It’s grow to be a convention that every 12 months, Nike’s new Celtics Metropolis Version jersey will leak earlier than they’re formally introduced, and annually I shall be wholeheartedly offended.
The 12 months 2024 is not any completely different, regardless of my best optimism that possibly, simply possibly, Nike would flip to the good Pete Rogers to deal with the duty.
As an alternative, Tuesday afternoon served as the primary purple flag for the 2024-25 season, as leaked designs of Boston’s new alternate jersey surfaced on-line.
Nike actually outdid themselves right here with the brand new money seize. This 12 months, the combating champion (I might by no means say defending champion, out of respect for Joe Mazzulla) Celtics shall be pressured to put on these neon-lettered uniforms no less than thrice (the league’s minimal for the Metropolis uniforms).
These actually appear to be knockoffs that Goal sells for $20.
The black base is new from final 12 months, whereas the aspect design seems to be to be the identical, with the curve now being lime inexperienced reasonably than a picket coloration.
When the NBA formally launched the 2023-24 slate of alternate uniforms final November, they pointed to every staff’s or metropolis’s historical past as inspiration for the designs.
“The Nike NBA Metropolis Version platform options strong, hyperlocal tales from every of our NBA groups, making a tapestry of the historical past of our recreation, its groups and the cities that help them,” mentioned Christopher Area, Head of On-Court docket and Model Partnerships on the NBA.
Do these jerseys have something to do with Boston or the Celtics as a corporation?
Nope, not even shut.
The closest factor we’ve seen to this was the 2021 “Earned Version” jerseys — or the Earth Day uniforms, as many known as them.
I get it.
Some folks do like change and so they like new inventive designs. That’s all good and advantageous, however essentially the most offensive side of that is that, once more, Pete Rogers has designed numerous Celtics jerseys which might be all higher than what Nike has and continues to place out.
Listed below are 5 random designs from Pete.
Even when the 5 I picked aren’t your cup of tea, there are over 100 extra jersey mockups on his Twitter/X web page and he has an entire store the place you should buy his designs on-line. Nike might’ve picked from any of those however didn’t, and that’s unbelievably lame.
If you happen to really need your day ruined, take into consideration the matching courtroom that Boston will play its “NBA Cup” video games on this fall.