How the New York Jets got their new jerseys both right and wrong, according to an artist

This week, the New York Jets unveiled brand new jerseys they will be wearing during the 2019 NFL season. The Jets last updated their jerseys prior to the 1998 season — now after 21 years, they decided it was time for a new design. They introduced Spotlight White, Gotham Green, and Stealth Black as their new jerseys.

Of course, everyone will have their opinion on exactly how good (or bad) the new jerseys are, but we decided to ask someone who has studied art on a more technical level.

Artist Nate James stopped by to give his take on where the new designs succeeded and failed.

Spotlight White

“The Jets new uniforms are a rare instance where I genuinely like most individual elements of the uniform design. The number font, while simple, is great — clean, still block-oriented, just a really nice font.

“I feel the same way about the ‘New York’ wordmark,” James added. “The stripes across the shoulders are simple, but they don’t overreach or try too hard. It’s a nice design overall, and the team avoided many of the failures of recent redesigns, which usually amount to trying to too hard.”

That sounds pretty good, so what’s the issue with the jerseys?

“The problem, for me, is the colors,” James said.

Gotham Green

“Color blocking is the single most important part of a uniform design. You could make a masterful redesign of the Cowboys uniform, but if it has royal blue pants, people are going to be mad as hell. That’s not just about history (despite that being a fair thing to consider); it throws the balance of the whole look off. The Browns killed their classic helmet design with a brown facemask. If the Vikings had yellow numbers, their purple would stop looking clean and start looking washed-out.

“New York’s new green feels like an almost exact triangulation of their darker, more naturalistic green, Kelly Green, and teal. It doesn’t have Kelly Green’s energetic qualities, but the blueish undertones of it cause it to lose some of the naturalism of the old set.”

Just as a refresher, this what the Jets’ most recent uniform looked like.

“When combined with the black trim on the facemask and numbers, it just looks sanitized.

“I could compare them to a lot of college and CFL programs, but really, the thing that most immediately comes to mind is a pack of menthols. The green helmet calls to mind the team’s uniforms of late ‘80s, which weren’t exactly golden years,” James said.

For reference, this is what the Saskatchewan Roughriders, a Canadian Football League team, wear on gameday.

“The white-masked version of that look was OK, but a lot of my reaction is built around the fact that I really liked their old set. The green helmet looks fine in a vacuum, but it replaces so much of the history and sense of place with focus-grouped sterility.”

Stealth Black

That’s what a professional artist thinks of the new Jets’ uniforms. No opinion is wrong, but it’s nice to get a deeper look at the features of the jerseys.

What do you think about the jerseys?