Miami Heat unveils final jersey of Vice campaign
The story of the Miami Heat’s popular Vice campaign is a colorful one.
First, there was the white Vice uniform in the 2017-18 season. Then there was the black “Vice Nights” uniform that was released early in the 2018-19 season, and that was followed by the introduction of the laser fuchsia “Sunset Vice” uniform later that same season. It continued last season with the launch of the blue gale” “ViceWave” uniform.
On Tuesday, the Heat unveiled the fifth and final uniform of its enormously successful Vice campaign: the “ViceVersa” City Edition uniform.
“We challenged ourselves with coming up with a finale,” said Jennifer Alvarez, the Heat’s vice president of creative and digital marketing.
“How do we end the Vice campaign and create a uniform that can help tell the story of all the uniforms that preceded it? So we wanted to create something that incorporated the original Vice, ‘Vice Nights,’ ‘Sunset Vice’ and ‘ViceWave.’ What we ultimately landed on does exactly that.”
The “ViceVersa” uniform brings a new color to the Vice look the Heat is calling “Vice Violet,” which appears at the middle of the gradient where the blue gale and laser fuchsia meet. “Vice Violet” is the signature color of the “ViceVersa” campaign.
The Heat will wear the “ViceVersa” uniform this upcoming season, with the
specific dates to be determined when the 2020-21 schedule is released.
The schedule for the first half of the regular season (Dec. 22 – March 4) will be released in the coming days.
“What we’re doing is basically where the blue and the pink come together to meet in the center, there is that really kind of beautiful violet color,” Heat chief marketing officer Michael McCullough said. “We’re naming that ‘Vice Violet,’ and that will be a signature color for this campaign. So you will see a lot of retail merchandise that features that ‘Vice Violet’ color.”
“Vice Violet” is also a big part of the new Vice court, which will be used when the Heat wears its new Vice jerseys for games this season at AmericanAirlines Arena.
“Because of the way the uniform looks, we knew we had to design a new court to match this particular uniform,” McCullough said. “The former Vice court was not going to complement the uniform the way we wanted it to.”
“ViceVersa” player jerseys will be shipped based on the following schedule: Tyler Herro on Feb. 1; Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler, Duncan Robinson
and Kendrick Nunn on March 1; and Goran Dragic, Udonis Haslem and other Heat players on
June 1.
ACHUIWA WEIGHS IN
Heat rookie forward
Precious Achuiwa addressed several issues in a Zoom session with reporters on Tuesday:
Though he hasn’t
● played in a game since the college season ended prematurely in March, he said that does not “mean I’m not ready to play. I’ve been working out a lot, every day to stay ready for when the moment comes. I don’t see that as going from zero to 50.... I bring a lot of energy to the team. My game is just based around energy.”
Achiuwa has been working out with Herro since the draft two weeks ago: “Me and Tyler, we connected the night right after I got drafted. We’ve been in communication pretty much the next day. He told me as soon as I got out here, he reached out to me
and we’ve just been talking and we wanted to get into the gym. He explained [the Heat terminology] to me and told me what to wear.”
Achuiwa after the draft,
●
“I reached out to Jimmy [Butler] and he reached out to me. We talked and he pretty much just said, ‘Hey, welcome. We’re glad to have you. At the end of the day, the goal is winning.’ He emphasized that. For me, I want to win. Winning feels so good, and I respect that. That’s all I’m about. Doing whatever it takes to win basketball games.”
Achiuwa recently post
●
ed videos of himself rooting for the Heat during the playoffs. Why was he a
Heat supporter long before the team drafted him?
“I love to watch when people play hard, when people play together, when people play to win. That has been Heat basketball. During the playoffs, I watched pretty much almost every game in the bubble and I watched Heat basketball. I just enjoyed watching when
the Heat play. It was winning basketball. Everybody was locked in the moment.
“Everybody had the same goal. It was like all five guys were as if it was just one person.”
HEAT-PELICANS FOR CHRISTMAS
The NBA’s tentative Christmas Day schedule includes a matchup between the Heat and New Orleans Pelicans at noon at AmericanAirlines Arena, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Tuesday night.
The Heat-Pelicans matchup is the first of five games tentatively scheduled for Christmas Day, which also includes Golden State at Milwaukee at 2:30 p.m., Brooklyn at Boston at 5 p.m., Dallas at the Los Angeles Lakers at 8 p.m., and the Los Angeles Clippers at Denver at 10:30 p.m.
The Christmas Day games will be televised on either ABC or ESPN; the noon slot usually goes to for ESPN.