Skip to content
 

Golden State Warriors Unveil New “Statement” Edition Uniform

Posted in:

Good Thursday morning, Uni Watchers. Hope you all had a good Wednesday. It was quite the uni-eventful day yesterday.

The Golden State Warriors unveiled a new black and gray “Statement” Edition uniform for the 2024-25 NBA season. If you’re unfamiliar with NBA lexicon, a “Statement” edition uniform serves as as an alternate to their standard home and away jerseys (known as “Association” and “Icon” uniforms). Teams typically wear their Statement uniforms for rivalry games and other important contests.

The Warriors’ new Statement uniform will replace their navy/gold Statement uni that was first introduced in 2022.

As is par for the course these days, the team has put out two hype videos (both of which actually do a decent job of explaining the uniform features):

The new Statement uniform has a black base. A very thin royal/gold stripe adorns the neck trim, while thin blue piping runs down the jersey and onto the pants. According to the team, the “Bay Bridge is represented on the uniform as a sloping cable connecting the jersey to the shorts, while the textural elements mimic the inner wires of the cables that support the Bay Bridge.”

Golden State is written in a double convex shape with the front uniform number in between.

Depending on the lighting, that royal blue piping may not be particularly visible on the uniform.

Here’s a look at the shorts.

Here’s a handy-dandy guide to the storytelling:

Again, I’m not sure how many of the features described above will be visible at any distance (like the “bridge texture” sublimation). Even zoomed in, it’s hard to see (and perhaps that’s a good thing).

One of the best features of this uniform is that the team has created a new logo — which, according to the team, “features a W mimicking a basketball net after a ball has gone through. The secondary logo will be featured prominently on the Warriors’ Statement Edition uniform and will be visible on the belt buckle of the team’s Association and Icon uniforms.” No mention was made if the team will be receiving new Association or Icon uniforms, but the new logo will be present on them.

While I don’t quite buy the storytelling, I actually like the new logo quite a bit.

That logo sits on the right side of the pants.

If that were replicated on the left side, I’d give this uniform much higher marks. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Here’s what the team has put on the left side of the pants:

Yep, a giant gold “WARRIORS” wordmark runs vertically down the side of the pants. It’s bordered by two thin royal blue stripes, and sits on a thick gray stripe. The pants feature the classic GSW logo on the waistband.

Unfortunately, not a single video or still shot I’ve seen showed the back of the uniform (or even jersey), but we can probably safely assume NOB will be in gold, and the number will be gold and in the same style as the front number. A very quick couple frames of video showed a “7” atop a basketball on what appears to be a small piece of cloth.

This will probably be on the back of the collar and represent the seven championships the Warriors have won as a franchise. The Warriors have won six NBA championships and one Basketball Association of America (BAA) title.

__________
NBA teams change uniforms so often it’s hard to keep track, so I’m going to disregard any storytelling here. I actually like the wordmark although the makers mark and uni ad in such close proximity dilutes the visual impact. I’m not sure the blue “cables” or gray “textual elements” of the Bay Bridge will really show up if you’re sitting in the stands (and that’s probably a good thing). I really like the new secondary logo and am pleased the team will incorporate it into their other uniforms going forward. The shorts are another story — as I said above, if they simply kept the pattern on the right side of the pants rather than adding the giant vertical “WARRIORS” it would be much better. It just has a really dated feel.

This probably won’t be the best new hoops uniform for the 2024-25 season, but it isn’t terrible. A couple fixes and it would be really good. Unfortunately, it is what it is.

Your thoughts?

 

 
  
 

ICYMI: University of Hawai'i & Uni Watch Uniform Design Contest

In case you missed it, the University of Hawai’i and Uni Watch are partnering on a Women’s Basketball uniform design competition.

All the details are here.

The Grand Prize winner will receive a cash prize of $1,500, roundtrip airfare for one to Honolulu, and accommodations, for the basketball game slated for January 25, where the winning design will be worn and showcased to hundreds of thousands of fans worldwide.

 

 

Generation O's Fly Era black uniforms drop

In case you missed it yesterday, Oregon debuted one of their “Generation O” uniforms, an all-black set the team has nicknamed “Fly Era.”

SMUW (Sunday Morning Uni Watch) uni tracker and purveyor of the Oregon Duck Tracker (the longest running segment on SMUW) — and Oregon alum — Dennis Bolt offered up his own take on the new Ducks unis over at his blog, Oregon Duck Tracker.

It’s a nice piece and worth a couple minutes of your time to read Dennis’ analyses of the newest set of uniforms out of Eugene.

Thanks, Dennis!

