The NBL has released another round of “city” alternative jerseys for the 2019/20 season.
Some are sure fly off the shelves with original designs and street cred… others, may not sell too many.
Here they are ranked from best to worst.
9. Sydney Kings
This will be a reoccurring factor with this list that jerseys that are unrecognisable to the regular jerseys of the team will be lower.
The purple and black is extremely dark, the name ‘Harbour City’ is accurate but no less more iconic as a name for Sydney.
This feels to me similar to the white lettering and against a black and purple background that the Sacramento Kings use in the NBA, but without any white to contrast the black and purple it falls a little short, especially when compared to the Sydney Kings “heritage jerseys” they have released within the same week.
8. South East Melbourne Phoenix
South East Melbourne have had a hot start with a 4-2 record as John Roberson and Mitch Creek light it up during their inaugral season. These ‘Heartland’ jerseys depict the teams primary slogan they have been promoting since opening the doors and it’s nice they didn’t go too wild for a team without any real history so far.
To be slightly cynical while the ‘Heartland’ refers to Melbourne’s South East suburbs where most of it’s basketballers play it’s a little ambitious. Overall these are good but they are extremely similar to the home jersey which puts them at 8.
7. Brisbane Bullets
Brisbane’s city jerseys have stripped away the bright colour scheme the team is known for and gone bold with a black and white design. It works well with the NBL/Hungry Jack’s logo but I don’t thin it represents the Bullets well.
Comparing to the Bullets standard uniforms which uses the Blue, Yellow and White colour palates, similar to the coastal beaches.
Flipping that on it’s head and going monochrome with black and white jerseys is a nice change but perhaps steers too far away from what the Bullets colour schemes have always been and loses their identify. If it didn’t include the “Brisbane” text alongside the somewhat unrecognisable skyline I would have no idea what team this jersey was from.
6. Perth Wildcats
Perth is home to some of the countries most gorgeous sunsets. The Wildcats latest jersey leverages off this with a spectrum of warm colours ranging from yellow to purple.
The Wildcats are known as the red army so it makes sense to not veer too far away from that, but to see that base combined with earthly yellow and orange tones it comes together well.
While both the colour scheme and the tag line “sunset city” fit Perth well, they could have gone with a brighter and bolder to reflect the “sunshine” connection. Recently the Wildcats donned bright pink jerseys for breast cancer awareness which were loud and bold and a hit with the fans, it would have been nice to match those bright tones with this colour scheme.
I think Perth have played it safe, which is fine… but fine doesn’t get you to the top of this list.
Note: Next year a red coloured camouflage jersey would be very cool and fit into the ‘Jungle’ motif.
5. Adelaide 36ers
In 2018/19 Adelaide donned navy coloured jerseys emblazoned with ‘Swoop City’ which received mixed feedback from fans. This year the team has headed in the opposite direction with a clean white base, used “Adelaide” as it’s main title and then paid homage to the “city of churches” tag, the name by which the city is known and loved. Never too late to try out a classic.
The pink and blue mosaic church window along the neck and sides is a great touch. Simple and relevant is never a bad thing.
4. Cairns Taipans
The Cairns Taipans standard jerseys haven’t deviated too far from their original design since entering the league in 1999/00. jerseys have made the top 4 which is unlike the Taipans of recent. The jerseys are bright and vivid and the outline of the map of far north Queensland is a great touch.
The jersey evens gives off a nice Hawaiian shirt feel, especially on the side panels, really adding to the tropical theme of Cairns.
You could nit pick and complain that the design struggles to incorporate some of the sponsors on the jersey but other than that a really tight, well thought out design.
3. Illawarra Hawks
Illawarra stick with the red base and white lining the team is known for and is an overall clean design. The city-lining is a really cool move, although common in these designs isn’t something we’ve ever seen for an Illawarra jersey.
The black numbers make it easy to read, something that other jerseys ie. Brisbane weren’t as successful doing.
The strongest point is perhaps how the design incorporates the team’s major sponsor logo better than any of the other jerseys. The “SLAM” text looks great and obviously screams basketball.
2. Melbourne United
Melbourne had their thinking caps on when they came up with this. The city, known for it’s culture and diversity moved away from traditionally focusing on the city skyline and instead incorporates a vivid pattern trim to represent the multiple flags and nations that make Melbourne the melting pot it is.
The jersey also references cultural icons of Melbourne like the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Central, Chinatown and Melbourne Central.
The “MELB” text is strong and overall there’s not much to complain about with this one.
1. New Zealand Breakers
By far the best jersey is the Breakers, their regular season jerseys are great with Maori patterns and the baby blue or black, but these are just beautiful.
The fading of the pink into the white and blue with the Maori art on the fishhook really does show off New Zealand’s culture. The “Aotearoa” which if you do not know is Maori for “the land of the long white cloud”.
They’ve done well to incorporate the ‘Meadow Fresh’ logo with it looking like a natural part of the design.
Writing on NBL, NBA, NBL1 and occasionally WNBL My knowledge is more so focus in on the NBA and actively learning and studying the NBL during the NBL20 season. I write more essay based pieces or game reports in the case of the NBL1
