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New Magic Jersey (Merged)

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 6:32 am
by Orange Ave.
Juicy insight into the next Magic Jerseys

At the risk of getting this guy in trouble at his NBA RETAIL JOB in ORLANDO, I'll keep this guy's identity and place of occupation annonymous. Suffice to say, it's his job to contract with the league to keep his establishment stocked with NBA apparel. LOTS OF IT.

So he tells me he's seen the new Magic jersey... and he doesn't like them. But, the players love them.

Next year, four teams will have new jerseys, Orlando, Sacramento, Minnesota and he said Charlotte, but I'm wondering if he didn't mean New Orleans (Hornets). Then the following season, 8 teams will be getting new jerseys.

The new jerseys were shown to him and some of the players quickly on a table by the designers. The Magic players there were big fans.

They are, according to his description, white for home, blue for road and both pinstriped. HOWEVER, the pinstripes on the jersey, as they hit the logo in the center of the chest, they slant outwards towards the shoulders. He made the drawing motion to show how they start straight until mid chest then sort of follow the neckline/collar and slant away over each shoulder. He didn't like it. Sounds funky to me, but the idea is starting to grow on me. The originals were pretty wacky and flashy after all.

I asked if they are changing the actual Magic Logo, he said he didn't see the full Magic Logo, but said they cleaned up the "ball" alternate" logo to remove the stars behind it, or otherwise "Clean it up" as he said. I asked if the words Magic and Orlando will be written in the current block lettering, or be changed. At first he wasn't sure, but then later seemed sure that it was written in the Magic chalkboard writing used in the logo now and on the front of the dazzle fabric jerseys. (The arched "Magic" lettering.) I asked why no black road jersey. He said the league is prohibiting any team from going black... too gloomy. I didn't mention San Antonio because it made sense anyway.

Word is that Magic Management is now against a new jersey. They have a stockpile of current jerseys that aren't selling and they want to clean out that inventory first. They started to complain about the new design Adidas and the NBA came up with, but he believes the real reason they are moaning is because they want to unload the current overstock. This guy agreed and hoped they wouldn't get new ones until the new arena was done because he has so many current jerseys in stock. He said the shorts were nice, pinstriped, no other specifics. I asked if they had the large star on the side like the originals. He said they did not.

He said Adidas wants these done because they have a new lightweight, sweat-wicking fabric they want to employ that is all their own. Reebok reinvented jerseys when they were the official outfitter as well. No word if that means some kind of funky new collar like the Lakers and Heat got or what. That's it. This man was legit, that's all I can tell you. He's in charge of supplying a LARGE NBA apparel establishment in the CITY. The brief showing was for Magic managment, a few players and two retailers, he being one of them, so that they are in the loop and presumably, so that tweaks can be made. He sounded like this was pretty much it though, and that they would ultimately move forward since the public is already expecting new jerseys and Adidas wants the sales jump.


Based on this description, I tried to recreate what it might look like. This is by NO means based on anything other than exactly what I have written above. I welcome eveybody to give a shot at interpreting this guys description. I don't know if the number is block like the current J's or will be chalkboard to match the lettering. I left it block out of laziness. I don't know if the stripes will be thin and blue or thick and black. Just my stab at it....

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Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 7:31 am
by MagicMadness
First thoughts: They're going to suck.

I'm a fan of a traditional look. This sounds like we might be going with what's "hip" at the moment, i.e. - we'll get new jerseys five years from now (again) when these go out of style.

I guess being a baseball fan, I see so many teams with deep traditions and timeless uniforms. I wish we could do that. :-?

Hopefully, I'm wrong about these new unis. I'll stay poitive. I honestly like our current ones the most out of our three - though small improvements could be made.

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 7:51 am
by inmate347
^

I like it, it's a definite improvement on the plain jerseys we have now.

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 7:52 am
by SOUL
ARGHHHHHHH

just go back to the black with white pinstripes!

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 12:59 pm
by AdamTheGreek
I really hope they would make the blue darker.

