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2018/19 NIKE x NBA Uniform Concepts | TORONTO RAPTORS 6/10


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58 minutes ago, Hoopladawg87 said:

I've been working with the San Antonio Spurs on and off for a while now, but I don't have much in terms of a full set to share. However, I do have a preliminary draft of a Fiesta-themed uniform done, and since that's probably the only uniform of theirs the majority of people will care about I figured I'd share it now. I usually prefer to share designs only when I feel they're completely finished, but this one is an exception -- I've gone back and forth with a lot of the elements, and I'm not 100% sold on it as-is, but I'm at a stopping point for now and am looking forward to any and all feedback!

 

Fiesta-themed uniforms always seem much better in theory than they do in execution. The colors are vibrant and the theme is nostalgic, but I feel like a lot of Fiesta concepts I've seen somehow end up looking a bit dull and uninspired.

 

To avoid this, I outlawed black as the base color of the uniform. The Spurs' identity is perfectly crisp with black, white, and silver, but it can look a bit sterile around the Fiesta palette. I retained these colors as accents, but appealed to thee color of choice in the lawless wasteland that was '90s NBA uniform design: teal. This presented other issues, as the Spurs' lack of a teal uniform at any point in their history forced me to consciously avoid creating something that looked too much like the Charlotte Hornets, Vancouver Grizzlies, or Detroit Pistons. Hell, I even tried to avoid the legendarily non-existent New Jersey Swamp Dragons

 

My main inspiration came from the Eastern Conference uniforms at the 1996 NBA All-Star Game -- which was coincidentally hosted in San Antonio. This helped with color distribution. The Fiesta palette is a bit overwhelming, so it was useful to see how it can be balanced.

 

I also took inspiration from the 2018 Men's NCAA Final Four logo - an event that was also coincidentally hosted in San Antonio - and the Nike N7 Native American Heritage uniforms (sidenote: the leaked OKC Thunder City Edition uniforms remind me a lot of these). These helped with applying the Fiesta theme and retaining a team's identity despite an unexpected color palette, respectively. I think the biggest downfall of most Fiesta concepts lies within the application of the Fiesta theme - or lack thereof. Simply including the colors is a start, but incorporating the pattern/design is just as crucial. By using the pattern/design for trim as well as on the side panel, highly saturated colors never touch and the palette can cover a larger area. Just as too much black, silver, and white can dull the Fiesta palette, too much Fiesta palette can also be a bad thing. That plus conventional '90s wisdom is also the reasoning behind the asymmetrical side panels. I felt the need to keep the black, silver, and white together on the wordmark, numerals, trim, and shorts logo to subtly help reinforce the Spurs' identity.

 

For the wordmark, I wanted to use something a bit different and with an upward slant -- the only two Fiesta-themed tops (first; second) worn by the team (to my knowledge) had unique typefaces with an upward slant. So, I to the goofy lettering from the 1996 NBA All-Star Game logo (and the second Fiesta-themed top, if I'm not mistaken) and cleaned it up quite a bit while still preserving some of its unique characteristics. I did the same for the numerals

 

The belt buckle logo is the team's unused one recently revived by @Conrad. (go check out his full Fiesta concept if you somehow haven't seen it yet -- it's INCREDIBLE!). The shorts logo is a modernized version of the teams' old alternate logo that appeared on the latter of the two Fiesta-themed tops. 

 

Anyways, this is where we're at right now. It's at least a little different from most other Fiesta concepts I've seen; however, I'm still skeptical about a handful of details -- mostly the balance between trim and the side panels, whether or not the belt buckle and shorts logos work, and how overall Spurs-y it feels.

 

Any and all comments, criticisms, thoughts, and ideas are greatly appreciated! I'll hopefully post an updated version of this City Edition uniform along with the Spurs' Association, Icon, and Statement Edition uniforms once they're completed.

 

San Antonio Spurs City Edition Uniform Concept

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It doesnt get better than this!

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On 9/11/2018 at 2:11 PM, itsmb8 said:

 

It doesnt get better than this!

 

I appreciate the kind words -- happy to hear you like it!

 

On 9/11/2018 at 8:39 PM, BellaSpurs said:

I really reallylove this, but I’m curious to see how it would look with the word mark, using the tHe same font and style as the others

but the color distribution striping, everythin is beautiful! Great work!

 

Thanks a lot! In most cases, I agree with you re: using the team's primary wordmark/typeface on City Edition uniforms. That seemed to be the trend in year one, and it makes perfect sense. However, their current wordmark/typeface felt as overwhelmingly plain as the '90s one felt overwhelmingly outdated. The custom one used here is hopefully a reasonable compromise between the two!

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I've finally finished the full set of uniform concepts for the Spurs. 

