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BREAKING: The Detroit Lions’ Jerseys Have Apparently Leaked

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The Lions have scheduled an unveiling event for 7pm Eastern tonight, but three of the team’s jerseys appear to have leaked this morning via a now-deleted post on USA Today’s LionsWire blog. The post was entitled “Detroit Lions 2024 Jersey Launch: How to Buy New Gear.” Another Lions blog, SB Nation’s Pride of Detroit, says the now-deleted USA Today entry was a Fanatics promotional post, so we apparently have Fanatics to thank for this leak.

Here are the three designs:

Some quick thoughts:

  • The return to block numbers is welcome and long overdue.
  • Nice to see a new NFL uni set that includes TV numbers.
  • I’m not a fan of the chest wordmarks, but that’s where the league is at these days.
  • Too bad about the black alternate, but at least the blue and white jerseys don’t have any black trim.
  • The sleeve striping is interesting. I wonder if the two stripes are meant to mimic the “twin towers” in the team’s secondary logo.
  • No sign of the “WCF” perma-memorial, thankfully. Word I’ve heard is that they’ll go with a rear-helmet decal instead.
  • Interesting to see the pinhole perforations on the numbers. Probably won’t be visible when watching a game, at least based on what we’ve seen so far with the similar MLB numbers.
  • I’m hoping that the lack of a grey jersey in this leak means there will be no grey jersey in the full unveiling.

Update: The Lions have responded to the leak — and thus essentially confirmed its legitimacy — with a quick video clip that shows us the front of the blue jersey — which, thankfully, doesn’t have a chest wordmark! Dig:

Additional update: Ugh, looks like there’s going to be a grey jersey after all. Or at least it looks grey to me, although some folks think it’s a black jersey that looks grey under the lights. Decide for yourself:

Overall: Not perfect, but certainly a big upgrade, with all signs signaling a return to aesthetic respectability. I look forward to seeing the pants and helmets tonight.

(My thanks to Twitter-er @mackandzie for bringing the leak to my attention.)

 
  
 
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Comments (90)

    Glad to see the black from the 00s make a return. Wonder if they’ll mostly use the blue helmet with those.

    I think that the blue helmet will be used intermittently with all the uniforms, and they’ll introduce a new black shell specifically for the alternate.

    How did they have that video ready … Did they stage the leak or assume a leak was most likely going to happen? If so, pro move!

    I’m assuming the latter, just because it happened to the Texans last month with the Reddit leak

    Those block numbers are awesome….

    ***monkey paw curls***

    …but those yoga pants look awful

    Hoping they wear gray pants with all of these jerseys. If that’s the case, I think they can all look pretty solid.

    But trends would suggest they go all-black and all-blue too often.

    I agree with you Harrison on gray pants. I am most intrigued to see that element then the top.

    Agree. I know they are going to have blue pants as well but I think the silver/gray is the only pair they need.

    If the grey was silver I would agree. However, they are a very drab grey that looks pretty much like a pair of pajama bottoms. I hate that grey!

    “We always play good in the blueberries” –Jared Goff.

    There would be fan outrage if they didn’t have a double blue set.

    Looks like an engineered leak. My guess is all leaks are not really leaks, but whatever. These jerseys are a vast improvement, although I’m not sure about the sleeve striping. If they’ve done away with the grey that’s pretty huge, however, reintroducing black to satisfy the knuckleheads is a step back. Whatever. It’s the right direction, which is saying a lot for this franchise.

    Silver in that twitter video seems pretty reflective. Or just a studio vs stadium lights for the outgoing set.

    They just CANNOT or REFUSE to do it right, don’t they? I don’t understand the polka-dots in the numbers, but not in the stripes. Those big fat blue numbers have dots, but the big fat blue stripes just inches away don’t. How does Nike explain this? Do lions wear polka dots? Are lions on the Safari riddled with evenly spaced fleas? Is Detroit the birthplace of the Polka? Sometimes I think the NFE exists solely to drive me insane.

    The Lions X feed has a short video of Jared Goff holding what appears to be a grey jersey. So either the alt is actually grey and not black or there is a fourth jersey.

    If you look at the way Goff’s black t-shirt and cap is washed out by the bright studio lights, you can see that the shirt he’s holding is black too. It’s just also getting washed out by the lights as he turns it over. You can breath easy again!

    I believe that is the black jersey. Thinking Goff’s shirt and the curtain behind him are also black.

    Could be the lighting, but looks grey to me. Also, the black jersey does not have white stripes on the sleeve but the one Goff is holding looks like it does. Maybe it’s just the lighting, I dunno.

