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As usual, almost every NBA team is getting a new City alternate this season. Those won’t be officially released until sometime in November, but — also as usual — we’re starting to see leaks of the new designs, especially via retail merch (like that Timberwolves jersey that showed up in yesterday’s Ticker). It’s all part of what I refer to as the NBA’s Silly Season, as leaks proliferate and everyone goes through repeated cycles of excitement (“Oh boy, new uniforms!”) tempered by eye-rolling (“Eh, it’s just the typical Nike slop”). We all know the drill by now.
But the latest leak — purported to be the Mavs’ City alternate, which began circulating yesterday afternoon — breaks the mold a bit, because it’s something I can unreservedly get behind. No caveats, no minor nitpicking, no “Yeah, but…” — this one is an unqualified winner.
Before we address the design, let’s make it clear that this leak is almost certainly legitimate. For starters, retail/merch leak photos have proven to be 100% legit in recent years. Moreover, remember that big NBA catalog leak way back in February? Here’s a side-by-side of that leak next to the new retail leak:
So the new leak corroborates the old one. Add ’em together and you’ve got a confirmed legit design.
Speaking of which: I have no idea what sort of local “storytelling” the chest script is supposed to evoke or represent (can anyone from Dallas fill us in?), but holy shit do I love it. Love the retro-styled curves, love the inlining, love the super-thick block-shadowing. Imagine a giant IRL version of this, like a sculpture in a park or something like that — it would be amazing!
My only two gripes (okay, I guess I do have some nitpicking after all) are the collar design and the sharp points on the “7,” which don’t fit well with the curves and blunt edges on the script. Aside from those two quibbles, however, I’m all in on this one, and I’m pretty sure I’ve never said that before about anything the Mavs have worn. Make this the primary!
IMPORTANT Uni Watch Premium News
Last week I announced that my Premium column would soon be leaving Bulletin. I initially thought my transition from Bulletin to another platform would take at least a month and maybe longer, but today I’m happy to announce that I’m moving the Premium content to Substack, beginning with the NBA Season Preview, which will be published over on Substack this Friday.
My Substack column will be almost indistinguishable from my Bulletin column — same type of content, same ad-free format, same subscription pricing. But Substack has a few extra bells and whistles that should make for a better experience — for me and also for you. My new Substack home page is currently hidden, but it should go live sometime tomorrow, so you’ll be able to subscribe then. I’m excited to get started there!
Here’s what this all means for you:
If you paid for an annual Bulletin subscription via Facebook, you will get a full refund of your $35 subscription fee by the end of October as long as your subscription is active and not canceled. Doesn’t matter if you subscribed back in January, or yesterday, or any time in between — you’ll get a 100% refund. In order to keep receiving my Premium articles, you will need to re-subscribe on Substack (which I realize is a pain, but the Bulletin refund means you got your Bulletin subscription for free, so you’re ahead of the game). I will be sending you an email tomorrow with the details of how you can subscribe.
If you paid for a monthly Bulletin subscription via Facebook, you will get a full refund of the $4 one-month fee as long as your subscription is active and not canceled. In order to keep receiving my Premium articles, you will need to subscribe on Substack. I will be sending you an email tomorrow with the details of how you can subscribe.
If you had a free subscription to the Bulletin content, your subscription will automatically be moved over to Substack. But instead of receiving the occasional freebie article while not receiving any of the paywalled content, you will receive a partial version of every Premium/paywalled article. Basically, you’ll get to read a few paragraphs before the paywall kicks in. Maybe this will entice you to subscribe, or maybe not. Either way, you’ll at least get a little taste of the Premium stuff each week. (And you too will be getting an email from me tomorrow, spelling out all of this in greater detail.)
If you paid me directly for my non-Facebook email workaround, your subscription will be converted into a paid Substack subscription. So you’ll still get the Premium articles each week, but they’ll be emailed to you by Substack, not by me. Plus the photos won’t expire after a few days, plus-plus you’ll be able to read the articles on the web and post comments, whoo-hoo! Your new Substack subscription will last as long as your “workaround subscription” was supposed to last (in some cases we’re rounding up, so you might even get an extra month or two), so if you paid me for the workaround back in April, you’ll have Premium Substack access until at least next April. After that, you’ll be prompted to subscribe again via Substack. (And yes, you’ll be getting an email from me tomorrow as well, just so nobody feels left out.)
If you bought the UW+/Bulletin bundle and were receiving the Premium articles via email, your Bulletin subscription will be converted into a paid Substack subscription. So you’ll still get the Premium articles each week, but they’ll be emailed to you by Substack, not by me. Just like the workaround people, you’ll get the rest of the full year that you already paid for, and maybe a month or two more. (And yes, you’ll also get an email from me tomorrow.)
