What’s Up With These Wacky New Nets Jerseys?

On Thursday afternoon, with basically no warning, the Brooklyn Nets revealed their “City Edition” uniform for the 2023-24 season. Per the NBA, the City Edition jerseys (a league-wide initiative with Nike, the NBA’s official jersey provider) are intended to “represent the stories, history and heritage that make each franchise unique – honoring the inherent bond between, court, community and culture.” In the past, the Nets’ City Edition uniforms have paid tribute to Biggie and Basquiat. The ones they just unveiled for next year are…interesting, to say the least.

A collaboration with KAWS, the Nike jersey is doused in splashy colors that add some verve to the Nets’ typically dull black and white color scheme. It also has several features that are very KAWS, including a signature from the artist at the bottom, his trademark “XX” on the waistband of the shorts, and the team name spelled out in a genuinely wacky font.

The jerseys have inspired a bevy of online discussion. Take a quick scroll through the replies to the Nets’ tweet that debuted the jerseys, which include barbs saying they look like they were designed by Mario Paint, a video game Nintendo put out in 1992. One comment describes them as a collaboration with Marshall’s, with another straight up declaring them “gross” and “the ugliest uniforms I’ve ever seen.” Personally, my first thought was that the colors and overall vibe felt straight out of the SNL “Z Shirt” sketch.

But interspersed with all the jokesters are also endless flame emojis from fans hailing them as an instant cop, along with what appear to be several devoted KAWS stans who will support the artist no matter what. Discourse remains alive and well.

Praise came from unexpected quarters. New York artist and avant-garde basketball fan Andrew Kuo was one of the people brave enough to voice their support. Kuo described the jerseys as “awesome” and told GQ: “I like that a team is trying to meet us halfway, culturally. Jerseys are just one of the many ways, outside of basketball, that the experience of being a fan can be big, whether that’s fashion or politics. In the era when jerseys are just sans serif typefaces, it’s nice to see the Nets try to do something fun. KAWS is a safe bet for one kind of fan, but not others.”