Well, we can’t call this a “Black-for-Black’s Sake” uniform, but it definitely feels like one, right? The San Francisco 49ers have never worn an alternate jersey that wasn’t red or white, and instead of going down what was probably the logical route of gold, they’ve decided to go for black instead.
Now, while this is unconfirmed and we won’t know what the entire uniform looks like for sure until they officially unveil it later this evening, it does appear to match up with what we’ve been speculating on our Twitter account. Here’s the image that Chris messed around with earlier today:
Yeah, I’m pretty sure that it matches up with the two images we see above. If that’s the case, then it appears that all the Niners have really done here is turn their away jersey black and add black pants with red stripes to the uniform. Also, I’m going to be honet with you: It’s a bad look for the Niners. This is actually a situation where allowing NFL teams to have multiple helmets would help here, because a black helmet would make the uniform look a little bit better. Still bad, but better.
UPDATE (9:16 PM EST): The 49ers have officially unveiled the uniforms, so we’ve got some better pics now.
Samuel Lam over at butatheendoftheday.com had this to say about the Niners choosing black over gold:
This new jersey appears to be a simply recolored version of the team’s standard uniform. Essentially, the 49ers have taken the base of their white jersey and made that black. The red numbers, names (and stripes?) remain. Considering that the team’s logo features black and nowhere else on the standard uniform uses black, this seems to be an odd choice. But given the trend of what alternate uniforms look like in the NFL (and the popularity of black jerseys), this was the only logical direction. A gold alt would have been too difficult to mass produce and it would not look great with the team’s current gold (more like khaki) pants. But they added a gold Nike swoosh on the sleeves. So there’s that for color diversifying.
Adding a black jersey will diversify and grow the potential merchandising opportunities. The team did not go with adding a different red jersey. They went with a new color, which will be a hot sell no doubt among fans.
So what do you guys think: Do you agree with me that black was a bad choice, and/or do you see where Lam’s coming from when it comes to the Niners using black to sell jerseys and merchandise? Let us know how you feel.
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