 

 

Guess the Game from the Uniform


Based on the suggestion of long-time reader/contributor Jimmy Corcoran, we’ve introduced a new “game” on Uni Watch, which is similar to the popular “Guess the Game from the Scoreboard” (GTGFTS), only this one asked readers to identify the game based on the uniforms worn by teams.

Like GTGFTS, readers will be asked to guess the date, location and final score of the game from the clues provided in the photo. Sometimes the game should be somewhat easy to ascertain, while in other instances, it might be quite difficult. There will usually be a visual clue (something odd or unique to one or both of the uniforms) that will make a positive identification of one and only one game possible. Other times, there may be something significant about the game in question, like the last time a particular uniform was ever worn (one of Jimmy’s original suggestions). It’s up to YOU to figure out the game and date.

Today’s GTGFTU comes from George Tyler.

Good luck and please post your guess/answer in the comments below.

 

 

Guess the Game from the Scoreboard

Guess The Game…

…From The Scoreboard

Today’s scoreboard comes from Sebastian LeTourneau.

The premise of the game (GTGFTS) is simple: I’ll post a scoreboard and you guys simply identify the game depicted. In the past, I don’t know if I’ve ever completely stumped you (some are easier than others).

Here’s the Scoreboard. In the comments below, try to identify the game (date and location, as well as final score). If anything noteworthy occurred during the game, please add that in (and if you were AT the game, well bonus points for you!):

Please continue sending these in! You’re welcome to send me any scoreboard photos (with answers please), and I’ll keep running them.

 

 

And finally...

…that’ll do it for the early lede. I’ll be on the road for a couple hours this afternoon, but I should have at least one or two more articles before I depart. And if anything uni newsworthy breaks, I’ll try to get another post up later this afternoon. Jimmer’s gonna be keeping an eye on things, so everyone play nicely :)

I’ll catch you guys right back here tomorrow morning. Have a great Thursday.

Peace,

PH

Comments (56)

    Why does GSW insist on wearing the already fantastic home/road unis less and less each season only to show up with this bland, lifeless stuff?! Seriously when was the last time this team had a good alternate jersey — or even one that comes CLOSE to being as good as their home/roads?

    There are so many it’s hard to keep track. I vaguely remember one alt a few years back that I kinda liked. I think it was the fauxback to their late 90s look and had “Oakland” on the jersey.

    My thoughts? That is an awful uniform. You can’t see the royal blue trim. And the last thing we need is another black jersey.

    To make your point about the trim: I looked at the photos then scrolled to the comments without reading any of the text. I had no idea there was royal blue trim! All I saw was black and yellow.

    The overall design on the uniform is pretty good. It is just hindered by being a black uniform instead of blue with yellow and white trim. I really like the W logo.
    I haven’t kept track of NBA uniforms much lately given the endless cycle of alternates and my overall fading interest in the league itself. So I am not sure if it is just the nature of this design or something with all the uniforms now, but the Jordan markers mark and ad really clutter this thing up. I’m thinking the nature of the roundel wordmark encircling the number draws your eye differently that a standard wordmark over the number, and the ads distract from that more than from a more typical design.

    “The overall design on the uniform is pretty good.”

    It’s not. It’s not good, it’s not interesting, it’s just a boring font on a black shirt.

    Nothing wrong with boring/simple. Not everything needs to be over designed and featuring bespoke custom fonts.
    It sucks because it is black and that 100% ruins this. But I think rendered in blue with yellow and white it would look pretty good. A very simplified version of their standard design.

    On TV, that 2ill just be another bland black uni. Literally none of the non yellow design elements will be visible. Boring and uninspired.

    We really need an edit comment feature for when we push post before proofreading.

    Agreed, especially if I am on my phone. The popups sometimes get rid of my keyboard at the worst time and I accidentally send an incomplete thought. See below.

    GSW Statement is a fail.
    1. The “iconic team colors” of royal and gold are relegated to a thin, almost invisible strip of soutache and the number/name, respectively.
    2. The only trim is the aforementioned royal blue stripe. The sleeves and collar are unadorned, like a practice jersey.
    3. BFBS. Or DGFDGS (Dark Gray For Dark Gray’s Sake). It’s 2024. Sheesh.
    4. Another generic number font, somehow different from the others they use.
    4a. Open 4, à

    4a. Open 4, à la Nike.
    5. The wordmark font looks like a stock font from a 1990s Mac, done on a word processor.
    5a. Why does the “I” have gigantic serifs when none of the other letters do? Is there no “I” in team? Storytell me, Nike!
    6. Team Name Down Leg. Blah.
    7. Mismatched shorts designs. And Nike still uses the off-center “LOOK AT ME!” notch toward the front of the thigh.
    8. The invisible bridge cables. If I can’t see them up close, they can’t be seen on TV or from the upper deck. Why bother?

