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NBA Changes 2017-18


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2 hours ago, Bucfan56 said:

 

 

Part of the issue is that Nike is being weirdly exclusive with what retailers they're even allowing to sell their NBA gear right now. A lot of the larger stores (Champs, Fanzz, etc) are getting gear, but it's really limited in what they're offering and it's kind of few and far in between. Other smaller stores (such as Sports Fever and the like) that used to be VERY strong sellers of NBA gear and who always had a VERY large selection under Adidas, are being told by Nike that they wouldn't be getting any of the new Nike NBA gear at any time. The guy who owns the SF stores in the local malls here in the Sacramento area is simply beside himself with the decision because NBA gear is literally half of their stock, and Nike refuses to do business with the smaller retailers now. Yet, they'all still sell them as much NFL gear as they want, so, go figure. 

 

 

 

I was at a Fanzz tonight and I was kind of surprised to see some city jerseys for sale. No Jazz City Jerseys, but there was OKC, Golden State and Milwaukee gear. Which I found somewhat odd for SLC.

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"I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific." Lily Tomlin

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13 hours ago, Cardsblues02 said:

Forgot about Denver. They are the only one that actually did a good job, and even that one had flaws. Portland was meh, it feels cluttered and minor leagueish. Atlanta and Memphis?? Come on now. I could have done what Memphis did. Chicago and Utah were average, not good though. Boston just another classic team to fall into the GFGS trap. 

How about the Pacers?

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Not sure if this has been posted but this is what LeBron said about the Cavs city jersey 

  LeBron had significant input in CLE’s new “The Land” uni. He told me he’s confident that once fans get over the initial surprise and see the Cavs wear them in games, they will become a popular alternative look. “The internet always hates on something different at first,” he said.

Excellent!

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9 hours ago, Ice_Cap said:

Do we have confirmation that these will change every year?

 

Regardless, there's something to be said about building a long-term, consistent brand. Don't sacrifice the long term for the short term. If you do you might end up like the Utah Jazz, Vancouver Canucks, and San Diego Padres. A team with plenty of past looks, but no real brand.

 

Call my cynical, but I don't think that's a motivation here.

 

Besides. There's nothing "fun" about forcing the Lakes to hold off on wearing their purple jerseys (an essential element of their very successful brand and on-court look) just because Nike wants to withhold a set of their novelty jerseys. There's nothing really fun about the Cavs in stupid, grey "The Land" jerseys either, to be honest.

 

Except this isn't universal. Teams like the Yankees and Canadiens consistently prove that you can still be very successful from a branding standpoint by staying with a simple, classic look.

"Not every team can be the Yankees and Canadiens" doesn't sound convincing to me because they weren't always "the" Yankees or Canadiens. They were brand that were built partially by remaining consistent.

 

This whole thing seems overly corporate to be honest :(
We had "home," "road," and "alternate" unis in the NBA for decades. Then Nike comes on board and we have "association," "icon," etc...I just can't see this whole thing as anything but clever Nike marketing.

 

As far as stale brands go...again, I would point to the Habs and Yankees.

 

 

The Lakers being denied their purple jersey? That was obviously ridiculous, but it was also a decision (apparently) heavily influenced by the outfitter, which is something I’m trying to separate from the decision-making process of the team. So, you’re right that the Nike-specific structure does have a tendency to feel manufactured, but I’m thinking about the brands that the teams want for themselves; looking beyond what’s prescribed by the outfitter. Specifically, I’m talking about the concept of using off-brand design as a creative outlet, which has been done for years, by many entities.

 

The part about the Cavs in grey, etc? Also a bit neither here nor there as there are a lot of these that are simply lacking. Again, I’m interested more in the concept of what is trying to be done, not how good these specific results are. The Cavs in grey may not be fun, but the Cavs with a side stripe shaped like the Guardians of Transportation sure is. One benefit I see in having a creative outlet: I think getting these types of design elements on paper (or fabric as it may be) will help teams discover some really good ones that could eventually become integral pieces of their brands.

 

Point taken about the Yankees and Canadiens, but how much of those brands’ value comes from 1. the hundred-plus year histories of each club and 2. the 50+ combined championships? Teams like the Canucks, Jazz, and Padres don’t have that, which I think is a big reason why they keep trying to re-invent themselves. Even teams as old and storied as the Habs and Yankees went through the branding growing pains until they found success and equity (in a time when branding was even *less* like it is today).

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7 hours ago, kimball said:

 

I was at a Fanzz tonight and I was kind of surprised to see some city jerseys for sale. No Jazz City Jerseys, but there was OKC, Golden State and Milwaukee gear. Which I found somewhat odd for SLC.

 

In Philadelphia-area Dick’s Sporting Goods, there’s 2-3x more merch for Golden State and Cleveland than the season-tickets-sold-out Sixers

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17 hours ago, Cardsblues02 said:

Rockets- Tell me how Chinese characters represent Houston? Idk, and I live here. Badddd.

 

They dont. The team is still trying to rack in as much cash as possible from China since the Rockets are the unofficial NBA team of China ever since they drafted Yao. Judging by all the Chinese company logos all over the arena, they must still get plenty of eyeballs on the team over in China. I feel like I' watching a Premiere League soccer match when I watch the Rockets by seeing all these ads for companies that dont even operate on this continent.

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5 hours ago, bowld said:

Where can I buy a Utah city jersey? Can't find them anywhere 

Good question. Soon, I’d imagine since I saw other team’s City jerseys for sale here in SLC.