This might work out, looks kind of weird now but I'll take it over our current ones anyday of the week (there's a reason why no one wants to buy those plain jerseys).

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 1:56 pm
by acfusion29
There will not be any stripes on any new jerseys.

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 2:06 pm
by Magicfan94
I've heard the new jerseys do not have stripes and are not a sure thing yet.

It was discussed more last summer, but has cooled this year. We'll see if managment breaks them out.

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 2:12 pm
by Bigmagicfan82
I like it... :thumbsup:

It's unique. It's kind of like mixing the old (95 pinstripes) with the new style of jersey. At the same time it does not copy the old jersey. Instead it creates a new jersey and a new stile for the team.

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 2:24 pm
by theTHIEF
i would have liked us to get an all black road jersey to go with our blue road jersey...

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 2:42 pm
by mattyBoi
Thanks for the insight Orange...Ill honestly be happy with any designs they come up with...Cant get any worse than what we have now

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 3:33 pm
by macdalejax
Cant get any worse than what we have now

Careful what you wish for. LOL

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 3:49 pm
by TheRevTy
While I too would love to return to our Black Magic phase, I was a fan of the blue pinstriped jerseys, and they do seem to be honing in on the blue and white.

For what it's worth, I had heard a while back in a couple other places that the NBA didn't want anymore black jerseys. That is why teams like Boston add black as an accent color rather than a primary on alternate jerseys (and Minnesota has worn blue more than black recently).

Maybe Magic management should think to themselves "say, we're having a hard time unloading all of our current jerseys. Maybe that's because they are the most boring uniforms in all of professional sports." Essentially, the Magic need Zataran's. You know, jazz it up. I hope we don't have the same neck and shoulder piping.

At any rate, if the players all like it, it can't be too bad. I wonder which of our past jerseys they have liked?

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 4:04 pm
by UKMagic
Seriously combine our three jerseys so far and we'd have a great jersey....

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 4:15 pm
by ORL
There's an interesting story regarding the original Magic jerseys. Apparently, they couldn't get on the same page with the official NBA supplier (a factory somewhere up north), and they would send the jersey over here, we would make corrections, send it back, but they would make another mistake. This process dragged on for like a year.

Finally we sent Doug Minear, the designer, up there and he was told that considering the width of the pinstripes that we wanted, there was no fabric that those could be sewn onto. They found a solution when they stumbled onto the fabric (literally out of a box full of unused jerseys) that was to be used by the old Cleveland Browns.

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 4:38 pm
by MagicMadness
Why do so many people dislike our "plain" jerseys?

It's as close to a classic look as we've ever been. I'd much rather have a look that'll stand the test of time and define our history than a jersey that gets updated every few years when it falls out of style.

Not saying that our current jerseys are perfect. Just that they're as close to a "doesn't need to be updated" look as we've been so far.

Sorry guys, guess I'm in the minority here.

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 6:00 pm
by OrlandoMagic
MagicMadness wrote:Why do so many people dislike our "plain" jerseys?

It's as close to a classic look as we've ever been
. I'd much rather have a look that'll stand the test of time and define our history than a jersey that gets updated every few years when it falls out of style.

Not saying that our current jerseys are perfect. Just that they're as close to a "doesn't need to be updated" look as we've been so far.

Sorry guys, guess I'm in the minority here.



that could be why. I perfer unique than plain or classic looks.

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 10:45 pm
by MagicMadness
Uniquely classic maybe? Heh

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:02 pm
by dmac812
our current jerseys are plain and boring. the black pinstripes are uniquely classic. an updated version of those would be the way to go.

new jerseys?

Posted: Thu Jun 5, 2008 2:21 am
by Mateen Cleaves
heard you guys are getting new jerseys next season, any idea what they look like.

Posted: Thu Jun 5, 2008 2:30 am
by DMannOC
From what has been rumored. They will have pinstripes, they will have some part of all our past uniforms integrated in, there will be no black.