Pelicans Raise the Flag With New 2021 City Uniforms

The New Orleans Pelicans made their long leaked City Edition uniform official earlier today, the uniform features a design based almost entirely on the New Orleans city flag.

True to the layout of the flag, it begins with a horizontal red band across the top followed by a wide white centre stripe which continues all the way down to just above the knees where a blue stripe finishes the job. Also like the flag, there are three gold fleur-de-lis on the white band, though unlike the flag they are not vertically centred.

“These jerseys embody who we are and why we love New Orleans,” said New Orleans Pelicans President Dennis Lauscha in the official release. “Our fans never stop fighting and neither do we. We are proud to wear these jerseys to represent New Orleans on a national stage and can’t wait to see our fans support their home team in this City Edition look.”

The bottom of the shorts, within the blue stripe, features one of city’s many nicknames “NOLA” (for “New Orleans, Lousiana”) in gold lettering. This same font is used for the player numbers which appear below the fleur-de-lis in blue.

According to Wikipedia, New Orleans adopted their city flag in 1918 in celebration of the city’s bicentennial. The flag’s colours are the red for fraternity, white for justice, and blue for liberty. The three gold fleur-de-lis are a second representation of these three same ideas.

This marks a break away from the usual Mardi Gras City uniform the Pelicans have rolled with over the last several years.