The Oklahoma City Thunder revealed their new 2021-22 “City” Edition uniforms (or “Mixtape” as we’ve sometimes seen them called) this week, probably in a way they didn’t initially intend to… of course, it’s also entirely possible they don’t even know they’ve revealed the uniform yet.
Our first look at OKC’s new white, white, and slightly darker white uniform comes courtesy the club’s official media/press guide for the new season, pasted onto a page showcasing the club’s four uniform options in 2022.
Here it is.
Yup. There it was.
The design, just like the rest of the NBA’s 2021-22 Nike City/Mixtape uniform collection, is a mashup of previous jersey designs from the club’s Oklahoma City chunk of their franchise history. Here, the team calls back to such iconic Thunder uniform designs as that one alternate uniform they used to have… you know, the blue one with the thing? And that other one, the one with the horizontal lines… Remember? No?
Look, I’m sorry… it’s just hard to get excited about a new Thunder uniform, the most bland team (design-wise, anyways) in the NBA is giving us a white-on-white trip through their uniform history? Oh boy. No longer will people have to listen to pre-recorded thunder to help them fall asleep, they’ll simply flip through their uniform history.
Anyways. Enough of my nonsense. Onto the design.
The jersey is white with a vertical line down the front, similar in style (not colour) as their alternate navy uniforms circa 2012-16. Inside is the “OKC” from their sunset alternate uniforms from 2014-17 now stacked vertically rather than horizontally. Inside this stripe are a series of silver horizontal lines increasing in thickness as it gets closer to the waist, this is a call back to a design featured on a few of their alternate uniforms beginning on a navy blue set in 2017 and now worn on their orange set (when originally unveiled in 2017, the club said the lines were supposed to represent the sound waves made by a crash of thunder).
The shorts, also white, have a diagonal stripe going up the left side, as worn on their 2018-19 City Edition shorts. On the back left leg is “THUNDER” stacked vertically, taken again from that 2012-16 alternate navy jersey. On the waistband of the shorts is a real deep cut for OKC basketball fans, it’s the placeholder logo the team used (altered to now read OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER, oh and to exclude the Adidas logo) from that brief moment in time after the franchise moved from Seattle but before they picked a name or unveiled a logo.
It’s a lot of design elements all packed into one, from a series of, what were originally, very colourful uniforms (navy blue, sunset orange, light blue) but presented here, stripped of all that made them interesting. It’s just a shame is all, because this isn’t really that bad of a design, it just needs some life.
Did I miss some obscure Thunder uniform reference here? Did I mistake one reference for another? It happens, kindly let me know in the comments and I’ll fix it up. Thanks!
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