Earlier today over at SLAM Magazine, friend of the site (and former manager) Alex Wong put together an oral history of the making of the Toronto Raptors’ first ever jersey. In saying those words, I’m positive you can already picture the one I’m talking about — purple, spiky pinstripes, huge red cartoon dinosaur, just the whole dang deal.
In the telling of the tale though, we get a glimpse into some of the truly bat-shit ideas these insane people had for: a) branding, b) marketing basketball in Canada, and c) design. If the Raptors jersey has proven to stand the test of time as a one of a kind artifact of its era, it’s because the dudes at the wheel of the franchise were, quite frankly, crazy.