Nike is ruining the nostalgia of jerseys, every year it’s a new jersey and what gets lost is brand identity. https://t.co/oVq40s3a5t
— kuz (@kylekuzma) October 16, 2023
He’s right and it’s been something I’ve been saying for years. All of these mostly ugly Jerseys are diluting the identity for these teams, especially since they go as far as changing the courts now too. It’s hard for these teams to really stamp their brand when they have wildly different colors eveyr other game.
by jjgp1112
42 Comments
Very true. Not even every year new jerseys, but teams wear like 5 different jerseys every season. It’s too much.
But of course, it’ll never change because it creates more opportunity for jersey sales. :/
Kyle makes a good point. Also doesn’t help that those jerseys are absolute trash. I have to hope that those aren’t authentic.
Yes, but money
Adidas Jerseys >>>>>>>>
Agreed, Nike should have been stopped after 2020
this isn’t soccer where every year there’s 2, if not 3 different jerseys a year lmao
Is it Nike alone, or the entire system leaning in because of profits?
I kinda don’t mind the city Jersey concept of having a new creative jersey every year or two, and then you have your typical home/away (or whatever they renamed it to) that create your brand.
The jerseys just suck though
what i wanna know is how is there even enough demand for a new jersey every year? there can’t be that many people who are willing to buy a new one each season, especially when designs are extremely hit or miss, right?
I mean folks…
Correct.
This mfer spittin
Honestly should just be Home, Away, and the occasional City jersey.
Correct! There should be 3 jerseys max.
I mean, it’s not like they wear the city jerseys every game. The real issue is that so many of them suck lol.
The Heat are a great example re: the alts – everybody seemed to LOVE the Miami Vice jerseys. Since they can’t bring them back each year they tweaked them a bit for a few years, ultimately abandoned them, and now we got that terrible Heat Culture jersey. Why not keep what was working?
common kuzma W
Fanatics is ruining all jerseys.
I don’t think this is true at all. Nike jerseys suck but I don’t think it’s not like the Bulls have lost their brand identity. You can have fun alternates every year they just have to be good.
Honestly, there’s a point at which every team basically got their Jerseys 100% correct with no possible improvements (everyone here knows this is true) and there’s literally zero reason -outside of selling trash garments at insane markup at fan stores – for a team to have changed them past that point.
Lately the complaining about how stupid the jerseys are getting seems to be coming to a boil, so I’m hoping more players chime in on that note and maybe we can just… go back. Every team picks the year that the jerseys looked amazing, and the teams just… go back to that year. And that’s the jersey. And it stays that way.
Kuzma talks too much but hes right
I don’t know a single nba fan that hasn’t experienced the “be careful what you wish for” feeling regarding Nike getting the jersey rights. Like anyone I’ve ever met who knows about it is sad that this is how it turned out.
My biggest complaint with the Nike jerseys is that they refuse to take the wins and run with them. The Jazz sunset/gradient jerseys were a massive success, feels like everyone I know had one. But because they were city jerseys the team had to fight to keep them for even just 3 seasons. Now we got stuck with the god awful highlighter jerseys. We could’ve had the purple mountains and the red jerseys be our main ones and it would have been an awesome jersey combo plus being a great representation of the natural beauty in Utah. Instead Nike insisted on moving on from them in an attempt to make a little more money
I watch a ton of basketball and yet I still very often turn on NBA games and when just looking at the jerseys, have no idea who tf is playing.
Minimalism is ruining jerseys
I’m still pissed about those highlighter and banana yellow Lakers jerseys.
And it all started with Nike’s involvement with the Oregon Ducks.
I like the new city jerseys every year.
The jerseys have been terrible since Nike took over. Kuzma is right on target. Glad some people are finally speaking up about it.
And it can’t be easy since Nike basically runs the league.
I want to see home whites in at least 30 of the 41 home games in a regular season.
I agree, but Nike already believes that the fans know who their team is and will buy all the unis related to such.
Unpopular opinion but kinda disagree. The problem is churning out shitty designs and not keeping the good ones around longer. But conceptually, it is pretty cool to have a new jersey with every season. It’s dope to have them as a kind of time stamp. Not sure they’re ruining nostalgia so much as trying to set up future nostalgia lol.
It’s a good idea but shit execution imo. Wish they would extend some of it to more wearable merch like jackets and shirts. They always look even more shit than the jersey’s.
Just come out with yearly christmas jerseys and ill be happy.
If only the best valuable sport in the world has not been doing this for decades….oh wait.
FIFA has proven that yearly jersey’s including a wildly ‘alternate’ jersey that has nothing to do with their traditional color scheme rakes in cash.
As much as we hate on Nike, I still prefer how things are now compared to the travesty that were the Adidas sleeved jerseys.
Just go back to home/away/alt rotation and let teams have one classic jersey per season that they wear a handful of times. If teams want a new design, replace it as the alternate for however many years they want.
The Jazz, Heat, Wizards, and others had amazing city jerseys over the past few years that should easily move into their primary rotation. Just use them to replace the standard alternates.
It’s just becoming a little overwhelming with the jerseys. I think the courts matching the jerseys are pretty sweet but when it’s a whole brand new set of four or five different ones every year for teams, it’s being to get saturated. You’re losing the aspect that made unique when they started. It’s a market thing, I know – more jersey options, more appeal to different people. But might be time to just leave it to a Home, Away, and one or two variations, city, throwbacks, whatever.
Wholeheartedly agree.
I miss when franchise colors meant something and the only teams with black were the Spurs, Blazers, Heat.
They should just have 2 main jerseys and a 3rd alternate, and every year, just cycle through different alternate jerseys that are just throwbacks
Agreed. I loved it when teams had 1 home, 1 away, and maybe an alternate for a years long stretch. You would come to associate a teams jersey with a certain era for that team. You’d see a certain jersey and just instantly think “Raptors Vince Carter Era”, “Warriors We Believe Era”, “Sixers Iverson Era”.
Now there’s just a weird meaningless blend of random designs and bizarre colour choices every year.
It doesn’t help that most of these city jerseys suck ass
At first I liked it, cause experimentation is good and some of them were fire. But having to make one or two new ones every year is absolutely ridiculous, if you have something great why replace it.
So true and not just an NBA problem.
Every sport has this problem.