[Editor’s Note: With the 2024 Premier Lacrosse League season set to start on Saturday, our resident lacrosse expert, Jared Buccola, has provided a full rundown of the PLL’s new uniforms, just like he did last year. Enjoy! — PH]
Hello Uni-Watch readers, I am excited to once again break down the 2024 Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) uniforms. If you remember from the 2023 breakdown, I mention that during the off season, the PLL will be assigning geographic locations to their club teams for the first time. With that in mind, the league did a 100% rebrand to include these new geographic monikers, so there is a lot to get to! To start off, here is a side by side comparison of each new and old logo.
The Redwoods’ green jersey has their California word mark and vertical stripes with a wood grain pattern. Their white jersey is solid white, with a yellow cuff stripe and a unique collar that houses the alternate logo. In a strange move, the front of the white jersey has just their nickname, “Woods”, rather than the official location or full team name. Not a fan. They have a green and white helmet option, both sporting the bear logo, wood grain stripes over the top and their “Roll Woods” slogan across the back.
Similar to previous seasons, the 2024 Utah Archers are sticking to the trend of jerseys with a large team logo on the front, and no numbers. The updated word mark has the outline of Utah in the negative space in the “A”, which I love. There are consistent blue/orange/blue stripes on the sleeve cuffs and the collar. They have a blue and an orange helmet option, both of which have the “Utah” word mark, and a mountain design on the back. The mountain design theme can be seen on to the shorts as well.
The Chaos are continuing the trend of simplifying the design by moving to a solid colored jersey, no crazy sublimation pattern here. For the red jersey, they have the large shield logo on the front, no numbers, an angled stripe on the sleeve and the alternate logo on the shoulder. For the white jersey, they have their location word mark above their scorpion logo and a checkerboard pattern in the stripes. They have a black helmet, and a red helmet, both of which continue the checkerboard pattern across the top and back. The black helmet has the primary scorpion logo and the red helmet has the alternate “C” scorpion tail logo.
Let’s all take a moment of silence for the Chrome Lacrosse Club. In a controversial move, the league folded the Chrome franchise, and resurrected the Denver Outlaws after the MLL/PLL merger. The 2024 Denver Outlaws streamlined their previous look, with a bold word mark, a small off centered front number, a large barb-like stripe on the side that connects with the shorts. The Outlaws have the option of a silver or black helmet, both of which have the recognizable barbed wire primary logo, and stripes.
The new logo for the ‘Dogs is a little uninspired, where the old logo had plenty of personality. Their jersey has the primary logo, but minus the “waterdogs” portion, and again, no front numbers. The white jersey is the same on the front, with a purple/black/white sleeve pattern, and the awesome alternate paw print/script logo. On the purple jersey, the stripe pattern is the same, but the purple portion of the stripe becomes negative space, leaving the stripes looking inconsistent. The Waterdogs have a purple helmet with the script “Dogs” word mark, and a white helmet with yet another alternate dog logo.
The Cannons are keeping it as traditional as it gets. A simple stripe pattern on the sleeves, a bold word mark and huge front numbers. I appreciate the consistency of the sleeve stripe and the shorts stripe. Their helmet collection includes matte navy blue and matte gray. Both showcasing the primary crossed cannons logo, cannon blasts stripes across the top and “Boston” along the back with the skyline.
A large majority of the roster for the Whipsnakes played college lacrosse at the University of Maryland. So in addition to adopting their state, the team adopted their colors as well. The white jerseys have a unique work mark with a perforated red line at the bottom, a bold snake patterned front number and of course, the Maryland flag design sublimated on the sleeves. The black jersey has the primary logo front and center and no front numbers. The alternate “M” logo adorns their white or black helmets, which of course both have the Maryland flag design down the top. Some have said the flag accents are too much, some have said it’s not enough.
Just like the city of New York, the Atlas went big with everything. Both jerseys have big horned stripes on the sleeve. The white jersey has a big word mark and big numbers. Whereas the blue jersey just has the big primary logo, no front numbers. There is a subtle pin stripe pattern at the bottom that fades away as it goes up. This made me think of both New York Baseball teams, but looks like an afterthought. The Houston Texans, I mean, New York Atlas have a striped horn design on both their white and blue helmets. I do like the “New York”, separated by their alternate logo on the back.
