2012-13 NBA Logo & Uniform changes

[Lights Out]

I think the double blue and yellow scheme and their uniforms (the whole identity, actually) work for Grizzlies and they should stick to them.

Meh. It's so generic, especially for the time period in which those uniforms were introduced. Their identity looks sort of like the love child of the current Nuggets and the DWill/Boozer-era Jazz.

All they needed to do color-wise was ditch the black. Teal, brown, and red could have been a nice unique color scheme to build around if done right.

[TruColor]

I think the double blue and yellow scheme and their uniforms (the whole identity, actually) work for Grizzlies and they should stick to them.

Agreed! Light blue, dark blue and yellow go together very well IMO.

TRIPLE Blue:

[Nyk33]

I think the double blue and yellow scheme and their uniforms (the whole identity, actually) work for Grizzlies and they should stick to them.

Agreed! Light blue, dark blue and yellow go together very well IMO.

TRIPLE Blue:

I never understood why teams haven't adopted double or triple red color schemes.

It is equally ridiculous but at least it would unique.

[dmhtfld]

The letters and numbers are supposed to connote the neon on Beale Street. If it's not on the numbers, which are much bigger than the letters, the whole thing kinda stops making some sense.

By that line of logic, one could argue the whole thing stopped making sense the microsecond they rebranded under twoblue and yellow.

EDIT: To kinda hammer that point home...

Those look awesome. That would be a great update to their current set.

I think the double blue and yellow scheme and their uniforms (the whole identity, actually) work for Grizzlies and they should stick to them.

Agreed! Light blue, dark blue and yellow go together very well IMO.

TRIPLE Blue:

I never understood why teams haven't adopted double or triple red color schemes.

It is equally ridiculous but at least it would unique.

Iowa State uses two reds in their logo. I would love to see them implement the other red into their uniform.

[Berlin Wall]

I think the double blue and yellow scheme and their uniforms (the whole identity, actually) work for Grizzlies and they should stick to them.

Agreed! Light blue, dark blue and yellow go together very well IMO.

TRIPLE Blue:

I never understood why teams haven't adopted double or triple red color schemes.

It is equally ridiculous but at least it would unique.

Would be nice for the Heat combined with some orange and black.

[jordub]

I've been advocating the Heat bringing back orange, while keeping yellow, which would be similar. They ditched orange and added yellow during the 2000-1 re-brand.

When will teams start wearing those 90s throwbacks? Any word on that yet?

The Heat will be wearing them in February. Possibly so will the other teams.

So, the Oregon Heat have

1. White

2. Black

3. Red Alt as their standard set

4. Special Champion White for opening night

5. "Back in Black" (which is same as black, but minus red)

6. "White Hot" (which is same as white, minus red)

7. "Christmas" (which is same as red, minus black)

8. And Throwback(s)? Are they going to wear those black/pink Miami ones too?

Not wearing the black-on-blacks or Floridians this year. The all-blacks and the White Hots are part of a 3-year plan for a new jersey each season, strictly for that season. Don't know if you want to count 'El Heat' or not. It's crazy, but hey, they and the league want to capitalize on the current marketability.

[hawk36]

By that line of logic, one could argue the whole thing stopped making sense the microsecond they rebranded under twoblue and yellow.

EDIT: To kinda hammer that point home...

Teal to me was an ugly color and it still is til this day. I thought it wouldn't work when worn and some people just do not look right in teal at all. Some colors do not flow well with Teal (except for Gold, Yellow Gold, Purple, White, or Black). Other colors just doesn't work in my opinion. The whole teal business is so 90's. I wouldn't wear garbage like this or anything like that is because the color doesn't balance with my skin tone at all.

Love these but the colors seem VERY Vancouver, perfect for the Northwest region. Not so sure is they are "Memphis".

[tBBP]

Well, considering they still wore the black/emerald/red their first three seasons in Memphis (see?), had they held on to them, it very well could have become "Memphis". Instead, in '04 they copped out to the trendy "super-hot-and-on-fire" dark blue/light blue/yellow trendy scheme, becoming the THIRD NBA team to go double blue (the Jazz beat them by a season, I believe)...and throwing away what uniqueness they had along with it. If you've ever been downtown Beale Street at nighttime, those old colors (in my opinion anyway) play a lot better to that scene than their current ones do.

[The_Admiral]

What colors are Memphis, hawk36? Don't say double-blue and yellow; those colors are "every NBA team circa 2005."

[Nyk33]

What colors are Memphis, hawk36? Don't say double-blue and yellow; those colors are "every NBA team circa 2005."

There should definitely be blue in the Grizzlies color schemes since Memphis is very famous for Blues music.

