Last season, the Miami Heat unveiled their “Home Strong” military appreciation alternate uniform as part of a set of three different alternate uniforms. Aesthetically, it was the worst-looking of the three uniforms, but these uniforms at least had a special and significant meaning behind them, so it made the use of the alternates worth it.
This season, the Heat are going to wear them again, but this time there’s a special twist. Each uniform will have the name of a service member from South Florida who gave their life in the line of duty while serving their country.
It’s a lovely way to pay tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice during their service in the military, so you can’t really be mad at it at all. Here’s further explanation from the Heat:
During the 2016-17 Home Strong campaign, the Miami HEAT will once again wear their Home Strong uniforms, but, this season, the HEAT will honor service members from South Florida who made the ultimate sacrifice protecting our freedoms by wearing a patch with the name of a different fallen hero on their on-court uniform. Each HEAT player and coach will be paired with a different South Florida Gold Star Service Member and their Family to pay homage to the life of their fallen loved one. The HEAT will formally debut this new edition of their Home Strong uniform—designed in-house by the Miami HEAT Creative Department—on Monday, November 7th when Miami travels to Oklahoma City to take on the Thunder. The HEAT will also wear the Home Strong uniform on November 10th vs. the Chicago Bulls, November 12th vs. the Utah Jazz, November 14th at the San Antonio Spurs and November 15th vs. the Atlanta Hawks. The Home Strong uniform is a visual extension of the team’s ongoing charitable work with military families and features olive drab and tan fabrics, traditional military insignia elements and patriotic symbols.
If you want to take a further look at the story of each service member, then check out the Heat’s Home Strong website for this season. You can also get a closer look at the uniform as a whole.
Again, I’m not particularly a huge fan of the design, but I appreciate the sentiment behind honoring the troops who gave their lives, and the act of putting heir names on the uniforms was definitely a very nice gesture by the Heat.