Boardroom goes inside Nike’s big reveal of the new Suns City Edition jersey to be worn by the likes of Devin Booker, Chris Paul, Deandre Ayton, and Mikal Bridges.
The 2022-23 NBA Nike City Edition jerseys are here, with 29 of the 30 teams (the Utah Jazz are sitting this one out) taking various creative inspirations after a year of designs that combined iconic elements from their histories to celebrate the league’s 75th anniversary. This year’s league-wide initiative aims to honor the inherent bond between court, community, and culture.
Boardroom was at Nike’s NYC HQ last week to get a first look at the jerseys and had a chance to speak with NBA and Nike execs on the stories behind the uniforms that you’ll soon see on the court.
Behold — the Phoenix Suns 2022-23 City Edition jersey in all its glory.
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The 2022-23 Suns City Edition Jerseys
The jerseys were designed to celebrate the 22 indigenous tribes that have called the Phoenix region home for thousands of years. The turquoise color represents the protection — or living — stone, which carries special meaning among the local indigenous community. The red trim represents the color of the land and soil found across Arizona.
The uniform’s side panels use a traditional stairstep pattern depicted in regional ingenious art, bordered by a black tape feature that translates to “the sun” in all of Arizona’s native tribal languages. The belt buckle highlights a new logo combining the PHX word mark and a basketball surrounded by 22 red, yellow, black, and white feathers — the colors of the traditional medicine wheel depicting the four directions and cycles of life representing the Arizona tribal nations. The waistband design represents sashes worn by some of these tribal nations, and the shorts display 22 arrowheads along the hem line.
“There is so much deep storytelling in this one,” Nadia Roohparvar, the NBA’s manager of on-court and brand partnerships, told Boardroom. “Every step of the way, the Suns were connected with all the tribes in the state of Arizona. The color choices and the symbolism are super reflective of all the tribes because our goal here was to make sure that every tribe felt included, weighed in, and no one was getting offended by a single color choice or a single symbol being used. All the symbolism truly resonated.”
Learn more about Nike’s 2022-23 NBA City Edition jerseys:
- Atlanta Hawks
- Brooklyn Nets
- Chicago Bulls
- Cleveland Cavaliers
- Golden State Warriors
- Los Angeles Clippers
- Los Angeles Lakers
- Milwaukee Bucks
- Miami Heat
- Philadelphia 76ers
- Portland Trail Blazers
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