I say just scrap the whole Grizzlies identity and make a cooler name that resonates more with Memphis.

[The_Admiral]

I'm fine with keeping the name. It's generic enough to work. Ties in with the Tigers for kind of a general fearsome animal theme.

I've always wanted brown and light blue for the Grizzlies. The river is brown, as are bears.

[Lights Out]

This would have looked awesome:

[Nyk33]

This would have looked awesome:

Looks good and makes them standout.

Wonder what they would look like with a brown alt in that color scheme?

[-DASH]

that's horawful

[DaytonBlue]

A little background on the Grizzlies name and colors (from some book I found once about the Grizzlies history in Memphis)

They kept the Vancouver logo during their stay in the Pyramid. When the moved into the Forum, they switched to the blue scheme (to tie in with Blues music).

Y'all I'm sure know about the Memphis Express name debacle, but I read somewhere that after that was rejected the team was still thinking about a name change when the Forum was completed, but the season ticket holders and others supported keeping the Grizzlies name.

The old Toronto Northmen of the World Football League, who had a bear as a logo, had to suddenly move to Memphis before their first season, and they kept the logo and became the Southmen, gaining Grizzlies as a nickname.

[tBBP]

Wow, that is rope for an update...I'll get right on it.

(At some point. Unless somebody beats me to it.)

[jordub]

Love these, and much prefer them to last year's all-blacks, but I think the BIG Color league-wide thing is going to take away from them, especially with the Lakers having theirs be all-white. Oh well.

[jordub]

[andrewharrington]

I'm not as up in arms about this as some, but I happen to know step-by-step the process that adidas uses, and, simply put, they could have added the line on the Grizzlies numbering. It is possible, and there is no way to deny that. The thing I think that kept them from "allowing" it is some of the claims they made about weight and breathability. My solution would cause them to weigh a little more, thus taking away some of their claims, if someone was to sit at home and weigh and compare jerseys. I guess what I'm saying is, it wasn't an arbitrary decision, but it also wasn't a decision based on whether or not the look could physically be achieved.

adidas doesn't manufacture the numbers. They are manufactured by a third party who is one of the experts/leaders/call them what you will in the athletic lettering industry.

My decidedly non-expert take on it is that you certainly could stitch a light blue line through the center of the numerals, but the mesh fabric doesn't seem like it would be good for holding that thread (from the standpoint of durability). Basically, I know there's obviously a reason the choice not to stitch through the center of the mesh was made and that this choice was made by a company who is among the best at what it does. This is the answer I've came up with that makes the most sense for why it was done like that.

The wordmark lettering is not constructed in the same way as the numbers. The 'meat' of the numbers if you will is a mesh material, whereas the letters are a solid fabric.

Beat me to it. Here's a closer look at the mesh numbers:

That exact picture demonstrates how lame Adidas' excuse was. If they could sublimate the Magic's pinstripes on mesh for the jerseys, why couldn't they do the same thing with the inlines on Memphis' numbers (or the bevels on Atlanta's numbers, for that matter)?

I don't like the Grizzlies' uniforms anyway, but they look ten times better with matching numbers.

It's not that simple and you know it. Sometime people on this board act like people who work for Adidas couldn't design their way out of a cardboard box. There was obviously a reason for the different material, and it prevented them from adding the stroke in the middle. It wasn't just some arbitrary decision.

Now, we could argue about whether Adidas should or should not have converted all NBA uniforms to the same template for reasons such as this, but that's a different conversation.

Correct. The reason the numerals couldn't be sublimated is (again, presumably) because they are made of a totally different mesh than the jersey. The numerals consist of a thin backing, maybe similar to what you find on the inside of embroidered hats, and the open hole mesh is on top of that. This is the white part of the Magic numerals above. This two-layer mesh is stitched to an outer perimeter made of twill (the blue part) with a line of thread (the silver part).

Then why don't they make the numbers out of the material for the letters? or would that make them 1.25% slower?

Why they didn't use the fabric from the jersey for the numerals? My best guess is simply because the jersey fabric comes from somewhere different or maybe it's not a supplier that the company that makes the numbers uses. Maybe it's exclusive to that factory. Maybe it's just not suitable as a material for numerals. I really don't know. I do know that all these things are carefully considered. Sometimes the determining factor is cost. Sometimes it's function. It can be any number of things, but it's not laziness.

[jordub]

Hey Andrew, I noticed the first season of the rev30's the player's numbers (at least on the Heat jerseys) would crumple up and look really bad. Eventually the Big 3 started wearing jerseys with numbers that stayed flat, while the rest of the team still got the crinkling numbers. The next season everyone's looked normal/flat. Know what this was about?