The Houston Rockets have perfect timing, it seems.
On Thursday, just a day removed from the NBA club’s first win of the season over the Charlotte Hornets, the team revealed the thing that Rockets legend Hakeem Olajuwon has been hyping up in recent days: Houston’s new City Edition uniforms for 2023-2024.
The yearly City Edition unveilings are nothing new since the league linked up with Nike as its primary on-court apparel supplier. The City Editions are basically alternate, limited edition looks for one season only.
Houston has boasted prior looks like a NASA-inspired “H-Town” look, for example.
But this season’s look appears to go beyond the space theme. The jerseys have a white base fabric, with red and blue outlining on the sleeves and lettering. The bottoms boast a design of a leaping astronaut going in for a dunk with the Rockets’ “R” on a jetpack, which the team has called its “Dunkstronaut.”
๐งต Familiar threads, reimagined. pic.twitter.com/KOIr7GFnNk
— Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) November 2, 2023
Across the chest reads, as always, “H-Town,” but with a “modern classic” script typeface, and the numbers and lettering are in a bold collegiate style.
The Rockets honed in on the “collegiate” descriptor. The team said the jerseys are intended to bring the retro flair of the Phi Slama Jama era of the University of Houston Cougars.
In a hype video narrated by UH alum and broadcaster Jim Nantz, Olajuwon is joined by his Coogs and Rockets teammate Clyde Drexler. Both men’s signatures are stitched in at the bottom front of the uniforms.
Paying homage to our hometown and the heroes that represent it. ๐ค pic.twitter.com/tTEFMvbE7z
— Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) November 2, 2023
“Memories of varsity jackets, pep rallies, and school colors remind us of our hometowns and the icons that took us to new heights,” Nantz announces in the clip. “In Houston, it was Texas’ tallest fraternity that was taking the city by storm.”
Olajuwon and Drexler were two members of the so-called fraternity that was made up of the Cougars men’s basketball team that advanced to the Final Four each year from 1982 to 1984.
The City Edition jerseys were sported in the video by stars like Jalen Green, Fred VanVleet, and Alperen Sengun.
Replica uniforms are on sale through the Rockets’ online shop. The team also announced the games it plans to wear the jerseys, with the debut coming on Nov. 8 at home against the Lakers.
Come watch us hoop in the new threads!
๐๏ธ: https://t.co/SJ6hHDUeAN pic.twitter.com/k8hALdhPUv
— Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) November 2, 2023