The San Francisco 49ers announced that they will wear their throwback uniforms on three separate occasions during the 2024 season.
They’ll wear their red throwbacks twice: in Week 8 against the Dallas Cowboys (SNF; Sunday, October 27th) and Week 17 against the Detroit Lions (MNF; Monday, December 30th). These are both home games, and both will be played in prime time.
As you’re all no doubt aware, the throwbacks are a nod to the uniforms worn by the 49ers during the 1994 season, when the NFL celebrated its 75th anniversary, and most teams participated in the throwback motif. In theory, the 49ers were throwing back to 1955, but those uniforms had red, logoless helmets with a silver stripe. The team took its liberties in 1994, but it remains a popular alternate. It didn’t hurt that the 49ers wore their throwbacks often that season, culminating in a Super Bowl win.
The 49ers will also wear their white alternates (technically their color rush uniform, but it’s the white version of the 1994/1955 throwback). They will wear these on the road against the Seattle Seahawks, in Week 6 (TNF; Thursday, October 10). Interestingly, in that game, the Seahawks will wear their own glorious throwbacks, so it will be kind of an odd-looking game.
In their tweet announcing their 2024 uniform schedule, they refer to the red and white uniforms as “Classic.” That may be new nomenclature, but technically the red is a “throwback” and the white is a “color rush.” But the NFL has let teams play a bit fast and loose with terms and even uniforms of late — because the white is technically their CR uniform, they’ve almost always sported white socks, but in recent wearings a few players have sported red socks along with the whites. Hopefully the NFL will permit all players to go with red socks this year.
Fitted for the season 🔥 pic.twitter.com/idcTHy4vl1
— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) July 18, 2024
Honestly this is the best possible setup for the Niners. Both sets are great and look good.
Niners, Giants and Dolphins have now added a “color rush” or “alternate” to provide us with stunningly beautiful home and away versions of their best uniforms.
Surprised to hear the Seattle/Niners throwback game described as odd. I would expect it to be praised at least for being a throwback vs throwback.
also found that weird.. it’ll be a nice looking game
Time has changed the perception of the black dropshadow set. These were once not very popular. Glad they mostly stick with a traditional look even if some nuances change.
I know I’m in the minority here, but I don’t like this look at all. I never have. The gold helmets look off to me with the jersey and pants having no gold on them at all. I think the red jersey combo is particularly bad. When I look at either set, it makes me think of a team that lost their uniforms and had to replace them temporarily. To each their own though.
I don’t think you’re in the minority. At worst about 50% of us seem to think they’re worse than the regular unis.
The white pants are a massive downgrade from their normal gold pants and the drop shadow numbers are just not attractive. And pairing it with the gold helmet reminds me of the Rams trying and failing to make gold horns work with their blue/white set a few years back.
The rare case of a “throwback” being worse than the current uniform. Not a fan of the 49ers’ “throwbacks.”
It would be great to see them adopt a “throwback” red helmet under the current rules for these. Gold/Red/White looks brutal, and the white jersey only slightly less brutal.
I have got used to the look of the gold/red/white as its own thing – and like it as a distinctive enough look from the primaries without straying far from the brand.
But yes – what is the point of throwing back to a uniform and only going 2/3 of the way there? It needs a red lid with a grey stripe. I even think you could add the simplified logo and still claim it as a throwback – red logo on red helmet would give a similar impression to a red logo-less helmet.
The least attractive throwbacks in the league. Their current regular sets are ace. Don’t need changes. That dropshadow numbering on these just don’t work and the rest of the uni just doesn’t seem to go together well. Gold pants are everything here.
With the white throwbacks, they should consider a silver helmet for a true throwback look.
link
This is what they are drawing from, though. Even here they have some sets with silver pants.
link
Throwback would be getting the shade of gold right
The 1962-63 silver helmets (still has a red “SF” oval logo, and red-white-red striping) would pair well with these 1955/1994 “throwback”/fauxback uniforms in my opinion.
Here’s what a mockup of the silver shell 49ers helmets paired with their 1994 throwback uniforms would look like:
link
When I was doing my “2+3+2+3” project, I has some similar thoughts for the SF unis: link
In particular, my proposal for the Niners was to add a red blank helmet to the current red throwback jersey and a silver helmet with the 49ers logo to the white, and replaced the white pants with silver/gray.
link
The problem with the plain red 1955 helmet is would make the 49ers look too much like a college team (i.e., Alabama or Oklahoma) or like the Chiefs but somehow they forgot to put on their helmet decals.
At least with the 1962-63 silver helmets, the combination of the red oval “SF” logo, red-white-red striping on a metallic-colored shell (silver vs gold) is still recognizably “49ERS” (from a distance) just in a different helmet shell color. Combine these helmets with the 1994 throwback/fauxbacks and I think you have a sharp set.
These throwbacks make no sense. If a team is going to throwback to something that’s worse than their current design, it should at least be a fun uniform, like the Bucs’ creamsicle duds. But these are just a slightly different but definitely worse version of what they normally wear.
Another thing of note, it seems as if the Niners’ throwback uniforms are slowly evolving into their “prime time” game uniforms, at least for those night games that are anticipated to draw big ratings (e.g. versus Dallas, a Christmas game, etc.) at home they have unofficially designated the red throwback as the primetime uniform.
Also, since I believe it’s now the sixth year running the 49ers have worn their all-white throwbacks up in Seattle (and they’ve also usually been night games), that set could be considered their “unofficial” uniform that the teams wears in the PNW.
I see a lot of dislike for these in the comments today, but I like ’em. Maybe it’s because of that 1994 season, because they dethroned the detested Cowboys (for one year, anyway) in these. But I think they’re fine. And at this point, I don’t consider them an attempt at 1955 throwbacks as had been claimed in 1994 (and let’s face it, there were some NFL 75th “throwbacks” that were far worse – Buffalo Bills, anyone?), but specifically as 1994 throwbacks, since that’s the design they wore in that season.
In any case, happy birthday to me, as that MNF game should be a good-looking game. Hopefully the Lions wear their silver or blue pants for contrast against the Niners’ white pants.
Regarding the Seahawks game, I looked up the 1994 49ers schedule, and Seattle was the one AFC West team San Francisco did not play in that season, so this will actually be a new uni match-up!
One of my favorite “unhip” uniforms were the 1996 San Francisco NFL uniforms. Though a year later they would add matching gold pants, ’96 saw the use of three-color player names, which looked perfect on the white jersey.
These are so much worse than their normal uni set.
The Niners’ current uniforms are maybe the best in the league. These are a big downgrade and probably my least favorite throwback.
I don’t *hate* these, but I’m not a fan of the shadow, and especially not the black stripe in the pants. 49’ers current home/road sets are pretty much perfect already.
Throwbacks? More like throw-ups! Pardon the pun but their regular home set is the gold standard. Now I understand why Paul loved it so much.
The 49ers need another helmet to wear with their throwbacks. Those gold helmets don’t fit with the red. black uniform. Create a faux throwback helmet. White helmet with black red combo stripes like the pants with a red facemask and the older SF helmet logo. Would look awesome in my opinion
I don’t know why the Niners wear that trash 3 times a year when their regular uniforms look so much better. How about a throwback with 1998-2008 set that has some black outlines and gold pants.
No white pants for the Niners please. Should always be gold. I do not mind drop shadows or even the darker hue of red for a game every season but if white pants can be avoided please do so.