Last week, we passed along information from Mario Vetanze describing what the Denver Broncos’ next uniform will look like. Based on the descriptions from Vetanze and an anonymous poster on the Broncos’ forums, several fans created mockups of the upcoming uniform changes.
The most notable (and perhaps most controversial) changes were adding mountains to the shoulders and switching to a white helmet. It turns out those details might not be accurate.
After mockups with the mountains went viral on social media last week, the team got word out through KOA Radio’s Benjamin Allbright that such a design has never even been discussed by the club.
It’s hard to take that statement as completely truthful because Vetanze described what was described to him, and the people who leaked information to him had to have based it on something (perhaps early concept designs).
Vetanze said in an interview with Paul Lukas of Uni Watch that two people who briefly saw the uniforms described them to him. Vetanze did not specifically say his two sources were team players, but the massage therapist lists Broncos players among his clients on his website.
We know that the Broncos involved their team captains in the process of switching to a new alternate white helmet, and we know from Twitter/X that Vetanze seems to have a working relationship with safeties Justin Simmons and Kareem Jackson (who were team captains in 2023).
Whoever it was that leaked descriptions to Vetanze, they likely described something they really saw. Whether they saw just a concept design or the final design is uncertain. The team claims no design resembling the recent concept leaks has ever been discussed.
Based on that response from the team, it’s probably safe to assume the final design won’t look like the fan mockups that went viral last week. We’re skeptical that such a design was never discussed at any point, however.
During his end-of-season press conference last week, team owner/CEO Greg Penner indicated that the process has taken longer than he expected.
“Nothing to announce on new uniforms today,” Penner said on Jan. 9. “That’s also been [some] learning for me. I just figured when you wanted to change your uniforms, you just made a new uniform. But boy, it’s a several-year process with the league and Nike to get there. We’ll be having some things coming there in the future, but nothing to announce today.”
The Walton-Penner family purchased the Broncos in late summer 2022. Getting a new uniform designed and approved in time for 2023 was too short of a turnaround. It remains to be seen if a new look will arrive before the 2024 campaign.
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