The New Orleans Pelicans joined many of their NBA bretheren in releasing their new City Edition (CE) uniforms for the 2024-25 NBA season.
Let’s start with the hype video:
#Pelicans City Edition uniforms are here 🔥 pic.twitter.com/hn24AuQO0M
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) November 14, 2024
According to the team, the new uniforms are “inspired by the city’s rich cultural heritage, the updated uniforms build on the success of last season’s design while incorporating new elements that reflect the dynamic spirit of the Crescent City.”
I generally avoid parroting a team’s press release when reviewing uniforms, and indeed the Pelicans’ do include some cringeworthy storytelling, but by and large, it’s a straightforward description of how these uniforms came about.
“Inspired by New Orleans’ Nightlife and Culture.” The new uniforms feature an updated color palette, including vibrant purple and bright green—representing the glowing lights and energy of New Orleans’ nightlife. The addition of gold and dark purple further elevates the design, blending traditional elements with modern flair.
“Design Features: A Fusion of Tradition and Modernity.” The City Edition uniform draws inspiration from iconic elements of New Orleans’ typography and architecture, creating a visually striking blend of the old and new. The custom fonts seen throughout the uniform are influenced by the distinctive typography found across the city, while still incorporating the angular block letter treatment of the Pelicans’ core brand.
“Colors & Patterns.” The design’s primary colors, vibrant purple and bright green, are a nod to the energy of New Orleans’ streets after dark, while the introduction of gold and dark purple gives the uniform a more refined edge. The new herringbone pattern woven into the fabric is a subtle yet powerful tribute to the city’s culture.
“Wordmarks & Fonts.” Inspired by local typography, the uniform’s fonts reflect New Orleans’ rich artistic history, while still staying true to the Pelicans’ brand identity with sharp, angular letter forms.
“Waistband Logos.” The waistband logo features a partial version of the Crescent City Basketball logo, now skeletonized to complement the unique “Skelican” design featured on the shorts. The Skelican, a Pelican rendered with skeletal bones, returns to reinforce the bold, edgy aesthetic of the uniform.
“Jock Tag.” A standout feature of this season’s uniform, the jock tag includes the words “New Orleans” written in letters formed from bones, a playful yet powerful symbol of the city’s history and resilience.
The team has done a nice job of putting the storytelling elements into graphics — which are below:
I like the pattern that is formed by the bones. The team refers to it as “skelican”.
If you watched the video, and it’s somewhat apparent from the graphics shown above, it appears as though the team have used a reflective material that will show up particularly well under black light.
How practical this is remains to be seen, but it plays into the voodoo/spooky feel the uniform seeks to project.
The Pelicans will debut the new City Edition uniform against the Toronto Raptors on November 27, 2024. The team will also have a special edition court which will be used when the CE uniforms are worn. You can see more photos of the uniform here.
This seems like another fun (if completely unnecessary) CE uniform. As you may be aware, I’m a fan of bright colors, particularly when used as accents, on uniforms. I’m not sure if I need the highlighter colors to glow under black light, but the bright purple and green will work well on this uniform. It seems like the designers had some fun with this uniform. If we throw out all the storytelling, I definitely like this one as a uniform.
Your thoughts?
I am here for the color scheme and voodoo theme. Make it permanent.
100% make it permanent.
Gold and neon green clash horribly. They should have picked one.
To be honest, most of the alts this year range between good and interesting… by and large I’m happy with it.
Wait until you see Cleveland’s. That’ll bring your mood down a notch.
I’ve seen them–there’s a reason I said “most!”
Does anyone else think they should just go with the Mardi Gras colors full-time and ditch their regular Florida Panthers color scheme?
agreed
Yes. A hundred times, yes.
YES!!!!!
Not sure about the neon shade of green…a more muted Kelly Green would have worked a little better. But otherwise, not a bad effort…just seems like there have been several iterations of the “NOLA” uniform.
Up the river a few hundred miles, the Grizzlies unveiled theirs too…throwing it back the ABA days of the Memphis Sounds: link
Yea they have absolutely worn out “NOLA” on the City Edition unis. Would’ve been better with New Orleans, Pelicans, or Crescent City on the front
Don’t mind these. Now make Utah return the Jazz name to its rightful owner and we’ve really got something. Utah needs a new identity. And we need the New Orleans Jazz. Period. End of story.
Herringbone is good. Skelican logo is good. I want to say that the colors would be better without the gold or without the green, but I generally give New Orleans teams a pass on gaudiness.
The waistband logo and the collar logos should have been omitted. “A tribute to past City Edition jersey designs” is silly.
The glow-in-the-dark green is dumb, if that is in fact what they’ve done, but whatever. I just don’t like it when teams use crazy lighting for uniform reveals. If it’s a good uniform, just let me see it under normal lighting. Chill with the smoke machines and goofy colored lights.
The Skelican is cool and that is it.
It’s fun! Excellent!
Not a fan. I wish they would stick with the purple, green, and gold – the lime green and purple is just not great.
Last years were better, and should be the permanent color scheme.
Kinda like these. They should ditch the boring red/blue color scheme and keep this one. Also like the rounded traditional collar and simple logo on the shorts with no extra stripes. Overall a decently fun uniform, it fits New Orleans