Although all the NBA City Edition uniforms were leaked a couple months ago, and a few teams have officially unveiled their City Edition uniforms, most clubs will make their official unveilings in a little over a week. The Chicago Bulls have jumped the gun a bit, officially unveiling their 2024-25 City unis.
As has become apparent over the past couple years, when you introduce a new uniform (City) every year, sometimes ideas for uniforms — and the accompanying storytelling — feel a bit strained. You can be the judge of that with the Bulls new City Edition, but this year’s offering is paying tribute to the United Center, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and where the Bulls have called home since 1994.
Per the team:
The 2024-25 City Edition uniform tells the story of the current and beloved home of the Bulls – the United Center. The uniform highlights various features of the “UC”, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Unique uniform details include matching fonts from the arena, a color scheme synced to the one seen on the exterior of the building as well as the front tag paying homage to the famous marquee outside the arena which originally read “Home of The Bulls”. The uniform’s strong, classic, and clean look stands the test of time – just like the United Center.
OK then. Let’s start with the hype video…
30 years of history at 1901 W Madison St.@MotorolaUS | https://t.co/PqhESWVviY pic.twitter.com/ZJl8G0o43q
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) November 2, 2024
And here are the uniforms…
Jersey
The jersey is white, with brownish-tan and gray accents. The wordmark of “BULLS” and numbers match the style and font face of signage at the United Center.
The colorscheme was based on the colors of the United Center.
The jersey features side stripe/panel in hues of brownish-tan. You can also see the pattern on the shorts in the photo below, with its classic pentagonal shape containing the Bulls logo. According to the team, the pattern is supposed to mimic the spotlights which appear on the players during pre-game introductions.
The rear of the jersey features player NOB in gray, with numbers in the same style as on the front.
Although it won’t be visible during play, the jocktag highlights the marquee outside the UC, which originally read “Home of the Bulls.”
Shorts
There are a few interesting storytelling features built into the shorts. The waistband, which is light and dark tan, features a design that looks a bit like the Union Jack, but mimics the archetectural style of the windows on the UC.
The two stripes across the face of the shorts pay “homage to the famous Bulls starting lineup introductions at the United Center.”
Here’s another look at the full uniform, with some handy-dandy storytelling from the Bulls included:
When the jersey was first leaked, I wasn’t sure where the Bulls were going (it wasn’t immediately clear they’d be basing the uniform around the arena in which they play), but now that we have the full explainer, I at least understand the various elements. I don’t think it’s a particularly bad-looking uniform — of course, it doesn’t look anything like a Bulls uniform — but the design and colorscheme makes sense. It’s completely unnecessary (as have been almost all “City Edition” NBA uniforms), but overall it’s a nice enough alternate. It feels like the designers are running out of ideas, but I suppose it does meet the City Edition criteria (since 2017, all 30 NBA teams have worn a Nike City Edition jersey, meant to celebrate the city, history and heritage that make each franchise unique).
Your thoughts? And specific to our Chicagoland readers (or Bulls fans), does this uniform strike a chord with you? Did the designers pull off a tribute to the UC while at the same time designing a uni that celebrates the “city, history and heritage” that makes the Bulls unique?
The Bulls will debut the City Edition uniform on November 23rd against Memphis. The team has declared their Saturday home games to be the times the uniforms will be worn. It will be worn a total of 8 times, and additional City Edition dates/teams are as follows: Boston Celtics on December 21st, Milwaukee Bucks on December 28th, New York Knicks on January 4th, Philadelphia 76ers on January 25th, Golden State Warriors on February 8th, Phoenix Suns on February 22nd and Dallas Mavericks on March 29th.
At first glance I thought this was USF.
Back in the day, USF was only Univ. of San Francisco. The Dons had some great teams and awesome uniforms. But I get it, BULLS. That said, I actually like these.
It’s really tiresome how much teams hate to look like themselves now.
Well said
It’s very frustrating. In the NBA between the player movement and unnecessary uniforms, team identity is pretty much gone. It’s just a collection of athletes who may be on any team any given night wearing any random color.
The old Jerry Seinfeld joke about “rooting for laundry”? You can’t even do that any more.
I really like the shirts. They remind me of Villanova and Vanderbilt’s design in 1994 when they wore Apex One.
