© Kyle Terada | 2021 Jan 27
The Warriors say they’re trying to honor Oakland, but not everyone from ‘The Town’ is onboard.
Golden State debuted their new ‘Oakland Forever’ collection of uniforms this season, as a way to pay homage to the team’s home of 49 years, which they moved from in 2019. Many have criticized the uniform, saying that it’s an attempt to make it seem like the organization cares about Oakland, fresh off abandoning the city for San Francisco.
Dustin O. Canalin, who designed ‘The Town’ uniforms that the Warriors wore during their final seasons at Oracle Arena, certainly feels that way. He told SFGate that the ‘Oakland Forever’ uniforms are insincere.
“As a designer I get the aesthetics and the idea behind it, but as a homegrown fan who experienced my team being taken away, I feel like the gesture is indifferent,” Canalin said. “It’s forced. They don’t play in Oakland anymore. They left. They even moved their team headquarters out of Oakland. It feels like a grab for leftover emotional baggage. It’s like a guilt jersey, a jersey for the new fans.”
Canalin’s Town jersey’s included an oak tree in the logo, a civic symbol of the city of Oakland. The ‘Oakland Forever’ jerseys, meanwhile, mimic the pre-Stephen Curry era logo, a period of near consistent failure for the franchise.
“It’s about fighting for what you believe and where you’re from,” Canalin explains. “When I originally designed these jerseys, I was thinking about the people up in the nosebleeds, not the people in the front row. I’ve sat up there, and I know you can’t see every detail down on the court. I picked a font and logo that I knew that they would especially be able to get excited about, even from the worst seats in the house.”
