My Take on the NBA's Uniform System: Team Matchups *Requests are open*

[sky1324]

I like everything here except the flag on the shorts on the Valley unis. I'd rather have the block gradient on both sides, the flag doesn't match anything else and is an odd block of bright colors when the rest of the jersey uses the subtle bright-to-dark block gradient. Great work on the other teams, no comments right now.

[colinturner95]

23 hours ago, QCS said:

I like everything here except the flag on the shorts on the Valley unis. I'd rather have the block gradient on both sides, the flag doesn't match anything else and is an odd block of bright colors when the rest of the jersey uses the subtle bright-to-dark block gradient. Great work on the other teams, no comments right now.

 

 

It really was just one of those things I wanted to try. didn't think it would work, but wouldn't know unless I tried. 

[jaytavo305]

I love the look of the gradients, I think that vibrant yellow and orange look beautiful together. I have a few problems with this set, however, one being the shape of the sunburst itself, I think the burst needs to be a little rounder, to mimic the ball shape it had on the Barkley era jerseys. Something about the geometric, square shape looks large and awkward. I also think the alternate could be much better, the orange pops but the throwback design is so plain, maybe an orange version of the home and away might look better? Not sure how you'd manage to put the sunburst design on the orange background but I just think that uniform needs something. Nothing against your design, I never was too high on the real life valley jerseys, but I've always loved the recolored AZ flag on the shorts, I think they did that a few years back and I always thought it looked fantastic. 

[colinturner95]

Hand Drawn Association/Icon Alternate(s) (Jersey Model: De'Aaron Fox | Players Still With Team: 11/25)

 

 

Association - Icon: I think that Sacramento's recent rebrand has really flown too far under the radar for how good it is. Doesn't mean that the look is immune to changes but still its a really good look. For starters, the arm/neck/bottom of the shorts striping changes to a pattern that mimics the weight of the crown logo. The side panels are now found on one side only, and are now just a double stripe. IIRC, I was watching a video on the process behind the new jerseys and it was one of the stripe options and I just found it to be stronger than the current one. Lion/Ball logo on the opposite side of the stripes. 

 

Statement: The history of the Kings franchise comes out on this one, with a vertical wordmark flanked by two sets of stripes, akin to the uniforms of the 1968-1971 Cincinnati Royals uniforms. On the shorts, a larger version of the double stripe around the bottom of the shorts, with the alternate Lion logo on the sides. 

 

Loyal: I wasn't the biggest fan of their newest City jersey at first, but I came around to the colors after a while. The design however, not so much. This is adapted from my original hand drawn idea for the alternate, which involved the crown up near the shoulders. I tried to come up with a new script for SACTOWN that called to mind the original Kings script as well. Much like the Association-Icon shorts, but in this case the crown on one side of the shorts, with the Lion on the other 

 

 

C&C welcome!

 

20 hours ago, jaytavo305 said:

I love the look of the gradients, I think that vibrant yellow and orange look beautiful together. I have a few problems with this set, however, (1. one being the shape of the sunburst itself, I think the burst needs to be a little rounder, to mimic the ball shape it had on the Barkley era jerseys). Something about the geometric, square shape looks large and awkward. (2. I also think the alternate could be much better, the orange pops but the throwback design is so plain, maybe an orange version of the home and away might look better?)  Not sure how you'd manage to put the sunburst design on the orange background but I just think that uniform needs something. Nothing against your design, I never was too high on the real life valley jerseys, but I've always loved the (3. recolored AZ flag on the shorts,) I think they did that a few years back and I always thought it looked fantastic. 

 

1. I did lift the sunburst straight from the logo, that does contain the ball. But since these jerseys aren't using the ball on the jersey and the sunburst is housing the numbers, I'm not as concerned about the roundness of the sun. 

2.  It's a throwback inspired jersey. It's going to look plain compared to the more modern Association - Icon. 

3. I thought so too, but after seeing what QCS said and really looking at the uniform again, it really did stick out from the design as a whole. 

 

[PERRIN]

Sacramento looks great, but I think the current side stripe design is too strong not to keep. This new stripe doesn't really flow with the rest of the uniform very well to me,  and I feel like the current striping would work much better. That being said, this set, (and all the others so far) look really solid, especially the alternates. Looking forward to the rest of the series!

[colinturner95]

Hand Drawn Association/Icon Alternate(s) (Jersey Model: Luka Doncic | Players Still With Team: 12/26)

 

 

Association - Icon: I think the double blue has gone about as far as it can, and it is time for something new. Or well, something old. It's time for more green in the NBA and so the Mavs return to a blue and green color scheme, this time with Navy Blue. The designs on the other hand are very similar to the inaugural set the Mavs first wore. The wordmarks and fonts are similar to the original designs but are not the same, just to kind of capture the same feeling while also giving us something new. 

 

Statement: Didn't deviate too far. Green version of the Icon jersey, this time with MAVS across the chest with a number offset from center. 