    The stripes are supposed to be reminiscent of the thick double stripes on Mustangs.

    As a Lions fan, completely underwhelmed. The white Jersey feels like a knockoff Cowboys jersey. The Black jersey has BFBS + Matt Millen era issues. and the Blue jersey seems ok. Hopefully these look better with a full uniform. C+/B-

    Did they really need the BFBS ? Why would they want to bring anything back from the atrocious Millen era ?

    Maybe a weird take but man I don’t like the change to block numbers at all. Obviously the previous ones weren’t perfect, looked thin and maybe kinda dated, but I think something similar to the font Chargers currently have would work better.

    The rest of it is definitely pretty good though, no complaints.

    There’s no prettier color than Honolulu Blue on Thanksgiving afternoon (as long as it’s not their throwbacks.)

    Interesting…there’s no front wordmark on the jersey in the video. That would be nice if that was really the case. Makes it look much more clean.

    Burn the black ones but the home and road are good. Nice to see a team with such a nice color scheme get the jerseys right. I’m okay with the word mark and more okay with having a helmet decal as the Ford memorial rather than the lettering on the sleeves

    I like the top two jerseys. The Lions’ shades of blue and silver are one of my favorite color combos in the NFL. Not a fan of the BFBS jersey, although Honolulu blue and black work well together.

    Hoping for a few things:

    Please put an end to, or at least drastically cut back on, the Mono-lulu blue unis. Add stripes to the pants. And PLEASE get rid of the grey jerseys.

    If they can do those 3 things, this might a pretty decent upgrade.

    One big change that almost isn’t noticeable but a pretty big deal is the numbers are no longer grey on the Blue Uni’s. They changed the number colors to white and I think it looks WAY BETTER. Makes the Home Blues pop more

    Also, I don’t like the black. But their color rush options are limited and I think they wanted something that would look good with the new Blue Alternate helmet so I’m interested to see how the Blue Helmet looks with the black unis.

    I like the primaries, although I might have preferred silver numbers with white trim like they wore in the ’70s. If the on-field jerseys have no chest wordmark that’s a bonus.

    As for the BFBS, well………

    Those block style numbers really look nice, I never liked the font style they used on recent jerseys, they always looked too thin and slanted. Nice upgrade Lions!

    Good stuff. BFBS jersey is what it is, but sort of like with the Jets BFBS I can live with it since it is an alternate and the design is otherwise good out the color. And that BFBS is better than any gray/silver they could have done. Yet again the new uniforms look best when they ditch the nonsense and go with a simple, traditional design.
    I actually prefer chest wordmarks so long as they are in a smallish font. It is the big honking NEW YORK or CLEVELAND on past Nike designs that have been bad. Though I am not a fan of different wordmarks on different jerseys, nor using the city/location wordmark. Just place a smallish version of the nickname under the collar and be done with it.
    I expect the Broncos and Texans to be trainwrecks, but I guess 50% batting average isn’t awful for new uniforms this year.

    Anyone else notice the lack of “Lions” wordmark on the home blues in the video? Seems kind of odd that they’d have it on the front of the roads/alt, but not the home set.

    Anyone else notice the lack of “Lions” wordmark on the home blues in the video?

    Anyone else notice that people are commentong about this without actually having read the post? ;)

    The new Lions jerseys look nice. However, I’ll miss the longstanding sleeve stripes which had been part of the jersey since 1954.

    Bears Fan here – I have hated, hated, hated the the “WCF” perma-memorial on the sleeve since they introduced it as part of their last Uni-upgrade. The Bears’ “GSH” perma-sleeve-memorial should stand alone in the league for good reason. If you want a perma-memorial for an owner/executive/whatever then fine but try something different or stick with the back-of-helmet decal. The Lions’ “WCF” on the sleeve just came across as a cheap knock-off of a Division Rival with far greater league-history IMHO.

    BEAR DOWN.

    Lions fan here. I can’t speak for literally every Lions fan to be sure, but the general consensus has been against the perma-memorial from the start, going back to when they left the 2014 memorial patch on in 2015 and 2016.

    Why does Nike have to ruin a perfectly good jersey design with something stupid like those pin holes in the numbers?

    Personally, I would swap the black jersey out for gray and keep the previous number font. I’d also put the Detroit from the road jersey on the blue jersey. I do like the chrome though, since it fits with the whole Motor City thing.

    Screw it, sublimated chrome jersey instead of gray

    I think they’re an improvement. I’d personally have gone with the very plain, early Sanders era of just, blue jersey, silver block numbers, that’s it. But while not perfect, these are an improvement on the previous set.

