DETROIT >> Tight end Eric Ebron perhaps said it best: “If we look good, we play good and all that good stuff.”
The Detroit Lions will look different this season wearing their new Nike untouchable vapor uniforms that were revealed on Thursday night.
The uniforms pay respect to tradition and the heritage of the team, but in a modern way.
The four versions – road, home, throwback and color rush – were introduced at a season ticket holders meeting at Ford Field.
“Obviously I’m in love because not only do we get to wear something new, but we all get to walk into the locker room every Sunday and not expect the same traditional blue or white. We can mix and match now, we have alternate colors. We finally brought back the throwback jerseys, we have a color rush jersey,” Ebron said. “We’re excited, it helps boost the morale in the locker room – when you walk in you’re not looking at the same thing you’re looking at something new. It should help all aspects of our game.”
That should be the biggest news for fans who have been waiting for new uniforms.
It took about a year and a half to get the uniforms designed and ready, working with Nike designer Steve McClardy, who grew up a Lions fan in Shelby Township.
“I became enamored with the Lions back in the early ’80s when Billy Sims got drafted to the team. And the first time I saw him with the Nike turf shoes poster with my favorite team – it was game over at that moment. Hard core, solid fan ever since.”
So when the Lions’ order came across his desk he told his design partners it would be his project.
He credited team president Rod Wood with having a good idea of what they wanted.
“The Lions used to have simple bold expression with their uniforms they’ve kind of sort of fallen off that,” McClardy said. “In addition, the evolution of the blue has just naturally happened because of material innovations. So it was kind of getting back to those simple, pure expressions that the team set out as their main goal.”
While doing that they used the newest materials. The jersey and pants together weigh 20.4 ounces, about 29 percent less than a typical NFL uniform.
Wood said their first goal was to get the color black out of the uniforms and get back to the traditional Honolulu blue and silver.
“That led us to come up with the creative ideas on what we could do to keep the Honolulu blue and silver but also modernize the look. We added the option to wearing blue pants on the road which we did for a couple years. That’s different,” Wood said.
The team had an all-black color rush uniform in 2016 but because they didn’t have a Thursday night game they didn’t wear it. This version is silver/chrome.
“I still like the black color rush, it’s not a color you can really beat. The chrome is definitely a great alternate to the black, I’m not mad at all about the chrome,” Ebron said.
“The color rush is think is very sharp, we didn’t want to go with our blue jerseys and blue pants, we wanted to go with something that was different but that was part of our colors. It was a great process,” Wood said. “I think the fans love the throwbacks, we haven’t worn those in about 20 years. We’re bringing those back. I think it will be exciting too.”
Wood said they will definitely wear the home, away and throwbacks at some point in 2017.
The color rush depends on the NFL schedule – which he said would be released next Thursday. If the Lions have a Thursday night game they will wear it. He left the door open for possibly wearing it on Thanksgiving.
The helmets feature different striping, the same logo and the only silver face masks in the NFL.
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