In two weeks' time, the LA Clippers will be in Hawaii preparing for the NBA season. For now, fans are left waiting out what little offseason is still hanging around. There is plenty to be excited about in this upcoming season for the Clippers. A new arena and new team branding has gone a long way toward building the hype for the 2024-25 season.
One thing that had still been shrouded in mystery until recently was the team's city edition jersey for this season. But on Tuesday, the designs for all 30 NBA teams' city edition uniforms was leaked in a post on X. As many are aware, the city edition jerseys get a reboot every season due to Nike's requirement that new ones be released every year.
These releases are not yet official, but the social media post showing the alleged leak could end up being an accurate portrayal of what the city edition jerseys will actually look like. A quick glance at the Clippers' new jersey will make one thing clear: this design is extremely similar to last year's version.
What do you guys think? 🤔 https://t.co/YNpuzF5u8x pic.twitter.com/XKO6eagpLc
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) September 17, 2024
The Clippers' city edition jersey is very similar to last season's
Last year, the Clippers released a city jersey featuring a stylized "Clips" wordmark across the front, which we later learned was created by a local artist and Clippers season ticket holder. It ended up going hand in hand with the team's "In-Season Tournament" court design for the 2023-24 season as well.
Now, this coming season's design looks to be extremely similar, with the only difference being a color scheme change. Last year's design featured a navy blue base with a white "Clips" wordmark, while the upcoming version will include a powder blue background and a navy colored wordmark.
The basketball in place of the dot on the "i" in "Clips" is a fun detail to this design pattern, but again, it is nearly exactly the same as last year. Some will say the Clippers were lazy for going with this design, but the problem is rooted in Nike's insistence in putting out new jerseys for every team every year.
Like nearly every NBA team, the Clippers have a great brand and a history of some pretty stylish jerseys. However, no matter how great the brand, any team will have their resources spread thin when asked to make a new design every single season. As long as Nike is in charge of jersey production in the league, we will be in for a lot more re-used and uninteresting jersey designs.