Nuggets reveal rainbow alternate unis, they’re not what fans want
Nov 14, 2024, 12:22 PM
The Denver Nuggets finally shared pictures of their 2024-25 city edition uniforms on Thursday, a few months after the set leaked.
While Nike’s attempts to bring fresh jerseys to the NBA every year are now having diminishing returns, this season’s special Nuggets jersey is a spin-off of last year’s Mile High City altitude duds. It’s hard to say if the new ones are sure if the 2024-25 NBA City Edition Jerseys look are the worst ones yet for the Nuggets, given the Flatiron Red fiasco.
This year’s Nuggets jersey looks like a weather radar barfed on a topographic map that they lazily slapped the Mile High City’s altitude on the front. Now that we know the shorts though, they’re a bit better than the leak. The white with the color down the side should look pretty decent on TV but the “5280” is hard to overcome.
— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) November 14, 2024
The evolution continues pic.twitter.com/IPXzMnKAwa
— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) November 14, 2024
The jersey comes as a contrast to last year’s black city uniform with blue mountain stripes on the chest that were highlighted by a yellow “5280” and a white number on the shoulder. Making there five or six numbers and no letters on the front side of the jersey deepening on the player. Of course, it is Mile High City Basketball so that’s what the 5280 is about but as a team that already literally has that phrase on its chest of another uniform so it would be nice to see more Denver or Nuggets rather than some highly localized numbers. Other teams have nicknames or gimmick-type things on their city jerseys too this uyear like “Lake Show” and “Heat Culture.” While it may be jarring for those franchises to go so off their classic brands, the Nuggets have a lot of history too. Every time they dive back into their roots, their uniforms are a hit—every time the team strays away—well you can still get those aforementioned red mountain ones at any thrift store around town. The cool aspect, as the Nuggets note is they bring back aspects of the rainbow in a modern form to this year’s jersey. It’s just not what fans completely want which is rainbow skylines or pickaxes. Nike did nail this about a half-decade ago, but the current fanbase now wants to see Maxie the Miner or a more classical 90s Nuggets design. Other NBA teams have gone back to the 90s, so why not Denver?
It’s a real shame what Nike has done to NBA uniforms and this is coming from somebody who wants wilder looks in sports and loves Nike. The last 10 years have basically eroded any sort of consistent look from most teams to the point where it’s hard to glance at a TV at a sports bar and say who is playing before reading the scorebug. Heck, if you’re a Nuggets fan and they’re playing a Game 7 at home what color do you even wear to match your fellow fans?
It seems as though not only the concept of having a new uniform every single year as a fourth alternate to the main home, road and third jersey has run its course with the designers running out of ideas. Of course, soccer teams replace their kits nearly every year but the changes are almost always subtle and keep in line with the team’s brand. The Nuggets, well they’re always going to have pictures of those two years of their best player ever’s prime with him rocking “5280” on his chest—and given Nike’s ideas seem to come in cycles of threes, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a third year of this style of jersey perhaps in red again too.
You’ll see this year’s city jerseys for the first time during the NBA Cup, where the Nuggets will have a less loud court than last season.