 

For the Association and Icon Edition uniforms, I wanted to emphasize their classic look while cleaning things up a bit. I kept their current wordmark typeface, but tweaked it slightly because I really dislike the disproportionately thick line widths. I also kept the current side panels as well as the current trim pattern, albeit with the colors modified.

 

The biggest change is the establishment of a new color hierarchy -- white > black > silver on the Association Edition uniform, and black > white > silver on the Icon Edition uniform. The order of colors in the trim pattern ends up matching the order of colors on the jersey when looking at it straight on. By limiting the use of silver, I hope to clean things up by creating a bit more contrast (especially on the Icon Edition uniform). The inspiration for this came from the Denver Nuggets' recent re-design that emphasized navy and white with minimal supporting accent colors. I also eliminated the complex 'U'/spur in the 'SPURS' wordmark and reduced the double stroke around the numerals to a single stroke. Finally, the side panel logos on the shorts were removed in favor of a single belt buckle logo.

 

I reintroduced waistband trim for the first time since the David Robinson era....the Spurs' color palette is simple enough that the collar, armhole, and waistband trim along with the jersey and shorts side panels can afford to be a bit over-engineered without looking cluttered. Another vintage element I brought back was the arching of the wordmarks -- including the 'SAN ANTONIO' script on the Icon Edition uniform.

 

The Statement Edition uniform builds largely off of the Association and Icon Edition uniforms. It uses a metallic silver base ideally closer to the mid-2000s Hardwood Classics uniforms than their previous Statement Edition uniforms. Silver is eliminated elsewhere to maximize contrast on the trim, side panels, wordmarks, and numerals. The rest of the template remains unchanged from the Association and Icon Edition uniforms.

 

Finally, the City Edition uniform has been updated with improved Fiesta pattern side panels and no shorts leg logo. 

 

This hopefully gives them a refreshing, slightly modernized take on their classic look.

 

Thanks for looking -- as always, your comments and criticisms are greatly appreciated!

 

San Antonio Spurs Association Edition Uniform Concept

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San Antonio Spurs Icon Edition Uniform Concept

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San Antonio Spurs Statement Edition Uniform Concept

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San Antonio Spurs City Edition Uniform Concept 

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I like the update I think? I’d rly pushing the wordmarks and number down a hair and making them a tad bit bigger, I’d also seperate them a bit more. And I’m nitpicjing at this point but, the letters are uneavenly spread out and it’s a bit wonky. I like the new black uni! I’d also try replicating the current silver jersey with the spur in the corner rather than just a replica of the home uniform.

 

 

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On 9/15/2018 at 12:04 AM, BellaSpurs said:

I like the update I think? I’d rly pushing the wordmarks and number down a hair and making them a tad bit bigger, I’d also seperate them a bit more. And I’m nitpicjing at this point but, the letters are uneavenly spread out and it’s a bit wonky. I like the new black uni! I’d also try replicating the current silver jersey with the spur in the corner rather than just a replica of the home uniform.

 

Thanks a lot for the feedback! This is super helpful, especially from a Spurs fan's perspective, and I really appreciate the nitpicking. 

 

I'll have to review the placement and spacing of the wordmarks and numerals. I have a general format I follow, but given the arcing of the wordmarks it may benefit from some tweaking. The numerals on the Spurs' Association and Icon Edition uniforms looked unreasonably small last season, so I definitely want to avoid that issue.

 

Also, good eye on the uneven letter spacing -- that part has been incredibly frustrating. I created all of the characters by hand in Illustrator, and then spent hours unsuccessfully researching and attempting ways to arc them. When that didn't work, I eventually settled on arcing them all by hand, which was a fairly miserable and evidently unsuccessful process! I'm now exploring font creators to turn my shapes into a font, so hopefully that route will yield better results!

 

I don't know how to feel about the silver jersey. I agree with you that it could benefit from something unique relative to the Association and/or Icon Edition jersey designs, but I've never liked their "logo randomly in one corner, numeral randomly in the other corner" look. I've got something in mind that might be a reasonable compromise between the two (but also it may very well end up looking awful). We'll try it for the next draft and see how we feel.

 

One question for you: what are your thoughts regarding the collar, armhole, and waistband trim on the Association and Icon Edition uniforms? My original goal was to keep things very consistent and emphasize black and white over silver, but a friend pointed out that the silver kind of gets lost in such small areas (mainly the collar and armhole trim). I'm thinking of either 1) reordering the colors in the striping pattern; or 2) eliminating silver from the striping pattern entirely. I'd be very interested in your thoughts on this.

 

Thanks a lot!

