The Buffalo Bills do not need new uniforms. Since ditching the panels of their early-2000s kits, they've remained one of the NFL's best dressed teams. Between the red, white and blue colors and the clean stripes on the sleeve and down each leg, Josh Allen has played some incredible football and looked good doing so.
That left a difficult encore for the franchise's designers. They needed an alternate kit, leaning in to the eight teams that unveiled special NFL Rivalry uniforms last year. It's not only a way to sell more replicas, but a chance for the team to represent Buffalo in a new way that calls back to the traditions of the grand city on Lake Erie. They settled on "Nickel City" as a theme -- an ode to the blue collar workers across western
New York.
That's great, but when you're starting at a point close to perfection, there's a lot more that can go wrong than go right. The Bills put this on full display Monday when they released their alternate uniform. It, uh, sure does look like a bunch of nickels in jersey form!
A blue collar town that never backs down.
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) July 27, 2026
We are the Nickel City. pic.twitter.com/nDja8yhTMW
OK, but what if we have a static shot of the full outfit. Would that make it a little better than the hype video suggests?
Resilient. Gritty. Blue Collar.#BillsMafia | https://t.co/dSv2Kf4qfF pic.twitter.com/sSEbyEEyPt
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) July 27, 2026
Heh, nope.
Likethe New England Patriots before them, Buffalo got sucked into the "didn't separate whites and colors before running the washing machine" trap. The stripes that serve as perfect accents in the home and away uniforms are muted almost to the point of being washed out. The names and numbers look like sidewalk chalk on an old, worn road. The helmet logo is a parti of the charging buffalo that's now been moved to the chest, looking like the kind of gear you'd see in a royalty free clip titled "football Americaine."
This offseason, the Bills made a major change, firing head coach Sean McDermott and promoting offensive coordinator Joe Brady to the top job. In honor of his ascension, they also adopted the "bubble screen for four yards" of alternate jerseys, too.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: The Bills new alternate uniforms are too boring to be worn by Josh Allen
