NBA Changes 2020/21

[TGroce]

2 hours ago, andregunts said:

 

Love it 

Do you? I don't want to re-hash past discussions/arguments (ha), but that uniform matchup objectively looks fairly ridiculous. Do you love them solely because they look fairly ridiculous?

[Krz]

Knicks jersey does look better on court I must say. But it still looks really bad either way.

[andregunts]

4 hours ago, TGroce said:

Do you? I don't want to re-hash past discussions/arguments (ha), but that uniform matchup objectively looks fairly ridiculous. Do you love them solely because they look fairly ridiculous?

 

No, I love it because its a new idea and the jerseys on its own is different that the same boring things we have been seeing for the past 30 years. The Heat gradient jersey is one of the coolest jerseys over the past 5 years and the Knicks is ok, but I like that they switched up the formula with the NYC over the Nike logo. I hope that answer your little question, have a great day.

[andregunts]

Alright, since the consensus in here is that you all hate NBA jerseys now, has Nike done ANYTHING right? Can someone give me an example of them making great changes? 

[JayMac]

Just now, andregunts said:

Alright, since the consensus in here is that you all hate NBA jerseys now, has Nike done ANYTHING right? Can someone give me an example of them making great changes? 

Small change but I believe they added a drop shadow to the Sixers' numbers. That looks better.

[Digby]

18 minutes ago, andregunts said:

Alright, since the consensus in here is that you all hate NBA jerseys now, has Nike done ANYTHING right? Can someone give me an example of them making great changes? 

 

• No more sleeved jerseys
• a turn back to bespoke designs for teams rather than Adidas getting templatey
• vastly better and probably better selling All-Star jerseys than anything from the previous 15 years
• most of the Nike-era rebrands have been at least modest upgrades from what they replaced
• big improvement on designs for fan merch

 

Also, many statement or city jerseys have been praised individually in this thread, which should be obvious -- most of the criticism toward the city program has been toward the bad jerseys, which there are more of due to the sheer volume that the program demands, and the frequency with which they're worn. "you all hate NBA jerseys now" is patently false trolling.

[TGroce]

No judgment & no type of loaded question at all, but I am legitimately curious if the divide here is an age/generational thing: how old are you, @andregunts

 

I'll voluntarily share that I'm 39.

[PERRIN]

I'll join in. I'm 17. 3/4 of the entire city edition program is garbage. To be fair, I only started being interested in the NBA in 2017, the first year of the city program and Nike taking over, so I can't say for sure how well nike has been doing, but their recent redesigns have been solid. Then again, I can say that most people my age group think any given uniform is either garbage or fire emoji with little in between. 

[sky1324]

48 minutes ago, andregunts said:

Alright, since the consensus in here is that you all hate NBA jerseys now, has Nike done ANYTHING right? Can someone give me an example of them making great changes? 

I like the new Hornets jerseys for the most part (the Icon/Association, not the Statements or Citys, with the possible exception of the Mint ones) and plenty of teams got some really good updates when Nike took over (Portland and Minnesota come to mind), somehow they've nailed Memphis' City jerseys in my opinion, Miami Vice is great, Utah Red Rocks, I really liked Milwaukee's Cream City alts and the Mecca-inspired jerseys, the Clippers' powder City jerseys, OKC's blue City jersey, San Antonio's fiesta jerseys, Indiana's current City, Philly's two parchment jerseys, and the Raptors' chevron look.

 

That said - I really can't give Nike full credit for these, at least, not the primary jerseys they replaced, because those are based on what the teams want. The City jerseys are where it gets more crazy (and more Nike-driven, I assume) but I'd rather not see any of them ever than the frequency they're used at right now. I don't even mind the use of colors at home like some here do, but I do draw the line when the Lakers are in blue on a gold and purple court while the Warriors are in yellow. That doesn't work. Consistency is key, as always.

 

(I recently turned 18, for reference.)

[TGroce]

34 minutes ago, PERRIN said:

I'll join in. I'm 17. I can say that most people my age group think any given uniform is either garbage or fire emoji with little in between. 

That's been my experience, as well. And that's fine, I kind of dig the enthusiasm and was probably the same way in the late 90s.

[FinsUp1214]

I’m about to turn 29. I grew up in the 90’s, where team brands and color schemes may have been at thier wackiest, craziest, and loudest. All those brands were, however, consistent. Home, road, and alternate uniforms all used consistent color schemes. Brand elements looked like they belonged to each other. The things you need to keep consistent in your brand were all still considered and accounted for. So despite having grown up in an era where a whole lot was on the table and explored, I also saw quite clearly that you could go all-out of the box while sticking strongly to a clear, consistent, coherent brand.

 

My problem with the City Program has always been that it has, more than any other program, wrecked NBA branding across the board. Depending on the individual team, there’s little to no brand consistency nor much regard for it due to the influx of entirely different color schemes, fonts, and other elements that clearly differ from a team’s main (or even historical) brand and, sometimes, even overlap or can be mistaken for other teams. Even some broadcasters, like Jeff Van Gundy and Mike Breen - who watch far more basketball than most of us do - have expressed that at times they even get confused who’s who nowadays. The “anything goes” mentality may be good for $$$, but it’s ultimately not good for branding consistency. 

