The Dallas Mavericks are just weeks away from year-two Cooper Flagg and a new look roster taking the court for training camp. In the calm before the upcoming storm that is the NBA season, basketball-related news is quiet, but that leaves plenty of room for things like… jersey leaks.
It’s no secret that the NBA loves to pump out multiple jerseys for each team around the league, enlisting Nike to help them do just that. Originally having an eight-year deal, Nike and the NBA didn’t even finish their
first contract before extending their partnership an additional 12-years through the end of the 2037 season.
Since Nike took over jersey duties, the notion of home and away uniforms has gone by the wayside. Instead, there are five categories of jersey for each team.
- Association Edition: Formerly known as the “home” jersey; the standard white color scheme.
- Icon Edition: Formerly known as the “away” jersey: the standard primary team color.
- Statement Edition: Formerly known as the “alternate” jersey (back when there were only three), which features a more dramatic look and the Jumpman logo.
- City Edition: Features designs that harken to local culture.
- Classic Edition: These are “throwback” jerseys that reference a team’s past classics.
That is a lot of jerseys to go around every team for 82 games, but fans generally seem to like the notion of a changeup from the usual home and road options. Of course, there are plenty of alternate jerseys that meet the ire of a given fan base season-to-season. This year, it seems as though Nike is looking to avoid any new options receiving criticism by giving the league retreads. Case in point, the Mavericks are rumored to be bringing back the gold and white Pegasus jerseys for their City Edition this season.
Dallas has had a mixed bag of City Editions over the years, but the Pegasus jersey seems to be generally well-liked, despite not having any real tie to the historic blues and greens the Mavericks are known for. The Pegasus jersey does adequately give a nod to the city by way of the famous Pegasus that was adorned atop the Magnolia Building in 1934 (with modern appearances outside the Magnolia Hotel and the Omni Dallas Hotel), making it one of the better city tie-ins, per se.
Although the jersey makes sense based on a nearly 100-year connection to Dallas, the rehash is somewhat ponderous. Just last year, Nike revamped the Pegasus jersey into a black and blue version, which fit better with the Mavericks’ traditional color scheme while still connecting to the city at large. Now, barely 10-years after the start of their partnership with the NBA, and with more than 10-years remaining, Nike isn’t even doing something new. 10 years is a long time, but it seems too soon to bring back what we’ve already seen. Anyone who missed out the first time should be happy, but anyone with long term goals of having a 20-year collection of different City Editions is going to have a duplicate!
Jests aside, this is a weird look for Nike. They position themselves as one of the premier shoe and apparel companies of all time, but this just feels like they are somehow out of ideas and mailing it in. Already we’ve seen different color schemes of the same design, but now we’re getting outright exact duplicates? One would think Nike would have at least the next few years of new designs in the bag in advance, yet here we are.
For my part, I’d be plenty happy with three jerseys. Give me a home, an away, and an alternate that changes (into something new!) every year. Keep it simple. Keep it fresh. If we’re out of ideas already, maybe five different uniform variations is too much.
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