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I had some spare time today, so here are some updated drafts. The wordmarks on the Association, Icon, and Statement Edition jerseys have been properly arced, the front numerals on all three jerseys have been shifted accordingly, and the wordmark on the Statement Edition uniform has received an extra stroke around the U/spur logo to match the numerals. (EDIT: I kind of hated the Statement Edition jersey's new wordmark, so it has been reverted to the original one.) No outrageous changes, but hopefully steps in the right direction.

 

San Antonio Spurs Association Edition Uniform Concept

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San Antonio Spurs Icon Edition Uniform Concept

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San Antonio Spurs Statement Edition Uniform Concept

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San Antonio Spurs City Edition Uniform Concept

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  • 2 weeks later...

Portland is weird. It's one of my favorite places on earth, in part due to how outrageously quirky and charmingly odd it is. So I guess it's fitting that this concept is a bit different, too.

 

My original plan for this series was to start out by creating full sets for four teams with classic looks - the Lakers, Celtics, Spurs, and Bulls - to iron out some wrinkles in the template. However, before starting on the Bulls, I felt like creating something new and exciting rather than replicating uniforms that already exist or at best tweaking them. 

 

When Nike originally took over as the official outfitter of the NBA, I was intrigued by how they would design for different teams. Based on their work in, say, college football, not all teams are created equally. Some teams get basic, templated designs, while others get exciting one-off uniforms, exclusive gear, etc. I kind of hope the NBA eventually trends in that direction.

 

The most logical recipient of the Nike treatment - at least in my mind - is the Portland Trail Blazers. They're the namesake of the Blazer, Nike's first basketball sneaker, and Nike's Beaverton headquarters is located just a short distance west of Portland. My goal was to create something new and exciting for the Blazers....something different and outside the box.

 

The broader inspiration came from the Oregon Ducks' new Nike football uniforms. Originally criticized for having gimmicky over-sized numerals and not much else, I absolutely love the clean design, bold colors, and identifiable look. I wanted to create a set that was somewhat minimalist, emphasized the team's rich color palette, and was Blazers through and through.

 

The sash design has been a core design element for much of the Blazers' uniform history, so it had to be retained in some form. I experimented with a number of different twists on it, an eventually settled on spacing out the color blocks -- a nod to their logo in which the pinwheel colors never touch. The sash design is obviously iconic, but somehow it was omitted from the recent Just Don x Mitchell & Ness No Name collection. Taking things to an extreme, I proceeded with the intention of using no wordmarks on the jersey because the sash is sufficiently prominent and iconic.

 

I studied a number of Nike soccer kits while experimenting with the sash, and one thing I noticed was how often the numerals were strategically placed right under the Nike swoosh. This seemed like a logical application, so the sash was flipped. I also noted various truncated collar and armhole trim patterns, and decided to apply that idea to the front of the jersey as well. The chest sash is a bit overwhelming, so cutting off the trim pattern alleviates clutter and also nicely moves the eye to the Nike swoosh, numerals, and ad patch. (I later realized Adidas used a similar pattern for Michigan's basketball team years ago -- though I'm not too fond of it there.) 

 

I own a pair of J.Crew sweatpants and a pair of Nike basketball shorts that both have waistband designs that extend all the way around the back but cut off at the front of each hip. I wanted to incorporate that same design on the waistbands here, but it looked a bit bland and without purpose. To fix that, I added over-sized wordmarks as belt buckle logos -- quite similar to the design of boxing trunks. This helps fill the negative space along the waistband, account for the lack of a wordmark on the jersey, and create a cohesive uniform between the jersey and shorts. The shorts also get side panel trim that extends along the back of the legs, but not the front -- something about the shorts transitioning into same-color leg sleeve accessories without any contrast in between seems to work well.

 

The font is a custom typeface I made based off the one used on the Oregon Ducks' new football uniforms -- it uses a lot of the same ideas, but is rounded in places where that font uses angular straight lines. It feels like a good mix of modern and retro with a bit of quirkiness to it. (I originally wanted to put chrome pinwheel inlines in the numerals a la the Oregon's football numerals, but that plan was scrapped....I may experiment with it some more, though.)

 

The Association, Icon, and Statement Edition uniforms are three different colors of the aforementioned design.

 

The City Edition uniform, on the other hand, draws inspiration from the team's Oregon Trail-themed schedule release video. It focuses on the simple, pixelated graphics of the old computer game where the goal is to complete the 2,170-mile excursion from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon (just southeast of Portland) without dying of dysentery. The colors as well as the font come from the old screen on which the game was played. The belt buckle contains '2170' in reference to the miles traveled to successfully reach Oregon City, Oregon, and a pixelated Blazers logo accents the bottom of the shorts leg. (It's also conveniently Oregon Ducks-ish in it's color palette -- let's get this $$$ @Nike.)

 

Thanks for looking -- hopefully you at least find it interesting. As always, any and all thoughts, ideas, comments, and criticisms are always appreciated! 

