I’m Sick of New Uniforms by Pro Sports Teams
These are just five of the six Chicago Bulls alternate uniforms in recent years. Please, someone, make it stop.
Jesus, enough already! Apparently, every pro sports team has turned into the University of Oregon the past few years as every team feels the need to create a new jersey design. Gone are the days when the home team wore white and the visiting team their colored jerseys in the NBA. Now everyone wears whatever they want when they want.
This new trend is also exacerbated by the apparent need to field a new city edition uniform every season. What started out as a fun idea and an increase in marketing campaign has now turned into lunacy. You watch a game now and you can’t tell who is who.
Last year the Chicago Bulls had an all-red version. This year they have gone with an all-white setup. In the past we’ve seen black and gold one, a mostly black one, one that had the three colors of the city of Chicago, in addition to the special all green unis they wear during St. Patrick’s Day and the Los Toros version, which are used on Latin nights throughout the league.
I am sure the ladies of Chicago love seeing eye-candy model, sometimes starting shooting guard Zach Lavine model the latest version of the city editions every season. However, I would love to just see more of Zach on the court and not taking a “rest day.” For $230 million, I think it is okay that we ask that from our “franchise player.”
Zach Lavine and DeMar DeRozan of the Chicago Bulls model the team’s new city edition uniforms that were released last week.
Ironically, Lavine himself isn’t a fan of the 2022 version of his team’s city edition uniform. When asked by reporters the other day what he thinks about them, he said this:
“"I wish we did more of the throwback jerseys. '90s, early 2000s, that's what I like."
His teammate Nikola Vucevic wasn’t nearly as toned down in his response to reporters: "Ours this year? I need some time."
The Bulls are not the only team guilty of this. The Blackhawks during their prime years last decade also joined in on the alternate sweater campaigns. Admittingly, I fell for it and have at least three of the Winter Classic sweaters. The Blackhawks are 1 and 5 in those games by the way, which left fans begging the NHL not to put them in any more of them, EVER!
Tim Anderson and the 2021 White Sox won the division and city connect uniform contest. However the 2022 White Sox did not make the playoffs.
Not only are pro sports teams doing this uniform trend for marketing purposes, they are making a lot of money from it. According to an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, North American sports leagues, the NFL rake in $1.2 billion annually in jersey sales, with the NBA second, selling $900 million annually. So of course, MLB two years ago wanted to jump in on the action with their city-select series. The White Sox had the coolest with their “Southside” script unis and the San Diego Padres had the worst with something we’re all still trying to figure out the theme of, so we just call them the rainbow sherbet unis.
I have no clue what look the Padres were actually going for in 2022. I do know it was not achieved. However. they did make the playoffs go figure.
Unfortunately, as long as there is money to be made, you can expect more horrendous and a handful of unique uniform designs in the coming years. So, get your eyesight checked on a yearly basis folks because this is going to be an attack on your senses. Personally, I just want to know when I’m watching a game who is actually playing.