Good morning, Uni Watchers, and a Happy Hump Day to you all!
As you’re all aware, every year each NBA team is given a new “City” edition uniform (sorta the NBA equivalent of the MLB City Connect uniform) and they’ve been doing this every year for every team since Nike took over the NBA uni contract in 2017-18. That’s getting close to ten years now that teams and Nike have had to create a new uniform that is designed to “connect court, community and culture” for all 30 teams with regional references and styles. Let’s suffice it to say that in some cases, teams/designers have basically run out of ideas and kinda mailed it in. In other cases, we’ve seen some pretty fantastic City edition unis too — but I’d say the misses have outnumbered the few gems.
As the NBA has found out before, it’s tough to keep things under wraps, and once again the NBA City Edition uni… er jerseys, have leaked. We’ve known of a couple of these already, and while I can’t confirm nor deny these are legit, let’s just say the odds are pretty good.
Last year, the City edition uniforms were worn during the In-season Tournament, so that protocol will likely be followed again this year.
Below are the 30 leaked City jerseys. I’ll let you guys comment on them — but I’d say in this year’s crop there are two or three outstanding jerseys (Kings, Sixers, probably the Suns) and a few good ones, but most of these will need storytelling (Mavs, Clips, Celtics, for example) for me to understand how the jerseys actually “represent the stories, history and heritage that make each franchise unique—honoring the inherent bond between, court, community and culture.”
Which do you think are the best? The worst?
Atlanta Hawks
Boston Celtics
Brooklyn Nets
Charlotte Hornets
Chicago Bulls
Cleveland Cavaliers
Dallas Mavericks
Denver Nuggets
Detroit Pistons
Golden State Warriors
Houston Rockets
Indiana Pacers
Los Angeles Clippers
Los Angeles Lakers
Memphis Grizzlies
Miami Heat
Milwaukee Bucks
Minnesota Timberwolves
New Orleans Pelicans
New York Knicks
Oklahoma City Thunder
Orlando Magic
Philadelphia 76ers
Phoenix Suns
Portland Trail Blazers
Sacramento Kings
San Antonio Spurs
Toronto Raptors
Utah Jazz
Washington Wizards
The NBA will probably officially release these en masse in about a month or so (or possibly earlier, now that they’ve been leaked) at which time we’ll get the storytelling that will help decipher the designs. You’ll note that none of the jerseys are shown with uniform numbers. Previous leaks have shown jersey numbers and backs as well as shorts, but for now, we’ll have to settle for just the front jersey view. One of the primary leakers on social media also posted leaks for four “Classic” (throwback) uniforms (one of which is the new Sacramento uniform, which we know is legit). I believe the other three (Raptors, Grizzlies and Warriors) are as well. I’ll likely have those in a separate post.
So what say you, Uni Watchers? Any thoughts on the new crop of City jerseys? Which are the best and worst?
The floor is yours…
Memphis uses the MyPillow font. Golden State uses the Mile High City design. Bucks look like a stock ticker trending down. So many terrible jerseys on display here.
Actually that’s a fauxback to the Memphis Sounds from the ABA
link
The NBA is so far gone with this garbage. I just pray that the MLB doesn’t get this bad. But unfortunately they’re on their way
This is such a miss for the Kings, their throwback is great, but this looks like a Pistons jersey. It’s just bland and bad.
Toronto knocked it out of the park though, they need to do more with just the dinosaur and the rest of the league should look into how they can do something similar with logos rather than just a word.
“This is such a miss for the Kings, their throwback is great, but this looks like a Pistons jersey. ”
What it looks like is the team’s jersey from from the early ’60s, when they were the Cincinnati Royals.
link
They didn’t even try to add the fun arm stripes of the jersey you linked.
Maybe if they had “Sacramento” across the front and even an attempt at the arm design it would work better, but as it is it just looks like a bad boys era pistons knock off.
It’s not a throwback, it’s not even a fauxback, it’s just bad.
With the exception of Toronto, I find vanilla ice cream more aesthetically exciting.
toronto’s is solid . . . until they have gold jersey numbers on there.
*I have no info, just my guess
San Antonio and Charlotte look very nice but, oh my gosh, Toronto, just make that your permanent logo.
Oh no, that stupid “The Land” monikker, which no real people ever say.
More like “The Lame.”
I am not sure I can find a single one of these that is “better” than the standard jersey.
