Ranking and analyzing all 30 NBA City edition uniforms
23. Washington Wizards
The innate function of sports uniforms is creating sufficient contrast between players and teams. Whatever is wrong with a given design, practicality can’t be. Viewers and fans have to be able to tell which team is which and differentiate between the players.
Washington failed to do this with their City edition jerseys. The blue outlined numerals were worrisome when they were first unveiled and were proven to be a disaster on court. It is impossible to tell players apart, a cardinal uniform sin.
It’s too bad they made such a damaging mistake, because these are otherwise pretty solid. Incorporating “District of Columbia” in a prominent way is clever, and aside from the numbers, there are no major design flaws that would take away from it. The clean white adds a nice, simple contrast to the Wizards’ first three uniforms, which include a lot of color on the chest and shoulders.
It’s not nearly enough to overcome invisible numbers.