 

Skyline: I love what the City of Dallas does with their buildings at night. I know they've gone down this path for a City jersey before, but I wanted to revisit it. The jersey has a double stripe across the chest, with an overlay of the State of Texas, with a star marking Dallas' location. Neon green and blue numbers on the chest above the stripes. Shorts have a silhouette of the skyline on one side, marked by neon blue and green to give the neon effect. 

 

 

C&C welcome!

 

On 9/13/2021 at 7:22 PM, PERRIN said:

Sacramento looks great, but I think the current side stripe design is too strong not to keep. This new stripe doesn't really flow with the rest of the uniform very well to me,  and I feel like the current striping would work much better. That being said, this set, (and all the others so far) look really solid, especially the alternates. Looking forward to the rest of the series!

 

Idk, I just can't get behind the current side stripes. Something about them just doesn't work for me. 

 

[johne9109]

4 hours ago, colinturner95 said:

Hand Drawn Association/Icon Alternate(s) (Jersey Model: Luka Doncic | Players Still With Team: 12/26)

 

 

Association - Icon: I think the double blue has gone about as far as it can, and it is time for something new. Or well, something old. It's time for more green in the NBA and so the Mavs return to a blue and green color scheme, this time with Navy Blue. The designs on the other hand are very similar to the inaugural set the Mavs first wore. The wordmarks and fonts are similar to the original designs but are not the same, just to kind of capture the same feeling while also giving us something new. 

 

Statement: Didn't deviate too far. Green version of the Icon jersey, this time with MAVS across the chest with a number offset from center. 

 

Skyline: I love what the City of Dallas does with their buildings at night. I know they've gone down this path for a City jersey before, but I wanted to revisit it. The jersey has a double stripe across the chest, with an overlay of the State of Texas, with a star marking Dallas' location. Neon green and blue numbers on the chest above the stripes. Shorts have a silhouette of the skyline on one side, marked by neon blue and green to give the neon effect. 

 

 

C&C welcome!

 

 

Idk, I just can't get behind the current side stripes. Something about them just doesn't work for me. 

 

THIS is what Dallas should be doing. I agree the Mavs current design doesn't do it for me and I don't care for the colors either. Your choices are much better and that Skyline edition *muah* Chef's Kiss

[Coiler]

The Skyline one looks gorgeous!

[colinturner95]

Hand Drawn Association/Icon Alternate(s) (Jersey Model: James Harden | Players Still With Team: 12/27)

 

 

Association - Icon: Every step Houston has taken with their uniforms has moved them backwards and pushed them further down the list of best dressed in the NBA. So the first step: Back to the mid 90's championship colors. Even though I do think that the red and black is a good look, I felt that these colors were stronger for the primary colors. Second, there's a new number and wordmark font. Something that I thought bore a passing resemblance to the 90's wordmarks, had a bit of a NASA/science fiction appeal, and also looked good on a jersey. The designs on the jerseys and shorts I think I said to myself bear a passing visage to a space shuttle's launching off the pad with the incredible flames shooting out from its ass. On the shorts, similar thing, just flipped, with ROCKETS in the largest part, akin to a NASA rocket. 

 

Statement: In all honesty, H-Town and the Statement should probably have flipped positions, just based on the differences in design, but the colors of those two jerseys precluded that so they are, where they are. This jersey works off of the new primary jerseys, with some very clear differences. This jersey has a much larger stripe across the chest, with Clutch City on the stripe at an angle. The shorts do a similar thing, with the stripe ending on a point on the sides, with the R logo in the big chunk of red. 

 

H-Town: I considered continuing with the space theme, but everything that I did felt like a lazy rehash of the previous attempts. I instead went in a different direction, pulling elements from all parts of Houston basketball. The black base is from the current era, as well as the side designs, to a point. These changed up just a little, with now one larger chunk of stripe, with two smaller diagonal chunks, done to represent the Yao Ming/T-Mac era jersey stripes. Finally, the subtle pinstripes represent the post-Championship uniform designs. 

 

 

C&C welcome!!

[sky1324]

Very nice! I like the new side pattern and I love switching back to red and gold. Not big on "Clutch City" or "H-Town" but that's just personal preference. I have to wonder how that Statement shorts pattern would look in real life but I like it nonetheless. I like Dallas and Sacramento as well, keep up the good work!

[colinturner95]

Hand Drawn Association/Icon Alternate(s) (Jersey Model: Ja Morant | Players Still With Team: 13/28)

 

 

Association - Icon: I really wanted to do something different here. I really did. Unfortunately, there was nothing I did that I felt would be superior to the newer uniforms. So in that case, I made minor changes to the current uniforms, mostly in the stripes which now include three colors. White now says Grizzlies, Navy now says Memphis. 

 

Statement: A small change from the primary uniforms. The stripes on the shorts no longer wraps around the legs, and the stripes on the jersey now bends into the wordmark on the jersey. White is also pretty much nixed from this jersey entirely. 

 

Grizzly: In a lot of cases, and in a lot of series beyond just this one, I love to take jerseys we have seen and give examples of jerseys that collectively we wish we could have seen or in a lot of cases, just jerseys that I would have loved to have seen. This definitely falls into that category, as a black version of the ever-popular Vancouver Grizzlies jerseys, in all their glory. 

