“Ruining the Nostalgia”: $20,000,000 Worth Puma Athlete Attacks $31,300,000,000 Brand for Creating New Jerseys Every Year

The NBA signed an eight-year $1,000,000,000 ‘global merchandising and marketing partnership’ deal with Nike in 2017, which made the American sports apparel brand the league’s official apparel provider. Since then, the $31,300,000,000-worth brand has been releasing special ‘City Edition’ jerseys every year for every single team across the league. Recently, the NBA fan page Legion Hoops posted some leaked images of the new Los Angeles Clippers’ ‘City Edition’ jerseys, which gained a lot of traction on social media platforms. The post also prompted Washington Wizards star Kyle Kuzma to call out Nike for supposedly ruining the sports apparel culture in the NBA by releasing new jerseys every season.

Nike’s ‘City Edition’ jerseys are targeted towards the faithful fanbases of different cities in the league. Of course, the need to keep their wardrobe updated convinces fans to buy the official new jerseys of their favorite teams every year. This helps Nike generate a fresh cash flow at the beginning of every season.

However, Puma athlete Kyle Kuzma seems to think that this business practice of releasing new jerseys every year is ruining the nostalgia surrounding jerseys. A former Nike athlete himself, many fans have taken Kuzma’s opinion with a grain of salt because of his $20,000,000 deal with Puma.

Puma athlete Kyle Kuzma thinks Nike is ruining brand identity by releasing new jerseys ever year

In 2019, Kyle Kuzma signed a five-year, $20,000,000 deal with Puma. The then Los Angeles Lakers player was making only $25,000 a year from his deal with Nike at the time, according to a Complex report. Therefore, taking the Puma deal was a no brainer for the emerging athlete.

After photos of the Clippers’ new ‘City Edition’ jerseys were leaked, Kuzma opened up the debate floor by calling out Nike for releasing a brand new jersey every year. “Nike is ruining the nostalgia of jerseys, every year it’s a new jersey and what gets lost is brand identity,” the 28-year-old wrote on X(formerly Twitter).

While Kuzma’s association with Puma might generate some doubts regarding his comments, they are certainly not completely devoid of merit. Nike pays a hefty sum to the NBA to promote their brand. So they are well within their rights to launch new products every year to generate more revenue. However, the impact of such practices on the jersey culture in the NBA and the appeal of their own brand is certainly worth a discussion.

Fans didn’t like the leaked Clippers jerseys

While Kuzma’s remarks may divide the fanbase, the Clippers’ new jerseys managed to unite them. There seemed to be a clear consensus that the leaked ‘City Edition’ Clips jerseys didn’t look too good.

In fact, fans started trashing the new look in the comment section almost instantaneously. Now it remains to be seen if such a reaction prompts Nike to change their design before releasing the new product.