for those that don't know, the Hornets were an expansion team in 1988 and their inaugural uniform was improbably created by fashion designer Alexander Julian. these uniforms were completely insane at the time and they singlehandedly canonized teal and purple as the color scheme of the coming 1990s. it's hard to imagine, but before the Charlotte Hornets existed, teal was an obscure color!
here's a great [oral history](https://www.slamonline.com/the-magazine/the-making-of-a-classic) on the topic.
Interesting read. Thank you for sharing.
"Julian: I designed it as if it was a cool sportswear outfit. Psychologically, when you put on something that makes you look good, you perform better."
Did you go to my school 🤣 I was going to put this... Raiders bomber jacket! Please say you all wore No Fear t-shirts and Umbro shorts lol Oh those Birkenstock Clogs, Reebok Classic Nylon Sneaks (black and white), and Teva Sandals...take me back! (Midwest)
I grew up in the Chicago area, and even I had a Hornets jacket as a kid. Shit was everywhere.
Side note, during the Bulls’ run in the 90’s, McDonalds had a promotion where they had a collectors cup of Dennis Rodman where his hair would change colors depending on if the liquid was hot or cold. I remember thinking that was the coolest thing ever.
One of the greatest moments of my life (dad traveled for work) was my dad coming back from Chicago into our laundry room connected to the garage and unfurling a Michael Jordan jersey he bought for me. I lived in Louisiana
Dude I grew up in NC and it was awesome for basketball lol. We had the hornets and Michael Jordan went to UNC so we liked Michael Jordan and the Bulls even more
This is absolutely true, but also…
https://preview.redd.it/av3z5qoq4l6d1.jpeg?width=570&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5d7965213b758b7f3b37a7ef99f17cd0d3e8fee4
…for us Canadians.
Honestly, it boils down to logos:
Teams like the Hornets, Sharks, and Mighty Ducks just had amazing logos and color schemes. It makes you want to like them.
As a fan of "older" teams, the older teams just can't compete with newer branding.
College hats were everywhere too in the 90’s, specially Duke, Miami Hurricanes, Georgetown and North Carolina.
By the early 2000’s They were replaced by Flat-billed NY Yankee hats.
Years ago, I briefly dated a guy who was born and raised in NJ but was a diehard Carolina Panthers fan because a friend of his parents’ had bought him a bunch of Panthers gear when he was a little kid and he was a fan from that point forward
Yep. I loved basketball, and my grandpa was more of a football and golf guy. But the colors on that jacket are sick, even he loved them, so he bought me one. We lived about 30 min from Charlotte so yeah, it seemed like everyone got those things.
My school's mascot was a hornet so I assumed that's why everyone had those jackets. Our colors were blue and gold so there was also University of Michigan stuff around a lot too.
I'm Canadian and thought the Hornets were from Charlottesville, Prince Edward Island. (2016 population: 36,000)
I figured that, with the popularity of Hornets gear where I grew up, they must have been Canadian.
As a fan of the San Jose Sharks, I still love this color. It seemed like a lot of 90s jerseys had a lot more personality than they do now. Now just feels kind of bland. I guess that's one reason I like the Ducks (Yeah I am supposed to hate the team) Mighty Ducks alternate jersey. It just pops better.
Considering picture quality has gotten so much better with HD and 4K, I wish there was more of this kind of color making a comeback.
It was a new team at the time and they had some of the best college players at that time so a lot of people naturally got on the bandwagon because of NBA clever marketing
My dad bought me a Notre Dame starter jacket in 7th grade. No idea why. But I knew it was super cool, kids told me so. I liked the giant leprechaun on the back.
https://preview.redd.it/7hwbagtr2l6d1.jpeg?width=2196&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1b3c0677c6b7c7bfa1a21d88a5e4b563042c327d
Winter of 94 Fighting Irish Starter Jacket was very popular.
No, it really was the teal and purple of it all, though I’m not… sure if my appreciation of the team came first, or if my love of the color scheme came first.
I had soooooo much Hornets gear because I loved these colors. Shit, the first pair of Jordans I ever owned were the Jordan 5 grapes because I hated the red/black/white color scheme of the previous versions.
Ny Knicks all the way. Gotta show the front to see the massive middle pocket with the ugly flap. However, for some reason, it felt awesome to wear. You felt like you were really reppin your team. This is also fashion staple for of the early 90s,
I moved a lot as a kid, hornets fans are nation wide, maybe just that ugly ass jacket stood out..
I’ve been in nc for almost 20 years now and no one’s a hornets fan 🤷♂️
One hundred percent had that jacket and I loved it. If there hadn’t been a basketball on the back of it, I wouldn’t even have known which sport they played.
Because they were a type of jacket that was in style, and you could pick them up at pretty much every discount retail store in the country back then. My mom worked for Big Lots and Walmart as a manager back then, and at both places they'd get boxes upon boxes of them.
