Thunder Honour Local Native Heritage With New Uniform

The Oklahoma City Thunder today officially unveiled their new turquoise “City Edition” uniform designed to honour the local Native American heritage. The unveiling comes nearly two months after it was the first of the sixteen new NBA uniforms to leak in the last six weeks.

The Thunder chose turquoise as the base colour of the uniform to represent the 11th anniversary stone (it’s the 11th anniversary of their move from Seattle) and as the Native colour of friendship. On the jersey is an “OKC” wordmark in white with black and orange trim. Across the front of the jersey is a diagonal stripe with a zig-zag pattern in it representing the Oklahoma River.

“More than just a uniform, this is a statement of our pride in the Native American culture that is so rich and vibrant in the fabric of Oklahoma,” said Thunder Senior Vice President Brian Byrnes in the press release. “We are honoured to have worked with Nike to develop a design that in so many ways captures and celebrates the influence of our state’s Native American communities.”

Some may disagree, but I think this is the best uniform the Thunder have ever worn in their time in OKC, a low hurdle to clear I know, it’s the only design the team has ever used that’s interesting and actually seems to represent *anything*. I’d be in favour of something like this being used full time going forward, I’d also love to see how this looks in white.

Oklahoma City will wear the uniform six times this season, all of which will be at home. Here’s the full schedule:

November 14 vs New York
November 24 vs Denver
November 30 vs Atlanta
January 12 vs San Antonio
February 5 vs Orlando
March 29 vs Denver