The Brooklyn Nets have released their 2019-20 City Edition alternate jerseys, and truth be told, they look pretty tight.
Riffing off the usual black-and-white colorways of standard jerseys, the City Editions have a multi-colored side panel and borders with “Bed-Stuy” in a graffiti-like font, and unlike 2018-19’s, are primarily white instead of black.
Bed-Stuy, for the uninitiated, is a nickname for Bedford-Stuyvesant, the Brooklyn neighborhood known as a nexus of hip hop culture from the late 1980s to the early 2000s, with luminaries ranging from Big Daddy Kane to Ol’ Dirty Bastard claiming the area as home (remarkable given its small size, just 42 acres).
BREAKING THEM OUT: Next Friday. Celtics vs. Nets.
ON SALE: Tomorrow | Exclusively in the Team Store at @barclayscenter pic.twitter.com/v8wi9M07YI
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) November 22, 2019
It’s also known for being the setting for the iconic Spike Lee film “Do the Right Thing”.
Seizing on that heritage, Brooklyn released a video featuring Christopher Wallace to promote the new jerseys.
Perhaps Bed-Stuy’s most notorious one-time resident — better known by his stage name, Biggie Smalls — the video features a loop of the deceased rapper name-dropping his old stomping grounds along with a mural of the artist evocative of the camouflage-like colors of the border and side panels.
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Introducing our 2019-20 City Edition threads π₯ pic.twitter.com/9UTp9IMgb4
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) November 22, 2019
The team held a live reveal in Bed-Stuy as well, with DeAndre Jordan explaining details that went into the design, such as local graf artist Eric Hayes, and Jordan taking ownership of the colorful side panels and borders.
Compared to some questionable designs released by other franchises recently, the Nets’ City Editions seem to be garnering a favorable response, even generating a bit of a buzz by fans on various social media platform — and not, mercifully, over what color they might happen to be.
The team will debut the jerseys against the Boston Celtics next Friday, and will have them available for purchase tomorrow, November 22nd, at the team store in Barclay’s Center.