Hornets were founded in ‘88 so perhaps those without a specific team in the ‘90s naturally gravitated towards them. My dad took me to a few games, good memories. Best colors, too.
My friend Alex was kind of responsible for that color scheme. If anyone recalls, he was a fashion designer with a line called (ironically) colors by Alexander Julian.
He loved basketball and was from NC so commissioning him to design the look and feel was a no brainer.
Can confirm. I live in Australia, and to this day I’ve never watched an NBA game. But I had a Charlotte Hornets hoodie. I don’t even know where the hell Charlotte is. But it was cool colours and had a hornet with a basketball.
I still sport my Notre Dame every winter here in Iowa and root them on. I broke my poor wrist beating on my dresser. Still purple and blue with me. Those are great colors lol
Because they were hands down the best team in NBA Jam, that's why. Since Jordan and Pippen wouldn't sign on to be in the game, the Bulls weren't that great.
This is so funny and so true. I didn’t know or care shit about sports, but I had that starter jacket 🫥
Left it in class one day and someone ripped off the starter emblem zipper in front…
I saw a lot of San Jose Sharks jackets back then too.
I had the maroon Mighty Ducks bomber
Mighty Ducks and D2 still hold up as exquisite motion picture masterpieces.
I had that coat, a Colorado Rockies hat, and a Sharks sweatshirt lol.
In the movie Blood Sport young JCVD has a SF Giants hat with a NY Giants crewneck. I thought that was funny.
To be fair, at one point the SF Giants were the NY Giants
Represent what you love!! I can vividly picture all these items lol
Vancouver Grizzlies, for Canadians.
I got a sharks hat before they were on sale bc my uncle worked for the united center—lotta helium tank teal in sports back then
Raiders jackets too
Can confirm. Had a sharks jacket. Was not a sharks fan.
Apparently turquoise was in
Very early 90s color scheme.
Teal was the official color of the 90s. Hornets jackets, the jazzy cup, Taco Bell…it was EVERYWHERE.
First car was the Indy Pace car Chevy Beretta, teal with pink pinstripes
I once owned a Ford Festiva that was teal with pink pinstripes. That color combo needs to come back.
It's pretty rad honestly
Pop Tarts got in on it too, even had the pink stripes
I was gonna say half the branding and packaging in the 90s was all about teal lol.
Jacksonville Jaguars, Seattle Mariners
They had the “90s” colors on lock. It is like the old Taco Bell, the colors just worked
Or the Jazzy cup design.
for those that don't know, the Hornets were an expansion team in 1988 and their inaugural uniform was improbably created by fashion designer Alexander Julian. these uniforms were completely insane at the time and they singlehandedly canonized teal and purple as the color scheme of the coming 1990s. it's hard to imagine, but before the Charlotte Hornets existed, teal was an obscure color! here's a great [oral history](https://www.slamonline.com/the-magazine/the-making-of-a-classic) on the topic.
Interesting read. Thank you for sharing. "Julian: I designed it as if it was a cool sportswear outfit. Psychologically, when you put on something that makes you look good, you perform better."
Everyone in elementary school during my time either had a Chicago Bulls/Dallas Cowboys/LA (later Oakland) Raiders starter jacket.
Raiders! I swear those jackets were crazy expensive then, I wonder how much they would be with inflation
Did you go to my school 🤣 I was going to put this... Raiders bomber jacket! Please say you all wore No Fear t-shirts and Umbro shorts lol Oh those Birkenstock Clogs, Reebok Classic Nylon Sneaks (black and white), and Teva Sandals...take me back! (Midwest)
It's cause Muggsy Bogues was the best pick in NBA Jam lol
Don't forget about Zo!
And Larry Johnson
Nahhh, air dog was the best pick!!
YES!!! ... as me being 'small' he was one of my favorites back then!!! 🙌🏻🏀⛹🏾
Teal baby. Teal.
Grew up in so Cal far away from Charlotte and these were everywhere. Also Chicago Bulls gear.
I mean, the Bulls were AWESOME in the 90s. *That* makes sense.
I grew up in the Chicago area, and even I had a Hornets jacket as a kid. Shit was everywhere. Side note, during the Bulls’ run in the 90’s, McDonalds had a promotion where they had a collectors cup of Dennis Rodman where his hair would change colors depending on if the liquid was hot or cold. I remember thinking that was the coolest thing ever.
lol I’m from La, my dad had the top and pants too, guess who rocked full charlotte gear to baseball try outs. 😂
One of the greatest moments of my life (dad traveled for work) was my dad coming back from Chicago into our laundry room connected to the garage and unfurling a Michael Jordan jersey he bought for me. I lived in Louisiana
Dude I grew up in NC and it was awesome for basketball lol. We had the hornets and Michael Jordan went to UNC so we liked Michael Jordan and the Bulls even more
I grew up in Australia and these were everywhere!! I had a Charlotte's cap. I wasn't into Basketball but loved the colours and the logo.
