The New Orleans Pelicans are due for some new threads, and luckily enough, NBA Jersey Leak Season is just getting started. Some teams will have five looks, others just four, and the Boston Celtics will have another notch on their golden championship stags. Fans of the Pelicans will have a chance to add something new to their wardrobe as well. The franchise can expect to sell quite a few new kits with Herb Jones giving up the number five to welcome Dejounte Murray to the team. Some even bigger changes than player numbers are expected after this season, though.
Pelicans shopping around for new sponsors
Ibotta signed a three-year extension with the Pelicans back in September 2022. This is the last season on that deal. The Colorado-based company also has a jersey sponsorship deal with the Denver Nuggets. Furthermore, Ibotta CMO Richard I. Donahue, who was in place when the deal with Pelicans started, just sold off $3.52 million of Class A shares in April 2024. Do not mistake this in any way as financial advice but it seems a consolidation of NBA marketing bills is in order for their balance sheet.
Odds of a new sponsor next season: >85%. A new sponsor coming next season is all but assured. No confirmed sources but it's a solid bet. Most franchises are on their second or third sponsor and the practice was only allowed starting with the 2017-18 season. It's just business but leave room for Ibotta doing a one-year extension. Zatarains got the rookie season. Some companies will benefit from the extra advertising that comes with Zion Williamson's first NBA Playoffs appearance, eventually.
Saying goodbye to the Skelican
The King Cake Baby mascot comes out once a season during Mardi Gras. Fans can count on it like clockwork whether they like it or not. The beloved Skeleton Pelican (Skelican for short) may be put to bed though. Some fans want the Voodoo-inspired logo to be the main image. Others see it as a very unique novelty that should be laid to rest after the coming season, at least for a while.
Mardi Gras themes on a different color backdrop got a bit stale. This colorway elicits the swampy, voodoo culture. The Emmy-award-winning social media team put some extra juju on the jersey reveal video just to drive the point home. The Skelican's re-emergence down the line would break websites.
How to keep the Skelican around: Mixing up the midnight black from last season for some lighter shades of grey is another sleek option in the same style. Add a Pelicans wordmark in cursive and call it a day. Keeping the purple and neon green touches for one more edition would differentiate the Pelicans from other franchises. Also, New Orleans is one of the few teams not to have been given a logo-only jersey.
Odds of the Skelican appearing this season: 30%. The Skelican cannot be overused or it would feel inauthentic, much like the reliance on Mardi Gras themes. An opportunity to go out in style, if just for a while, is on the shelf waiting for the right moment.
Nostalgic nods that look nice
The Pelicans are going into their 23rd season. It's enough time to graduate past the pre-adult formative years hence the Hornets to Pelicans rebrand. Big Easy Basketball has been through relationships that end in heartbreak like Chris Paul leaving and DeMarcus Cousins chasing that free throw. The odd years of godawful bland blue jerseys with small, generic font was Looney Tunes.
Nods to nostalgia can be nice though. Nothing looks better on a baller than pinstripes, if done correctly. The Pelicans have not added too many extra touches over the years. If there were any stripes it was three horizontally of Mardi Gras or City Flag colors. Perhaps the green and gold accents can grace another uniform now that the Hornets have completely abandoned those colors.
Odds of Pinstripes next season: 25%. Pinstripes are making a comeback eventually. It just feels right. The Charlotte Hornets made the teal and purple with pinstripes iconic. New Orleans added the accents after a few years of trying to establish the brand. It's a matter of if not when but there has not been a need to rush it since rebranding to the Pelicans.
Pelicans putting pride on the chest
Last season's Statement Edition had Crescent City wrapped around the number. The Voodoo kit had the NOLA nameplate. The all-white Association and the blue Icon variations both said New Orleans on the chest. Pelicans was not part of the on-court visual program. New Orleans and New York were the only franchises that did not have the mascot name front and center on at least one outfit. Expect that to change sooner rather than later with the Pelicans.
Fans looking for clues might have to comb through last summer's press releases. The team's official announcement of the Voodoo jerseys came with some Easter eggs of sorts. There were several wordmarks including a neon green ‘Pelicans' in the bottom right. Repurposing that cursive script font would be a throwback to the last time the Pelicans were featured on Christmas Day.
Odd of ‘Pelicans' being on one jersey: >99%. Not putting the team name on a jersey for two straight seasons would either be a telltale sign that something is up in the marketing department or an oversight of monumental proportions occurred over at Nike HQ. The organization tweaked the global logo last summer to let the actual pelican stand alone from the New Orleans wordmark.
The graphic designers have to whittle 100 designs down to the four different uniforms players will wear on the court. A logo-only kit and one with the ‘Pels' abbreviation across the front would not be surprising. Unfortunately, Las Vegas will not take that double-whammy wardrobe-related parlay.
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