Miami Heat set to unveil new ‘Trophy Gold’ Earned Edition uniform. Here’s an early look
The Miami Heat’s marketing and creative teams introduced the popular Vice look in the 2017-18 season and have been immersed in that campaign ever since.
Until now.
With the Heat unveiling the fifth and final uniform of its successful Vice campaign — the “ViceVersa” City Edition uniform — earlier this season, the organization took a different approach to create its Earned Edition uniform.
Playing off the golden accent in its standard team colors, the Heat plans to unveil its “Trophy Gold” Earned Edition uniforms on Thursday. Each of the 16 teams that made the playoffs last season has its own Nike Earned Edition uniform.
In a press release to describe the new uniform, the Heat wrote: “Trophy Gold started as a stripe: a small, golden accent introduced to the Heat uniform set — and the larger team identity — prior to the 1999 season. But the new color didn’t just run down the side of the jersey — it ran through the entire organization, reminding every player, coach, and employee of the ultimate goal: a championship. Nothing less will do. In the 21 seasons since gold first graced the uniform, the team has lived up to its glimmering, glorious legacy, capturing three NBA Championships — tied for the league’s third most in that span.”
The Heat will wear the “Trophy Gold” uniform for three games, with the three games representing the team’s three titles: Thursday vs. the Orlando Magic to open the second half of the season, March 16 vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers and March 17 at the Memphis Grizzlies.
With Nike asking teams to use their existing color scheme for this season’s Earned Edition uniform, Heat chief marketing officer Michael McCullough said the organization “wanted to take an opportunity to highlight a color that we really haven’t done much with.”
“The gold color really started as an accent stripe. But internally, it means a lot more to us,” McCullough added. “So we saw an opportunity to create something focusing in on that color. Then once we settled in on what that uniform was going to be, the campaign came very quickly thereafter as far as how we would look to position this uniform as a very special limited edition collectible because it’s such a unique colorway for us. Plus it represents exactly what our organization’s ethos is about, which is competing for championships.”
The “Trophy Gold” campaign features the Heat’s first limited edition jersey. Only 6,031 “Trophy Gold” jerseys will be available for purchase, with 6,031 representing the sum of each of the team’s three championship seasons: 2006 + 2012 + 2013 = 6,031.
Each jersey is individually numbered (X of 6,031) in the “team’s iconic ‘CHAMPIONS’ font just above the jock tag, adding to the collectible nature of the ‘Trophy Gold’ jersey.”
McCullough said “the bulk of the jerseys” will be available for purchase at TheMiamiHeatStore.com beginning on March 17 at midnight. And “very small quantities” will be available at The Miami Heat Store locations at AmericanAirlines Arena, Dolphin Mall, Pembroke Pembroke Lakes Mall and Miami International Airport on March 18 when stores open.
“Trophy Gold” jerseys will be available exclusively for players on the current Heat roster.
In addition, the Heat will auction off a few of the “Trophy Gold” jerseys, with “each linked to title-winning figures throughout Heat history. The limited-edition, autographed player jerseys will feature the player’s name and uniform number, with the uniform number corresponding to the collectible individual number.”
The three jerseys celebrating the Heat’s championships will feature the numbers 6, 12 and 13 with “Champs” as the name on the back of the jersey. The 6, 12 and 13 jerseys will each be autographed by team president Pat Riley, head coach Erik Spoelstra and managing general partner Micky Arison and will feature collectible numbers 2,006 of 6,031, 2,012 of 6,031 and 2,013 of 6,031.
The specialty jerseys will be available at auctions.nba.com starting at 10 a.m. on March 20.
“Even though it’s one of our colors, it’s such a small accent that it felt like this is another different uniform color,” McCullough said of the gold look. “It’s not the Vice colors, which clearly are completely separate colors than what we’re used to. But because it’s just an accent, to do a full uniform with this color feels like we are still in that world of creating a new uniform for people to have a different kind of experience with the Heat and to have a different connection with the brand through a uniform.”
But the “Trophy Gold” campaign is very different than the Vice campaign. There will be no alternate court, there won’t be many jerseys produced for purchase, and the Heat will wear them for just three games.
“It has been interesting because we have been in the Vice campaign for so long,” McCullough said. “But it also enabled us to think about things a little bit differently. I think that’s why this campaign looks and feels very different from what we’ve been doing with Vice. The thought of creating a limited number, numbering them, all that sort of stuff is almost the polar opposite of what we’ve done with Vice, where we’ve really tried to satisfy the market’s appetite for as many jerseys as we can get our hands on. I think it has given us an opportunity to think a little bit differently about a campaign and execute something that’s a little bit different than what our fans have become accustomed to.”
