In April of next year, Nike will supplant Reebok as the official maker of NFL uniforms and in their recent presentation to analysts this week, the company said they had big plans for their NFL launch.
"We're going to be aggressive," Nike Brand President Charlie Denson said. "Some teams are willing to go further than others."
As owners are looking for every last way to wring extra profit out of their franchises, this is one pretty easy route. You introduce a major uniform re-design and your uniform sales will go through the roof. Sure, we all see that guy that still wears his #59 out of date Mamula jersey to the Linc, but for the most part, Eagles fans love to snap up new jerseys.
So might they be one of the teams to go with an "aggressive" new design? I'm not sure. The Eagles are traditionally one of the more conservative franchises. I'd be surprised to see a club like them, the Giants, Cowboys, Steelers, Packers, Bears etc make any crazy re-designs for the Nike launch.
But there are certainly franchises that will. I'd expect many smaller market or lower revenue teams to embrace radical changes from Nike. Think Jacksonville (maybe LA?), Carolina, Arizona, Tampa Bay and maybe even a team like Houston, who has traditionally changed their unis often anyway and doesn't have a long standing brand anyway. Seattle certainly jumps to mind as a team that would probably be open to a change, especially given Nike's huge influence in that general area of the country.
What say you, would you like a radical re-design of the Eagles look?