 

And for the record, I don’t put all the blame on Nike for this at all. Sure, there’s probably been encouragements on thier part for teams to explore and step out of the box with concepts and brainstorming, and there’s nothing wrong with the desire to do that in general. But ultimately, the final say goes to the team, who ought to be at the forefront at safeguarding and ensuring brand consistency. They have the power to go along with something different and perhaps even out-there a bit, but still draw a line somewhere and say “it still needs to be in team colors”, or “it still needs to use our proper fonts”, or even generally “okay let’s find a way to push the envelope a bit, but still stay on brand”. It’s entirely possible to try something different while making it fit within your brand’s parameters, and it’s up to the teams to show the needed restraint when necessary. Most of the teams just flat out haven’t done that, and it’s on them, not Nike.

[projectjohn]

1 hour ago, Digby said:

 

• No more sleeved jerseys
• a turn back to bespoke designs for teams rather than Adidas getting templatey
• vastly better and probably better selling All-Star jerseys than anything from the previous 15 years
• most of the Nike-era rebrands have been at least modest upgrades from what they replaced
• big improvement on designs for fan merch

 

Also, many statement or city jerseys have been praised individually in this thread, which should be obvious -- most of the criticism toward the city program has been toward the bad jerseys, which there are more of due to the sheer volume that the program demands, and the frequency with which they're worn. "you all hate NBA jerseys now" is patently false trolling.

All of that and the Nike jersey material is a huge improvement from the Adidas Rev30, which made authentic jerseys look cheap and like something a cash strapped high school athletic department would be bulk ordering from an Eastbay catalog.

 

I was quite happy when Nike got the contract in 2017, remembering the great job they did for 8 teams in the late 90s and early 2000s. They oversaw some

great rebrands/refreshes in that time (Lakers, Heat, and Pistons come to mind for me) and had some bespoke warm-ups, something sorely lacking in the modern NBA. While the city program is a mess IMO, and the predetermined jersey schedules aren’t great, overall Nike is still absolutely a step up from the job Adidas did.

[_DietDrPepper_]

2 hours ago, Digby said:

most of the Nike-era rebrands have been at least modest upgrades from what they replaced

I'm curious which ones I'm forgetting then. Off the top of my head I think of the Raptors, Hornets and Pacers, all of which aren't upgrades. 

The Warriors is the only one I can think of that was a modest upgrade. 

 

I'm sure I'm just forgetting some though. 

[dannykraft]

2 hours ago, andregunts said:

Alright, since the consensus in here is that you all hate NBA jerseys now, has Nike done ANYTHING right? Can someone give me an example of them making great changes? 

Griz look 1000x better

[Digby]

52 minutes ago, _DietDrPepper_ said:

I'm curious which ones I'm forgetting then. Off the top of my head I think of the Raptors, Hornets and Pacers, all of which aren't upgrades. 

The Warriors is the only one I can think of that was a modest upgrade. 

 

I'm sure I'm just forgetting some though. 

 

I don't want to turn this into a tier thing, but IMO, I'd put the Raptors and Pacers into "modest upgrade, lateral move at worst" categories. Warriors looked a lot better with the new font rather than Copperplate. I'd say the Clippers, Nuggets, Grizzlies and Hawks have all rolled out rebrands or half-rebrands that bettered what they had before, and the Blazers, Pelicans and Spurs come to mind for subtle-but-smart updates. (The Cavs are a disaster and the Rockets botched the execution, granted.) I don't know how much of this can be credited/blamed on Nike versus the teams, of course.

[_DietDrPepper_]

1 hour ago, Digby said:

I don't want to turn this into a tier thing, but IMO, I'd put the Raptors and Pacers into "modest upgrade, lateral move at worst" categories. Warriors looked a lot better with the new font rather than Copperplate. I'd say the Clippers, Nuggets, Grizzlies and Hawks have all rolled out rebrands or half-rebrands that bettered what they had before, and the Blazers, Pelicans and Spurs come to mind for subtle-but-smart updates. (The Cavs are a disaster and the Rockets botched the execution, granted.) I don't know how much of this can be credited/blamed on Nike versus the teams, of course

Fair, I can agree with most of those. 

 

I think a fair bit of it can be credited it to the teams (good or bad), I don't think the Rockets awful logo or the Cavs rough rebrand falls onto the backs of Nike as much as the whole city edition disaster does. However that means they also don't get as much credit for the better looks that have come out under their oversight, like the Blazers or Grizzlies. 

[andregunts]

4 hours ago, TGroce said:

No judgment & no type of loaded question at all, but I am legitimately curious if the divide here is an age/generational thing: how old are you, @andregunts

 

I'll voluntarily share that I'm 39.

im 36, I’m surprised that people in here are less than 40.

 

[Guest]

13 hours ago, andregunts said:

 

Love it 

Let's be honest: if any team won a title wearing people's least favorite jerseys, it will at least become tolerable by some of that team's fans.

[Kevin W.]

53 minutes ago, sayahh said:

Let's be honest: if any team won a title wearing people's least favorite jerseys, it will at least become tolerable by some of that team's fans.

Case in point:

[CaliforniaGlowin]

Loving the grey vs. yellow in this game!