VyCade

(30/30) Washington Wizards

The Wizards' branding hasn't been very wizard-like for some years now.  They should probably just change their name at this point, but that's a topic for another thread.  As for my concept, I decided, given the team's apparent love of the Washington Monument, to just make it the side panel.  It's pretty straightforward, as are the alts, which use the original Wizards colors as well as the colors from their days as the Bullets, with a nod to the old reaching hands script on the latter.

And that concludes the thread!  Thank you for reading.  I hope you enjoyed.  I'm already working on the NHL, so I'll be back.  Not sure when, but it'll happen.  If you're looking for more of my work and haven't seen my NFL thread already, you can find it in my profile.  Like with that thread, I'd like to thank SportsLogos.net for giving us the ability to share our work like this.  Thank you again for reading and I'll see you around.

(29/30) Utah Jazz

I wasn't initially sure which color scheme I wanted to use for the Jazz.  Ultimately, I decided to keep it a bit more reigned in than not, opting to have the primary be the late-80s purple scheme, leaving the late-90s pastel scheme as an alternate set.

(28/30) Toronto Raptors

It's been incredibly frustrating watching the Raptors strip away everything that made them unique.  Ditching purple. taking away the two-sided jerseys, moving to an annoyingly simple block script, simplifying the overall design down to nothing...  It's just been one depressing change after another.  Like, I understand that removing the edge from uniforms is symptomatic of leaving the 90s, but you're the RAPTORS for crying out loud.  THE RAPTORS SHOULD HAVE SOME EDGE TO THEM.  Not only that, but why ditch purple?  What was wrong with it?  What was wrong with the double-sided jerseys?  I understand that they might not be for everyone, which is why I've made the alts without those things, but it's still frustrating seeing teams try to fix what isn't broken.

All of that being said, however, I didn't want to make a straight up copy of the mid-2000s jerseys.  I wanted something of a middle ground with that and their first kit, which led me here.

(27/30) San Antonio Spurs

The Spurs don't have a very reworkable design.  I mostly just tried to make their look a bit less standard.  I also put in an alt that utilizes the old 90s paint design.

(26/30) Sacramento Kings

The Kings were using a pretty abysmal shade of gray up until recently.  Seems like their new kit does away with that.  That said, I feel like there's something to be said for a purple and silver scheme without black as part of it.  The Kings never tried that until they chose a way-too-dark non-silver color to pair with purple, so it came out pretty bad.  I wanted to give what I believed to be a scheme with a lot of potential a fair shake.  I did put in a black alt though, because black does still compliment those colors very well.  I also had to make an alt with the old Royals colors and script for obvious reasons.

(25/30) Portland Trail Blazers

For as long as the Blazers have been using an angled stripe across the front of their jerseys, they've never just formed that stripe using their logo.  I think that idea has legs, so I went with it.  As for the Rip City alt, I actually tried making a sort of saw blade look.  It's not where the phrase comes from, mind you, but it's what I think of whenever I read the name.

(24/30) Phoenix Suns

It's been unfortunate watching the Suns' uniforms seemingly just...devolve since the 90s.  They had such a striking identity in Barkley's day and I just don't think they've captured the same energy since then.  I wanted to try and make that happen while also carrying it through to the rest of the uniform.

(23/30) Philadelphia 76ers

Really not much to say about the Sixers.  Kept it fairly traditional while calling back to old kits for the alts.

(22/30) Orlando Magic

Like I mentioned yesterday with the Thunder, the Magic have an even more nebulous concept for their team name.  When they first rolled up, they ran with the star aesthetic, something I call back to in their first alt.  Since then, their uniforms have been fairly bog-standard, but their color scheme and font paired with their pinstripes have done a good bit of work to make it a good look for them.  I wanted to give them a bit more identity without straying too far from their current kit, black alt included (which is now their primary for some reason), and this is what I got.

(21/30) Oklahoma City Thunder

The 90s started a regrettable trend of creating new team names a that are either edgy to the point of comedy (see the OG XFL) or literal formless concepts.  We'll be getting an even better example of that tomorrow, but right now we've got the Thunder.  Once again, it's hard to draw on any visual elements of thunder, considering there are none, so I took lightning and made it work.  I also used the old Sonics colors from the 90s on the first alt and the OKC chest script on the other.

(20/30) New York Knicks

When designing New York, I ultimately landed on a five-stripe design to represent the five boroughs.  Now, yes, I do realize that Brooklyn has their own team, but given that the Nets are a team that's already moved twice--and that's not including when they moved from New Jersey to New York the first time in the ABA--I figured a contingency plan is in order.  However, I did give them an alt with the Empire State building on it for the sake of Manhattan being their home, and that uses the black accents from the Stephon Marbury days.

(19/30) New Orleans Pelicans

For the Pelicans, I decided to extrapolate the wings from their main logo into a side panel design while keeping the font the same.  As for the alts, it's pretty standard stuff: A NOLA alt that uses the same colors irl and a primary/secondary color swap.

