NFL

You Can Bet The Seahawks Won’t Be The Last NFL Team To Get A Crazy Redesign From Nike

When we looked at Nike’s new NFL uniforms earlier today, we mostly noted the big changes coming the Seattle Seahawks’ way (one of which you can see above). Those big changes led many to suspect that perhaps the Seahawks would be to the NFL what Oregon is to college football. There are reasons for the comparison: both teams are outfitted by Nike and get crazy uniform designs before other teams get them. Both play in the Pacific Northwest. “Seattle SeaDucks” became a common utterance almost immediately. And if you don’t believe us, maybe you’ll believe Bills safety George Wilson, who modeled the Bills’ uniforms at the Nike unveiling today:

Look out for the Seahawks uniforms, their uniforms were the overwhelming favorite amongst the players. They will be the Oregon of the NFL.

Perhaps what stood out most about the unveiling today besides the Seahawks’ uniforms was that every other team’s uniforms were… pretty much staying the same. And despite not even being crazy about the big changes for the Seahawks that did happen, we were a little disappointed that the considerable hype accompanying the NFL’s switch to Nike from Reebok resulted in only that one big alteration.

But we also got the feeling – and Wilson’s tweet made us sure of it – that while the Seahawks redesign is Nike’s first big foray into altering the look of the NFL, it won’t be the last. If the uniforms are an “overwhelming favorite” among players, you can bet enough fans are going to like them to buy them up, too. And if fans buy up the new Seahawks duds in large numbers, it would be a shock if other teams didn’t follow suit.

Nike’s playing the long game here. They rocked the boat a little to begin with, enough to get us all to pay attention, but they didn’t do too much. This is smart in some cases because some franchises (Packers, Cowboys, and Raiders, to name a few) have extremely established looks and don’t want to mess with them, and it’s smart in other cases because you don’t want to make every big change at once. See how the first one plays out. Build anticipation… and then, start leaving Nike imprints all over the league. Today was the first step, but there’s no way Nike thinks its work changing the look of the NFL is anywhere near done.

[SB Nation]