Toronto Raptors Give their Drake-Inspired City Jerseys an Update

The Toronto Raptors are back again with Drake-inspired City jerseys — this time with a twist. Also is there more exciting jersey news on the way?

Last season, when Nike took over the reins from Adidas for outfitting the NBA, they put the Toronto Raptors, league, and fashion world on notice when they overhauled the entire jersey system.

While some of these changes were on the technical end, from the use of different patented fabrics and technologies, designed with the intent of improving athlete performance, others were more visually driven, appealing to the fandom and rich culture of basketball.

While the “Association”, “Icon”, and “Statement” edition jerseys (as Nike has dubbed them) are essentially just the familiar home, away, and secondary jerseys that we’ve seen before during Adidas’ tenure, fans were most excited about the mysterious “City” edition kits.

According to an official Nike press release from last year, these “City” edition jerseys are meant to

"“capture each team and its city in a way that respects the past and present of the clubs while also positioning them for the future”."

To the delight of hoops fans everywhere, Nike has ambitiously planned to refresh the city’s edition jerseys every single year.

Aside from the Utah Jazz — whose Red Rock inspired, warm colour gradient jerseys became an instant classic — every team is getting new digs this year.

In the 2017-2018 campaign, the Raptors unveiled a dashing black and gold number that featured an upwards-pointing chevron with the word “NORTH” emblazoned over it, in partnership with Drake’s OVO (October’s Very Own) brand.

This black and gold motif has become synonymous with both Toronto and the Raptors organization in the past few years thanks to local rapper Drake’s involvement in both the team and city’s overall aesthetic. OVO offers up a minimalist and edgy take on street wear and music and his collaboration with the Raptors reinforces this image of the city.

These jerseys looked sleek on the court last year, so it makes sense that the organization doesn’t want to mess with the equation too much. While some teams, like the Milwaukee Bucks or Cleveland Cavaliers decided to completely reinvent their city jerseys, the only real change that the Raptors made to their “City” jersey was changing their black base colour with white.

A potential concern might be that the gold accents won’t pop as much against a light background, especially if you’re watching on TV, but on the other hand this colour scheme looks eerily similar to the white-gold warmups the Warriors rocked in their season opener, where they received their championship rings (I hope I don’t jinx it). Furthermore, the white-gold scheme has an elegant, regal flair to it, fitting for a team that is experiencing on-court royalty as the top seed in the East.

Having said that, it might be interesting to consider what other creative directions the Raptors might explore in future years. As monumental as Drake has been in putting Toronto on the map in recent years, there are many narratives and rich histories that remain untapped.

However, as the team’s global ambassador and a key contributor in refurbishing many local courts and supporting basketball programs, this Drake-Raptors partnership does not seem to be ending anytime soon.

That’s not all the jersey news though — word on the Twitterverse and Reddit is that on top of the planned “City” edition jerseys that Nike has for all 30 teams, they are unveiling a brand new “Earned” edition jersey set exclusive to the 16 teams that have, well, earned, their ticket to the playoffs last year.

While there has been no official word on the release date or what these jerseys will look like, this has not stopped fans from speculating and creating their own mock-ups. A Redditor that goes by champagnesnazzy mocked up these beautiful cream-blue kits that are reminiscent of the Toronto Huskies and on-brand with the rest of the Toronto sports franchises (Jays, Leafs, Argos).

However, according to one Twitter account, the “Earned” jersey for Toronto is slated to be red.

Nike has remained fairly silent on these jerseys at this point, so obviously, things are still speculative. If this early season is any indication though, the Raptors will continue their winning ways and with these new jerseys in the mix, they will continue to win in style.