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"I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific." Lily Tomlin

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2 hours ago, cajunaggie08 said:

 

They dont. The team is still trying to rack in as much cash as possible from China since the Rockets are the unofficial NBA team of China ever since they drafted Yao. Judging by all the Chinese company logos all over the arena, they must still get plenty of eyeballs on the team over in China. I feel like I' watching a Premiere League soccer match when I watch the Rockets by seeing all these ads for companies that dont even operate on this continent.

 

I agree, and I get it with Yao and the Chinese kid they have on the team right now. Why not market to over a billion people? Their City Jersey though just feels lazy. If you’re going to celebrate your local community celebrate your local community. I kinda wish they had a Heritage Jersey teams wore 1-2 a year — Chinese New Year, Latino, St. Patricks, etc. 

 

But, honestly, the Rockets brand is aged and a mess right now altogether. But, that’s a discussion for another thread.

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"I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific." Lily Tomlin

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19 hours ago, Cardsblues02 said:

Rockets- Tell me how Chinese characters represent Houston? Idk, and I live here.

 

Magic- Fu*k you, Disney! 

 

Los Suns- Slap some adds on it and it would be a perfect WNBA uni! Booker already looks like a girl. Wearing this won’t help.

 

Memphis- Can I interest you in a story about sanitation workers?

 

Yikes!!!!

concepts: washington football (2017) ... nfl (2013) ... yikes

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5 hours ago, KRZYBDGRZ said:

Not sure if this has been posted but this is what LeBron said about the Cavs city jersey 

  LeBron had significant input in CLE’s new “The Land” uni. He told me he’s confident that once fans get over the initial surprise and see the Cavs wear them in games, they will become a popular alternative look. “The internet always hates on something different at first,” he said.

Blake Griffin helped design the new Clippers logo and basically said they same thing. While hes kinda right about the internet hating new things, rebrands like the t-wolves, bucks, kings, and 76ers, were mostly well recieved. Yes, the Cavs' icon and association uniform have slightly grown on me, but the gray jersey is just something that everyone can agree is garbage.

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13 hours ago, Ice_Cap said:

Do we have confirmation that these will change every year?

 

 

 

It's been widely reported that the Jazz are askiing Nike for permission to wear theirs nect year too so I'd say it's a lock


 

Quote

 

Regardless, there's something to be said about building a long-term, consistent brand. Don't sacrifice the long term for the short term. If you do you might end up like the Utah Jazz, Vancouver Canucks, and San Diego Padres. A team with plenty of past looks, but no real brand.


 

These are alternates. The NBA clearly saw the potential in soccer clubs  changing shirts every year, switching clash colors at will.  Even the Bulls and Lakers want to find a way to keep consumers buying new jerseys regularly. 


 

Quote

 

Call my cynical, but I don't think that's a motivation here.

 

Besides. There's nothing "fun" about forcing the Lakes to hold off on wearing their purple jerseys (an essential element of their very successful brand and on-court look) just because Nike wants to withhold a set of their novelty jerseys. There's nothing really fun about the Cavs in stupid, grey "The Land" jerseys either, to be honest.


 

Frankly I consider giving teams the freedom to experiment a bit with relevant symbolism they don't regularly use is much more 'fun' than MLB forcing every team to wear light blue, stars and stripes, camo and little league lookalikes on templates, or the NFL forcing every team to wear monochrome. At least this actually has the potential of producing good stuff.  The Lakers not being allowed to wear purple is dumb, but that doesn't really have anything to do with them unveiling a new jersey every year. It could have easily been avoided

Quote


Except this isn't universal. Teams like the Yankees and Canadiens consistently prove that you can still be very successful from a branding standpoint by staying with a simple, classic look.

"Not every team can be the Yankees and Canadiens" doesn't sound convincing to me because they weren't always "the" Yankees or Canadiens. They were brand that were built partially by remaining consistent.

 

And mostly by being the gold standard for on field play for half a century.  Not every team has that luxury. 

 

I guess I just don't see the major hit these teams brands are taking by wearing a jersey that will be worn a handful of times  never to be used again, unless the find something that is so popular they intigrate it into the regular look. Is it really that different from the Christmas stuff that has been used the past few years? Marquee teams weren't using their regular looks for some of the most watched games of the year, at least now they have creative control over how they want a sparingly used alternate to look like instead of being shoe-horned into a league wide program. Is it even any different from the NHL outdoor games? Both in the NBA and in the NHL teams deviate from their regular look, just that instead of being inspired by their past in the NBA they take their inspiration from other symbols.  Taking the 'teams should never deviate from their brand' premise to its logical conclusion, the Lakers shouldn't wear throwbacks, they look nothing like the Lakers brand we're accustomed to. And  for the Hawks, who wanted to reposition themselves as a 'hip' team with their latest rebrand, a jersey inspired by the musical scene of Atlanta is much more befitting of their brand than a throwback

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Wow we sure are divided on these City Edition uniforms!

 

I truly believe a few the teams hit the mark, 1/3 missed the mark completely and 1/3 needed just one more tweak and they would have gotten it right.

 

Teams that needed small/minor tweaks 

Lakers- add purple to wordmark and numbers. Or change the wordmark to this.

 

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Mamba skin on this would work perfect too.

 

Hornets - HUGE NO for black wordmark and numbers on black, add color and it would have popped)

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A simple this with no sleeves or keep the NEW design/pattern but with this wordmark and number color = success.

 

Celtics - change the color from grey to parquet floor gold, or this

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would have been 100x better.

 

Nuggets - 

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They should have brought these alts back and/or switch the navy to powder blue.

Wolves - just add green to the wordmark and numbers to balance those grey uniforms.

 

And we can go on about the rest but I guess these were eyesore to me that just needed small adjustments to be perfect IMO.

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not sure how "change the entire color" or "change the wordmark" or "bring back a different jersey altogether" are considered "small adjustments".

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