look at.
The alternate place-names that the companies are trying to push have really gotten annoying and played-out. “The City,” “The Land,” area codes, and airport abbreviations just seem so forced, inauthentic, and pathetic in this context.
“Hi, I’m Francis, but my friends call me Mr. Badass.” Nobody calls you that. It’s sad that you want people to think other people call you that.
The fact that the Cavaliers (and maybe Clevelanders in general? I don’t know) think there is something cool or unique or notable in any way about the word “land” appearing in their city’s name is just so, so lame. They aren’t even the only “land” in the NBA! (Portland.) And they were using it even when they played four straight NBA finals against a team that played (at the time) in another “land,” Oakland.
Not Clevelanders in general. I have lived in Northeast Ohio my entire life and have never heard anyone refer to it as “the land”. It’s completely some marketing BS.
I think Nike is really trying to emulate the success the warriors have historically had with not only using a geographical nickname as their team’s official locator, but popularizing a uniform that lays claim to the entire concept of San Francisco being a “City” (as a local to the SF Bay Area, I am well aware of the fact that it is incredibly commonplace for us to refer to SF as “the city”, but I’ve also never been confident that people who lived close to most other major cities didn’t do the same thing for their nearby major metropolitan area at least in the context of “let’s go to the city” etc.)
Same goes for the use of “iconic skylines” and airport codes. I’m sorry but SF, NYC, and Seattle are the only commonly instantly identifiable silhouetted skylines in the US, and LAX and ATL are the only airport codes that MOST Americans would instantly associate with their cities, but LA has too many airports to use LAX as a locator and i honestly just think of ATL as being shorthand for Atlanta, I don’t think its legitimacy carries over to the use of other airport codes.
Chicago skyline is arguably the best and among the most recognizable, but even with that I’m glad the Bulls haven’t tried incorporating it (to my knowledge).
Lifelong resident of the Chicago suburbs here. I can confirm that people locally refer to it as “the city” as in “so-and-so lives in the city” or “I’m going into the city to…”, etc.
The Land of Cleves?
The Big Plum? C-Town? The Mistake by the Lake? C-Section? Where Rock Lives?
We’d all like to flee to the Cleve and club-hop down at the Flats
Thank you for this. If someone didn’t drop this quote, I was going to.
I would probably pay good money for a Jersey that said “the Cleve” or “the mistake by the lake”. “The land” can go right in the cuyahoga and just set it on fire again.
How about The Land of the Losses.
The two reds together is awful.
The vast majority of these look like cheap knockoffs.
Is it pronounced ‘thuh’ or ‘thee’?
Not that it matters.
I’ve pretty much always heard people pronounce “Cleveland” as either “Clevelind” or “Clevelund.” As others have already said, referring to the city as “The Land” seems like ridiculous marketing speak. But whatever name they use for the city, that uniform will still be hideous.
These things look like cheap knockoffs you can find in flea markets trying to get around copyright laws.
At least it’s not black.
This reminds me of the nickname Beantown. Nobody from Massachusetts ever says it, and most think it’s stupid. But, people from outside New England heard their uncle say it, or something, and think that’s what it’s called.
Glorious can of the day, hideous city edition of the day.
I had no idea any of the previous jerseys even existed. All of them fugly as hell too.
Hot garbage. And honestly, I AM saying that with more enthusiasm not because it’s particularly worse than any of the others we’ve seen this year, but because of the accumulation of awful unis. This is just approaching “last straw” status. It’s lazy. it’s f—king fontsquirrel.com readymade wordmark crap. It doesn’t read as Cleveland, cavaliers, or basketball in any particularly special way. It’s yet another of this year’s efforts that looks more like the title treatment for a sitcom, or a jersey that would appear in a commercial for a brand that hawks products and services unrelated to basketball but is trying to reach an “urban” demographic.
It’s getting to be akin to minor league baseball where brandiose was doing these great, quirky, retro-style rebrands for teams at first, then the rebrands started getting a little lazier and more nonsensical, then they just started feeling like the new team identities were chosen out of spite and the logos were first drafts at best. And now they just print google images on polyester tshirts and call it a “special occasion jersey” and slather it in marketingspeak like “the San Jose Giants will play Friday games as the Techie Town Hamburger. The Hamburgers identity will represent a community steeped in it’s love for this unique local sandwich like nowhere else in the world and the identity is a perfect match for a baseball team that likes it’s games ‘well done’.”
Insert Steve Buscemi “How do you do, fellow kids?” image here.
Based on the picture on the can, shouldn’t it be called, “Rabid Housecat Motor Oil”?
Perhaps the cat is displeased with the stylistic elements of its “City Edition” E-collar.
B -D
Inspired by commenter Dave above…
It’s very normal for people to refer to the nearest large city as “The City”, but many cities have nicknames expanding on the term.
Examples:
The City that Never Sleeps
The City on a Hill
The City of Angels
The City by the Bay
The Windy City
The Queen City (contested)
The Gateway City?
Some of these have been used on uniforms before, and are being used presently. But it seems like it could potentially be a fun project for one of you creative, artistic types to do a full series.
Can confirm that the Windy City is used locally in the Chicago area, mostly by companies called “Windy City [fill in the blank]”, like Windy City Pizza, Windy City Towing, Windy City Electric Contractors, Windy City Limousine, etc.
Balmer, Merlin hun…Charm City.
Crescent City…..would be great name for NO team….
Crescents….with Gold Violet (never purple) and Emerald….
Never understood why it was Pelicans…..PELICANS…….
yeah I know the owner let his wife name the franchise….BIG mistake….
now shes the owner and we’ll never see the NO Krewe or Crescents or Jazz….
This reminds me of a movie from 1986 named Howard the Duck. It’s an alien duck that lands in Cleveland and he pronounces Cleve-Land?
Ahh the 80s.
Before it was a terrible 1980s movie, Howard the Duck was a superb 1970s comic book. Some of the best social satire ever. Important work, and a formative influence on my young mind.
Steve Gerber was amazing….btw, Howard the Duck was written into Marvel canon in the 80’s as being a major player of the end of the universe along with Galactus, Thanos, etc…..
And you gotta remember American Splendor by Harvey Pekar….
Man, those were THE days of comics….Frank Miller, Alan Moore….
Jeez, the brutal honesty of them all….Just glorious…..
Agreed!
Thanks, Paul and Phil, for a great get-together during my travels to NYC! It was a highlight of the trip for me.
As for the the Cavs’ latest whichever-it-is uniform edition from Nike, the silly “The Land” wordmark across the chest is probably the least objectionable thing about it. I don’t necessarily mind adding local flair like the trim to as a nod to the Connor Palace (although why does every local landmark now have to be commemorated on a one-season-and-done sports uniform?), but the color contrast is horrible, rendering it by functional definition, a poor design.
Awful…..just Awful.
That horrible Cleveland uni was tempered by the fantastic oil can today. I’m not into petroliana but doesn’t a 2-gallon can seem awfully large?
I know I’m late to the comments section today, but as someone who grew up there, I also dislike using “The Land”.
Deep down, long-time Cavs fans probably have memories of when the team played a distance from the city of Cleveland and Lake Erie. Richfield Coliseum was reachable by highway passing over lots of “land.”
link
Who gives a shit about these nba jerseys anymore
Please modestly distill your eloquent references into an easily distributed and translated definition of your true honest opinion….
my initial impression is one of negativity towards the presented garment in question….
while Nike is crapfested, indeed, onest would thinketh that theyst could someday….one day….get these thingests correct…..