“NBA/Nike Make Awful Jersey Decisions.” Now’s the time for that headline.
Sixers is the best. Charlotte not bad. Toronto is actually pretty good.
I like the Raptor logo, but it’s hard to see from the dark jersey color, which appears to be dark grey.
I dunno about the 76ers being “best”…but I love the Spectum-esque side panels!
Miss America’s Showplace.
From the pictures here, the Sixers is the only one that I like. I bet the Nuggets one is popular for apparel sales, but will probably look silly on an NBA floor. The rest… woof.
I’m curious to see San Antonio in action – if that font is readable from distance, I think it’s my favorite of the bunch. Detroit and Philly are up there as well, along with Atlanta as a left-field choice. Unfortunately even the ones I like are harder to appreciate now that the waters are so hopelessly muddied wrt jerseys and team colors.
San Antonio had a white version of that one last season. It looked great but the word font was way too small. Doesn’t look like they fixed in this year.
The shamelessness with this blatant cash grab make it unbearable for me to give this and the other similar programs in other leagues anything but a perfunctory glance. I guess it’s not for fans like me, but it would have to be something incredible for me to consider purchasing a jersey and most of them come nowhere close.
I think I would like these more if they never made it onto the athletes when they played, because if I don’t recognize the teams playing I don’t stop to watch anymore. But I do like some of the choices the designers made, mostly the choice of fonts.
So many weak designs. Top 5 worst, imo, are: Brooklyn, Denver, Indy, LAL, & Miami.
Memphis font looks like a ripoff of old Nashville Sounds font.
That Memphis font is callled Dolfin among other names. It’s used by MyPillow, Pimp My Ride, and other bastions of good taste.
Memphis Sounds!!! It’s nearly perfect! Hope they have the numbers font that resembles notes.
link
Memphis Sounds!!! It’s nearly perfect! Hope they have the numbers font that resembles notes.
link
Atlanta looks like something Cleveland wore in the 90s
That’s Packers-Colts at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore on Dec. 12, 1965. The Packers won 42-27 and Paul Hornung scored five touchdowns including two TD catches of 50-plus yards. Those five TDs were Hornung’s career-best for a game. It was impressive, but not the most impressive of the day. Gale Sayers scored six as the Bears tromped the 49ers 61-20 at Wrigley Field.
Hornung: link
Sayers: link
Rather interesting that Toronto’s jersey is a Vince Carter tribute.
I really enjoy that it is, because not only is it fun, it’s also connected with team history rather than a nebulous connection to the city/region. Vince Carter in the Slam Dunk Contest is iconic and I love that there is a tribute in this form.
The Clippers jersey is actually really nice. I’d say that one, Utah, and the Raptors top might be worth keeping around.
When this program first launched, there were some interesting and unique unis. Not all of them were great, but most of them weren’t downright offensive and you couldn’t argue Nike was being lazy.
That ship has long since sailed. It’s clear Nike is out of ideas and phoning it in. They should nix this program ASAP.
Boy…. Mostly, those are some brutal lookin’ jerseys, most of them should have “The Garbage” scrolled across the front of them. I do like a few of them, the 76er’s ode to the Spectrum is clever and the Memphis jersey is cool.
Fugliest group of jersies from any North American pro league. No need for them
Hard to believe these are legit… they’re so, well, easily designed by anyone!
GTGFTS – December 12, 1965 Packers at Baltimore Colts. Looks like Paul Hornung has just caught a pass from Bart Starr that will give them the last score of their 42-27 win. Not sure why Colts are wearing White at home.
GTGFTU – February 26, 2021 Atlanta Hawks at OKC Thunder. The Thunder coped a little better with the lack of uniform contrast in the first half to eke out a 118-109 win. The Thunder changed to White in the second half. I think they should have changed on the sidelines after the 1st quarter just like the Vikings did in yesterday’s post!
Per GUD the Colts wore white at home in 1964 & 1965.
That picture is a beauty. Dirt and grass and dusk and two of the best uniforms in football. And a huge scoreboard that looks like it’s only about 20 feet off the ground.
The Colts wore white at home in 1964 and 1965, except for a ’64 game against the Cardinals that was moved from Busch Stadium to Baltimore due to a conflict with the World Series.
What’s up with the Bucks love affair with royal blue?? I’m guessing one of the owners is enamored with it
Because Milwaukee sits on the shores of Lake Michigan.
