Phoenix Suns City Edition Jerseys Leaked?

It has been quite some time since the Phoenix Suns and their jersey choice has stirred up much interest. Yes, the team introduced their new Statement Edition jerseys last month, but the only change there was the removal of the Nike logo and the addition of a silhouetted little Michael Jordan. Yay.

In recent days several NBA teams have had their City Edition jerseys leaked via Twitter and/or Reddit, bringing excitement that perhaps the Phoenix Suns may follow suit and introduce some new threads for the 2020-21 season. The Brooklyn Nets, Portland Trailblazers, and Dallas Mavericks all recently had their newest designs leaked earlier this week.

Is Dallas stealing our color scheme like the Orlando Magic did? Are Brooklyn’s jerseys designed by a 4th grader? There is the bottom of the “g” in Oregon?! The answer to these questions I know not the answer, but it appears that this is time of the year in which these leaks happen.

Thursday morning the Tweets began coming through that Phoenix was next on the list of leaked jersey sightings. Would this be our time? What did the designers have in store for the Suns?

When Nike took the jersey creation, design and production reigns from Adidas in 2017, they changed the traditional understanding of team jerseys. No one had a “home” or “away” jersey anymore. It was “association” and “icon”. Furthermore, Nike added “classic”, “statement” and “city” editions as well.

The 2017-2018 inaugural City Edition jersey for the Phoenix Suns featured two shades of purple and the Phoenix constellation on the back. These Los Suns City Edition jerseys, which do a fantastic job embracing the Hispanic culture, were sleek. And very, very purple.

For the 2018-19 season the Suns continued with the Los Suns theme and adjusted the uniform set, incorporating orange trim and lettering outline. Less on the purple, more orange, and definitely Phoenix. The team also added the Arizona state flag to the mix, placing it on the right leg of the shorts.

2019-2020 brought very little creative change to the Suns uniform set. Don’t get me wrong, the subtle change they made, going from purple to black, was a great look. But anyone who knows how to change the color swatch of an item via InDesign, Photoshop, or Illustrator could’ve made the same move.

Back to Thursday morning. The investigators on Suns Reddit began leaking photos of the newest City Edition jersey. Could this be it?!

The jersey no longer says Los Suns on the front, rather, it embraces the Valley Boy culture with the words “The Valley” in the Suns font, albeit cursive-ish. Pixelated mountains don the front (which somewhat resembles Camelback mountain in Oregon Trail mode) with a pixel sunset behind it. The number font mirrors the current uniform set.

These are just rumors though, correct? Reddit, although a nice place to visit, can be a hole of false information that you spend hours absorbing. Just look at r/ConspiracyTheory. Some had a purple version of this jersey posted as well. You get excited at the prospect, but it is hard to start truly judging unless it is confir—

Ah. The Suns released a photo of Kelly Ourbe, Jr. hanging out with a horse. Yeah, yeah, #WeAreTheValley. He’s a Valley Boy. Cool. Rhinestones. Really cool.

Like Rafiki says to an adult Simba, look harder...

The shirt Kelly is wearing next to Artax there is the leaked jersey design! Is this Phoenix Suns organization confirming that these are indeed the newest version of the City Edition jerseys?! It certainly appears so.

If this truly is the case, if these are what the Phoenix Suns are going to wear next season, then it is only fitting that the man who brought the Valley Boy culture to Phoenix is the player who the Suns opt to assist in releasing the news.

While most throughout the country do not know that Phoenix is regularly referenced as “The Valley of the Sun”, we do. That is what the intention of City Edition uniform sets is intended to do. To embrace the city. To grasp on to the culture. To promote the area. To fortify the fanbase.

Personally, I love this design. The Valley is who we are. The sunsets are what we are known for. The pixels just look cool. Whenever they arrive on Shop.Suns.com, I’ll be there. The harder question for me is whether I buy a Booker, Oubre, Ayton, or Bridges jersey...