Good morning, everyone. Yesterday the Houston Rockets presented their City Edition uniforms for this season. Unlike a number of Houston teams, there’s no “H-Town Blue” here. Instead, the Rockets introduced a white, red, and black “H-Town” uni that celebrates the 30th anniversary of their two banner years.
Why black instead of atheltic gold, which is what Houston wore as a trim color while winning the 1994 and 1995 NBA Finals?
Man, I loved those unis!
Anyway, you could say it’s a new kind of BFBS…Black For Banners’ Sake.
Here’s a better look at the black-trimmed championship banners hanging from the rafters.
The City Edition uni also goes with the current color scheme. Their red uni has black trim, and there’s a black “Statement” uni which hasn’t been worn yet this season.
There are more details inspired by the ’94 and ’95 teams. The patch on the side of the pants matches the center-court logo from the old Houston Summit, and on the front of the waistband is the old arena logo.
And of course, the “H-Town” is in the old font from the championship jerseys, but with a really thick black trim. The numbers are a throwback as well, which I enjoy so much more than the current thin numbers.
There are two more details that won’t be seen on the court: down by the jock tag, there are the signatures of the Phi Slama Jama brothers and Rockets teammates Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler. Below that is the “Believe It! Again!” slogan from 1995.
I don’t need to wait until I see these in action…I think it’s a very good looking uniform. Not as awesome as the originals, but I like it.
According to Rockets Wire, the City Edition uni will be worn at least 13 times, beginning on November 20th against the Indiana Pacers.
Sadly, when Nike hits on a good design, they somehow let it down with storytelling. Knowing what this is “supposed to be” raises questions and makes me think “this isn’t doing a good job of fulfilling the brief” when it is in fact, out of the storytelling context, a nice uni.
I had the blanket and cardboard footlocker to match that pillowcase!
I had the sheets and the NFL helmet lamp.
Blanket, sheets and curtains for me.
Never been on board with the Houston Rockets being a red and black team. Doesn’t work for me. Red and yellow or even the red and silver were acceptable.
While nobody should own a color or combo (though Houston sure makes a play for a certain hue of blue), but basketball black/red is more Bulls than Rockets…and when it comes to red/yellow, I think of Atlanta – not Houston.
They’re 5 years too late to add silver to a championship commemoration uniform.
I think the Rockets were ketchup and mustard while the Hawks were in their navy/green phase. In any case, there’s room for 2 here.
While nobody should own a color or combo (though Houston sure makes a play for a certain hue of blue), but basketball black/red is more Bulls than Rockets…and when it comes to red/yellow, I think of Atlanta – not Houston.
They’re 5 years too late to add silver to a championship commemoration uniform.
The navy, red, and white years have a special place in my heart, though in hindsight, the uniforms need a bit of editing, but I still love the concept.
I had the whole sheet set that matches this pillowcase when I was a kid in the 70s!
My brother and I had them, too. Instant nostalgia.
H-Town?? Hahahaha. As stupid as Cleveland’s The Land jerseys.
The Land is worse.
I don’t know how people in Cleveland slangily refer to the city, but in Houston we absolutely regularly refer to the city as “H-Town.” It’s very common around here and has been for a really long time. Putting it on sports uniforms isn’t a stretch at all.
No one here outside of the Cavaliers and maybe some of their fans calls it “The Land,” ever. It is 100% Nike marketing bunkum. The 216? Sure, you hear that sometimes. “CLE”? Absolutely. I’ve never heard a single person here unironically call this place “The Land.”
They are astroturfing the heck out of this h-town thing.
Are they?
H-Town is a really common thing Houstonians say go refer to the city (source: me, a native and current Houstonian).
*to refer to the city
In that case, you have my apology and my condolences.
So what is happening here is that the sports teams are oversaturating it to the point that people will stop organically calling it that.
I still have my towel & hand towel set that pretty much matches those sheets!
The UCLA throwbacks last night were great. White on Powder blue, clarendon font, gold helmets and pants. I expected to see Gary Beban…
Spoiler alert: this game won’t be in my Top Five.
Phil thinks it’s worthy of number one, but one of the things keeping it out of contention are the Beban-era unis. Never been a fan of those.
UCLA’s throwback may not be their *best* ever throwback (I prefer either the Aikman era: link or the DeShaun Foster era — Clarendon font with drop shadow: link), but it’s still T5 worthy.
But it’s not my call. We’ll probably see a mono-brown or any team with red pants instead of UCLA…
Obviously you snuck a peek at the saved photos, but you didn’t preview what I already wrote. The game you’re thinking of is not Top Five-worthy either.
Won’t be Wyoming. They have a bye after that stellar 49-45 win over New Mexico.
Re, that pillowcase: I had to look up that Jets logo on Chris Creamer’s page. It turns out the Jets used that logo from 1972-1977. Seems kind of an inspiration for the Giants “disco NY” logo!
H-Town already feels so played out. Guys, it’s two syllables either way. You’re not Honolulu.
The Tennessee Titans should make a variation of this uniform
Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! “H-town”, “The Town”, “The City”, all that shit needs to go.
The group H-Town would love this…not a fan of this kind of vibes with cute city nicknames by the local tourist board but this is a nice uniform. I like the details a lot. And I miss that old Rockets team logo.