 

Portland Trail Blazers Association Edition Uniform Concept

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Portland Trail Blazers Icon Edition Uniform Concept

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Portland Trail Blazers Statement Edition Uniform Concept

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Portland Trail Blazers City Edition Uniform Concept

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I love it. I think Portland is one of the few NBA teams (probably the only one) who could get away with not putting their team name on the uniform. The sash is so identifiable (like you said) and it looks really good as the primary design element for the Blazers. I also love the Oregon Trail uniform, it's unique and very fun.

 

As always though, amazing work. There is not one single thing wrong with this that I can see. That template is gorgeous by the way.

 

 

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On 9/26/2018 at 9:29 PM, bucknut42 said:

I love it. I think Portland is one of the few NBA teams (probably the only one) who could get away with not putting their team name on the uniform. The sash is so identifiable (like you said) and it looks really good as the primary design element for the Blazers. I also love the Oregon Trail uniform, it's unique and very fun.

 

As always though, amazing work. There is not one single thing wrong with this that I can see. That template is gorgeous by the way.

 

Thanks a lot -- I really appreciate the feedback!

 

Now that you mention it, Portland really does seem to be the only team with an identifiable design element that works in lieu of a wordmark. The only similar situation I can think of would be the Warriors -- their circular logo with the numerals would probably work fine without the wordmarks, but I still wouldn't be fond of it.

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  • 1 month later...
15 hours ago, KevinJohnsonThaTruth said:

I think the Mavericks template design is great except for the shade of blue that's used. The navy is too dark and doesn't mesh as well with the green.

 

I think instead of Navy you should with go with a Royal Blue, to make the jerseys really pop more.

 

I sorta agree. The navy is really dark BUT royal is too bright. Maybe a dark royal?

 

The green (teal) is perfect. When having ideas for the mavericks, my thought is simiilar to yours in finding a balance with the double blues of today (not unique) with the royal and gteen of the past (too old style. Doesn't tanslate well to the present).

 

I like the Nowitzkific blueprint jerseys but I 'd like to give a suggestion: to use elements from both of the uniforms he wore as a Mav. Maybe the old Dallas font with the cirrent jersey template. Just a thought

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College sports as we know them are just about dead. The lid is off on all the corruption that taints just about every major program and every decision that the schools or the NCAA make is only about money, money, and more money. We'll have three 16+ team super-conferences sooner rather than later, killing much of the regional flair and traditional rivalries that make college sports unique and showing the door to any school that doesn't bring money to the table in the process. Pretty soon the smaller schools are going to have to consider forming their own sanctioning body to keep the true spirit of college sports alive because the NCAA will only get worse in it's excess from here
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On 11/13/2018 at 11:59 PM, mgfoxx said:

Really impressed with the treatment of the Blazers. I would love to see an alt in plaid, similar to last season. 

 

Thanks a lot! I actually created a couple of plaid "community-inspired" concepts back when Nike first announced the four uniform designations. I'm pretty sure I posted them on the boards here somewhere, but unfortunately I can't seem to find the thread they were in.

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I've been busy with work and life and a couple of side projects, but I had some time this evening to smooth out an idea I've been sitting on for a while. It isn't a full set of team concepts like I've been doing so far, but hopefully you find it fun and exciting.

 

During Nike's first two years outfitting the NBA, the Phoenix Suns have worn what I would consider to be two solid-but-not-spectacular City Edition uniforms. Last season's version was clean and understated with a unique but dull color palette; this season's version has a more vibrant color palette and intricate details, but an incoherent design. Plus, both uniforms have the same 'LOSSUNS' wordmarks that are terrible on multiple levels.

 

However, this season's shorts include a re-colored version of the Arizona state flag on the right leg, and that's the basis for my concept. I also took inspiration from the team's beloved mid-'90s uniforms that I touched on in a set of concepts once before.

 

The idea was basically to use the Arizona state flag pattern as the focal point by including the front numerals within the star. The alternating red and yellow sunrays lent themselves well to two separate gradients - one yellow-to-orange and one red-to-purple - that transition from the original colors to the Suns' colors while creating a glowing sunburst pattern. The lower legs of the shorts contain an abbreviated version of this pattern sans the central star. Other details include the phoenix icon from the city of Phoenix's flag on the belt buckle and 'PHOENIX' and 'ARIZONA' wordmarks along the fronts of the shorts legs. I can't think of any professional sports uniforms that have wordmarks for the city and state on them, but it feels right for a number of reasons -- the seven letters in each wordmark give the shorts symmetry, the shorts symmetry balances well against the wordmark-less jersey, and also I just really like how 'ARIZONA' looks in the team's font.

 

As always, your feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks for looking!

 

Phoenix Suns City Edition Uniform Concept

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