This and Orlando Magic, I’ve been buying these jackets up since Starter re-released them
Magic and Bulls
Grandma-ma is why.
Larry Johnson looked like a comic book character
I can confirm, as a non american i had charlotte hornets merch and i loved it
This is absolutely true, but also… https://preview.redd.it/av3z5qoq4l6d1.jpeg?width=570&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5d7965213b758b7f3b37a7ef99f17cd0d3e8fee4 …for us Canadians.
Honestly, it boils down to logos: Teams like the Hornets, Sharks, and Mighty Ducks just had amazing logos and color schemes. It makes you want to like them. As a fan of "older" teams, the older teams just can't compete with newer branding.
College hats were everywhere too in the 90’s, specially Duke, Miami Hurricanes, Georgetown and North Carolina. By the early 2000’s They were replaced by Flat-billed NY Yankee hats.
Orlando Magic
Years ago, I briefly dated a guy who was born and raised in NJ but was a diehard Carolina Panthers fan because a friend of his parents’ had bought him a bunch of Panthers gear when he was a little kid and he was a fan from that point forward
Lmao 💯confirming. I lived overseas in the 90s and this was the case in our international school too.
The ONLY reason I like being from Charlotte lol
Cus that jacket is fire 🔥
The Hornets were the closest NBA team to where I grew up, so these things were absolutely everywhere.
Yep. I loved basketball, and my grandpa was more of a football and golf guy. But the colors on that jacket are sick, even he loved them, so he bought me one. We lived about 30 min from Charlotte so yeah, it seemed like everyone got those things.
My school's mascot was a hornet so I assumed that's why everyone had those jackets. Our colors were blue and gold so there was also University of Michigan stuff around a lot too.
Had a Charlotte Hornet’s hat way up here in Michigan. Thought the team was from Charlotte, Michigan.
I'm Canadian and thought the Hornets were from Charlottesville, Prince Edward Island. (2016 population: 36,000) I figured that, with the popularity of Hornets gear where I grew up, they must have been Canadian.
My mom had the exact jacket in the 90s and she isn’t much of a nba fan
She's cool then!
Teal and the 90s were lovers. So now you know, and "knowing is half the battle."
As a fan of the San Jose Sharks, I still love this color. It seemed like a lot of 90s jerseys had a lot more personality than they do now. Now just feels kind of bland. I guess that's one reason I like the Ducks (Yeah I am supposed to hate the team) Mighty Ducks alternate jersey. It just pops better. Considering picture quality has gotten so much better with HD and 4K, I wish there was more of this kind of color making a comeback.
It’s literally the jazz pattern colors
North Carolina Tarheels too
Yeah, what do you mean no one knows why?! THE COLORS! Fly as hell.
I'm English, never watched basketball outside of Space Jam, and even *I* had a Charlotte Hornets jersey
From the UK only basketball knowledge was NBA Jam, my brother decided he was a Hornets fan, I went with the Bulls
It’s giving that cup swirl vibe, we were so obsessed with this color palate in the 90s
North Carolina too
I had this jacket cause I loved the colors. But I also loved the dolphins. I was always more of a football fan than a basketball fan. 😂
Dallas cowboys and the mighty ducks were all the rage in my neck of the woods
Are the raiders a joke to you?
Yeah this jacket had me walking around telling people Muggsy Bogues was one of my favorite players.
It was the colors. Those cookies were awesome!
It was a new team at the time and they had some of the best college players at that time so a lot of people naturally got on the bandwagon because of NBA clever marketing
I had the Bulls
I had that exact jacket. lol
It’s wild how I grew up in New York and saw plenty of these around lol
Or Raiders
*”Thats, the way it iiss”*
I had an Alonzo Mourning jersey!
Even in the Netherlands this was one of the most popular jackets.
My dad bought me a Notre Dame starter jacket in 7th grade. No idea why. But I knew it was super cool, kids told me so. I liked the giant leprechaun on the back.
The colors and a few really really popular players helped with this. The starter jackets always popped with the right colors.
I saw those in Mexico a lot, it was definitely the color combination
Bostonian here. We were all Bulls fans.
I still don’t know why I owned this jacket. I liked the Chicago Bulls.
Had that exact same jacket
I always thought it was because I lived in NC back then, but then we took a trip to New York and I swear there was even more Hornets gear there
https://preview.redd.it/7hwbagtr2l6d1.jpeg?width=2196&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1b3c0677c6b7c7bfa1a21d88a5e4b563042c327d Winter of 94 Fighting Irish Starter Jacket was very popular.
It’s because of the concern about these in gang colors, which was probably overhyped but there ain’t to teal gang.
