The Washington Wizards have now officially unveiled their 2024-25 “City” edition uniforms, after initially teasing the uniform following the massive City Edition leaks in September. And it is, as suspected, simply a riff on the Wizards’ 2023-24 City Edition uniform, which was much more intricate.
This City edition isn’t lacking for storytelling either — as you’ll soon see. But let’s first take a look at the 2024-25 uniform.
Inspired by the energy that starts from and flows through our city.
Our 2024–25 City Edition uniforms embody the rich history and spirit of the DMV and its people. #ForTheDistrict | @RobinhoodApp pic.twitter.com/xICYOzkKVD
— Washington Wizards (@WashWizards) November 9, 2024
For a team that is basically recycling the prior year’s edition, the Wiz are playing this up as though it’s completely original. You’d be forgiven if you think the uniform is white. The team is referring to this one as their “Beyond Boundaries Uniform,” which features a new color known as “hydrogen blue.” The “Beyond Boundaries” uniforms are to honor “the past boundaries we’ve broken while celebrating our future: that no boundaries can contain us.” Hydrogen blue — a color “never before seen in the NBA … embodies everything from the coursing waters of the mighty Potomac to the sky-high expectations we hold for our future.”
OK then.
As for the details, the neck and arm openings feature a “speckled blue ripple effect” trim, which is also present on the pants.
The front of the jersey has the words “the District” in an Old English font, with “the” being white outlined in blue, while “District” is red, also outlined in blue. Beneath the wordmark is a smaller “OF COLUMBIA” in capital letters. Numbers are red, outlined in blue, with a white drop-shadow effect applied.
The sides of the jersey have three stars, with the blue ripple trim also running down the sides (and continuing onto the sides of the shorts as well).
The stars are supposed to signify “Washington’s Coat of Arms, and (Benjamin) Banneker’s triangulation of the first (boundary) stone.”
The rear of the jersey has a continuation of the blue ripple trim (of course with Nike’s truncated stripe pattern), with NOB in solid red. Rear number is in the same style as on the front.
The uniform shorts have the blue ripple trim down the sides (which also contain three stars), as well as on the waistband and the hems.
The waistband also has a patch in front of the drawstring which reads “DMV” in a red Old English font.
Towards the base of the side panel on the shorts, beneath the three stars, there is a City Edition logo, which is a riff on the team’s regular logo. The Washington Monument, part of the team’s regular logo, is replaced with a boundary stone.
And of course, the team produced some storytelling graphics so we don’t think it simply takes the prior year’s City Edition uniform as simply a color-swapped retread:
And finally, what would a new City Edition uniform be without a special court on which to wear it?
The uniform will make its on-court debut December 5th against the Mavericks, and will be worn an additional eight times after that.
Your thoughts?
“which features a new color known as “hydrogen blue.”
Let’s call a code blue and blow these up with a hydrogen bomb.
It’s somehow both too busy and not enough.
That “speckled blue ripple effect” sure reminds me of the old Allen Iverson era Georgetown side panels: link
Nah, Georgetown uses kente cloth for their side panels/trim. That’s a common African pattern that was adopted by John Thompson. This is nothing like that at all.
Whatever happened to sticking with a brand identity?
Hydrogen blue is what you get if you wash white uniforms with blue by accident. Not a bad uniform and I always like stars on jerseys and shorts but they are obviously running out of ideas at Nike.
It looks cheap. Reminds me of the sort of design you see from an off brand label that sells exclusively at Target or Walmart.
And it isn’t just the design, but the material too, I am not sure if it is intentional or not on Nike’s part. Gives off the vibes of super cheap and light material, which the swoosh would market as being sustainable and completely recycled from old water bottles or something.
Not bad, certainly an improvement over last year’s, but the storytelling makes me want to puke.
Some photos the uniforms look white, while others they look like a very pale light blue. Honestly, I thought those photos just had strange lighting that made them look slightly light blue until I read “Hydrogen Blue”.
This isn’t stupid at all. Right? Right? It’s really not stupid at all for adults to watch “storytelling” videos and to think that “hydrogen blue” is an actual color. Right?
The “hydrogen blue” base color reminds me of the silvery-gray 1981-83 Detroit Pistons home jerseys. Not the exact same, of course.
These shorts really accentuate how ridiculous the Nike template is. You have hip stripes, with vertical stars and a logo falling between the stripes. Then, conspicuously off-center on the front of the thigh, is a notch. That’s not where the notch goes. The notch is meant to be at the point between the front and the back of the shorts. Much like the truncated striping, there is a reason things were the way they were. Nike’s trying to be disrupters but it just looks like they don’t know what they were doing.
And how much longer before we fully run out of ideas with the City Editions? We felt like we were scraping the bottom of the barrel years ago.
I’m so old that I remember when they were desperately trying to leave the District.
You mean like 9-10 months ago?
Cert weak
I want to like these, because I like “old-English” script, but these just don’t work for me. As a frontal wordmark, it doesn’t really look like it belongs on a basketball jersey. Too small, too straight, too hard to read.
The ripple trim doesn’t seem to be doing much, and as others have mentioned, the template has some really bizarre features (the cut on the shorts especially).
I like the stars down the side, but that’s about it.
I thought the “blue ripple effect” was in honor of the arena’s other basketball team (Georgetown).
Are we going to call this light blue or off white?
I really like that number font, which I think is the same as the generically-named “Old English” font. Kyoto Purple Sanga of the J-League used to use it. I suppose Washington is aiming for the look of historical documents like the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence; Philadelphia would probably be a better candidate for this look.
The Nike corporate speak says this font is use used for maps. etc. That’s a plausible explanation and you could certainly argue that while “Wizards” isn’t a patriotic as “76ers”, DC has arguably more American history relevance than Philly does.
My proposal: Starting next season, all teams have two uniforms. One home. One away. Both in team colors and style. Crazy, I know.
These are fun! Love the lettering and number font. The District sits just right on the chest, not too big, and the trim is a nice touch. The stars and lines make for a clean DC uniform.
As one of the few people who publicly professes to be a Wizards fan, I don’t hate these. The boundary stones idea last season felt sorta forced but the uniform grew on me, especially the color scheme.
This design’s clean to the point of potentially being boring, but I wanna see how this “hydrogen blue” looks on court/TV before I pass judgment.
One of these days, Nike will realize all of DC isn’t monuments, political BS and federal buildings.
I can’t wait for that Chuck Brown City Edition uniform.