    D+. Barely a passing grade and not better than what they had.

    These alternates? Like most of their alternates in the last few years or more: might as well say Melatonin across the front, because they are intended to cause drowsiness. It’s lazy, sloppy, uninspired design.

    Their typefaces have been straight out of Microsoft Word since they ditched he navy/orange god of lightning look for the “retro” look, which has been, in my opinion, and embarrassingly feeble homage to one of basketball’s (and thus American sport’s in general) greatest uni designs. The original iterations of the roundell-front uniforms (particularly those with the cable car on back) were gorgeous, original, and basically laid the groundwork for “city” uniforms (location nickname instead of actual city name, use of multiple pieces of iconic local imagery instead of anything related to the team’s collective name/mascot). The current “association” and “icon” unis (ROFL) look like someone tried to recreate the originals without infringing on copyrights using only Microsoft Word. That those will be the look of a dynasty era in the team’s history is sad.

    You’re spot on about the typefaces. Whenever Paul would go on about how beautiful GS’s bridge unis were, I’d just think about all that Copperplate and then the even somehow more generic font that followed it and groan. It represented exactly what the team is, though: a Silicon Valley IPO powerpoint moonlighting as a championship basketball team.

    The Copperplate numbers make it easy to fulfill Nike’s perverse fascination with smushing the 1s together on uniforms. Klay Thompson has 2 little slashes for numbers. It’s weird.

    Your assessment is overly critical and downright inaccurate in some cases (there definitely is trim on the collar), but what really blows my mind is “And Nike still uses the off-center “LOOK AT ME!” notch toward the front of the thigh”.

    What?

    Seems about the right amount of critical to me. These are awful. Your local peewee league has more interesting unis.

    “GSW Statement is a fail.” And yet he finishes the comment saying they get a passing grade?

    1. I have no issue with this, but that’s just my opinion.
    2. This is straight up wrong. There is very clearly blue and yellow on the collar.
    3. BFBS is such a tired argument,
    4. Okay…?
    4a. No idea what this means.
    5. Shouldn’t this be 4b?
    5a. This is perhaps the nitpickiest comment I’ve ever seen.
    6. Agreed.
    7. I agree with the analysis but I’m still trying to figure out what “And Nike still uses the off-center “LOOK AT ME!” notch toward the front of the thigh” means.
    8. It’s very clearly about texture. Not every uni element is visible, certainly not from the stands.

    So yeah, I stand by my assessment that it’s overly critical.

    “GSW Statement is a fail.” And yet he finishes the comment saying they get a passing grade?

    I’m glad you noticed that when I was too busy to comment earlier…

    Your criticism of a criticism is overly critical. Are you new here, people pick apart the minutiae of sports uniforms.
    Sorry you think BFBS is “a tired argument”. Firstly, who are you anyway to decide that? Deal with it, agree to disagree, whatever, but my point still stands. And a team with a great color set wearing mostly black is dumb, especially when the motivation has nothing to do with competition.
    The glitch in the list is because I accidentally hit send before I was done, because the keyboard went away. But 4 is 4 and 5 is 5, separate thought.
    The “LOOK AT ME!” is an affectation of Nike in particular, where they alter a template in a way that does nothing to improve performance or provide a competitive edge. It’s another way to spot a Nike design without slapping another swoosh on the design. Look at where the notch on the hem of the shorts falls on the leg of the player. It isn’t in the middle, where it was for decades on a balanced design. It is conspicuously toward the front of the shorts. Same with the weird way the stripes truncate on the back of the jersey at the shoulders. No reason for it, just doing it because they’re Nike.
    The failing grade? I failed, and had a change of heart. I forgot that I called it a failure. F for the Warriors, F for myself. Play on.

    GTGFTS: 16 June 1997.
    Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY.
    METS 6, Yankees 0.
    Dave Mlicki scatters 9 hits in a complete game shutout as the Subway Series becomes a thing in the years after the 1994 labor strife.

    “Golden State is written in a concave/convex shape with the front uniform number in between.”

    Geometrically, the “Golden State” lettering is convex, not concave. The test is to select any two points inside the shape and connect them with a straight line. If the entire line stays inside the shape, then it is convex. If any part of the line goes outside of the shape, it is concave.

    Best example of a concave shape is a 5 point star – to connect two adjacent points, the line must be outside of the star’s area.

    It’s so clear that Nike is completely out of ideas for NBA unis. Remember the “earned editions”? Those quietly went away a couple of years ago.

    Yeah, and iirc, they were basically all grey versions of regular uniforms. That edition definitely should have never existed.

    I really like the new secondary logo, and I dig the blue stripe, but the wordmark on the jersey itself is super boring, especially for the Warriors. They’ve had some nice black alternates over the years (aside from some sleeves here and there) but this one just isn’t exciting.

