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Denver Post: November 9th 2003

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  1. The time has come for a serious discussion, one about planning and strategy and all the things that spell the difference between success and being just another NBA team.
  2.  
  3. It's time to talk about crisp uniforms.
  4.  
  5. To the uninformed masses, the Nuggets' fast start - a 3-3 record heading into today's game against the Toronto Raptors - has everything to do with Marcus Camby and Earl Boykins and of course, Carmelo Anthony. And while the aforementioned players are certainly a factor, those in the know, know that there's so much more going on. Like those fresh new unis Denver is sporting.
  6.  
  7. One of seven teams to feature new outfits this year, the Nuggets' combination of Carolina blue, white and gold is the sharpest. If you don't believe it, just look at the standings. Of the other newly dudded teams - besides Denver, Cleveland, Houston and Orlando have entirely new uniforms, with Phoenix, Toronto and Dallas having unveiled new alternate road jerseys - only the Rockets have a better record than the locals.
  8.  
  9. Besides, adds Nuggets swingman Rodney White, it should be obvious to anyone with any sense of style that the Nuggets' uniforms are the bossest.
  10.  
  11. 'There's the colors themselves, the material and the texture, and it's all about what you can do with it,' White said. 'See, a pair of sky-blue jeans, a nice fitted shirt and some sneaks to match, it's a crispy look. When you're wearing cranberry and things like that you can't look crispy.'
  12.  
  13. A self-described fashion plate, White wonders what some of those other teams were thinking when they pulled out their design boards.
  14.  
  15. 'I saw Phoenix's the other day. I didn't know who that was,' White said of the Suns' bright orange look. 'I didn't know if I was watching the Broncos or what. The Rockets' uniforms look like something from overseas, something you'd see in a European league, not the NBA. Cleveland's aren't as bad as I thought, but you can't be crispy in them.'
  16.  
  17. And of Dallas' silver-ish, pewter-like alternate road uniforms, White said simply, 'Those velour-looking things may be the worst of all.'
  18.  
  19. Added Nuggets reserve guard Jon Barry: 'Players only notice new uniforms when they're really ugly, rather than when they're really nice. If they're nice, no one pays attention.'
  20.  
  21. The Mavericks' new uniforms garnered plenty of notice from players. Dallas unveiled the new look in its season opener against the Los Angeles Lakers. The team lost the game, but that was almost forgiven amid the landslide of criticism accorded its outfits. The reaction was so bad team owner Mark Cuban announced they'd never be worn again.
  22.  
  23. Normally quick to offer his opinion about any NBA-related matter, Cuban declined to comment about the firestorm caused by the look.
  24.  
  25. 'You know, rather than ripping on the NBA merchandise people for the way things turned out, I'm just going to pass on answering the question,' he said in an e-mail.
  26.  
  27. The next big thing
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  29. All new uniforms have to be approved by the NBA, which has its own design department that has information available on what are the hottest colors and trends. Because every team would want in, and to avoid alienating fans who might purchase one jersey only to find it's been rendered obsolete the next spring, the league has a rule that teams must wait a minimum of two years before submitting a redesign.
  30.  
  31. The league also notifies teams if an idea didn't do well in the past, has been tried before or is on the table for another organization. Even though orange has been part of the Suns' color scheme since they entered the NBA 35 years ago, general manager Brian Colangelo said they didn't have an exclusive on the tint.
  32.  
  33. 'Orange has kind of taken on its own flair, fashionwise, at least in sports,' he said. 'I think Charlotte (which will join the NBA as an expansion franchise next year) is leaning towards going orange, and I had heard that there were some other teams looking to go to orange, so I was glad we beat them to the punch.'
  34.  
  35. If you're thinking the people who run NBA teams should be more concerned about finding the next great player as opposed to the next hot color scheme, you'd be right. 'At the end of the day, it's the players who go out there and win,' Colangelo said.
  36.  
