Since Nike took over the NFL’s apparel contract in 2012, numerous teams have broken from tradition and added an alternate uniform to their closet. Just don’t expect the Kansas City Chiefs to follow suit any time soon – though their owner, Clark Hunt, appears to be warming up to the idea.
“I think the second or third year (on the job), I brought it up, and it was a swift, ‘No,’ so I sort of tabled it,” Chiefs president Mark Donovan said, according to Arrowhead Pride. “We brought it up again three years ago, and it wasn’t such a swift, ‘No.’ It was like, ‘OK, we can probably talk about it.’”
The Chiefs have rarely deviated from their standard uniforms, which feature red helmets and jerseys with white pants at home and red helmets with white jerseys and red pants on the road, though they occasionally opt to wear red pants at home and white pants on the road.
They wore throwback uniforms in 1994 as part of the NFL’s 75th season celebration, honored their roots as the Dallas Texans by wearing throwback threads for the 50th anniversary season of the AFL and then added red socks to their all-red ensemble as part of the Color Rush promotion in 2015-16.
More recently, the Chiefs swapped their unusual white facemasks for gray for one home game in 2019 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their victory over the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV. They also swapped the facemasks for one road game in 2021.
“(We’re) pretty focused on the position that we have,” Donovan said. “I think we’re one of, if not the only (team) with the traditional (setup). Haven’t changed it, don’t have an alternative. We like that. Our players really like our all white-on-white, even more so than red-on-red now. So that’s become sort of our go-to, but we’ll always consider it.”
For the record, the Chiefs are the only team in the NFL without a true alternate or throwback design in their current uniform rotation, though that’s likely because they’ve generally looked the same since their founding as the Texans in 1960. The only differences were helmet logo and cuff/sleeve design.
“I think (it’s) a high bar that’s going to have to be crossed to actually get it done, but it’s definitely (a) conversation. I’m sure you guys (media members) get them, too, but I get helmet designs monthly.”