It’s one of their tertiary colors. It even shows up on the green/white standard unis as an accent color.
Lake show? That is the best they could come up with? Are they referencing television? If so, the late show is filmed in NY.
Why not show time?
Gotta be a reference to the mid-’90s teams with Van Exel, Eddie Jones, Ceballos, etc. They were called The Lake Show for a few years there. Of course they never won anything, but I have fond memories of those teams. That said, to put that on a uniform… it’s a head-scratcher. It looks and sounds ridiculous – and I say this as a Lakers fan. But that’s also a pretty good summary of the City Connect series in general, no matter the team.
Sixers and Raptors are acceptable. The rest are garbage.
If the Rockets went with H-Town(a term that no one uses?)…why no H-Town Blue (a term no one uses).?
I’d be OK if the Kings and Pistons went with theirs full time.
These 2, the Sixers (I’m a homer but I grew up at The Spectrum), the Raptors and the Suns. The rest are atrocious.
BINGO. Immediately thought of the Spectrum. A bit odd since these jerseys are designed for the youngsters, and the Sixers left the Spectrum long ago.
Re: Toronto – Is this the first time a player (Vince Carter) has been put on a jersey? Jerry West doesn’t count.
Hear me out..
The Pistons jersey kinda looks nice…
It’s my favorite of this bunch.
Man, Nike is phoning it in so hard. Just stop at this point. Several of these are last year’s designs with colors inverted. And last year’s were terrible already.
TBH I don’t closely pay attention to what the NBA releases for new uniforms anymore. The constant churning out of crap with looks that don’t match team identity isn’t for me. I miss the old days in the NBA when a uniform release was significant and meant something.
These have become so bland and don’t fit with the teams visual program. There is not a good design this year at all. The Bulls and Mavs are especially bland. They need to give this up. Go with only 2 to 3 uniforms and have them all fit together.
What’s funny is the Bulls’ uni is almost exactly the Mavs’ city uni from a few years ago. Just lazy.
They do don’t they. Lazy
These two look like the jersey printer was running out of toner.
As uniforms, there are a couple decent, novel ideas. The rest of these are recycled ideas in a different colorway or combinations of past iterations as a mishmash homage to the past.
Hard to fully judge without the number fonts, most of which will be bespoke and probably overdesigned to the point of being borderline illegible, defeating the purpose of player numbers.
This is what happens when you run out of ideas. This vein is tapped and has been for more than a year. As someone else said, none of these are improvements on the current designs. But until people stop buying them, Nike won’t stop making them. Speak with your wallet, lemmings…
“Every team, every year” is burning Nike out, apparently. So many of these are either mailed in or tacky. Some of them jumped out at me for good or ill:
– Boston’s jersey looks like a low budget sci-fi movie prop.
– Brooklyn and Memphis usually make thoughtful decisions, so I’ll hang fire until we hear more on what their influences are.
– Detroit immediately jumped off the page at me. The angular “PIstons” script and the black-on-cream with red-orange trim look sharp. Plus, they’re another team that hasn’t taken recent City editions lightly.
– Golden State is stealing their circular motifs back from Denver. And I like that colorway.
– The Lakers and Heat are reaching Montreal Canadiens levels of fart-sniffing.
– Minnesota’s are still A Choice, but better than last year. The color blocking matches the Association jersey, just… swirlier. I’m not sure if I like it, but I respect it.
– “NOLA” I can take or leave, but I LOVE the herringbone pattern of actual bones.
– Philly just feels right.
– Toronto, give me all the Vinsanity Raptor you have.
– Between “The District” and the White Sox “Southside” City Connect kits, I’m beginning to think gothic fonts are Nike’s code for “This team stinks”.
Yawn…
OK, I’m not a basketball fan, but I literally like none of these NBA city jerseys except maybe the Bucks and the 76ers. Many are too far afield from the regular uni, but then again I suppose that’s the idea.
Nike is doubling down on their own mistakes on too many of these. The double vision New York workdmark, the land, the font on the district, the assumption that water looks like a psychedelic smoke and laser light show, heat culture, the entire Indy design, 5280 on the front of the uni.
