Ranking and analyzing all 30 NBA City edition uniforms
13. Phoenix Suns
Orange and purple is not a common color scheme in major American sports. In fact, the Phoenix Suns are the lone team that uses it, and it’s out of necessity: What other colors do you use when you name your team the Suns?
For the last few years, they did a great job with two colors that don’t always look great together, wearing white, orange and purple jerseys and using their thin logo stripes (resembling sun rays) in front of the numbers. They were creative and showcased the colors well. The same can not be said for their new set, which eliminated the sun rays and was considerably less inventive. They attempted to portray a sense of power and modernity by meshing their standard colors, an ill-fated venture that only worked to kill one of the NBA’s best uniforms.
Not a disaster, but it was a clear and unnecessary downgrade. Their purple City editions actually work pretty well, although they followed the same format. The Suns cleaned them up by eliminating the orange and contrasting a slightly lighter purple with the base color, a solid move that puts them further in the category of unique colors. I’m not a big purple guy, but they did well with these.
This is also a great way to combine cultural significance (Los Suns) with a quality alternate uniform that doesn’t stray far from their beaten path.