MIAMI (AP) — The Miami Heat earned the chance to wear fuchsia. And 15 other teams will soon be getting bonus uniforms as well.
The Heat unveiled their latest uniform Wednesday, part of the "Earned" collection that will be rolled out by the NBA and Nike as a perk for the 16 teams that made the playoffs last season. Miami's is "laser fuchsia," with white lettering and numbers, trimmed with a tiny bit of black and light blue.
Miami plans to wear the fuchsia three times, starting with a game on Dec. 26. Some teams will begin wearing them for Christmas games.
"We tried some variations and we tried some different colorways, and luckily we were able to land some buy-in for something that is definitely unique to the NBA and pro sports in America in general," said Brett Maurer, who designed the uniform for the Heat. "We were able to really own this fuchsia colorway."
The Heat are calling it "Sunset Vice," and it follows the white "Vice" uniform that was unveiled last season as part of Nike's "City Edition" and the black "Vice Nights" uniform that came out this season. The Heat said the number of Vice jerseys sold last season exceeded the total of City Edition jerseys sold by the other 29 NBA teams combined, and the Vice Nights campaign has projected to be even bigger.
The Earned collections go on sale online next week. Heat players saw the design this fall, and many immediately contacted their sneaker providers to ensure that their footwear for those games would match the uniforms.
"We're not scared of the color," Heat chief marketing officer Michael McCullough said. "The fact is that Heat fans are expressing themselves through our brand, and to me, the more options they have the better."
Vice Nights was to be worn about 15 times this season, but the Heat switched out of them earlier this month with the team in a slump. The plan is for those uniforms to return as scheduled for Miami's next home game, Dec. 20 against Houston.
