projectjohn

I don't subscribe to "The Athletic," although there are ways to get around the paywall that I presume are verboten to discuss.

Nike has pushed chrome/gray pretty hard for Detroit teams the last 5 years or so.

I'm afraid. Very afraid. But then again, if the focus grouping Uni-Watch posted about a few years ago was presumably getting feedback for potential City Connect jerseys, maybe I shouldn't be. https://uni-watch.com/2021/09/22/exclusive-tigers-focus-grouping-new-throwbacks/

The Pistons have pivoted heavily into black and gray in recent years (thankfully gray seems to have mostly passed), and also seem to be actively minimizing red to the best of their ability - refusing to bring back their old red alternate as the Statement edition, and eliminating their classic court design which was red-heavy. I keep hoping sanity will prevail at some point, but the trend just keeps getting worse.

Prepare to be disappointed.

If the Lions are going to insist on mono-color, at least the mono-blue is the least egregious (IMO.)

I hope you're right - I'm pretty concerned given the team president gave a statement (paraphrasing) the new ones are quite a change, while referring to the 2017 set as a subtle change to the prior set, as well as how heavily the Lions have leaned into the monochrome look this season.

Kinda wild we're getting to the point where teams using their traditional jerseys in the same game feels like a special occasion.

That honestly might be the least egregious one.

I like the Vikings regular set but these are just phenomenal.

I always felt like Nike really nailed a lot of their designs in the late 90s and early 2000s, both across the NFL and the NBA, certainly compared to the messes they crank out for the most part these days. For the Broncos, it seems like there's two camps, those who feel like the look is a modern classic, and those who hate it and want to go back the 80s era look. I'm in the former, but I can understand the latter.

Sorry couldn't resist lol

These certainly look like they were designed by a 12 year old in MS paint.

NBA design has been getting progressively worse for 10 years now, give or take, as they chase Gen Z's curious tastes and Adam Silver's European soccer leagues fetish, so I was prepared for something bad here, but goodness gracious. Something's going to have to reach a tipping point soon, I hope.

Thank you for this. I would begrudgingly live with the City Edition if we weren't seeing experimental/off-brand stuff beginning to creep into the Statement Edition jerseys as well. As you said, I was under the impression the Statement Edition was more or less supposed to be the equivalent to the alternate jersey of yesteryear (pretty much just a recoloring of the Icon jersey, or at least something fairly on brand.) That is starting to no longer be the case. The Pistons' above is one of the most egregious offenders, using a non-team color and a non-team font.

I guess I understand the Lakers' desire to move on from the Kobe era set, but I don't understand is how they arrived at what they ended up with. They could've just transitioned the Kobe era look onto a crew-neck style jersey, perhaps with drop shadows on the numbering, and it would've turned out much better, IMO.

I believe this is the first time this season they're not in a mono-color look, so baby steps, I guess.

I think the Pistons' one is supposed to honor the Bad Boys, considering the Chuck Daly signature on the jocktag. Overall I'd say it's not great, not terrible - better than the "Motor City" ones they spent years rolling out at least.

I have to hope against hope that at some point sanity is going to prevail and the whole City Edition program will get mothballed. Only a handful have ever been worthwhile to begin with and now that those have been blown through, things are quickly going from bad to abysmal. But I guess somebody out there is buying this stuff, or else they wouldn't keep doing it.

Good. I admire the Heat have stuck with a great set for so long, rather than forcing change for the sake of change.

I still wouldn't be a fan, but it'd be at least somewhat passable if the pants had some blue striping or something. I don't know who on the design team thought blank white pants would be a good look.

Good grief. Overall I am not looking forward to the Lions new set next season (fearing it's going to be worse than what they have now), but if it gets rid of the all-white and all-gray combos I guess it's worth it.

Speaking of the Knicks, I find myself wishing they'd bring back the orange keys instead of the all-blue court design. Maybe it's just because my formative years were the late 90s and early 2000s, but it looked way better that way, IMO.

I'm not a fan of city nicknames and other stuff like that creeping into the Statement edition jerseys, which I thought was originally intended for the City edition set, and not the "core" jerseys of Icon, Association, and Statement. The Pelicans one is overall relatively harmless though - the Pistons Statement from last year is a far more egregious offender with the non-team color and unofficial font.

The problem here is that most of the teams that are blue and red dominant have always used those colors. Why should they change just because other teams also use that color scheme? Change for the sake of change rarely leads to worthwhile results, IMO.