(18/30) Minnesota Timberwolves

Minnesota's current kit is bad.  I mean, two different shades of dark blue paired with neon green?  That's just the mid-2010s Seahawks at that point.  I wanted to make something a bit sleeker, so I took their darker shade of blue and paired it with just silver.  Then there's a silver alt as well as one with throwback colors.

(17/30) Milwaukee Bucks

Milwaukee's had a number of different color schemes and fonts over the years and I had to make a decision regarding which ones to use for the primary.  Ultimately, I opted to retain the current ones, utilizing the prior two kits' color and font pairings for alts.

18 hours ago, johne9109 said:

This is a great start but there needs to be more color somehwere. Having the only color in the jersey being on one side of the uniform leaves them looking very blank and unfinished; similar to the Cavs and Jazz recent rebrandings. Maybe using the colors in the gradient for the wordmark and numbers; like Heat in Pink and the numbers on orange; or applying the gradient to the wordmark and numbers. Maybe also try using the colors in the gradient in the sleeves, collar, and waistband? Like I said great start!

I admit, there's not a ton in the way of color, but I thought that having color for the numbers and script wouldn't look good without the contrast from the white.  I just think less is more in this particular instance, though I could understand why it might come off as unfinished.

(16/30) Miami Heat

Normally, I wouldn't touch gradients, but, for whatever reason,  I felt like it could work with the Heat.  However, using their current color scheme wouldn't really be viable for the main set, so I made it an alt.  As for the primaries, I opted to draw from their old Floridians hardwood classic.  I also took a little from their city uniforms of years past for the other alt, grabbing the chest script and neon blue.  I chose to pair that and the neon pink with gray because I didn't think they looked as good matched up with another color and putting them against black looked too similar to the normal kit.

(15/30) Memphis Grizzlies

The current color scheme for the grizzlies doesn't have enough contrast.  I decided to simplify the old Vancouver scheme down to black, teal, and red.  I also wanted to make the M-E-M cuff pattern from their recent alts more pronounced, so I put it on the side panel.  The first alt takes more inspiration from Vancouver, using a modified version of the old chest script and replacing the side panel design with old cuff pattern from their original kit.  Then there's a straightforward teal alt.

(14/30) Los Angeles Lakers

There wasn't a whole lot I would ever consider changing about the Lakers.  Probably the biggest change I made compared to the current kit is removing the drop shadow on the numbers.  I'm not personally a fan of it and generally prefer the pre-LeBron kit.  Beyond that, it's pretty standard stuff with a white alt and a black mamba variant that has a scale pattern on the striping.

(13/30) Los Angeles Clippers

For the Clippers, I ditched the black and used their old cursive script.  The side panel designs are meant to evoke sails and I used some actual nautical sails on the throwback-inspired alt, with the letters and numbers that the flags represent spelling LAC on one side and the team's first year, 1984, on the other.  Then, there's just a straightforward alt that swaps the primary and secondary colors.

(12/30) Indiana Pacers

I'm of the opinion that the Pacers look their best in pinstripes, so I made a kit largely similar to their mid-2000s outing, complete with yellow alt, but with a more recent font.  I also included an alt that takes heavy inspiration from one of their 90s kits.

(11/30) Houston Rockets

I don't understand why the Rockets insist on using superfluous secondary colors.  The Yao Ming-era kit was well-designed, but what was with the grey?  That's been followed by an even worse charcoal and was preceded by the bizarre choice to move red to a secondary position and replace it with navy.  And yeah, the old yellow worked, but they don't NEED it.  Just use red and white, Houston.  This doesn't need to be as complicated as you're making it.

On 7/5/2023 at 2:12 PM, johne9109 said:

I love how this feels like a merging of eras; well done. I am with you on the distaste of black alts; so how about maybe a very dark slate/grey to tie into the motor city theme?

I considered this initially, but having seen how poorly this was implemented by the Pistons themselves, I opted not to.

(10/30) Golden State Warriors

For the Warriors, I went with a design that invokes bridge cables, then I made a yellow alt that leaned further into the idea.  For the other alt, I used their "The Bay" logo with their 90s color and font.

(9/30) Detroit Pistons

For as much as I love the Pistons' teal uniforms and believe they're the best ones Detroit has ever had, I can't deny that their standard color scheme is more intrinsic to their identity.  However, there's been so little innovation outside of that five-year stretch in the 90s that it's made their current kit very stale.  I mean, if you take away their teal kit, these uniforms have been the same for pretty much ever, barring that bizarre lightning bolt phase that made no sense.

I still obviously created an alt with their 90s colors, but as for the primaries, I added silver as a tertiary and used it to highlight the numbers and text in a similar fashion to the gold on the old teal kit.  I didn't overhaul the design itself too much, but the addition of the silver accents, to me, does enough to modernize the look to where it feels new.  The other alt, in spite of my distaste for black alts being given to teams that don't use black, is indeed a black alt.  I think it, when using the silver accents, creates a really nice contrast with the text and numbers.

(8/30) Denver Nuggets

Kept it simple with the Nuggets.  Used the skyline alt on the shorts to maintain some familiarity and used some classic color schemes and fonts on the alts.