The bulk of free agency appears to be nearing its completion and Summer League is beginning to wind down. The next major event on the NBA calendar is the release of the schedule followed by the FIBA World Cup (formerly the World Championship of Basketball).
Little news and nuggets of information will begin trickling out such as the new jerseys that will be coming out.
Obviously the Hornets will be wearing new jerseys as part of their identity change. The league though is always looking to innovate their jerseys in new ways. They introduced sleeved jerseys a few years ago and subtle changes to all uniforms — namely placing the NBA logo on the back instead of the front — are opening things up for ads.
There will be new uniforms again this year as the NBA continues to experiment.
All that uniform news can be found with this lengthy article from Paul Lukas of Uni Watch, including the mock-ups of the Christmas Day uniforms each team could possibly wear:
Interesting right? We obviously will not see all of these uniforms actually made as not all 30 teams play on Christmas Day. But the addition of a first name below the number is a really interesting addition.
It builds off several jersey innovations that have occurred in the last several years. About five years ago, the WNBA revamped all of their uniforms to put names below the number on the back of the jersey. It is rarely seen in the NBA until these mock ups were leaked to Uni Watch. You will also note, the smaller, secondary logo on the front could open up space for ads on the front bottom of the jersey or could be a prelude to moving the secondary logo to the upper right for an ad above the number (I mocked up such a uniform for Orlando Magic Daily a few years ago).
Forgetting the coming of advertisements to NBA jerseys, some of these look really really good. I would not mind buying a few of them. Especially since they seem to have a nice variety of designs and logos to add to them. It certainly is better than the technicolor, sleeved mess from last year’s Christmas Day games. Although maybe not as nice as the monotone Christmas Day uniforms from two years ago.
The other fun tidbit is that this seems to build off the “nickname” jerseys the Heat and Nets wore for select games last season. It is an interesting mix and personality added to the uniforms. Who knows if we will see each team don these jerseys or if they will be just a Christmas Day thing.
What do you think of these Christmas uniforms?
