Good Thursday morning, Uni Watchers. I hope everyone had a good Wednesday. I’m feeling a tad under the weather today, so this will be a shorter-than-normal lede.
If you read today’s headline, you’re probably thinking “City Editions? Aren’t those unveiled in the fall (and usually all 30 of those in about three days)?” And you’d be correct. The NBA has generally unveiled its next generation CE uniforms after the season in which they will be worn has already started. It’s not unprecedented to unveil a new CE early, but it is unusual.
So it was a bit of a surprise yesterday when the Detroit Pistons’ 2025-26 City Edition was unveiled yesterday — and it wasn’t your traditional unveiling either.
As part of a photoshoot for Slam magazine, Detroit Pistons star Cade Cunningham was seen wearing the Pistons’ City Edition uniforms for the 2025-26 season.
SLAM magazine recently released two separate covers featuring Cunningham in two different uniforms. One is the classic Pistons blue and red. The other, however, was a surprise. Cunningham was sporting (and debuting) the Pistons’ next season City Edition uniform.
The real is BACK in the 313. Cade Cunningham and the Pistons have been firing on all cylinders this season.
They tripled their wins since last year so we’re dropping TWO new covers for all of Detroit to celebrate.
SLAM 255 is out now: https://t.co/Obhdz3kbOU pic.twitter.com/GjyFdENue2
— SLAM (@SLAMonline) April 9, 2025
Lest you think this any sort of accidental leak, the Pistons showed another view of the full uniform from the photoshoot.
Well, what do y’all think? pic.twitter.com/LhqLA1lzsX
— Detroit Pistons (@DetroitPistons) April 9, 2025
As you can see, the new uniform is black, but also contains generous amounts of teal, as well as red and gold. The Pistons, of course, famously (or infamously) sported teal uniforms from 1996-2001. It was a trendy color at the time, but a look that touched a chord in more than a few Pistons fans…so much so that the team brought back the teal as their 2022-23 “Classic” uniform. (They also had teal as an accent on a 2021-22 uni, but we’ll get to that in a sec.)
The Pistons are apparently still not quite through with teal. The 2025-26 City Edition isn’t predominately teal, like the original and the throwback, but the lineage is unmistakable.
And if the design of that uniform looks familiar, that’s because it is. The team used that design for their 2021-22 City Edition as well. And that uniform also had a small amount of teal on it as well. Here’s that design:
And this is 2025-26:
There is more teal this time around. In addition to being most prominent in the “lightning bolt” on the pants, and side panel on the jersey, there are teal outlines on the lettering and numbers.
WXYZ-TV in Detroit also had a spot on the Pistons new CEs.
Not that anyone thought it was going anywhere (though many of us hoped), but this basically confirms the NBA will be continuing with their CE program for yet another season. I happen to think this particular CE actually looks pretty good (and I’m sure the NBA is hoping it will sell well), but as we’ve increasingly seen in each successive year of the Program — clearly teams and the designers who are tasked with creating a new uniform every. single. year. are running out of ideas. The Pistons simply repurposed their 2021-22 design (which itself borrowed heavily from the 1977-81 uniforms) with new colors. And the Pistons are one of many teams that have kept the same CE designs across several seasons, changing up only the colors. Remember when “MOTOR CITY” appeared on a Pistons CE uniform four out of the first five seasons of the Program? Thankfully, it hasn’t returned…yet.
I won’t get into the litany of reasons the CE program is just a merch dump, though you can feel free to.
As I said, I actually like the new uniform, but for the love of all that is holy — can we either drop the whole CE Program or at the very least, stop making teams come up with a new one every year — how about once every three years? Or better still, I will admit that over the years, each team has probably had at least one excellent CE: let teams (or even fans) pick their favorite and keep that in the rotation for five years. I’m sure they’ll still move plenty of merch.
Thoughts?
Totally agree with you, Phil. This is a nice uniform but do not change it every single season. Let the fans vote for it out of, say, 3 options and stick to it for at least 5 seasons.
But that will never happen: there is more money to be made by changing it every season plus giving the fans that much decision power…that is not what the NBA (or the other major pro leagues) really want. They dictate and fans should follow.
What you said
Why stick fans with a bad uniform for 5 seasons. Do you think Tampa fans wanted those digital clock uniforms?
Did they vote for it? No. So that is another subject.
As a pistons fan, i’m glad their city edition jerseys have at least looked like “the pistons”… at least from some era. (with the exception of the green ones from 22/23). Thats my issue with some of these jerseys. Some are just TOO contrived. the suns CE jerseys maintain their visual identity, the Lakers look like the lakers from different eras… and then there’s the Bulls… or the Wizards…
I don’t know what the Guess the Game is from, but that’s a beautiful photo and uni matchup.
