Hornets Extra: The evolution of the Charlotte Hornets uniform

There's a certain saying that goes "Clothes make the man", but when it comes to sports, there's an expression that goes like this: "Clothes make the team".  Many teams uniforms tell a story about a team's history, legacy, and tradition to a city where they call home, such as the New York Yankees and the iconic pinstripes, the Dallas Cowboys, with their legendary "Blue Star" logo, and the legendary teams of the NBA, including the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, and the New York Knicks.  But no team in the NBA has a unique history, legacy, and tradition than that of the Charlotte Hornets.

Tomorrow morning, the Hornets will introduce their new uniforms the team will wear starting next season, and the uniforms will be slightly different than the ones we grew up seeing on the floor during the original Hornets era from 1988-2002, and the uniforms were hands down, one of the most popular jerseys in NBA history, and the connection to the uniforms was that they were designed by a native North Carolinian, Alexander Julian.  

Kelly Tripucka(left) models the Charlotte Hornets road jersey, designed by
Alexander Julian back in 1988.

He was the first fashion designer to design uniforms for an NBA team, and during the design process, he suggested that one of the colors would be pink, but then-owner George Shinn was not fond of that decision at the time he announced that Julian would be the one responsible to design the original Hornets uniforms.  So, with that being said, he would come up with a color we would never see before, and that would be the color teal.  He said "Teal was idea to use because it was fresh and new and exciting and looked good on every color of skin tone."  Julian said in an interview last year with Charlotte Magazine.  

Julian also realized that purple would be one of the team's colors as well, to match the team's "Dribbling Hornet" logo, designed by Jerrell Caskey of Hendrick Sportswear and unveiled on November 12, 1987, and he added in some Royal Blue, Kelly green and Carolina Blue to round out the unique pinstripe design for the Hornets uniforms, which made its debut on July 20th, 1988 in both, New York City and at the Belk location at SouthPark Mall here in Charlotte, with Kelly Tripucka modeling the uniforms, and the teal jerseys would also be historic as well for the Hornets, as they became the first team to wear that jersey on the road full time.

And what did Alexander Julian get in return for designing the uniforms? 5 pounds of North Carolina barbecue that Shinn sent to his home in Connecticut, according to Julian.

In 1994, the Hornets unveiled the purple alternate jersey, and in time for the team's 10th anniversary season, they would get updated jerseys for the remainder of the team's run in Charlotte as they would get two pinstripes on the jerseys to mark the team 10 years of existence in Charlotte.

Of course, Julian was not picked to design the new Hornets jerseys this time around, as the team decided to stick with Jordan Brand throughout the uniform design process, and many of us fans are hoping that the new designs that will be unveiled tomorrow morning at 11:30 a.m. would possibly be somewhat of a combination of honoring the team's past while looking ahead to the future, as the new uniforms will absolutely be fresh and new for the Hornets when they hit the court in 2014-15.

Remembering the Charlotte Hornets 25 years later: Fashion, Basketball, and Barbecue

As we continue to lead up to the 25th Anniversary of the Charlotte Hornets first game this upcoming Monday, we are doing a look back at the early days of the Hornets franchise, from George Shinn assembling a "Band of Renegades" to bring Charlotte an NBA franchise, to the day when David Stern told Shinn that it wasn't a joke on April Fool's Day, 1987 that Charlotte made the cut, and in part 3 of this series, we talked about how Shinn wanted to give the fans what they want in a team name, with "Hornets" being the winning favorite in the "Name-the-Team" contest.

In this chapter of our series, we'll talk about how a famed clothing designer, with ties to our state, played a role in designing a uniform that would become one of the most recognizable looks in NBA history, and the little perk that he would get in return for designing the team's uniforms.

Fashion, Basketball and Barbecue?

There's a certain old saying that goes "Clothes make the man", and for the young Charlotte Hornets franchise, they need some colors and a jersey to make the team look great, so George Shinn enlisted famed clothing designer Alexander Julian to come up with some color combinations for the team's jerseys and colors.

Alexander Julian, who grew up in Chapel Hill and attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is best known for creating the Colours by Alexander Julian fashion collection in 1981, and he was also known for the redesign of the University of North Carolina men's basketball team uniforms with the signature argyle pattern on the side of the jerseys upon the request of legendary head coach Dean Smith during the 1991-92 season. Julian also designed the jerseys and seating layout for the Charlotte Knights, a team that Shinn also owned at the time in 1990, the year that the Knights, who were affiliated with the Chicago Cubs and played in the Southern League at the time, began play at Knights Castle(later renamed Knights Stadium) in Fort Mill, South Carolina.

At one point in time during the uniform design process, Julian suggested that pink would one of the colors that the team would use, which did not please Shinn during a press conference when he announced that Julian would design the uniforms, and he was trying to decide if he would or would not use pink as one of the uniform colors.  He would go to the drawing board, and do a lot of brainstorming on some color combinations for the Hornets to use for their team colors and uniform design.  In the end, he decided that he would go with Teal, which was one of the newer colors at the time, saying that "Teal was idea to use because it was fresh and new and exciting and looked good on every color of skin tone."  said Julian. He also decided that Purple would be one of the Hornets colors to go along in the uniform design process.  He would also add in Kelly Green, Royal Blue, and Carolina Blue to the mix on the pinstripes and he would do some multi-color trims to round out the uniform design process.

And what would Alexander Julian get in return for the Hornets uniforms? Barbecue.  Why barbecue?  Because we all know that Barbecue is a way of life here in our state, and Alex would later go on to say that Shinn would send him 5 pounds of North Carolina Barbecue to his home in Connecticut, and the rest as they say, was history as Julilan's Hornets jerseys would mean a lot of historic significance, as he was the first fashion designer to design an NBA team's uniforms, while the Hornets would become the first team in history to wear Teal uniforms on the road.

In Part 5 of our series coming up, we'll put the spotlight on Cheryl Henson, the daughter of famed Muppets creator Jim Henson, as she would have the task of building a mascot from scratch.