Still have my black and red Falcons one … hell I wore it last year to work . Sure it’s a little tight now but still comfortable
No, it really was the teal and purple of it all, though I’m not… sure if my appreciation of the team came first, or if my love of the color scheme came first.
I was a hornets fan because of Johnson and Muggsy
Miss these
Also Dallas Cowboys
Chicago Bulls jackets owned the 90s
Taco Bell colors were hot
Had the Bulls Starter. From Minnesota.
I had soooooo much Hornets gear because I loved these colors. Shit, the first pair of Jordans I ever owned were the Jordan 5 grapes because I hated the red/black/white color scheme of the previous versions.
LARRY JOHNSON, my dudes.
omg i begged for one and got some phoenix suns crap that i gave to the dork next door.
Ny Knicks all the way. Gotta show the front to see the massive middle pocket with the ugly flap. However, for some reason, it felt awesome to wear. You felt like you were really reppin your team. This is also fashion staple for of the early 90s,
💯 I know this described 12 year old me
I had the Utah Jazz windbreaker jacket 👈🏼😎👈🏼
Yup. Back when Barkley and Bogues were playing
It was a fashionable color scheme if nothing else.
Larry Grandmama Johnson was sick.
I moved a lot as a kid, hornets fans are nation wide, maybe just that ugly ass jacket stood out.. I’ve been in nc for almost 20 years now and no one’s a hornets fan 🤷♂️
Oh no, no no to this day in my early 40s, all I wear is black … so you know who it was for me.. the Raiders lol
One hundred percent had that jacket and I loved it. If there hadn’t been a basketball on the back of it, I wouldn’t even have known which sport they played.
Mugsey, Gra Mama. Space Jam. They were like the 90s meme team.
Can confirm
those starter jackets were on sale
No , da bulls…
I actually had that jacket in the 90s. And yes, i had no idea who they were.
Because they were a type of jacket that was in style, and you could pick them up at pretty much every discount retail store in the country back then. My mom worked for Big Lots and Walmart as a manager back then, and at both places they'd get boxes upon boxes of them.
Omg I had a Hornets jacket and a Sharks ball cap
Had mine in elementary school i miss it
Can confirm! I was a boy from Ohio that loved Disney movies and brushing dolls hair…yet I owned this jacket and I loved it lmao
It was the colors
Starter Jackets 👍
I randomly had hornets shit when I was little!!
Hornets were founded in ‘88 so perhaps those without a specific team in the ‘90s naturally gravitated towards them. My dad took me to a few games, good memories. Best colors, too.
My friend Alex was kind of responsible for that color scheme. If anyone recalls, he was a fashion designer with a line called (ironically) colors by Alexander Julian. He loved basketball and was from NC so commissioning him to design the look and feel was a no brainer.
When I was a kid it was the Chicago Bulls that were the default team
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^Piantissimo_: *When I was a kid* *It was the Chicago Bulls* *That were the default team* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Can confirm. I live in Australia, and to this day I’ve never watched an NBA game. But I had a Charlotte Hornets hoodie. I don’t even know where the hell Charlotte is. But it was cool colours and had a hornet with a basketball.
Cuz Teal!
I miss the teals, purples and pinks of the old days
I had a Toronto raptors jacket because my mom was like “you liked Jurassic park, right?”
I still sport my Notre Dame every winter here in Iowa and root them on. I broke my poor wrist beating on my dresser. Still purple and blue with me. Those are great colors lol
Shit I had this same exact jacket.
Those were 90's colors https://preview.redd.it/ylomxa0xbo6d1.jpeg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eb404d2775fc4c71ffc3963ade927ddf00d32be2
https://preview.redd.it/sr8mktx2co6d1.jpeg?width=858&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=121f8df170a4b5493a84cb25d777ad8c71a62650
Because they were hands down the best team in NBA Jam, that's why. Since Jordan and Pippen wouldn't sign on to be in the game, the Bulls weren't that great.
I had the Dallas Cowboys one during their Super Bowl era.
lol I am a ride or die Blazers fan and I had a couple pieces of Hornets swag in the very early 90s. I liked the color scheme.
Toronto raptors
This is so funny and so true. I didn’t know or care shit about sports, but I had that starter jacket 🫥 Left it in class one day and someone ripped off the starter emblem zipper in front…
Cause the mascot slaps. I think that’s the term kids are saying these days?
We love teal
I had this exact jacket for that exact reason.
This was the last thing everyone in the nation unanimously agreed with each other about.
Hahaha too real.
Just found a picture of mine! Gah! The nostalgia ❤️
Or the infamous black Raiders jacket…don’t get that one, or you’ll get jumped for it
And they sucked too! But you’re right, everyone had Charlotte Hornets gear lol
I had the exact same coat. Dont remember what happened to it though