The Los Angeles Lakers will be one of eight teams that will have a fifth, “Classics” jersey added to their kits for the 2017-18 season.
The Los Angeles Lakers and the NBA as a whole will be undergoing a facelift this season. For the first time since 2005, the NBA will have a different outfitter for their jerseys. In 2006 Adidas took over as the official outfitter of the NBA. This year, Nike will take over as the NBA’s uniform and apparel provider.
There have already been some Nike designs released. Here are the ones that have been released already, as SB Nation is updating their page as new jerseys are announced and released. A third of the teams have released their new jerseys already. In addition to the new outfitters, the NBA will also have uniform patches for team sponsors.
Nike will be eliminating home and road jerseys in their new kits; home teams will no longer be wearing ‘home whites’ uniforms. Instead, the home team will select from a group of four which one they want to wear; the away team will then choose a contrasting color to what the home team is wearing.
Los Angeles Lakers
This is an interesting concept and it gives Nike a chance to re-design some team’s jerseys. There has been some great fan created concepts, such as the ones Brian Begley created on his website. Nike will have some tough competition to beat those renderings.
Over the weekend, there were some more details released about Nike’s jersey plans. It was announced that eight teams will be wearing throwback uniforms that Nike is dubbing “Classics”. One of those teams will be the Los Angeles Lakers.
Joining the Lakers in wearing throwbacks this season will be the Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets, Golden State Warriors, Indiana Pacers, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, and Phoenix Suns. Each team will have a fifth jersey representing a past era of the team.
For the Lakers, their throwback will be from their Minneapolis Lakers years. It is rumored that the Lakers fifth jersey will be inspired from the jerseys that were worn from 1947-1952. Conrad Burry of SportsLogos.net shared some photos of what the Lakers, and the rest of the teams, throwbacks would be inspired by.
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It will be interesting to see just how these Lakers jerseys turn out. Their regular four jersey kit has yet to be released, so they will probably release all five at the same time. With one of the more iconic jerseys in all of sports, it is unlikely the Lakers jerseys change much under Nike other than having a swoosh in the corner instead of the Adidas logo.