The Toronto Raptors were among the four teams that weren’t a part of the major unveiling of the NBA’s Nike City Edition uniforms. The Knicks, which also delayed the release of their City Edition unis, recently revealed their firefighter inspired jerseys this past week and the Raptors followed suit over the weekend.
As expected, the Raptors City Editions are Drake-inspired uniforms in the black-and-gold colorway that’s been part of their partnership since Drake became the team’s “ambassador” and the franchise started doing Drake Nights.
This that new Toronto.
Presenting our very own OVO Edition Jersey.
Available now at @RealSports & @welcomeOVO. pic.twitter.com/IwOzyAkVB2
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) January 12, 2018
This year’s uniforms feature some new elements from those in years past, most notably the change to saying “North” on the front of the jerseys rather than Toronto or Raptors. The gold and black colors are standard for their Drake jerseys, but the introduction of the chevron, representing the six boroughs of Toronto, is also new.
As noted before, the gold and black isn’t new for the Raptors, but I think Nike did well with these to give them an update beyond just taking their standard jersey and tweaking the colors. Like with most all of the City Edition uniforms, they tried to bring in symbolism tying the jerseys into something iconic about the city and, while not as good as Miami’s reported Vice uniforms or Chicago’s clean script unis, these are a strong effort and you can bet they’ll be a big seller.