The league usually does two special occasion weekends, Throwback Weekend and Indigenous Heritage Weekend. The league has confirmed they are doing these specialty weekends again, but I have not seen any designs so here’s a callback to 2023. The throwbacks historically have been port hole mesh jerseys, which have received rave reviews. The Indigenous Heritage jerseys from 2023 were all the same design, just in each team’s respective colors and were designed by “Patrick Hunter, a 2Spirit, Ojibwe artist, graphic designer and award winning entrepreneur.” (premeirlacrosseleague.com)
Thank you for reading my breakdown of the 2024 Premier Lacrosse League season, I am looking forward to a great summer! The league kicks off this Saturday, June 1st on ABC and ESPN+. Next, I’ll have a complete PLL redesign, stay tuned!
The Texans could learn a thing or two from the Atlas’ look.
Does anyone have pictures of the helmets?
Hey Michael, they should be hyperlinked to the text. Let me know if I missed one. Thanks
Feels like the Maryland team shoulda leaned a bit more into that flag motif, but otherwise these are all perfectly okay (if somewhat forgettable) designs.
Hello Jay, I will have plenty of Maryland flag motif for you in my jersey redesign next week!
The PLL logo looks like a parking meter.
haha! I’ve never noticed, but now I’ll never unsee it!
My two favorites are Utah and Boston by far.
As for Boston…
a bold word mark and huge front numbers
And New York…
The white jersey has a big word mark and big numbers
That’s properly-sized numbers. ;)
Great writeup, Jared! Overall it’s a good looking league.
Hey Jim! Thanks for the positive feedback. I agree, proper front numbers need to come back. You’ll see that trend in my redesigns next week
I’m a big fan of green and brown together. Added with the soccer-ish style stripes and the Redwoods are my favourite of the group. New York looking pretty good too.
Why does New York’s bull logo look like Stephen A. Smith?
Maybe it’s the scowl! I liked their previous logo better. The new one looks too cartoony. Word is they were referencing the Wall Street Bull
I know traditional outdoor lacrosse is big front numbers, but I find the old Aachen font to be a little plain for Boston. Philly downgraded logos on a silly name and concept, but the dog on the helmets might have been the better logo for the shirts.
Retiring the Chrome name was a no-brainer here I think. I assumed sarcasm. Outlaws screams full field lacrosse to me.
Hey Billy, I personally agree and think bringing back the Outlaws from the MLL was the better move. But there are some die hard Chrome fans that are not happy about it.
I’m all in for retiring Aachen Bold. It’s silly how overused that font is.
Full disclosure: the Whipsnakes are my “home team.” That said, their black unis are OK, I guess, but I don’t care for the white; they should have gone for either red or yellow primarily jerseys (IMHO). The Archers, Woods, and Chaos have the best looking unis; Atlas, Outlaws,and Dogs are OK; Cannons look like high school unis. Just on man’s opinion…
Is there context on the “CR” memorial on Atlas’ shirts?
Hey Daniel, great catch! I actually didn’t notice those. That’s for Callum Robinson. Ex-PLL and Australian National Team Lacrosse player who was tragically murdered in Mexico
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I guess, former is more appropriate to say
Great stuff, Jared! Thanks for the excellent write-up! I actually like pretty much all of these uniforms. They’re straightforward, fairly simple, and not over-designed. It’s easy to tell who the teams are and identify their branding marks. My favorites, though, are the California Redwoods for their name and great color scheme.
Hey BvK! I appreciate the positive feedback. I agree, the Redwoods have been my favorite since the league launched in 2018. Their color scheme and logos were a big part of that
“Woods” seems like they’re marketing to the frat bros that wear those white South Carolina “Cocks” hats. Come to think about it though, it’s lacrosse and that is the only group of people that watch or care about lacrosse.
Man, those makers’ marks are so distracting
Agreed! I hate the chromatic look. I actually did a redesign that’s being posts next week and I do them in team colors
That “Dogs” Script is an apostrophe catastrophe, is it not? I cannot unsee it. Since “Dogs” is not in quotes, but rather and abbreviation, he old rule of thumb is: “If it looks like a 9 you’re doing fine but if it looks like a 6 you have to fix.”
Hey Benjamin! Zoomed in on this photo from the games this past weekend, can confirm, it’s a 6
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