The Worst of the Worst
There are some truly terrible jersey designs in Orlando Magic history. Especially as the team moved away from its more playful elements and fonts, the team’s jersey design got completely unimaginative. And then they seemingly ran out of good ideas for alternate jersey designs as the adidas contract expired.
These jersey designs were rightfully panned at the time. They were aesthetically ugly and just downright bad.
Fortunately, for the most part, the Magic’s worst jerseys were limited to alternates that were rarely worn. Still, nobody was that excited to see them.
16. 2004-08 Plain White
The Magic opted to redesign their jerseys entering the 2004 season. Orlando had graduated from the stars design (we will get to that one) and then unveiled a jersey that was so plain it might as well have been a generic layout design.
The white jerseys were especially plain and ugly. The fact this would be the Magic’s home uniform for five years was frustrating enough.
The team went to a plain white jersey with blue trim and blue “MAGIC” written across the chest.
They had no charm and sure did not look good. Neither did the 1-19 start the Magic got off to that season while debuting those jerseys.
These were forgettable jerseys for a forgettable time in Magic history. The only good memories came in their last season when Stan Van Gundy and Dwight Howard led the Magic back to the playoffs two straight years with a Southeast Division title.
From there, the team changed its identity on the court and changed its fortunes.
15. 2015-17 Pride Alternates
As the adidas contract was winding down, the Magic still apparently had some contractually obligated alternates that needed to get sent out before the contract expired. And this came at the time the league was experimenting with sleeved jerseys.
The sleeved jerseys experiment did not go over well with fans. They were universally panned — even if the jerseys were originally designed for people to buy and feel like they were wearing a jersey even when they were purchasing a t-shirt.
Yeah, you can see where the idea went off the rails.
Instead of trying a new color scheme or making a truly unique jersey like the Cleveland Cavaliers did, the Orlando Magic simply slapped some sleeves on their home uniforms and turn the white to gray (at least it was the grayish silver of the stars in the original Magic logo).
But nobody really liked these at all. It was hardly unique and just felt like the cheap alternate you would find at a jersey shop selling some knock-off merchandise.
14. 2004-08 Plain Blue
Just like the home edition, these regular road jerseys were extremely plain. The Magic’s road set at this time was equally as boring.
The only good thing about them that puts them over the home jerseys is that they had a splash of color. That is still a lot of empty blue space with no charm. And the block font for the Magic was equally boring and devoid of character.
There is a reason the Magic so quickly disposed of these jerseys. The team has tried to present itself as a bit more grown-up from its expansion days. This was minimalist to the extreme and a completely uninteresting jersey to wear or remember.
13. 2017 Stars Uniform
In the final year the NBA used adidas as the apparel provider, the Orlando Magic got one final alternate jersey.
It was nothing super special and was perhaps a preview for future trends with jersey design — the use of the secondary logo as the primary draw to the front of the uniform. The overall design though was nothing special and was a bit of a clutter.
In what might have looked better with a collar in a Ralph Lauren catalog, the Magic wore a black jersey with the secondary logo in the middle and a blue and white Northwestern stripe across the middle.
It was a bit cluttered and not particularly appealing overall. If the stripe went all the way across the middle instead of stopping for the logo or wrapped around the entire jersey, the look might have been OK. If a bit preppy.
But very little about this jersey works. Maybe the only thing that works was the striping on the pants. The jersey got its name from the stars on the pants that at least resembled the team’s original jersey.
But this was just not a good alternative to the team’s set.