If you never subscribed to my Bulletin column in any way, you may want to give my Premium articles another look now that they’re moving to Substack. There’s no Facebook involvement, no need to have a Facebook account in order to pay, etc., etc.
If you’re interested in the Bulletin archives, they’ll still be available on Bulletin through the end of March, plus we’re also in the process of moving them to Substack. With a bit of luck, we miiiight have them transferred to Substack by Friday. Otherwise, sometime next week.
Those are the basics. If you have any other questions or concerns, feel free to post them in the comments or shoot me a note and I’ll do my best to answer.
One bit of fallout from all this: We will no longer be able to offer the UW+/Premium bundle. UW+ and the Premium subscription will now be two distinct purchases.
I realize that all the recent changes (the site redesign, the launch of UW+, and the change of venue for the Premium column) can be confusing and a bit head-spinning — for me too! I’m hoping this should be the last major change for the foreseeable future, and that we can settle in for a nice period of Uni Watch stability going forward. Thanks for your continued enthusiasm and support!
Comments (37)
Love this jersey. Has that 70’s style font a lot of TV shows had back in the day.
Yes a 70s style for a team that didn’t exist until the 1980-81 season.
Wow, now that is a good looking NBA uniform!
“…your subscription will be converted into a paid Substack subscription. So you’ll still get the Premium articles each week, but they’ll be emailed to you by Substack, not by me.”
So a substack account will be created for us? How does that work? I assume we’ll be prompted to create a password?
No account needed to receive the emails, which you’ll automatically receive. If you want to post comments, I believe you will have to create an account, yes.
Nice font, awful collar that the Lakers and Heat used to have (or still do): the wishbone collar.
I will shout at every cloud in the sky until that wishbone collar is dead and buried.
It looks like it’s playing off the city of Dallas logo and…..very surprising if this is so, the Dallas Water Utilities logo
The helmet of SMU’s “Dallas” uniform uses a similar font. So I think there is something to this
That is an outstanding jersey. The right shade of blue and the right shade of green make a great combination. Like the original Vancouver Canucks uniforms.
“If you paid me directly for my non-Facebook email workaround,… plus-plus you’ll be able to read the articles on the web and post comments, whoo-hoo!”
Whoo-hoo Indeed!
The collar almost reminds me of the classic Hartford Whalers logo. The colors are similar, at least to my eye, and while the collar is not a perfect W by any stretch, it’s close enough to move my mind on that direction. Is it just me?
I was going to say with the ribbing of the collar fabric it kind of looks like a zipper.
I even like the collar.
Really love that Mavs jersey–a rare win by the Nike designers!
On an unrelated front, and sorry if this has been observed previously, but as someone who really, really dislikes “softball tops,” I’ve been gratified to see (if my observations have been thorough and accurate enough) that every team that’s worn dark “softball tops” in the MLB playoffs so far has lost that game except in the one instance where both teams wore them (Game 3 of Indians-Rays). And I like to think the Mets cursed themselves out of the playoffs by daring to wear those dreaded black tops in Game 1.
I think those of us who grew up in the 80’s are more hesitant to like the softball tops because we saw the end of the technicolor 70’s give way to either gray or light blue away jerseys (only the Cubs and Astros were not gray/light blue on the road in 1989), so it was subliminal that those were the only acceptable choices along with white at home.
I think the bigger sartorial problem in MLB is the proliferaion of home jerseys, with every team getting CC + regular home Sunday alts.
I’m a ’60s guy so that’s when my tastes were formed, and back then nobody wore the dark-colored jerseys (except some Little Leaguers and softball teams). I do love the monochrome navy road uniforms the White Sox came out with in the late ’70s, in part because they relate to a lot of early-baseball uniform history. And they avoid the mismatched top-and-bottom look that didn’t exist back in my youth, so is hard on my eyes.
“the Mets cursed themselves out of the playoffs by daring to wear those dreaded black tops in Game 1”
While I didn’t *predict* this by any means, as soon as the Mess announced the BFBS jerseys early on Friday I shot Paul an e-mail saying something to the effect of “goddamit, they’re wearing the BFBS tonight.” I know it’s their Friday night home game *thing* but this is the PLAYOFFS man. You don’t wear sweatpants to church and you don’t play your first playoff game in six years in anything but the gorgeous pins. Cursed themselves is right. I said to myself, “SOFM” and sure enough, they proved me right.
A rare good one from Nike! The colors are brilliant in a Canucks kind of way and that Dallas workmark with the thick drop shadow is a joy to behold.
If they don’t play Disco Inferno when they wear these, I will be incredibly disappointed
Or Glenn “Disco Inferno” Gilbertti’s WCW entrance theme.
