Ranking and Roasting the leaked NBA City Edition Jerseys

As the team with the best jerseys in the leak, we feel we have the authority to be doing this.

It’s nice to be the winning team again.

On Tuesday, the 2024-25 NBA City Edition jerseys were leaked, and… people have opinions. If you’re new here, every season each team gets to design a new “city edition” jersey, and the design is supposed to celebrate the city and culture of each market. It’s digressed a little over the years, and some of them are just… bad.

Maybe it’s because these design meetings are likely run by some boring white guys with no drip. Maybe it’s because fashion and design have unfortunately become simplistic and all together boring. Who know, but I’m bored.

If you’ve seen/purchased one of the Toronto Raptors black and gold jerseys in recent years, those were the city editions. Not going to lie, it was cool at first. Yet, year after year using the same design ultimately got — say it with me — BORING.

This year is different.

With the 30th anniversary of the Raptors franchise coming up, and Vince Carter’s Hall of Fame induction/eventual jersey retirement (???) — Toronto decided to bring back the dino. Excellent choice.

Here is the leaked Raptors city edition jersey (without the player number, hence the blank space):

The Raptor is doing the Vince Carter dunk, wearing a Vince Carter jersey. It’s kinda obvious the direction this is going, and it’s awesome. While I personally would have loved a bit more nod to the OG white/purple jerseys, there is a lot to like about this. The black/pinstripes and gold accents nod to the more recent city editions. The lack of “Toronto” branding is actually cool, and brings more focus to Carter, which I think is meant to put more focus on him. I hope they do the number in that classic “Raptor” font that the OG numbers were in.

For reference, here are the rest of the leaked designs:

Ultimately, Toronto has the best city edition jersey from the leak. Therefore, I now have the authority to give my opinions on the rest of them.

Bottom Feeders: Did you make this on Canva?

Not even Canva premium, FREE CANVA.

30. Boston Celtics — Terrible

I’ll keep it short — this is one of the worst jerseys I’ve ever seen in my life. It looks like someone made it in a word doc. I won’t even associate Canva with this because it’s so bad. I’ve never been so bored looking at a jersey. The colour does not even match the Celtics usual branding, because this colour more closely resembles Mountain Dew or a green highlighter. I have second hand embarrassment for the city of Boston right now. You win a chip and THIS is your big follow up? Terrible.

29. Denver Nuggets — We get it, you’re on a mountain

These had potential, with the elevation graphics on the side, but ultimately miss the mark. There is nothing to tell me this is a Nuggets jersey — I actually had to go through process of elimination with the others to even figure out this was Denver’s jersey. Like, we get it, you’re at high altitude. Use your expanded lung capacity to take a few more deep breaths before hitting send on a pretty strange jersey design.

28 & 27. San Antonio and Charlotte — Knock off New York Liberty

Both the San Antonio Spurs and Charlotte Hornets went with similar mint/seafoam colourways, with gold/copper accents and slightly different fonts for the words. Ultimately, both just look like knockoff New York Liberty WNBA jerseys. The Charlotte one legitimately looks like Nike had extra stock from the Liberty’s “Equality” jerseys circa 2021 and just stitched Charotte on them instead.

We get it, you wanna be as cool as the WNBA. Be more creative.

25. LA Lakers — Making it easy to be a hater

I didn’t even need a picture for this. Its a poorly ombre-d purple and black jersey with “Lake Show” in gold letters. There is literally nothing else about this jersey. I actually feel bad that LeBron has to wear this in what may be his last NBA season.

I beg any of these jersey designers to take an artistic risk.

24. Miami Heat — Stop trying to get in on the joke

I feel like people using the term “Heat Culture” kind of became a joke in recent years, and now Miami is trying to turn around the narrative on the phrase. Ultimately, this is just a colour swapped edition of last year’s Heat culture jersey. It was bad in black, it’s worse in red.

23. Minnesota Timberwolves — just… WHY?

This is ranked slightly higher because I do appreciate the effort to be different. The effort failed.

