Nike Ruined NBA Uniforms
A tale of too many jerseys
Kevin O’Connor posted a clip from his podcast on a topic that is, I’d argue, one of the most underrated in sports. The KOC caption:
What happened to home teams wearing white jerseys?
The home team has worn white in only 22 of 66 NBA playoff games so far this year.
Ten years ago, home teams wore white in 83 of 86 games, including every round two, Conference Finals & Finals game.
From 97% to 33% in a decade.
Predictably, the clip did numbers on social media. I say “predictably” because this is one of those issues where nearly everyone harbors a hatred for the new status quo. I’m not saying this is the biggest problem in professional sports, but it is a reliably needlessly aggravating one. Sports fans want uniforms to be…uniform. The colors of classic brands conjure nostalgia and help maintain a connection. Why mess with one of the medium’s value propositions?
You want to know a secret? A lot of NBA teams are also annoyed with the collapse of traditional jersey standards. Many hate having to use all these goofy-looking uniforms. The marketing is a pain in the ass and the options dilute the brands these franchises obsess over building.
If you want to understand why tradition was abandoned, I will, again, direct you to Nike’s tanking stock price. I posted a piece about UBS research revealing that a decline in NBA popularity had hurt the apparel giant. This is causation in the other direction, where Nike foolishness has undermined the NBA brand.
It’s funny because I remember when Nike took over the NBA sponsorship from Adidas in 2017 and many fans welcomed the change. Adidas had put players in shirseys, which maybe looked OK on Harrison Barnes but failed to flatter anybody else. Back in 2017, Nike was still associated with “cool.” They were here to restore sartorial sanity and give the league a boost. Instead, this is what happened.
Nike arrived on the scene and quickly dispensed with the classic “home/away/alternate” categories for NBA jerseys.