They’ve also made yet another mix of unis that shouldn’t be (San Antonio, Boston, Memphis, “lake show”…), unis that look decent but don’t look like they belong to their team (Sacramento, Milwaukee, Dallas, Chicago, Cleveland), and unis that either didn’t need to be made at all or should just be the base of a refresh/redesign (not terrible, but too similar/nothing special to make it worthwhile as an alternate: Golden State, Nola, Orlando, Charlotte, Utah).
I’ll say that some stuff should be saved. Golden Dtate desperately needs a new font, and the re-addition of red to the set is nice, it’s a keeper. Cleveland is a decent look if it just said cavs or Cleveland. Nola with the bones herringbone pattern, keep it. The magic uni is pretty decent. The Raptors uni is great.
Like others have noted, the Memphis jersey is almost a replica of their ABA team, the Sounds. Certainly, that has a direct connection their team and their city.
I’m sure when the storytelling is revealed most of these unis will have some connection to the city/state/team, my point is it doesn’t look like a Memphis grizzlies uniform. But yes, it almost looks like a Memphis sounds uniform.
Not one single Nuggets fan liked the 5280 from last year and we definitely didn’t want another version! Awful garbage
Nike has a perverse fascination with Denver being a mile high. They throw “5280” into as many designs across all sports as possible. We all get it, we all know. Move on. There are plenty of cities at sea level; do they all get to be “0”? Couldn’t the Pelicans be “-10”?
OKC: “For our city edition uniforms, let’s delete the word CITY from our location!”
As a lifelong Chicago fan and resident, I have no idea how that color scheme or style connects to our city.
Man, I’m not even an NBA fan, but I think that Detroit Pistons uni is AWESOME.
Yeah this definitely feels like Nike are out of ideas. A lot of white versions of prior Designs
Atlanta- Blue/Gold version in a modified 80s style. Hawks just can’t decide a color scheme
Celtics- Basically a Grey version of the prior year template with like Celtic theme… not Great
Brooklyn- Fits with the theme but still goofy
Charlotte- Rerun of the 20/21 edition essentially, but that’s okay since it’s a good look.
Chicago- Huge miss weird c;olor scheme, weird front, and looks to be illegible.
Cleveland- Similar to to 22/23 edition- It’s meh, but not horrible
Mavs- Basically a silver/white version of last years. Not Legible…. Why not go yellow gold for a “Yellow Rose of Texas” motif– reads lyrics to the song- maybe not.
Denver- Combo of 18/19 with last years. I don’t hate this.
Pistons- Looks sharp
Golden State- Falls into the Mets category of fine as a stand alone but has no connect to the Bay area.
Houston- Not my thing, but fine
Indy- So white version of last years?
Clippers- Light Blue version of last years, looks a lot better.
Lakers- Lakeshow is dumb as is the gradient. this feels lazy
Memphis- Sharp looking Faux back
Miami- Red version of last years, lazy and lousy. Miami has so many good options why not do a Heat text version of the Vice jerseys?
Bucks- Not loving the blue, but these are ok
Minnesota- White version of last years- Lazy
New Orleans- Mardi Gras look is an improvement
Knicks- White versions of last years, I like these… Mets take notes
Oklahoma- Meh similar to last year
Magic- White version of last year which is solid… Feels like Nike is burning through reject main sets
Sixers- Great look but again a White version of a prior design. Still really sharp
Phoenix- Not bad but if they used Phoenix instead of the The Valley these would be really good
Portland Mash up of 17/18 with last years- meh
Kings- Basically a Royals Fauxback. Why not use the Royals as a “nickname” instead of Sactown or something? This is fine, but honestly a bit boring
Spurs- Another “road version” of last years, it’s solid
Toronto- This is goofy and fun. I wish they could make the Dino’s number the player’s number.
Utah- Another Fauxback. They are just dealing with a horribly botched redesign. Why can’t Nike spend less time on these and let teams make tweaks instead?
Wizards- The front text is a bit much but I like this a lot. It definitely fits the City Edition feel.
OK, I think we’re officially done here with this program. I like the Pistons one, the Kings one, and the Raptors jersey is cute. The rest are simply garbage or boring. Or both. What even is that Celtics jersey? Future Celtics? It looks like off-brand workout clothes. And “LakeShow”? No thanks.
Warriors, Magic, Pistons, Jazz, and Hawks are good. All the rest are horrible.
