The new Nuggets City Edition gear lacks luster
Back in 2018 / 2019, when the Nuggets introduced their new color pallet and logos fans were righty stoked. The “Mile High City” pickaxe insignia and the domed, updated Skyline logo (with a star in the foreground representing the location of the arena), along with the beautiful rainbow themes were sleek, modern and very cool. The team needed a post-Melo, post-Carolina blue era refresh, and it just so happened that one coincided with the arrival of Nikola Jokic. Lots for fans to be excited about.
Since the introduction of the new color palette, which includes midnight blue, skyline blue, flatirons red and sunshine yellow, the Nuggets have had some of the snappiest kits in basketball and fans have had tons of dope threads to pick from at the Altitude Authentics store.
It remains the case that the team store has a bevy of good choices; but this most recent rendition of the “City Edition” selection lacks the luster of the others. For 2023 / 2024 the Nuggets will highlight the number “5280”, and feature it on alternate unis. That’s neat, but the black unis with sunshine yellow insignias seem ordinary in comparison to 2022 / 2023 ones, which had a white background, or a black one, with the rainbow Skyline.
The “Pickaxe” logo is used heavily this season. It’s a classic insignia; but the Skyline is more iconic – not to mention more attractive. The new styles seem oversimplified, and emblematic of the minimization that plagues design in the modern era. This has resulted in slate gray storefronts for major retail brands like Target, McDonald’s and Starbucks and the cloning of today’s automobiles. This look does less so differentiate the Nuggets from other teams.
Don’t get me wrong, I am going to buy the shit out of this stuff. I can’t help myself. But I hope that next season, designers produce more interesting styles. This stuff is dull.