  37. But, added Nuggets general manager Kiki Vandeweghe, 'That's all part of this business now, there's a lot that goes into it and a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that I think people would be surprised at.'
  38.  
  39. Or, as that famous talent scout Fernando said from his hideaway, 'It's better to look good than to feel good.'
  40.  
  41. It's also lucrative to do so. The NBA is projecting about $3 billion in retail sales of merchandise this year. Last season, the biggest names in jersey sales were Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers, Philadelphia's Allen Iverson and Orlando's Tracy McGrady.
  42.  
  43. According to The New York Times, nearly 500,000 jerseys featuring the name and number of Cavaliers rookie sensation LeBron James were sold before the season began. League officials add that even at that staggering amount, Iverson, James and Anthony are in a battle for No. 1 in sales.
  44.  
  45. It's little wonder, given those figures, that other franchises are looking for a piece of the action. However, there's more involved than a simple dollar grab. Say you're the Nuggets, 10 years removed from your last playoff appearance, with one of the worst records in the NBA over that span. You draft another rookie wunderkind, Anthony, with the No. 3 pick.
  46.  
  47. You're hoping the pick will spur big changes in the standings, but how do you show the public that times are changing? You put a new face on the new face, so to speak, with Anthony in a new uniform providing a metaphor for the entire organization.
  48.  
  49. 'We wanted an image change, we wanted to do something totally different,' Vandeweghe said.
  50.  
  51. In Phoenix, the orange uniforms are also part of that franchise's changing identity.
  52.  
  53. 'It keeps things fresh as you're trying to re-engineer your organization, which is something that we're trying to put in place in the last several years,' Colangelo said. 'The identity, what you see on the court is only part of it.
  54.  
  55. 'The way we go about our business, everything has changed. From corporate sponsorship, to the season-ticket packages and relationships with the public, you have to cater to them more, you have to make them more interactive with your product, you have to give them more amenities as it relates to being related to.'
  56.  
  57. Test patterns
  58.  
  59. Vandeweghe compares that process to 'putting on a live production. We want to make it the best experience we can for our fans.'
  60.  
  61. And part of that is how the team looks on the court. When the Nuggets' new uniforms were unveiled, Vandeweghe caught a lot of grief because the color scheme closely resembled that of his alma mater, UCLA. Barry, a graduate of Atlantic Coast Conference member Georgia Tech, had another thought.
  62.  
  63. 'Everybody in the West was thinking Pac-10 and UCLA, but I thought of Carolina blue and it sickened me,' he said. 'It's not an easy feeling for me to put it on, but I have to if I want to pick up the paycheck, I guess.'
  64.  
  65. In reality, Vandeweghe said he wasn't thinking of pep rallies back in Westwood, but rather trying to reflect some local sensibilities.
  66.  
  67. 'They hopefully reflect a lot of feeling for Colorado, that's what we tried to do,' he said. 'You've got the blue skies of Colorado and the white snow-capped mountains. We've got the gold, which has played such a big part of the history of the state.'
  68.  
  69. Whatever color scheme is chosen by a particular team, it helps if the design is 'television tested.' That means putting the potential outfits on camera to see whether or not they present well.
  70.  
  71. 'We wanted to be much brighter and we wanted something that showed well,' Vandeweghe said. 'I didn't think our old uniforms showed well on television; these hopefully do.'
  72.  
  73. Colangelo said: 'It's not just what it looks like hanging in front of you on a rack in a store or a guy walking around in a locker room. It's gotta look good from a television perspective because television is driving much of what the league does now.
  74.  
  75. ``It helps obviously when you have a player like Stephon Marbury or a rookie of the year like Amare Stoudemire. Then, kids in different cities see them and start to wear them and it starts to branch out. It comes down to branding, and that's what the NBA has really made its name on. It's no different than Starbucks branding their concept and their logo and their brand and now it's known around the world. What you've got there is recognizable anywhere you go."
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