Tag: City Edition

Rockets unveil new City uniforms with nod to NASA, space history

With a NASA-inspired theme to celebrate Houston’s space history, the Rockets unveiled new “City Edition” jerseys for the 2019-20 season.

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The Houston Rockets revealed their fourth new uniform of the 2019-20 season at halftime of Monday’s home game versus Portland.

The NASA-inspired white “City Edition” uniform evokes Houston’s historical and present relationship with the U.S. space agency.

According to the team’s official website, highlights of the new uniform set include:

  • NASA font for typeface and numbers throughout the jersey
  • Traditional Astronaut ID Tag on the upper right chest
  • American flag on the belt line to celebrate U.S. national pride
  • Side panels of jersey are inspired by the Gemini Program, which helped NASA prepare for the Apollo moon landings
  • Vertical brand identifiers on the shorts to resemble a rocket launch

The team also posted a video to its social media channels to showcase the new uniform, which features “H-Town” across the chest.

With a “Space City Saturdays” theme, the City uniforms will be worn for every Saturday home and road game this season, debuting Nov. 30 when the Rockets face the Atlanta Hawks at Toyota Center. The jerseys can be purchased beginning Wednesday, Nov. 27 at the team store inside Toyota Center and at RocketsShop.com.

Unlike recent years, these City uniforms do not feature Chinese lettering — though that decision was made long before the franchise’s recent controversy involving China.

NASA, which is short for the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, has extensive history in Houston tracing back to the establishment of the Johnson Space Center (then named the Manned Spacecraft Center) in 1961. It was a key support facility in NASA’s quest (ultimately successful) to put a man on the moon that decade.

Similar to the plan to wear the City uniforms each Saturday, the Rockets also have a special “Flashback Friday” theme for each Friday game this season. In that program, the current Rockets will wear retro-themed Classic uniforms as part of a 25-year anniversary celebration of the 1994-95 NBA championship squad. That promotion began with last Friday’s win over Indiana.

In total, Houston will have five sets of uniforms this season. The Rockets brought back their black “Statement” jerseys from last season, while the red “Icon” and white “Association” jerseys were significantly changed to incorporate a new font, modernized side panels, and the inclusion of black as a core color. Those three sets, along with the aforementioned Classic uniform, were released in June.

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