NBA teams have worn Nike’s City Edition jerseys for six years, but the newest styles are being pushed back. When it looked like the Los Angeles Clippers jerseys had been leaked on Monday, Washington Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma said what he thought.
He thinks that giving each team a new look all the time takes away from the magic of tradition. On X (Twitter), “Nike is ruining the nostalgia of jerseys; every year it’s a new jersey, and what gets lost is brand identity.”
In the old days, NBA teams usually only had two sets of jerseys: one for home games and one for away games. Now, the categories are different because “Association” and “Icon” have taken the place of “home” and “away.” Throwback shirts are classic jerseys, and alternate jerseys are City Edition and Statement Edition.
Each uniform has different designs, and teams even give fans a plan of when each player will wear each one.
Kuzma can talk about Nike since he signed a five-year deal with Puma in 2019 and is now a player for that company. Still, Nike fans don’t have to love everything the company does. Recently, Kevin Durant of the Phoenix Suns gave his own Nike KD 16 shoes a mixed review at the beginning of this month.
