VyCade's NBA Team Uniform Rework Project (Complete)

[VyCade]

Welcome!

 

I put my NFL concepts on here last summer and I've been slowly, but surely, working on the NBA since I finished the thread.  Like previously, these concepts are all done already, so my hope is to upload one every day like with the NFL.  I'm also going to be doing one home alt and one away alt, given the NBA's propensity for having a myriad array of kits for every team, constantly adding new ones every year.  Also, these will be organized by city this time around, so we're starting with Atlanta.

 

(1/30) Atlanta Hawks

 

The worst things the Hawks ever did to their uniform was remove their primary logo from the jersey and change their color scheme.  I personally enjoyed the black accents that the 90s and 2000s had on offer, so I included black as a tertiary.  Outside of that, the overall design and alts are pretty straightforward: A yellow recolor and a throwback recolor.

[MJWalker45]

I would shrink the numbers on the front and get rid of the basketball under the hawk so that they can clearly be seen. 

[VyCade]

(2/30) Boston Celtics

 

The Celtics have been running with the same kit for so long with such a classic look that it was hard to find anything wrong with it.  Pretty much the only thing I could point to being off with what they have is their shorts.  The stripes going down the sides of their shorts, but not their jersey, bugged me.  I went ahead and took those off, putting their clover alt logo on one side while maintaining everything else about the uniform.  The gold trim on their one alt was always good and--while I'm still not into black alts for teams that don't use the color--their black alt has been around for so long that it's pretty much a classic at this point, and it doesn't look awful, so I kept both of those.

 

[Tore]

Great to see some NBA concepts on here! Looking forward to seeing rest of the teams!

[VyCade]

(3/30) Brooklyn Nets

 

I thought the Nets' silver uniforms from the mid-2000s were their most unique look and really gave the team a modern identity while not straying too far from established norms.  I'd also be hard-pressed to believe that they would've changed their colors all that much if Jay-Z wasn't involved when they first moved to Brooklyn.  It's fine for an alternate, but abandoning literally everything that connects the team to their roots beyond the Nets name when it doesn't even improve the look wasn't something I was into.  Hence, the ABA-inspired alt.

 

[VyCade]

(4/30) Charlotte Hornets

 

The current shade of purple the Hornets use is way too low on saturation and darker than it needs to be.  I grabbed a more vibrant  indigo from their '20/'21 City kit to make things pop more.  As for the design itself, I leaned into the hexagon motif and went with an asymmetric layout, using their current font.  With the alts, I went with some retro pinstripes on one and a design that runs with their Buzz City alt logo on the other.

 

[VyCade]

(5/30) Chicago Bulls

 

Did you really think I was gonna overhaul the Bulls?  I mean, really, this is the best kit in the league.  All I did differently was change the way the logo is presented on the shorts and left it at that.  I maintained the black pinstripe alt because it's always been great and made a Chicago flag alt since they come out with a new one every year or two.

 

[VyCade]

(6/30) Cleveland Cavaliers

 

The Cavs seem to not be able to really decide on what they want their identity to be.  They change so often that it's difficult to point to one era's look that truly defines them.  As far as their current kit, I'd say the color and font are the right call, but design-wise?  It's an incredibly generic layout that's too minimalist to compliment anything else in the kit.  I used the square pattern from the 70s and put crossed sabers behind the chest logo to prevent things from coming off as too simple.  The alts are something of an amalgamation of previous looks and color schemes, with the dark alt using a saber for the side panel design.

 

[VyCade]

(7/30) Dallas Mavericks

 

I personally think the Mavs' uniforms work better with navy as the primary and not the secondary.  I have an alt with the font and colors more in line with their current kit, but for the default, I made navy the main color.  There's also an alt with throwback colors and wordmark.

 

[VyCade]

(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. 

 

[VyCade]

(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.

 

[johne9109]

25 minutes ago, VyCade said:

(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.

 

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?

[VyCade]

(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.

 

[VyCade]

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.

[VyCade]

(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.

 

[VyCade]

(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.

 

[VyCade]

(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.

 

[VyCade]

(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.

 

[VyCade]

(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.

 

[johne9109]

10 minutes ago, VyCade said:

(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.

 

This is what the Grizzlies should look like