Why the Orlando Magic went back to bold pinstripes, but with a modern twist

New York Times

2 days ago

The Orlando Magic originally planned to debut new uniforms at the beginning of the 2024-2025 NBA season, but when the time came to approve a final design to submit to the NBA, Shelly Wilkes, the team's executive vice president of marketing and social responsibility, and her staff were convinced they hadn't found what they were looking for just yet.
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The Magic decided to go back to the drawing board. The new uniforms would be delayed to the 2025-2026 season, and one more year of planning would be added to a rebranding project that started in 2021. Charged with finding a new look for the future, the Magic realized a key element of the past, and a lack thereof, was holding their plans back.
Three agencies helped the Magic with the uniform redesign. Focus groups that included hundreds of season ticket holders and influencers were formed. Surveys were sent out. And with all of that, one thing began to become very apparent.
Through all of this, however the Magic were going to look on the court going forward with their new generation of stars like Paolo Banchero, Jalen Suggs, and Franz Wagner, it became clear that pinstripes — and not just any pinstripes, but bold pinstripes (the team's current uniforms featured very subtle pinstripes) — were part of the answer.
'When (the agencies) would leave the pinstripes out of the conversation and out of the design, it really was a bit lackluster,' Wilkes said. 'This is what we think we need and we even looked at interesting takes and it was like, no, let's just do what works. This works. We know (fans) love the bold pinstripes. It was really based on a lot of fan feedback, a lot of social listening and honestly, looking at sales data and what makes sense for the fanbase.'
The Magic submitted its final uniform designs to the NBA in September of 2023. The results finally arrived for all to see last week when the team debuted a new trio of uniform options, none of which were lacking for pinstripes.
There's the Association uniform, which is all-white with a 'Magic' wordmark with a star replacing the 'a,' the Icon, which is all-blue with an 'Orlando' wordmark with a star replacing the 'a,' and Statement, which is a blue/black combo with a 'Magic' wordmark and a star replacing the 'a.' The latter draws inspiration from the Magic's classic Champion warm-up jackets of the '90s and has a Jordan Brand logo instead of a Nike logo.
The return of the bold pinstripes is a continuation of a trend the Magic helped start in the late '80s/early '90s when it became the second NBA team to feature pinstripes on their uniforms in its expansion year arrival in the 1989-90 season. The Charlotte Hornets debuted pinstriped uniforms the year prior during its 1988-89 debut season. The look became a staple for both teams and led to later looks of the Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacers during the '90s.
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After so much time working on perfecting the look, Wilkes says her personal favorite is the jersey that has received the most 'mixed emotions' — the Statement jersey.
'I think it is going to be ranked as one of the best jerseys in the NBA once people start seeing it on court,' Wilkes said.
Merchandising data showed that vintage Magic apparel, especially looks tied to the Shaquille O'Neal and Penny Hardaway era, always sold well, according to Wilkes. It served as an indicator as to what the fanbase favored from the past, present and toward the future.
🙄😬🥴😐🤓 #tbt pic.twitter.com/2d82459QJd
— Orlando Magic (@OrlandoMagic) May 16, 2019
'You realize how much passion there is around those particular uniforms and that we are one of the only teams that has pinstripes and just a realization of: let's own that. Let's take it and build our identity today around those pinstripes again,' Wilkes said. 'We were successful as well in the late 2000s with Dwight (Howard) and Jameer (Nelson), but people still hold on to the Shaq and Penny years and those references. And that is the image that comes into their mind around the success of the Orlando Magic and the excitement of the Orlando Magic, are those years. It's not only necessarily being (one of) the first (with pinstripes), but I think it truly is something that we as the Orlando Magic can own as part of our identity.'
So why didn't the Magic just go back to the exact same classic look of its '90s uniforms if they are so popular with fans? NBA rules forbid it. Once an NBA team stops using certain uniforms, the licensing of them (which is owned by the NBA) reverts to NBA partner and famed throwback jersey maker Mitchell & Ness. The Magic can still wear its classic 'Shaq/Penny' uniforms for anniversaries, but not on a regular basis.
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Wilkes prefers it that way, though, saying that focusing on a new look for a new generation of stars that drew inspiration from the past was the Magic's priority. Along with having a look that matched their current roster and how they play basketball.
'You can't just re-introduce the same exact direction. However, we also didn't want to. We knew it was a new time, a new era. This more modern, simple, clean design is where we were headed,' Wilkes said. 'A lot of people have so much passion about our original wordmark, and so do I, and I love it. It can also be maybe considered a little bit, not as bold or competitive. It's almost playful. It has character in that way. But I don't know that that's the identity of our team today. Our identity is around toughness, grit, hard work, that defensive mindset. And to put something that's almost a little whimsical as the wordmark of our uniform, that didn't feel right for the direction that we've taken on the court.'
While the nostalgia factor is strong with the Magic's new uniforms, Wilkes doesn't just want fans not faking the funk on a nasty dunk or replaying Lil Penny commercials in their heads when they see them. She wants the Magic fanbase to have an eye toward the future as well. Pinstripes and all. Every Magic uniform has represented an era. O'Neal and Hardaway with the originals. Tracy McGrady and his pinstripeless stars. Howard and a new logo that followed the team into the Kia Center. And now these new uniforms representing the next generation of Orlando Magic basketball with Banchero, Suggs and Wagner.
'I don't know that I would say I want people to necessarily only think of Shaq and Penny. Sure they are going to. They are two of our biggest stars that have ever come through here. But, I think I want them to think about the success of the Orlando Magic and having the Orlando Magic in a pop culture conversation,' Wilkes said. 'Now we're at a new phase of this team and this new team needs a new identity. So we think we've hit the timing right. Because the only way (the new uniforms are) grabbing hold as much as it is is because we have built a team around Paulo, Franz and Jalen that people are excited about. You can see the future. You can see that we are building a winning team and that there is success on the horizon. And so I think that giving them their own era and their own identity is really core to making this successful.'
Are bold pinstripes on the basketball court here to stay in central Florida?
Wilkes says the younger generation of the DeVos family, who owns the team, grew up with the Magic and was a part of the creation of the new uniforms. Combine that with a passionate fanbase and it points to a likelihood of permanent pinstripes.
'If I'm here it's bold pinstripes from here on out,' Wilkes said while laughing. 'I think with (the DeVos family's) leadership…you'll continue to see bold pinstripes. It's part of who we are as an organization and I think it's important that we lean into that. And we can have fun with it. There's different ways that we can introduce pinstripes so keep your eyes peeled for future years and iterations of how we take this.'
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