When the NBA made the switch from Adidas to Nike as the league’s official uniform supplier, we saw every team depart from the traditional home-and-away set in favor of (at least) four frequently updated uniforms per team.
Nike’s City Edition uniforms are among the uniforms that change each season for every NBA team, and over the past few weeks, we’ve seen the 2020-21 designs leak on social and get unveiled. Between the Suns’ awesome Valley jerseys and the Knicks’ terrible “City Never Sleeps” set, they’ve been pretty hit-or-miss.
But none of these designs are going to keep fans busier than the apparent City jerseys for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
🚨 VAZOU!
Esta é a camisa City Edition do CLEVELAND CAVALIERS.
O "rock and roll", termo que surgiu em Cleveland, é o tema do uniforme. A cidade revelou muitos artistas importantes, como Tracy Chapman.
Chama atenção a customização dos números e do logotipo da Nike. pic.twitter.com/xAF5HjWtpF
— Camisas da NBA (@camisasdanba) November 29, 2020
At first glance, the jersey is ugly — let’s be honest. But there is at least a hidden message behind the design.
The “Cleveland” text is comprised entirely of iconic Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band wordmarks. It’s basically a Riddler-style ransom letter on a jersey as a nod to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame being in Cleveland. But man, fans have really tried to figure it out.
The Cavs' 2020 City jersey has leaked and it pays homage to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The wordmark appears to reference 8 famous bands' logos, six of which I was able to approximate or guess correctly. What do you think of the design? Can you identify the remaining letters? pic.twitter.com/CbjAOxtI6y
— DITQ15 (@DITQ15) November 30, 2020
That’s clever @cavs
I solved the mystery pic.twitter.com/d5xyC17bNg— Colin Talboo🩸 (@PrimeWindIer) November 30, 2020
As you can see, there’s some disagreement between the social media guesses. It does appear to be something like:
C – Cleveland Cavaliers
L – Sex Pistols
E – The Who
V – David Bowie
E – Metallica
L – The Beatles, maybe? The bottom of the “L” looks slightly different, but it has to be The Beatles, right?
A – Nirvana
N – NWA
D – Pink Floyd
In all, the idea is actually awesome — really clever! It’s still an ugly jersey, but I’d love to know what that marketing and design meeting was like.
