The Toronto Raptors will be sporting some new looks when the next NBA season gets underway.
The team announced three new uniforms Thursday morning and teased two more in a slick highlight video on social media.
The video asks fans “Which North are you?” and ends with Kyle Lowry wearing the red “Icon” edition, Pascal Siakam wearing the white “Association” edition and OG Anunoby in the black “Statement” edition.
All three uniforms feature the word Raptors across the front in a chevron shape, similar to the red “Earned” edition uniforms the team wore when it won the NBA title in Game 6 of the 2019 Finals.
“Uniforms do matter to players. Our team made the choice to wear the Earned jerseys during the 2019 Finals, for example,” Raptors President Masai Ujiri said in a statement. “We want to give our players – and our fans – jerseys they’re proud to wear not just because they say Raptors on the front, not just because they’re a symbol of our city and country, but because they also look great. I think that’s what we’ve achieved with these.”
The uniforms were designed in collaboration between MLSE’s in-house design team and Nike. They are made of “of recycled PET bottles, a combination of Alpha Yarns and recycled polyester,” according to a statement, with each uniform representing aproximently 20 bottles.
“As we began to think about the decade ahead, we aimed to create uniforms that not only reflected our franchise’s historic accomplishment in 2019 but also inspired the pursuit of our next championship,” MLSE Chief Marketing Officer Shannon Hosford said in a statement. “Our goal was to continue to evolve our ‘We The North’ Raptors brand identity highlighting our key chevron design, which is synonymous with the North and our championship, while also providing our fans with some added swagger while they show their support.”
Sponsor Sun Life Financial’s logo will remain on the left shoulder for a fourth consecutive season.
Each NBA team has had four edition uniforms since 2017-18, when the traditional home and road jerseys were eliminated. The home team in every game gets to choose which edition they will wear — Association, Icon, Statement and City — with the road team getting to choose an opposing look. The NBA added a fifth uniform — the Earned edition — prior to the 2018-19 season, which is only worn by the 16 teams that made the playoffs the previous year.
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