    Not horrible. Shocked that is doesn’t have “THE BRIDGE”, “THE BAY” or “THE STATE” written across the chest as that is Nike’s go to thing now.

    Another horrible “alternate” uniform. They’ll wear this too many times. Who cares at this point. Go back to the white home/blue road with the occasional alternate (worn no more than 10 times a season). Enough already.

    Hahaha. More Nike crap. When I think of Golden State, I immediately go to BFBS. And that new logo is just the Adidas logo upside down. Thank God for the NHL.

    It definitely feels like Nike and The NBA have exhausted every design idea and now they’re just putting out new uniforms to fill a quota. This is one of the most uninspired designs I’ve ever seen. Say what you want about the rose uni from a couple years back but at least they tried something different.

    The recent trend of minimalism across sports uniforms seems irredeemably at odds with Nike/NBA’s desire to have at least four uniforms per team, 1-2 of which are new each year. At this point, it feels like teams are just churning out new generic jerseys every year, and any attempt at cohesive branding is long gone.

    This jersey is a good example. Other than the number font, this has absolutely no design elements in common with the Warriors’ primary uniforms. The logo is different, the primary color is different, the wordmark is different, and the other design elements on the jersey are different. This will be used for a year or two and then discarded. So what separates this from a fashion jersey put out by Walmart or a seller on AliBaba? Have we fallen so far that people will buy literally anything with their team name on it?

    I thought the W logo was an ad patch and tuned it out. Now that it’s explained as a team logo that looks like a basket, I don’t hate it.

    I didn’t read it as a basket at first, I thought it was supposed to be a reference to the bay bridge. A semi-circle of basketball going in the top might help.

    The team name on the shorts element is an awful look, but one I believe we’re going to start seeing more and more of. There’s always going to be a limited market for tank tops, but basketball shorts are another story. For a huge chunk of dudes in warm climates, basketball shorts are already the only thing they ever wear around the house, and as our fashion standards get more and more casual, they’ll only continue to become more popular every day wear. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more teams trying to cater to this market.

    I blame The Last Dance and having nothing else to spend money on in the summer of 2020, but I have more pairs of throwback basketball shorts than anyone in his late 30s really ought to.

    Words cannot express how boring and generic these are.
    The fact that these are produced and that people will buy them makes me a little less concerned about nuclear war. On the contrary…

    Damn that is a boring, pointless uniform. Might as well just stamp “SPORTS TEAM” across the front.

    Also, I just realized that the “7” patch includes a BAA title. How embarrassing for the Warriors to claim a title from a league that only had seven teams and only existed for three years. If the Lakers came out and added their NBL title to their NBA titles to claim parity with Boston, Celtics fans would be right to jump all over them for it.

    I believe GTGFTU is from 16 years ago today (6/27/08). A Subway Series game where the Mets’ Carlos Delgado had 9 RBIs in the day game of 2 games in one day (I refuse to call it a doubleheader) in a 15-6 Mets win over the Yankees in the Bronx, still a Mets record for RBIs in a game.

    Nike is going for broke on the not possibly visible beyond three feet uniform elements lately. The sloping bridge cable here, Toronto, and Tampa Bays CC wordmarks and numbers and the Funfetti design on the Dodgers new CC costumes. Just because it looks great on a computer monitor doesn’t mean it will translate to real life.
    If they wanted to represent the Bay Bridge so badly they could have used its actual color(s), grey or white, depending on which half of the bridge they had in mind. The older San Franscico section is grey and the new Oakland side is white. And, yeah I know, those colors aren’t in the Warriors color palette.

    A very quick couple frames of video showed a “7” atop a basketball on what appears to be a small piece of leather.

    Not leather. A cloth patch with a darker gold embroidery for the basketball logo signifying their seven titles.

    The “cable sash” seems eerily similar to the Wizards city uniform last season that had a red sash separating a gray and dark gray. Is Nike running out of gimmicks?

    The prior statement uni only lasted 3 years, which must be some new record. And that’s a shame, because that was a great design, even though it was unnecessarily asymmetrical.

    Warriors’ Statement uni is kinda dull, but I have to admit I do like the thin blue stripes. Hopefully they’ll actually be visible in game action from a reasonable distance.

    I’ll also chime in about the Ducks’ new unis from yesterday, since I got to that post really late. I’ve always wanted them to lean into orange a little more, but I think they might have taken a step or two across the line that separates looking like a classy orange professional organization and looking like a piece of candy corn. Orange on the helmet and pants is a bit too much IMO.

    Is it just me that wants the arched lettering to form a circle, rather than just taper off?

    Well, if I’m looking for something kind to say, I do like the secondary logo.

Comments are closed.