    How are people complaining about this? They’re essentially a throwback to the Sanders era Lions uniforms, with an unoffensive black alternate. I love this look, reminds me of my childhood.

    Massive upgrade. Which is funny because the changes are relatively minor. But such is the whole being more than the sum of its parts.

    Love the addition of white to the blue jerseys! They were kind of blah with nothing but blue and gray. Was really hoping the shoulder stripes would match what we think the new helmet stripes are going to be. Maybe the pants will match those helmet stripes? Major upgrade IMO. I think the pinholes in the numbers may be a nod to the old silk screened numbers from many moons ago. Although in the reply video, I couldn’t even see them. Now for the pants……..

    Much better. Not perfect, but I think really, really good.
    Black uni is what it is. But glad black is not anywhere in the primaries.
    Overall I think you have to agree the Nike-fication has been reduced and these are a return to a more traditional uniform. Something I think uni-watchers should be overwhelmingly happy with. 7pm can’t come soon enough.

    Are you sure that jersey in the video is Grey? Almost looks like it is the black jersey’s with a ton of light exposure on them. Maybe their black’s are going to be more of a charcoal black that looks grey under a ton of light?

    Many commenters here think it’s black. I’ve rewatched it a few times and still think it’s grey, but we’ll find out in a few hours.

    Pretty bold sleeve stripe for this era, on most jerseys, I suspect it will get pretty scrunched up. However – a rare NFL win for the traditionalists.

    Ford Field still has to do something with their lighting to make home game esthetics appealing, next to the Superdome, well may Atlanta as well, a very dully lit stadium.

    I think the “black” jersey might be a deep charcoal grey and it looks lighter depending on lighting. Just a guess from the images so far.

    Everybody talking about the stripes, if I recall correctly that is very similiar to the Barry Sanders era. And that is a good thing.

    Pleasantly surprised. Could have been way worse. Don’t like the BFBS/GFGS/ anthracite nonsense or wordmark on the chest but it could have been worse. I would have the made the sleeve stripes 2 different colors to reflect the secondary logo if they’re it going back to Northwestern stripes.

    Blue and White look great.
    Grey and black look awful.

    Return to block numbers, awesome.

    I’m probably in the minority but I liked their last jerseys. I thought the font was unique. Only thing I didn’t care for was the wording on the sleeves. These aren’t terrible though. Their color scheme is hard to mess up (BFBS).

    The blue and white look great. Very easy on the eyes.

    Hopefully they wear the black one as little as possible.

    Block numbers > custom, bespoke fonts. Every. Single. Time.

    Huge upgrade for the Lions. Hopefully tonight they don’t introduce any stripeless pants.

    Ok, changing my opinion already. These are pretty sharp minus the BFBS. Just pair them with striped grey pants.

    Is it just me, or is the wordmark reminiscent of the new(ish) Eagles font? I kind of thought the same with the new UFL logo as well. There are variations obviously, but the accents on the top left of some letters, along with the italicization, make them seem similar to me.

    I know the all grays got a lot of hate, but I thought they were decent and I would have preferred those over BFBS.

    Right now, this is a sidegrade to me, but it could have been way worse. It’s hard to say without seeing the helmet(s), pants, and socks together.

    I like the traditional block numbers, and I like that they didn’t go crazy with new elements.

    I’m not wild about the sleeves stripes, but they could certainly be worse. I would have preferred the triple-stripe, but sleeves aren’t very visible these days anyway, so that’s not a huge deal. Curious if the pant stripes will match (assuming they have pant stripes at all).

    The black jersey is unfortunate, and feels like a regression to a time better left in the past.

    Are leaks a bad thing or a good thing? To me, I think it kind of ruins the surprise because people have to be impatient.

    Just watched the unveiling video.

    The GOOD: Blue facemasks are back! The silver pants have a stripe! No gray uniforms! A pretty nice looking alt helmet to go with the black set!

    The BAD: Blue pants DON’T have a stripe.

    I’ll wait for Uniwatch’s writeup.

    So close; the “Home” is fantastic, “Road” would be better with pants stripes, and “Alternate” is … well, it’s … uugggghhh…

    A bit too much BFBS?

    I like the color of the alt helmet (I think it’s the same they used last season), but yeah, even the helmet it too much BFBS.

    Thankfully, they should only wear that ugly mess a few times. But the blue jersey/striped sliver pants with the blue facemask is *chef’s kiss*. Truly one of the best looking NFL uniforms now.

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