Royce O’Neale’s number 00 on the back of his jersey is upside down.
All the other @Suns numbers are red at the bottom and orange on top.@fashion_nfl – you might get a kick otta this 👊🏼 pic.twitter.com/pzZKb8K7OO
— Ryan Antony (@RyanAntony22) February 25, 2024
Lots of people sent me this tweet last night, about Suns forward Royce O’Neale wearing his double-zeroes upside-down on the back of his City Edition jersey. Funny stuff!
Naturally, I wondered if O’Neale had the same problem on the front of his jersey. Nope — those were properly oriented, with the orange tones on top:
O’Neale was traded to the Suns a few weeks ago, so I thought maybe this was his first time wearing the team’s City uniform. But it turns out that the Suns had worn this same uni just two nights earlier (Friday night, on the road against the Rockets) — and O’Neale’s uni number was applied correctly for that one! Check it out — orange on top:
So for some reason, O’Neale needed a new jersey for last night’s game (maybe he did a jersey swap with another player after the Friday game), and the new one had the wrong numbers on the back.
According to LockerVision, the Suns are scheduled to wear the City uniform again this Thursday, when they host the Rockets. It’ll be interesting to see how O’Neale’s number looks for that game.
Here’s a thought: It’s possible to do sublimated uniforms with tackle-twill details. The Rockets and the Pistons did this in the nineties. If they were to return to the practice, it would prevent screw-ups by depicting where and how the details should be sewn on the jerseys/pants. It would prevent misspellings on baseball jerseys, always a source of mirth.
I’m thinking the turnaround time on a sublimated shirt is a little more cumbersome than having loose lettering and numbers available for direct application on an on-demand basis.
A good reason to not have players in 0 or 00! Leave that for the mascots.
Their 6s, 8s and 9s can also be mistakenly applied upside down, so it’s not limited to the 0s and 00s.
Good reason not to have gradients on numbers.
Gotta say, the upside down looks a little better. The light-to-dark transition mimics the way the actual sky looks when the sun is setting (or rising I suppose)
The best of the Phoenix uniforms and I also prefer the upside down look of the numbers. O’Neale as a trendsetter!