A look at teal uniforms

Here are four teal uniforms worthy of discussion despite not reaching great heights of attractiveness.

Charlotte Hornets, 1996-2002 road

This is messy. The colour, waistband striping and jersey-only pinstripes make the uniform loud, but the side striping does the real damage by overwhelming everything else.  The absence of the white trim their previous roads had is a drawback – it softened the uniform.

Detroit Pistons, 1995-2001 road

This is remarkable for being the teal showpiece of the flaming horse era, an unattractive but interesting period in Pistons’ history. The colour combo makes it hard for this to succeed – one trim colour would have been plenty. The side panels wrapping around the shorts hem is an uninspired design, too. But the worst part is the jersey logo. Both the lettering, which is tough to read, and the horse design look cheap. Those flames are pretty bad. The number font is goofy, which hurts because a more traditional approach would’ve offset some of the wackiness. 

New Orleans Hornets, 2002-05 road

This is an example of how a teal uniform can be tame, but it’s also still significantly better than what the Hornets/Pelicans have worn since 2008. It’s simple, but it doesn’t have the commitment to simplicity that could’ve elevated it from standard to great. The outline on the numbers and letters is a tinge messy, the shorts logos look like they were thrown on, and there’s one too many ‘H’ logos. 

Vancouver Grizzlies, 1995-2000 road

This theoretically could be considered similar to the Raptors’ inaugural road uniform, in that it’s loud and belongs to a 1995 Canadian expansion team. But they’re really very different, as this is far inferior to Toronto’s first roads. The teal is unattractive because it clashes with the earthy colours on the rest of the uniform. The trim pattern is interesting but too busy to be prominently displayed on this uni, particularly given the teal. The word mark is okay, but being 2D would’ve made it better. The size of the bear on the shorts is excessive, which fits the theme of the uniform but doesn’t look good.