The 2022-23 City Edition Uniforms at Nike HQ in New York City

Enter Nike HQ in New York City and a crowd eagerly awaits outside two adjacent showrooms to see the never-before-revealed Nike NBA City Edition Uniforms. If you’re looking hard enough, you can barely make out the outlines of the 29 uniforms from behind the dim walls.

Finally as the excitement builds, the crowd is broken up into two groups to begin the tours. The showroom doors open, and the 2022-23 City Edition uniforms come to life.

On Nov. 3, Nike organized a sneak peak of their 2022-23 City Edition uniforms before their official debut on Nov. 10. Jesse Alvarez, Nike’s Global Product Director of Sports Apparel for Men’s Basketball, hosted the reveal alongside Chad Campion (Senior Product Line Manager for Men’s Basketball at Nike) and Nadia Roohparvar (the NBA’s Team Brand and Uniform Product Lead).

The Los Angeles team jerseys at Nike HQ.

Since the launch of the City Edition uniforms six years ago, the collection has continued to expand in its representation of the stories, histories and heritage that make each NBA franchise unique.

“This year we really honed in on honoring the bond between court, community and culture, and having those be the pillars of City Edition,” Campion said.

The planning for this collection started in July 2020. Alvarez noted this is because it takes time to work with the teams and delve into components of each city’s unique stories. Alvarez sees each year’s City Edition uniform as a blank canvas.

“What I get excited about most is the deep storytelling that goes into these jerseys,” Alvarez said. “It never gets old. Each year offers the opportunity to tell new and different stories and a new way to look at court, community and culture.”

Alvarez said what makes the City Edition uniforms special is each franchises’ storytelling elements that come to life on the uniforms. The Nets’ design, for example, is inspired by Brooklyn-born artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat. The Pistons’ edition draws inspiration from the gym at Saint Cecilia’s (aka “The Saint”), where many legends have played.

“Teams are getting more comfortable with the idea of City Edition, and it’s expanding past their core team brand, and focusing on hyperlocal stories,” Roohparvar said. “The teams really leaned into specific stories that were local and unique to them. Our goal is to find what teams resonate with locally, but globally it’s going to resonate because of the depth of the story and the compelling nature of the designs.”

To ensure the uniforms resonate with each franchise’s fan base, Alvarez says Nike’s designers rely on the teams themselves, since they know each fan base best.

The 2022-23 Heat City Edition uniform.

“These jerseys are a reflection of their communities and their fan bases. They listen to their fans, and help us deliver what’s important to them,” ALvarez said. “At the end of the day, we’re just trying to give fans what they want through the lens of a team and their stories.”

The NBA is also the first league that has done a uniform uniquely attributed to each franchise.

“They are super engaging for fans, because it gives them a moment each year that they’re surprised and delighted to see what their team did — that’s also reflective of something they love,” Roohparvar said.

Alvarez sees the City Edition uniforms as a way to also invite the next generation of fans into the game and help them become shepherds of the game, too.

“We have a responsibility to do so,” he said. “The jerseys give the next generation an opportunity to ask questions. To be able to look at different colors and take Toronto as an example — why are they wearing a black and gold uniform? To pull these fans in and have them learn what this is all about.

“We just have to make sure that we’re always reaching out to the next generation to grow the game and grow the sport.”

The 2022-’23 Nike NBA City Edition jerseys are now live. Shop here.