Nike Unveils New NFL Uniforms; Seahawks Only Drastic Change

There was plenty of buzz on Tuesday surrounding the unveiling of Nike’s new NFL uniforms for 2012. The company is beginning a new exclusive contract with the NFL and wanted to make a splash with an enormous press conference and presentation.

Will Brinson of CBS Sports reports that Nike’s Creative Director of Football, Todd Van Horne, stressed the importance of getting the home and away uniforms in line first before moving on to throwbacks and alternates. Van Horne stated that throwback jerseys are something that has been discussed with the league and will be a potential option for any team that wants to go that route.

↵Did you hear about this? The National Football League (a popular sports organization in America) commissioned a new company to design its uniforms -- an Oregon start-up by the name of “Nike.” It’s okay if you missed the news -- the sports media is busy this week covering the NCAA basketball championship, the Masters, Major League Baseball’s three opening days and the end of the NHL season.

↵This is false, of course. The media doesn’t cover hockey, and the biggest sports story 12 hours after Kentucky won its eighth NCAA title was Nike’s lightweight, integrated, moisture-wicking, FUTURETECH™ uniforms*. (FACT: The new Nike uniforms get up in the morning and make toast for their NFL players**.) The twin PR behemoths of Nike and the NFL hosted a slickly produced, flashy unveiling of the new uniforms, and SB Nation was on hand to get video and ask silly questions.

On Tuesday, the new NFL uniforms for the 2012 season were unveiled. This season marks the first in a new contract with Nike, which will hold the exclusive license to manufacture uniforms and jerseys for the league.

Sean Jensen of the Chicago Sun-Times reports that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is a big fan of the new uniforms.

Orakpo: “We hope so. That’s the goal. That’s why they made this stuff for me, man.”

Orakpo knows a little bit about uncalled holding penalties. It’ll be interesting to see the difference in the actual fabric.

While we’ve been talking about Nike and the new NFL uniforms that they’re unveiling, it’s not just the jerseys that are changing -- the cleats are, too. Nike not only changed the material of the jerseys and pants, they also made changes to the cleats that players will wear in 2012.

Nike explains the details behind the new cleats on their website:

Nike, the NFL’s new uniform and apparel provider, didn’t just change the color schemes of their new uniforms -- they enhanced the technology as well. The new uniforms are lighter, stronger and more form-fitting to allow no distractions for the player while he’s on the field.

Nike explained some of the technological changes they made to the uniforms:

The uniforms are said to be 20 percent lighter and 50 percent stronger than the previous ones. The jerseys will stay to form whether it’s dry or wet. Technologically, they seem pretty advanced. Players have said it allows for more free movement.

Here’s a look at every team’s new uniform from Nike (via @SportingNews)

There’s a bit of glitter fleck in the Panthers helmets and the lettering on the jersey is tweaked a bit, but for the most part the uniforms are the same as they have been the past few seasons.

The big difference in the uniforms will be noticed by the players, as Nike claims they are 20 percent lighter and 50 percent stronger than past uniforms.

You can see pictures of the Seahawks new uniforms here.

The biggest change, besides the colors, seem to be that it’s lighter and more form fitting allowing for better movement.

The Seahawks new uniforms include both home and away jerseys along with an alternate jersey. You can see their old jerseys here and compare them with the new ones. It’s a pretty big change to almost every part of the jersey, including the lines on the shoulder pad and the neon green surrounding the colors. In all, the Seahawks have three new uniforms with nine different combinations.

The Seahawks are the only team that we know of at this point with significant changes to their uniform. Many of the changes to the uniforms of other teams will simply be in the way they fit instead of the look .

Nike is set to unveil the new uniforms on Tuesday at 11 a.m. (ET).

But teams will be getting new uniforms -- kind of. The color scheme of most uniforms may not change but the technology behind the actual uniforms will, as Detroit Lions president Tom Lewand recently explained.