76ers Get New Duds for 2009-2010

After 12 years of using black and gold as the franchise's main colors, the Philadelphia 76ers decided to return to old glory and reuse the color patterns of the past and of the American color palate--red, white and blue.

Using Jrue Holiday as the team's first player to model the new uniform for an NBA rookie photo session, the Sixers readopted the look of their most classic uniform while adding a few twists. As Holiday modeled the road uniform, the setup of the duds resemble the jersey that most identify Moses Malone and Julius Erving wearing in the early Eighties, with basic white wordmarks and numerals--on the new jerseys, they no longer utilize blue trim and compare to the Boston Celtics word and number scripts. The neckline also resembles the classic setups with a V-neck collar, now fitted with a solid blue dazzle mesh trim around the neck- and armholes and a silver white detail at the V. The shorts employ the said blue trim around the legholes with white trim details, alongside a "76ers" logo at the lower left thigh and an "NBA" logo at the lower right thigh of the shorts. The mesh of the uniforms appears to be a close-hole mesh, which creates fuller brightness of the uniforms and can be less abrasive than the traditional open-hole mesh of pre-2000 NBA seasons.

Overall, the 2009-2010 Sixers uniforms are a tremendous update and improvement on the recently-former uniforms. While the black uniforms served a great marketing purpose and catered to the trends of the late Nineties and early 2000s, the logo and color palate (which utilized red, white and blue, but in "back-up singer" roles) took away from the historical purpose of the franchise than the past uniforms served. The new wordmarks and numerals give way to the references to championship play, while new materials keep the look current as well. The red alternate jerseys that were used from the 2006-2007 season through 2009 were a great bridge to the new 2010 duds, and in some ways could have been a better alternative to the updated retro stylings of the upcoming threads (marketing-wise), but clearly the Sixers have restored a sense of renewal and reclamation of history and class in the change.