The Atlanta Hawks will be sporting some interesting new uniforms this season, taking a much more “modern” approach to their design with volt green as a new color along with their traditional torch red and the newly implemented granite gray.
Chris Vivlamore at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has an extensive telling of how exactly the newly designed uniforms came about. The Hawks were able to implement the new uniform process in only eight months when it can take up to two years, with Senior Vice President of Marketing and Chief Creative Officer for the Hawks Peter Sorckoff being the driving force behind the new look.
Sorckoff wanted to design the jerseys to an audience of “multi cultural millennials” and he told The Journal-Constitution that he didn’t believe the Hawks’ old jerseys stood out enough.
“I really didn’t feel the previous uniforms, they really didn’t make a statement about us one way or another,” said Sorckoff, who led the process. “They aren’t bad by any stretch. I don’t know if they are any good by any stretch either. They are somewhere in the middle. Nobody hates them but nobody loves them.”
The Hawks also enlisted the help of their players when designing the uniforms, who not only had a say in things like the color scheme and logo, but also performance aspects of the uniforms that would help them in-game.
“If our audience is this multi-cultural millennial, we have a bunch of them sitting in the locker room as a case study essentially,” Sorckoff said. “More importantly, that same group is going to be our thought-leaders when we go to market with this. If there is an authentic and organic validation with them, then we have a much better chance of it being believable with Hawks fans.”
The players went far beyond the colors. They wanted the uniforms to be functional. Korver requested a thin shoulder strap as not to impede his shooting motion. Al Horford and Paul Millsap wanted to know if something could be done about fabric bunching around their middle which gave opponents an easy grab point in the lane.
When the team gathers on Sept. 28 to kick off training camp, there will a new uniform fitting procedure for them to, within league rules, customize the look and feel.
I can’t say personally that I’m crazy about the new Hawks’ uniforms, but it is nice to see the organization consulting the players’ opinions since they’re the ones who will be sporting the jersey for 82 games.
Sorckoff claimed that sales with the new scheme at the Hawks’ draft party were six times higher than last year. Although much of that could probably be contributed to Atlanta’s success on the court last season, it at least has to have something to do with the new look, so it would appear the bold strategy has paid off.
