Houston Rockets: Reviewing the new Nike uniforms

The Houston Rockets have officially revealed two of their new Nike uniforms for the 2017-18 NBA season. Let’s take a closer look at their new look.

With Nike taking over jerseys in the NBA for the foreseeable future, we knew each team would have some form of new uniforms for the upcoming season. In fact, teams will now have four jersey options, and there will no longer be a “wear white at home” protocol.

Several teams have revealed their jerseys in recent days and weeks, while numerous teams revealed their new looks on Thursday. One of those teams was the Houston Rockets, who decided to maintain a low profile with their reveal.

The first reaction many had to their new jerseys was “bleh”.  And rightly so. While other teams like the Minnesota Timberwolves and Indiana Pacers used the switch to Nike to undergo a complete makeover, the Rockets decided to simply clean up and modernize their previous uniforms.

Below you can see an in-depth breakdown of the jerseys, as well as a comparison to Houston’s previous home and road jerseys.

https://twitter.com/HoustonRockets/status/895738884516085760

Do the new Nike jerseys look better than the previous iterations? Yes. Should the Rockets have made drastic changes to their primary uniforms? Also, yes. Houston has had several good uniforms in the past, including their beloved jerseys they sported for nearly two decades.

Teams are always hesitant to revert to past logos and jerseys, but in this case, using a different font for Rockets would have made these uniforms more fresh and unique. The cleaner side/arm panels on the Nike jerseys are a significant improvement over the crowded, double-stripped jerseys of previous years. Also, the gray and red go better together on the new uniforms than they did on the Adidas version. Again, probably as a result of the cleaner, more modern look.

As mentioned previously, teams will have four jerseys to choose from for each game, meaning the Rockets still have two others to reveal this summer. Hopefully those two are the black alternates debuted last season and some version of the red and mustard “McDonald’s” jersey.

Houston should avoid mainly gray jerseys, as in the past they have resulted in eye-sores like these (it’s important to note that there will no longer be sleeved jerseys for any team).

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In the end, the Rockets had the perfect opportunity to upgrade and significantly overhaul their jersey designs, but decided to simply modernize their previous versions. Fans should now be hoping their two alternate jerseys will be as good as previous iterations.