As much as we love the “Valley” uniforms worn by the Phoenix Suns over these past two years, it felt like a lazy move this fall when the NBA renewed them on back-to-back seasons, rather than developing anything new for the team to wear.
With exception to the Utah Jazz and the Suns, every NBA team earned new “city edition” jerseys this year. Given a new opportunity to integrate some style into the game, several teams took advantage, piecing together new looks likely to go remembered for some time.
The Atlanta Hawks, Houston Rockets, and Brooklyn Nets all went back to their roots, mixing and matching their team’s old uniforms with modern trends to put together some vibrant threads. The Oklahoma City Thunder and the Toronto Raptors dropped clean new uniforms as well, certain to draw attention anytime sported out on the court.
But all the while, the Suns were left hanging, at least until today, when new leaks offered a quick glimpse at their new uniforms, set to debut next year.
Shared via Twitter this morning, Chris Creamer of SportsLogos.net posted two pictures detailing Phoenix’s alleged incoming threads, all of which were somewhat blurry, but still illustrated a new and exciting look.
Two jerseys were included in the leak (which has been confirmed to https://t.co/abg7jZbDgs as legit). Purple and white, both show a shooting sun across the chest with the Phoenix Suns' clever ambigram-style logo included within.
— Chris Creamer | SportsLogos.Net (@sportslogosnet) December 21, 2021
More details in the post: https://t.co/KGlpmoFpHA pic.twitter.com/ncVWW1Hz65
Creamer mentioned that the leak was “confirmed by highly reliable sources” in his article, so if that holds true, then these photographs offer an exciting preview at Phoenix’s future from a stylistic standpoint.
First and foremost, the beloved streaking sun logo appears to be back in some capacity. The logo’s outline appears flexed off to the side with the word “SUNS” written across the middle, which looks very similar to the team’s uniform design from the 90s.
The clean purple and white backgrounds also with enlarged numbers out front reek of Charles Barkley nostalgia as well. This design definitely embraces tradition, while helping the team to move forward at the same time.
With this leak containing both a dark colored and light colored uniform, it likely means that Phoenix will part ways with two current jerseys and embrace these as their home and away threads. That will grant the team its third major uniform change since the 2013-14 season.
With the “Valley” jerseys instead working as something of an alternate for the team though, it then remains possible that we see them return again next year. The same goes for their all orange alternates, assembling a flashy four-jersey wardrobe for years to come.