When the Nets moved to Brooklyn in 2014, fans praised their simple, elegant uniforms, cosigned by Jay Z and intended to signal that the franchise was the coolest team in town.
Less than five years later, the Nets have basically punted on that aesthetic. Brooklyn announced Wednesday that the franchise will soon add a red patch on their jerseys, sponsored by the software company Infor.
NEWS: We’re looking forward to the future, and we're proud that @Infor will be a part of it. pic.twitter.com/EAUgekqz2e
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) February 8, 2017
The red squares look totally out of place on the black and white jerseys. This design is exponentially more obtrusive than the one the Celtics revealed last month, in which the sponsored GE logo more or less blends into the uniform.
In exchange for ruining their jerseys, the Nets will get $8 million a year (the cost of a backup point guard in today’s NBA), plus some analytics software, according to Scott Soshnick of Bloomberg.
Look, no fans are going to be thrilled that their favorite team is adding an advertisement to its jerseys, but most of us can understand that sports teams are businesses and this is an untapped source of revenue for pro teams.
But if you’re going put a logo on your jerseys, at least try to make it look natural. The Nets used to be a terrible team with cool, unique uniforms. Now they’re just a terrible team.
