Thoughts on the Wizards' New (Ugly) Jersey Design

As I'm sure a lot of you have heard, the Washington Wizards have recently completed a complete redesign of their jerseys and their logo. It seems to me that their are two reactions to the new uniforms- either you love them or you hate them. Well, I, for one, hate them. I honestly don't understand why everyone in the media is so happy with these jerseys. There's no other way to say it: They're just ugly.

To all those nostalgic for the
Bullets' uniforms, I ask, why?

The main praise for these uniforms seems to be that they look similar to the old uniforms of the Washington Bullets. Well, I've got news for these people: the Bullets had really ugly uniforms too (just look at the picture to the right). Besides, these new uniforms will theoretically be used for the next couple of decades, so it shouldn't matter at all how much they look like the old uniforms- because 20 years from now, no one is going to remember the old uniforms. What matters is that the uniforms look good to the new generation of fans that the Wizards hope to attract. Unfortunately, the team failed at this task.

I have two main problems with this uniform. First of all, there's too much going on. The stripe across the middle of the jersey really ruins it. It makes the uniforms look amateurish and screws up the continuity that a good jersey needs. Just look at how much better the uniform would look without the stripe in the middle:

I don't know where this picture comes from, but if these
were the real uniforms they actually wouldn't be half bad.

But even without the stripe, another big problem plagues the Wizards' new jerseys: the ugly red color. The red they chose for the new uniforms just does not look good. Compare the Wizards' ugly, eye-straining red to the much more classy red of the Chicago Bulls and even the Miami Heat. There's really no comparison. Because the red completely dominates the away uniforms but is only an accessory to the home unis, I like the home uniforms a lot better. Regardless, both are pretty ugly.

Even considering how bad the jerseys are, the new logos are even worse. From what I've heard, the main logo will continue to be the weird Wizard-like scribble, just re-colored in a hideous combination of red, white, and blue. Honestly, I don't think an uglier logo could exist.

What were the Wizards thinking
when they made this?

And the secondary logo isn't much better: the generic letters "dc" (my friend thought it said "cic" at first, not a good start), with a random hand extending from the stem of the d, trying to catch a basketball. I know that this is also a shout-out to the old Bullets and their logo, but just because something is retro doesn't make it automatically look good.

Maybe I'll learn to like these uniforms; that's what I'm banking on. But if I'm being honest, what I really hope is that these new jerseys go the way of the alternate gold uniforms the Wizards unveiled a few years ago, and just fade into oblivion (with much better-looking jerseys to replace them).