Hate this whole City Connect baloney – so I’m with most of the commenters here. I will say I love what they did with the Raptors though. If they’re gonna stick with the gimmick, maybe commit to it by committing to individual players from the franchise that made a stamp on history. The Vince Carter nod is pretty cool. Do a Magic Johnson-centric Lakers version. A Bird Celtics one. It’s a half-baked idea, but honoring the legends from each franchise could be a fun way to bring attention to the past – and sell some jerseys to the older folks like myself that think 99% of these City Connect jerseys are ridiculously trashy.
The Lakers already did this for four whole seasons. They called it the Lore Series, where the uniforms would be designed to pay homage to a player in the Lakers’ rafters. First it was Kobe (the “Mamba Jerseys”, the same ones the Lakers wore when they won the 2020 championship in the Bubble), the season before that iirc was Magic Johnson (purple with pinstripes [that were actually the words “Los Angeles Lakers” repeated]), the season after the Bubble was inspired by Shaq (yellow— I mean gold with with a sublimated star pattern in the side panels), and rhe most recent design inspired by a Lakers legend was just before the NBA 75th anniversary season, a white and powder blue number that homaged Elgin Baylor.
The fact the Lakers stopped this concept irks me to no end as a Lakers fan. They were clean and distinctive and stuck to a single primary color (and didn’t use any colors outside of existing or heritage team colors). Apparently each team’s uniform is designed in-house, which makes things extremely terrible now that they’ve seemed to jump the shark.
There’s so many Laker legends out there who could inspire some really interesting uniforms. Why not a powder blue and gold uniform to homage the alma mater of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? Or a uniform inspired by the mismatched hues of the Showtime Lakers’ road threads? Or a tasteful black-and-white uni to honor the legacy of Jerry West? The vast majority of the Lakers fanbase really doesn’t like these uniforms.
Not as crappy as MLB’s City Connect, but still very crappy!
I must be the only one who thinks the Raptors jersey is god awful. Sure the logo is cool, but I’m not sure that offsetting it on a jersey is the best use. The use of gold? Just too much going on. I’m out.
All garbage from Nike. The only good jersey is the Sixers. I think they should go back to 3 jerseys and drop the City editions. I did like when they did the “earned” jerseys for playoff teams. If I remember right, those mostly stuck with the team colors and teams were still recognizable.
Also, this makes me wonder if they will bring back the same In-Season Tournament court design from last year.
Man, I wish the Denver teams would stop with this 5280 crap. Other than that, the Nugs’ jersey is fine, but I think it would be so much better if it said “Mile High” or just “Denver”.
I like that Hawks jersey, and I like the colors, but I’d like it better *for them* if it was in their current color-scheme. Phila, NOLA, and Memphis look sharp.
Golden State will look good when it has the player numbers inside the circle.
Orlando looks way too much like some kind of San Antonio alternate, to the point that I’m surprised they went with that. Sacramento has probably the worst brand recognition of any NBA team, and this CC isn’t helping matters.
BOS, CHI, DAL, BKN, MIL, and DC don’t even look like real basketball jerseys. PHX seems pointless.
H-Town, The Land, LakeShow, and Heat Culture are manifestly stupid and it’s embarrassing that they even exist. I don’t know how someone gets in the head-space to drop $300 on a tank top that say’s “H-TOWN” and I don’t want to know.
I will admit, as someone who usually hates linear gradient patterns on sports uniforms, that I actually don’t mind the black-to-purple that the Lakers have, but there’s just no such thing as a good Lakers jersey that says “LakeShow.”
The internet leaks have ruined it. It’s better to tune into a game and be like, “whoa what’s this?”
The Seattle Celtics?
Awful.
All of them.
Washington Disneylands
I’m assuming you’re also from the DMV and get the inside (the beltway) joke with that one.
Just … friggin’ … awful. Every last one of them except the Sixers.
Can’t they just put this program on hold for a couple years as the ideas have run out. How about during the season this year they have each fan base vote on their favorite City Jersey for the team and the next several years each team just uses the City jersey their fans deem best of what they’ve had.
That’s Nice… Golden St, Memphis, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, and Sacramento
Same ole Same… Brooklyn, Charlotte, Indiana, LA Clippers, Minnesota, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, San Antonio, and Utah
These “city” uniforms are equally crappy, except perhaps the Denver uniforms.
Only one that moves the needle for me is the Sixers. Actually has good contextual reference. The rest, meh,
Teams are out of ideas. Hopefully the MLB and the NFL take notice. These all look like generic knock offs.
Sixers have the only good one