![]() ![]() Tom O’Grady, NBA Creative Director: My fear was that the Suns graphic would not have a common “sweet spot” on all these different sized and shaped players. With all of that, when you had that jersey on, you represented a team that was doing those things. You can’t separate the two - that we were also playing well, winning games, and we were an exciting team to watch. West: The design was ridiculously vibrant and fresh for the times. West: We were just happy to have something that was going to be different and looked pretty cool.Īmbrose: It was like it was good karma that everything looked right. They didn’t have the numbers right, and had to have them fixed by a seamstress on the day of the game. They didn’t even arrive until the day of the game. The team basically walked out in them on opening night. Wincott: It never had even a formal launch at all. West: We didn’t have the, even for other teams that brought out new uniforms. The impact of that season in the new Sunburst unis had brought the franchise a new nationwide fanbase for the first time. A parade was held through downtown Phoenix – after the Finals loss – that drew more than 300,000 fans. ![]() While the Suns eventually lost the 1993 NBA Finals in six games to Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls, players and team execs alike recall the frenzy and energy taking the franchise to new heights around town.ĭowntown buildings left office lights on at night to spell out “Suns” across several floors. West recalls hearing that fans were leaving their seats during the middle of the game to see if the new jerseys were already on sale at the arena’s team store. The start of the Suns’ league-best 62-20 campaign in 1992-93 came at home against the Clippers, with Barkley making his Phoenix debut with a monster 37-point, 21-rebound, eight-assist outing on just 16 shots from the field. (Image courtesy of the Phoenix Suns) The Breakthrough 1992-93 Season An early look at 1990s-era concept sketches for the Suns’ new uniforms. The old-style jerseys, they weren’t even close. If someone saw our jerseys, they wanted those now, too. West: I always thought the Bulls had a nice uniform, and now we had something that could compete in that area. That one, everyone nodded ‘Yes’ and that was it. … Our little committee kept looking at it, and we kept the NBA’s design department busy for a while. We decided that we should somehow keep the Sunburst on the uniform somewhere. ![]() One of them was sort of a goth style, which didn’t fly. That all added to the aura of the year and the jerseys.Īmbrose: The NBA had a design department that we worked with very closely, and they came up with all kinds of ideas. With the Jordan era, there were longer shorts and more vibrant jerseys. We explored a lot of different possibilities … That got shot down pretty quickly. I even looked at maybe changing the colors even, from purple and orange to maybe silver and dark blue. If you look back, everyone had cartoony uniforms and this was probably one of the most iconic of that time period.Īmbrose: We looked at a lot of different things. Bringing the Suns into that 90s era, they were very 90s uniforms. Really, just the font had changed from the original ’68 font to the western font in ’73. Graham Wincott, Suns Senior Director of Marketing: They hadn’t really overhauled the uniforms in the team’s 25-year history to that point. I always consulted with Colangelo, but also Dick Van Arsdale, who was the original Sun. … It kind of fell to me to put that together. Everything was new going into that season.Īmbrose: Our old uniforms had a western-style typeface and a Sunburst, but it was on the side of the shorts. … We also had a new coach in Paul Westphal. We had the new uniforms coming out, Charles was to the team, we had planned for a new arena from the old Veteran’s Coliseum, and there was just crazy excitement for everyone involved. It was really the anticipation for the new year. Mark West, Suns starting center: It was impressive, just to have something new. And I don’t want to revisit a new logo and uniforms soon. I want to create something modern and bold to reflect the nature of the new arena and the growth of Phoenix. ![]() It was the closing of the first chapter in Suns history, after a quarter century as well. Jerry Colangelo, in 1992: We feel it’s the ideal time to change our logo and uniforms with the opening of the new arena. Jerry Colangelo really wanted to see a new, clean, modern look. Tom Ambrose, former Phoenix Suns VP of Marketing: We were moving out of the old Coliseum and moving into the new downtown arena, so that was the real impetus for the uniform change. Kevin Johnson (left) and Charles Barkley (Photo courtesy of the Phoenix Suns) ![]()
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