The font — TERRIBLE. Whatever design they are trying to do up top? I don’t even know what it’s supposed to be. The fact that it just fades to NOTHING on the bottom is so drastic and odd. Making the side stripes say “Land of 1,000 Lakes” isn’t doing anything for ya.

Yikes.

The Mids: Yawn

Where fashion goes to die. Or where fashion goes to hang in an overpriced team merch store, ultimately to be bought by an absent father who thinks taking his kid to one mid-range, poorly attended sports event per year gives him parenting points. This jersey will then gather dust in a closet for 10-30 more years.

22.-8. — I am not moved by any of these

Cool, you put your city name in block letters on a solid colour jersey. Good for you. Glad you were able to save company time on this, because each of these probably took about 5 mins to whip up.

Brooklyn Nets, Dallas Mavericks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Chicago Bulls, Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, Indiana Pacers, LA Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, Milwaukee Bucks, Washington Wizards, New Orleans Pelicans, New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers, Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings — YA BASIC.

The Top Class: Slightly Elevated

You know when you’re going out, and you text the group chat “what are we wearing? what’s the vibe?” and someone replies “slightly elevated” — so instead of wearing jeans and a tee you swap for a comfy/casual skirt and a blouse? Yet, you’re still wearing sneakers because it’s not nice enough for other shoes? That’s what these next jerseys feel like.

7. Atlanta Hawks — you tried

It’s not just a word on a blank jersey, and I respect that. Does the design hit the spot? Not really. The stripe is oddly placed, blue isn’t even in their normal colour way, and I don’t get what they are trying to do with this.

Yet, they tried something different. In this era of boring design, I can applaud that.

6. Phoenix Suns — YeeHaw

Congrats! You understand the concept of imagery.

This one is treading into boring, but saves itself thanks to some key factors. First, the star — who new a simple 2D star would move me. Second, the Aztec pattern on the sides is screaming Phoenix, and that’s the whole point of this, right? Lastly, the font + Star + “The Valley” = a theme — Yeehaw. I like a theme. We’re supposed to be having fun, right?

5. Cleveland Cavaliers — Could be better, could be worse

Is it also block letters on a solid colour jersey? Yes. BUT what gets me about this one is the side parts (patches? stripes? idk). I like this design that uses all their past logos/fonts. It’s giving newspaper print, but with a nod to the franchises history.

4. Utah Jazz — Thanks for stepping out of the box

Wow! Someone used some graphic design skill! I’m shocked. We all know Utah is a place with mountains, but instead of using a weird cryptic way of describing that, they just threw on some mountains. It’s fun, to the point, and more visually appealing that most of the other jerseys.

With the rise of Hulu’s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, I was hoping the jersey was going to be inspired by the giant Swig cups the women drink 40 oz. 8am sodas in because they can’t drink coffee, but this is also good. In other news, bring a Swig to Toronto.

3. Detroit Pistons — Great use of font

This is a nice jersey. The font of the “Pistons” logo screams motor city, and the orange/cream colours are really pleasing. They also give race car/harley davidson vibes without baiting a lawsuit from the Milwaukee Bucks.

It’s a fun nod to the city without being corny, which is what the goal should be.

Simple, clean, nice — without being boring. Take notes, other teams.

2. The Orlando Magic — I like this

Ultimately, the Magic understood the assignment. Retro/vintage is in, and they leaned into that. The classic “Magic” font, the star as the “A”, the pinstripes. What pulls this together for me is the use of a slightly off-white/pattern and black colour way. It adds a little bit of elevation to the jersey.

Platinum Level: Iconic

Hang it in the Louvre.

1. Toronto Raptors — Bringing back the Dino <3

Is this ranking screaming homer? Yes. Do I care? No.

The classic Raptor is probably the coolest sports logo of all time. Mixed with the 90s maximalist design and font choices of the original Raptors visuals… there will never be anything like it.

I’m SO glad they brought back the dino this season, and hope it stays past the 30th anniversary celebrations. It’s the opposite of the bland, boring, block-lettery abominations of the current era. It’s so past chevron, and thank the heavens for that.