 

 

C&C welcome!!

 

On 9/21/2021 at 5:43 PM, QCS said:

Very nice! I like the new side pattern and I love switching back to red and gold. Not big on "Clutch City" or "H-Town" but that's just personal preference. I have to wonder how that Statement shorts pattern would look in real life but I like it nonetheless. I like Dallas and Sacramento as well, keep up the good work!

 

 

I had intended it to work a lot like the Mighty Ducks jerseys, which you can see on the back/side of Vishnevski's jersey where the diagonal stripes meet at a point on the sides. 

 

 

 

[TheRealPepman]

On 9/17/2021 at 10:32 AM, colinturner95 said:

Hand Drawn Association/Icon Alternate(s) (Jersey Model: Luka Doncic | Players Still With Team: 12/26)

 

 

Please fix your link for the handdrawn uniforms of the Mavs. You posted the Kings' handdrawn uniforms again instead of the Mavs.

[colinturner95]

18 minutes ago, TheRealPepman said:

Please fix your link for the handdrawn uniforms of the Mavs. You posted the Kings' handdrawn uniforms again instead of the Mavs.

That should be fixed now. Honestly didn't think there was much traction with those links. 

[TheRealPepman]

8 hours ago, colinturner95 said:

That should be fixed now. Honestly didn't think there was much traction with those links. 

Thanks. I'm just curious about on how you started working on the Mavs' uniforms. And I simply like exploring the process of designing a basketball uniform. 

[colinturner95]

Hand Drawn Association/Icon Alternate(s) (Jersey Model: Zion Williamson | Players Still With Team: 14/29)

 

 

Association - Icon: I basically recycled my UniMadness entry for the Pelicans onto my template for the Association and Icon editions. Asymmetric stripes around the neck and arms. Down the sides of the jersey is a stripe that calls to mind the cast iron and wrought iron of the French Quarter, which is found on both the jerseys and the shorts. 

 

Statement: The statement doesn't deviate too far from the Association and the Icon. the stripes change on the sides to match the smaller stripes found throughout and the iron pattern becomes much more subtle. 

 

Mardi Gras: It would be hard to find a city anywhere in the world (though Rio might have something to say about it) that parties harder than New Orleans. To that end, the fourth jersey celebrates that fact. So I kept the City jersey design from 2018/2020 with some minor changes to the front and back. The shorts change more so than the jersey, with the big stripes now wrapping completely around one leg and the 3 Fleur-de-Lis from the city flag now rest on the other side of the shorts 

 

 

C&C welcome! We have San Antonio and the All-Star Game left and that's a wrap!

[sky1324]

Loving NOLA and Memphis! I've always been a fan of the iron-wrought patterns for New Orleans and you've nailed it here. Great work!

[colinturner95]

Hand Drawn Association/Icon Alternate(s) (Jersey Model: Dejounte Murray | Players Still With Team: 15/30)

 

Having started the hand drawn side of this almost 2-3 years ago, I'm surprised that even half the players I used as models are still with the teams I drew them with. 

 

Posing the question, do you guys like seeing things like this, my hand-drawn process or is it something you guys can live without in my future series? 

 

 

Association - Icon: I would have been content with not touching a thing here. The Spurs have been a model of consistency since the late 90's and that's perfectly fine. But that's boring isn't it? So these harken back to the ABA-early NBA Spurs uniforms, with a similarity to what the Bulls wear now. Everything is pretty classic, from the arm/neck stripes to the waistband stripes. The shorts stripes get a little funky, with the Spur shape replacing the diamonds from the sides of the shorts. 

 

Statement: Outside of a change to a triple stripe, the grey alternate really doesn't change up too much. The biggest change is a new Spurs script on the chest as a bit of an homage to the Dallas Chaparrals uniforms. 

 

Fiesta: Again, there isn't much I felt needed changed with these as well. Matter of fact, the tops don't really change at all, with the exception of the numbers losing their outlines. I understood what these uniforms represented and why the stripes on the shorts were vertical. But I changed it up to more of a swooping design on one leg, with a Fiesta colored Spurs logo on the other side. 

 

 

That's it for the 30 teams! C&C is welcomed and appreciated as always. I'll be wrapping things up with All-Star Weekend uniforms and that'll be it!

[-Akronite-]

That Pelicans concept is so smart. Outside of the odd fonts, that franchise doesn't really stand out. The wrought iron detail gives them a signature element but keeping it in the side panel prevents it from overcomplicating the look. It's very professional while their current look feels a little minor league.

[jaytavo305]

Love the silver alt for the spurs, I always thought silver jerseys are so cool. Script font looks great. The shade of silver really pops off the black shorts as well, looks fantastic. Great job on this series, is it too much to ask to see a graphic with some uniform matchups maybe?

 

[colinturner95]

4 hours ago, jaytavo305 said:

Love the silver alt for the spurs, I always thought silver jerseys are so cool. Script font looks great. The shade of silver really pops off the black shorts as well, looks fantastic. Great job on this series, is it too much to ask to see a graphic with some uniform matchups maybe?

 

What matchups were you interested in seeing?