Meh. No idea how Dallas ties into that uniform. The Mavs didn’t even exist in the 1970s. And can we eliminate wishbone collars forever?!?
The Substack reading experience is pretty good, given my experience with a couple of other writers/publications that I subscribe to on there. Certainly glad that some of my media consumption habits are converging into one platform.
This is unrelated to anything written here but I’m not sure where else to share this.
It’s been mildly disappointing how many people are using “playoffs” to refer to the baseball “postseason”. I know they’re one and the same but I really like the idea of a “postseason” which is unique to baseball, considering they have such a long regular season.
If I remember correctly, MLB used to have special postseason logos.
Maybe it’s just me though.
I’m on the other side of this: I grew up with “playoffs,” and then they started branding it as the “League Championship Series,” and then further branding followed after that.
To me, it’s all the playoffs until we get to the World Series. I don’t need a special brand or logo (or hoodie) for every round.
YMMV!
Interesting. I didn’t realize the history there.
I thought “postseason” was a term that came about organically. If it’s a result of marketing/branding, it’s making me reconsider my original stance.
Thanks for this.
“I’m on the other side of this: I grew up with “playoffs,” and then they started branding it as the “League Championship Series,” and then further branding followed after that.”
Curious what you mean by this Paul? The ALCS and NLCS has had those nomenclature designations since they were first played in 1969. Are you referring to the previous “playoffs” that were required in years of a tie pre-1969, or just that the ALCS and NLCS names, while always official from 1969 onwards, were more heavily promoted following the introduction of the Wild Card and annual Division Series (a name which itself had been used for the strike shortened 1981 season’s playoffs) in the mid-90s as MLB tried to brand each round?
The latter.
In terms of basic vernacular, everyone — fans, broadcasters, writers — said, “playoffs.” Growing up in the ’70s, I can assure you that nobody said LCS (spelled out or abbreviated).
What if I don’t remember when I signed up for annual bulletin? Did it only become available in January? Looking forward to subastack.
Paid Bulletin became available in late January — less than a year ago — so every paid annual subscriber will get the full refund.
Also, I just looked up your email address: You purchased an annual subscription on April 4. So you got 6+ months for free!
Oh man, I dig that! (It’s a bummer their logo sucks tho… lookin like some weird amorphous blob: “What’s that, a horse?”)
I don’t like block shadow that goes 90 degrees from the number/letter. It should go diagonal. But that’s a minor gripe.
I’d also like to see this as their primary set. The green goes so much better with the bright blue than navy, that’s for sure.
I’m going to have to pick one of these up the next time I pass through Love Field. Those are gorgeous. A shining vibrant blue beacon in a field of black and white.
Fun looking font on the Dallas mavericks tank tops but hopefully just for a few local events like their state fair celebrations and then moth balled.
If we’re digging for Dallas storytelling in that jersey wordmark my guess is the Dallas highway system, specifically the High Five Interchange at 75 and 635.
Love this jersey. Has that 70’s style font a lot of TV shows had back in the day.
Yes a 70s style for a team that didn’t exist until the 1980-81 season.
Wow, now that is a good looking NBA uniform!
“…your subscription will be converted into a paid Substack subscription. So you’ll still get the Premium articles each week, but they’ll be emailed to you by Substack, not by me.”
So a substack account will be created for us? How does that work? I assume we’ll be prompted to create a password?
No account needed to receive the emails, which you’ll automatically receive. If you want to post comments, I believe you will have to create an account, yes.
Nice font, awful collar that the Lakers and Heat used to have (or still do): the wishbone collar.
I will shout at every cloud in the sky until that wishbone collar is dead and buried.
It looks like it’s playing off the city of Dallas logo and…..very surprising if this is so, the Dallas Water Utilities logo
The helmet of SMU’s “Dallas” uniform uses a similar font. So I think there is something to this
That is an outstanding jersey. The right shade of blue and the right shade of green make a great combination. Like the original Vancouver Canucks uniforms.
“If you paid me directly for my non-Facebook email workaround,… plus-plus you’ll be able to read the articles on the web and post comments, whoo-hoo!”
Whoo-hoo Indeed!
The collar almost reminds me of the classic Hartford Whalers logo. The colors are similar, at least to my eye, and while the collar is not a perfect W by any stretch, it’s close enough to move my mind on that direction. Is it just me?
I was going to say with the ribbing of the collar fabric it kind of looks like a zipper.
I even like the collar.
Really love that Mavs jersey–a rare win by the Nike designers!
On an unrelated front, and sorry if this has been observed previously, but as someone who really, really dislikes “softball tops,” I’ve been gratified to see (if my observations have been thorough and accurate enough) that every team that’s worn dark “softball tops” in the MLB playoffs so far has lost that game except in the one instance where both teams wore them (Game 3 of Indians-Rays). And I like to think the Mets cursed themselves out of the playoffs by daring to wear those dreaded black tops in Game 1.
