By Sophomore Blogger Oliver Martinez

Oliver is a big sports fan. And, he has the sports jerseys to prove it. When we asked him to discuss “His favorite things . . . ,” he turned to his revered pile of jerseys.

With the NBA at the beginning of its season, the MLB over its season, and Soccer/Football midseason, jerseys in all three sports have been trending. For that reason, I have decided to make a list of my favorite basketball, baseball, and soccer jerseys. I will be showcasing six NBA jerseys–three older, and three newer, six soccer jerseys, and two baseball jerseys. 

Basketball

• My first older jersey is this Pistons jersey.

This jersey is very nice. The horse in the middle of the jersey actually looks threatening, and the fire on top of the horse makes it even better. The letters are very clean. The white of the letters makes great contrast with the rest of the jersey. This is infinitely better than their rebrand:

Although simplicity is good, the complexity of the classic Piston jersey works perfectly. 

• My second favorite jersey is this Utah Jazz mountain jersey:

This jersey is absolutely amazing. It has good colors that make good contrast, and it has some meaning behind it. These are the mountains that encircle Utah. These jerseys debuted in 1996 and were discontinued in 2004. 

• For my third vintage jersey I choose this Phoenix Suns jersey. 

I think that you just can’t go wrong with purple, orange, and white. This jersey is great because it includes everything a jersey should have: the name of the team, the number, and the symbol of the team. The symbol here is the sun, and it’s even better because the basketball represents the sun. Orange just contrasts so well with purple, and the white letters work well with the rest of the jersey. 

• My first newer jersey is this Warriors Oakland Jersey.

It’s a special jersey because it remembers the Golden State Warrior’s days when they were a team based in Oakland; now the Warriors are based in San Francisco. The colors match so well, and it’s a clean, slick jersey.

• The fifth jersey I picked was this black vice city Miami Heat jersey:

According to cbssports , this jersey is “A tribute, honoring its past through the prism of our future. A uniform, coded as a composite of those that came before it.” Honestly, the meaning for this jersey makes me like it even more; I like the black base with the blue and pink. They make good contrast, and the jersey is overall very clean. You could argue that the white version of these jerseys is better, but personally, I prefer the black one. 

• Lastly, the “Black Mamba” Lakers Jersey is a favorite of mine.

This jersey is in my opinion one of the best modern jerseys. Black and yellow go so well together it’s impossible to go wrong with it. Plus, it is a jersey made to honor the legendary Kobe Bryant (nicknamed the Black Mamba, who played with the Los Angeles Lakers for twenty years and became an icon of the sport. Sadly after retiring, he passed away in a helicopter crash.) The Lakers wore this jersey throughout the 2020 playoffs. The Lakers won that championship. 

Soccer/Football

• So, for my first soccer jersey, I choose this Corinthians Paulista 2022/23 third jersey:

Its inspiration comes from Corinthians’ 2012 Club World Cup victory in Japan; this is clearly shown in the beautiful design which has many characters in Japanese and a nice base color. These quickly sold out, and even after a year, they are still not back in stock. Authentic ones have been reselling for over $110, which is crazy considering they retailed for $95.

• My second favorite football jersey is this Arsenal 2022-23 away kit:

This jersey perfectly demonstrates why you can’t go wrong with a black jersey. It goes with everything. The golden badge, Adidas logo, and letters are such a great contrast with the black. According to arsenal.com, the meaning of the jersey is that “Gooners everywhere connect with the club through their own Little Islington community, no matter where they are in the world. Chinatown, Koreatown, Little Italy – in cities across the United States these cultural outposts are everywhere.” I actually own this jersey, and if you look very closely, it has the letters “AFC” all over the jersey in different patterns. This is the abbreviated version of their name, Arsenal Football Club. This, on top of the two great colors, make for a great jersey that deserves to be in my list of favorite soccer jerseys. 

• My third favorite soccer jersey is this 2022 England World Cup away. 

Usually blue and red wouldn’t work too well, but this time the English FA have made it work. England has proven they have a plethora of talent in their team as they have made the final for the Euro Cup in 2020 and have been very dominant against most teams, especially in the World Cup where the team barely lost to France. The soft blue color makes a good contrast with the red, and the simplistic design is perfect. The collar having dark blue and light blue is a nice detail, too.

• For my fourth football jersey favorite is this unreleased China 2018 jersey: 

This jersey was actually only released for a very short time. Nike went all out for China in 2018, releasing this amazing jersey that had a great dragon design with perfect contrast as it had yellow as its secondary color. But, the China FA rejected this design. And the reason is absolutely insane. Their reason for rejecting this jersey was that its “aesthetic is too similar to tattoo-style art. Tattoos have been historically associated with organized crime groups in China” (footyheadlines).  This rejection is a shame considering how great this jersey was. I predict it would’ve sold extremely well. 

• Don’t overlook the 1992-1994 Manchester United home jersey:

Manchester United won back-to-back Premier League titles with this jersey, and it’s honestly stunning. The vibrant red is such a great color; it reminds me of the days when Manchester United was actually good. This season has been atrocious as they struggle to win in the European Champions League and can’t maintain a top 5 spot in the Premier League. This jersey is just iconic, as one of their biggest legends, Eric Cantona, who scored 82 goals in five seasons and aided the red devils in winning four Premier League Cups, six English Super Cups, and two English FA Cups, wore this jersey. 

• My last soccer jersey is the 18/19 Paris Saint-Germain third jersey:

What can I say, I’m a sucker for black jerseys. PSG is always coming out with amazing jerseys, but I think this may be their best. The white Paris logo looks so good, and it’s nice seeing them collaborate with Jordan–which not many teams do. They initialized their collaboration with Jordan in 2018 for three years, then extended it for one more year. After 2022, their collaboration ended. The line in the middle is a nice detail so that it’s not too simple but also not complicated. 

Baseball

I just want to let it be known that I am not too familiar with baseball, but I have seen some jerseys I do like. 

• Check out this Space City Houston jersey:

I’ve seen this one trending recently, and I can see why. This jersey is stunning. The contrast being made with dark blue and orange with yellow is a nice detail, and it makes a reference to Houston always being called Space City. According to the MLB website, “There is no better way to represent the city that continues to believe that human potential is limitless.” 

• I also like this Padres jersey:

I think the brown and yellow make good contrast with the white, and the pinstripes all over the jersey are a nice detail to keep it interesting. It isn’t their traditional jersey; their traditional one is gold and brown. Here the Padres keep the color scheme, but add a contemporary touch with the lines.

The new jersey looks better in my opinion.  I just don’t really like the buttons on MLB jerseys, but sometimes wearing button-up jerseys can be comfortable. 

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Do you think you could improve on my list? If so, let me know if I missed any potential jerseys in the comments!