Athletic apparel giant Nike took over jersey production for the NBA this season, and the results thus far have been very hit or miss. On the positive side of things, the Charlotte Hornets Jordan brand uniforms are spectacular, but poor design choices and bizarre jersey tearing have shaped the narrative to this point. Nike does excellent work, and some of the unis really are great, so we’re hopeful that the kinks get ironed out sooner than later.
A fun reveal every NBA season in the unveiling of the league’s Christmas Day jerseys. We’re only a handful of days before Christmas, and neither Nike nor the NBA have said anything regarding specialty uniforms this year. We have to assume they’ll do something, but nobody knows just yet.
Fortunately for us, the NBA has at least one fan on Reddit’s NBA subreddit that knows his way around Photoshop and designed some mock Christmas Day jerseys for everyone to enjoy. Reddit user Swizzzay designed ugly Christmas Day jerseys for the Cavaliers, Thunder, Wizards, 76ers, Knicks, Warriors, Celtics, Rockets, Timberwolves, and Lakers, and they are all spectacular.
The ugly Christmas sweater motif is smart by itself, but the designs here really steal the show. They also seem like a no-brainer idea for the NBA, which has sold ugly Christmas sweaters in the past. You could easily market these as both a jersey and an ugly Christmas sweater vest.
The only problem is that nothing about these are ugly. It’s a legitimately good design, and there is no amount of props in the word that we could give to Swizzzay to thank him for putting these together in his free time. And if anyone from Nike reads this, we strongly endorse making these happen.