(I’m still looking for game-used Apex with the design that NC State, Tulsa, George Washington, and Penn wore with the keystone on one side and the mountain on the other.)
(whoops; I was referring to shorts, not shirts.)
If they tried to match the jersey numbers to the numbers on the building, they failed because the 2s don’t match. If they tried to mimic the design of the windows, they failed because the shorts feature a rectangle, while the windows are square.
It irks me when teams celebrate anniversaries of years/seasons instead of celebrating the numbers of seasons. They should have celebrated the 30th season of the United Center last season, instead of celebrating the 30th anniversary of the first season this season. OTOH, the Blackhawks can celebrate the 30th season of the United Center this season because they lost a season due to the lockout of 2004-05.
The UC seats are a great maroon color. I wish the incorporated that into the design as trim or even in place of the drab gray.
This is one of the dumbest City Edition uniforms ever. It’s not like Chicago is attached to the United Center like it is Wrigley Field or Soldier Field. It’s a newer, antiseptic sportsball venue, and I couldn’t tell anyone jackshit about color schemes, fonts, and what-all that are used there.
Dumb dumb dumb.
The unis do nothing to remind me of the Bulls, but they look pretty good. I think various shades of tan/light brown can be very appealing and might be the most underutilized color in sports.
Hot Garbage
When I tuck the little ones in at night and ask them what story they’d like to hear, invariably they reply that they want me to read them the story of the United Center.
Lifelong Bulls Fan here – These are OK; but again (and as mentioned in the write-up) they look nothing like a Bulls Uniform.
Sigh.
OK, but the trim reads as an attempt to have a gold-accented jersey, not the colors of a sports arena. And then your next question is: what did they win?
Trash. To a casual observer flipping through, they really have no idea who is playing. Pretty sure that’s not great for the NBA. I don’t watch any NBA ever, but if I did, I’d have no idea who is playing without looking at the scorebug.
I think it is a pretty good uniform.
But, it is not a Chicago Bulls uniform.
Gotta say, just as a stand-alone uniform, I surprised how much I like this. I think it’s really sharp, and I love the art-deco-ish font. Grading it just as a uniform, it’s a strong A.
But as most have said, like most of the City Edition uniforms, it doesn’t look anything like a Bulls uniform.
I think I might like this more if it was just a uniform and not a uniform that’s working so freaking hard to tell a story that probably 98% of viewers will never recognize or care about. Are people really going to notice the two stripes on the waistband? Are they going to think, “wow, those two stripes on the waistband remind me of the starting lineup introductions”?
Stop trying so damned hard and just make a good Bulls uniform. Or better yet, stop churning out alts for the sake of churning out alts.
Chicago resident here, my thoughts:
1. I feel like this gives off the same energy as when the owner of the falcons put himself in the ring of honor this season. I’m imagining the design team pitching this idea to reinsdorf (owner of the bulls).
“The building you built and own is Iconic”
“You’re right, it is! I’m so great, do that one”
Its tough to do this kind of thing without it seeming like everyone is sucking up to the owner/the owner is giving himself a pat on the back. In this case they failed in that regard.
2. They uniform would look good if it were actually gold… but tan is tough…
3. and yes, we all agree, it isn’t conventional and doesn’t “look like the bulls” but at some point we need to be able to grade these things on a curve and give teams some leeway to do wild/weird/fun stuff. I disagree with what paul used to say about these alt jerseys, that they failed because you couldn’t tell who was playing at a glance. While that may be true, with two glances and a few context clues you can figure it out just fine… Would I like it if this were the primary? no, but there are 82 games. it doesn’t bother me at all if the bulls don’t want to wear red for 8 of them.
The only good thing in the release of these uniforms is Coby’s hair! That’s some seriously good looking flow.
As I have shouted somewhere else: And now….yourrrrrrr Chicago Blands!
I guess when you come out with new uniforms every year, your creative team starts running out of ideas.
Beautiful design, and I am sucker for Art Deco-inspired design. But the Bulls are black and red and white and this is not a Bulls uniform. I love the creativity but it doesn’t look like what the Bulls should wear.
Also – the “2” on the uniform is markedly different than the “2” on the outside gates and the section markers at the United Center. Straight diagonal on the jerseys, and the base stroke is as wide as the rest of the number. Neither of those things is true on the UC signage. They have the source material RIGHT THERE and they messed it up.