My favorite era of Rams uniforms. Everything is big and bold, and from certain angles the uniform overall looks more yellow than blue, and the big white letters and leg stripes on the back contrasting perfectly. Those shoulder ram horns are perfect. Wish they’d go back to something more like this.
Yawn. I agree this uniform is not bad, but it’s exhausting. I’d rather see the Pistons wear their traditional home whites and blue roads with the very occasional alternate. No one cares anymore.
May 3, 2009. Tigers 3-1 win over the Indians at Comerica Park.
I love the jersey. Not so sure about the shorts…
Jan. 4, 1986. Rams 20-0 win over Dallas in playoffs. Dickerson rushed for 248 yards. Game in Anaheim.
You got it Evan, and after having that monster game, Dickerson came up empty against the Bears. I agree with some other people on here, that is a perfect Rams uniform, it really looks flawless.
Totally agree that teams should be able to keep their best CE for several years instead of coming up with a new one. As a Pistons fan, I’m glad they’re repurposing the ’21-’22 design. That red one was great, and this black one with more teal is much better than last two Bad Boys themed ones. I wish they’d make this narrower wordmark their primary for the white and blue sets too.
GTGFTS: 3 May 2009, Indians 1 – 3 Tigers. Pictured here is Matt LaPorta’s first career plate appearance. Peak Justin Verlander struck him out looking, poor guy.
I love these new uniforms!! I think they should replace the boring red and blue ones with this. The woodmark Detroit is perfect.
I like the Pistons new unis but it’s like they copied the original Memphis Grizzlies jerseys after the move in 2001. Same colors and lettering.
True, looks similar. The original Memphis Grizzlies ater the move in 2001 were the same design as the Vancouver Grizzlies uniform in 2000-01.
The pistons are lost in the weeds and it’s a shame. Now that the team is showing some promise they should take a chance to retool their unis. These are pretty nice. Last years bad boys were also nice but nothin team colors. The true classic unis from yesteryear were nice. The teal ones with the flaming horse were fun for the time. Any of those looks would be a great start for a redesign. What they have now is such a Chevy sedan. Just non-committal, uninteresting, any actual intentional design choices are mistakes or mismatched with the rest of the design language. Not interesting but not simplistic enough to be “traditional”.
Looks freaking awesome
Yeah it’s not bad but there’s only so many designs that can be done.
I have absolutely no recollection whatsoever of that ’21-’22 uniform. If a team rocks a CE but Nike has designed so many at this point that no one can remember it, was it ever worn at all?
That was the season where teams “remixed” versions that took elements from multiple prior uniforms. Some were hideous but others were pretty sharp.
I, for one, don’t mind the CE being a new uni each year. Some of the designs are bad, some are just boring, but having a variety of options helps and if you hate your team’s uni, you can just wait another 12 months.
If there’s anything I’d insist on, it would be the the CEs only be worn at home.
They aren’t a bad look, but not a great look for the Pistons either. I wonder what the Sonics city edition will look like when they come back….
Detroit has some of the most boring regular uniforms in the NBA, so this doesn’t really bother me from a purist perspective, but man are these generic. At least the Tigers put out something so disgusting that you can work up a good hate about it, these just make me tired.
agreed on being able to go back to a good one. heat brought back one of their favorites, hopefully other teams will do that too
We arent all tired of this whole thing yet?
Not trying to be funny…for real. All of these different uniform editions across all sports…they are all just the same. Same release strategy, same basic energy. Who among us gets excited about this stuff anymore?
What’s up with the lightning bolt? They going electric in the Motor City?
Pistons, spark plugs…it’s very appropriate.
And I like this better than their regular uni. Anything that has a ’78-’81 vibe is good with me.
It was part of their uniforms in the late 70s, I believe.
Yes.
link
Those are not bad at all and should be updated for a new Pistons uniform.
Blah. Nothing to see here. Go back to the St Cecilia green city editions from a few years back. At least there was a real city connection there, what the program is intended for. They didn’t look like the Pistons, but it was a great looking once-in-a while uni. Throw in a teal-era throwback and you got the core 4 unis.
These look better than the 2021-22 unis on which they are based. That one had just a hint of teal and too much red. This one brings forth more teal but in just the right quantity. However, it’s like they were trying to add in different eras in one uniform. The late 70s lightning bolt shorts, the number font is from their current set and the Detroit wordmark, well I have no clue where they got that from. It is a fine uni but I just don’t like all the different eras mushed together.
More identity crumble by an NBA team, in my mind you should be able to identify a team with or without its wordmark. Without “Detroit” on it most people or casual fans would have no idea who this uniform belongs to.
Today’s GTGFTU…. The only day time game these two teams played during the Eric Dickerson years. Saturday, January 4, 1986 – 4:00PM, 1985 NFC Divisional Playoffs – Dallas Cowboys 0 vs Los Angeles Rams 20 at Anaheim Stadium, Anaheim, CA