I think those of us who grew up in the 80’s are more hesitant to like the softball tops because we saw the end of the technicolor 70’s give way to either gray or light blue away jerseys (only the Cubs and Astros were not gray/light blue on the road in 1989), so it was subliminal that those were the only acceptable choices along with white at home.
I think the bigger sartorial problem in MLB is the proliferaion of home jerseys, with every team getting CC + regular home Sunday alts.
I’m a ’60s guy so that’s when my tastes were formed, and back then nobody wore the dark-colored jerseys (except some Little Leaguers and softball teams). I do love the monochrome navy road uniforms the White Sox came out with in the late ’70s, in part because they relate to a lot of early-baseball uniform history. And they avoid the mismatched top-and-bottom look that didn’t exist back in my youth, so is hard on my eyes.
“the Mets cursed themselves out of the playoffs by daring to wear those dreaded black tops in Game 1”
While I didn’t *predict* this by any means, as soon as the Mess announced the BFBS jerseys early on Friday I shot Paul an e-mail saying something to the effect of “goddamit, they’re wearing the BFBS tonight.” I know it’s their Friday night home game *thing* but this is the PLAYOFFS man. You don’t wear sweatpants to church and you don’t play your first playoff game in six years in anything but the gorgeous pins. Cursed themselves is right. I said to myself, “SOFM” and sure enough, they proved me right.
A rare good one from Nike! The colors are brilliant in a Canucks kind of way and that Dallas workmark with the thick drop shadow is a joy to behold.
If they don’t play Disco Inferno when they wear these, I will be incredibly disappointed
Or Glenn “Disco Inferno” Gilbertti’s WCW entrance theme.
Meh. No idea how Dallas ties into that uniform. The Mavs didn’t even exist in the 1970s. And can we eliminate wishbone collars forever?!?
The Substack reading experience is pretty good, given my experience with a couple of other writers/publications that I subscribe to on there. Certainly glad that some of my media consumption habits are converging into one platform.
This is unrelated to anything written here but I’m not sure where else to share this.
It’s been mildly disappointing how many people are using “playoffs” to refer to the baseball “postseason”. I know they’re one and the same but I really like the idea of a “postseason” which is unique to baseball, considering they have such a long regular season.
If I remember correctly, MLB used to have special postseason logos.
Maybe it’s just me though.
I’m on the other side of this: I grew up with “playoffs,” and then they started branding it as the “League Championship Series,” and then further branding followed after that.
To me, it’s all the playoffs until we get to the World Series. I don’t need a special brand or logo (or hoodie) for every round.
YMMV!
Interesting. I didn’t realize the history there.
I thought “postseason” was a term that came about organically. If it’s a result of marketing/branding, it’s making me reconsider my original stance.
Thanks for this.
“I’m on the other side of this: I grew up with “playoffs,” and then they started branding it as the “League Championship Series,” and then further branding followed after that.”
Curious what you mean by this Paul? The ALCS and NLCS has had those nomenclature designations since they were first played in 1969. Are you referring to the previous “playoffs” that were required in years of a tie pre-1969, or just that the ALCS and NLCS names, while always official from 1969 onwards, were more heavily promoted following the introduction of the Wild Card and annual Division Series (a name which itself had been used for the strike shortened 1981 season’s playoffs) in the mid-90s as MLB tried to brand each round?
The latter.
In terms of basic vernacular, everyone — fans, broadcasters, writers — said, “playoffs.” Growing up in the ’70s, I can assure you that nobody said LCS (spelled out or abbreviated).
What if I don’t remember when I signed up for annual bulletin? Did it only become available in January? Looking forward to subastack.
Paid Bulletin became available in late January — less than a year ago — so every paid annual subscriber will get the full refund.
Also, I just looked up your email address: You purchased an annual subscription on April 4. So you got 6+ months for free!
Oh man, I dig that! (It’s a bummer their logo sucks tho… lookin like some weird amorphous blob: “What’s that, a horse?”)
I don’t like block shadow that goes 90 degrees from the number/letter. It should go diagonal. But that’s a minor gripe.
I’d also like to see this as their primary set. The green goes so much better with the bright blue than navy, that’s for sure.
I’m going to have to pick one of these up the next time I pass through Love Field. Those are gorgeous. A shining vibrant blue beacon in a field of black and white.
Fun looking font on the Dallas mavericks tank tops but hopefully just for a few local events like their state fair celebrations and then moth balled.
If we’re digging for Dallas storytelling in that jersey wordmark my guess is the Dallas highway system, specifically the High Five Interchange at 75 and 635.
Something something ‘communities coming together’.
Map: link