Ravens Reveal Details of Uniform Change Process

"I don't think we want to be the team that changes uniforms every five years," senior vice president of marketing Brad Downs said in an appearance on "The Lounge" podcast. "We want to be kind of modern classic, which I think is what our uniforms have become. I think they've looked good over the years, and I still think they look good. That's why we're excited to do this and perhaps push them a little bit forward."

Takeoff of Next Flight took an entire flock

The creation and official launch of the Ravens new jersey collection didn't just happen over night or even just one year and required the collaboration of a lot of parties within and outside of the organization.

Every aspect was meticulously thought-out, vetted and ultimately perfected with the main group in charge of the process, in addition to Downs being team president, Sashi Brown, head equipment manager, Kenico Hines and vice president of brand strategy and advertising, Josh Lukin.

"There was no level of detail in these uniforms that wasn't debated ad nauseam," Downs said. "That's the amount of work we wanted to put into these things. All four of us in that working group loved going through the process. It was challenging at times, it was frustrating, but we were all happy with where we landed."

The preliminary process began over three years ago in December 2022, when the team formally submitted a notification to enter the exploration stage with the league.

"There were definitely some thoughts and ideas that we had as we approached 30 seasons," Downs said. "[So] let's enter the process, and we'll only move forward if we get to the point where we've made them better, improved on what was a great foundation."

Since Nike is the exclusive provider of on-field uniforms for the NFL through 2038, the Ravens spent the next several months going over various ideas and combinations and brought in a select test group of players in the loop during the final stages.

"They (Nike) give you a scale, on a scale of one to 10, with one being minimal changes to the classic uniform, all the way to 10, where you think [Seattle] Seahawks neon green," Downs said. "Where do you want to be on that scale? All four of us answered that question individually. We were all right around the same line, around a 4 or 5. We want to push forward a little bit, but we want to stay true to who we were."

By all accounts, the final product has been a smashing success as players can't wait don this in live action and fans are already frantically purchasing their new gear. As far as when certain combinations and alternates will be worn during the 2026 season, that too has been and will likely continue to be a collaborative process whenever the schedule drops next month.

"We have to submit to the league our home games an what we want to wear and Kenico handles that," Downs said. "He and I usually connect after the schedule comes out and we might look at the primetime games and we usually identify like 'Hey, this could be a Darkness [Falls], this could be a Purple Rising game' because we do build out pretty substantial marketing campaigns around those games."

In the past, former head coach John Harbaugh was part of the process of which jerseys get warn and that practice may and likely will continue with new head coach Jesse Minter, who places a high value on collaboration and connectivity in all aspects of the organization.

"They're the ones wearing them and and they're the ones that have to feel good about it," Downs said. "I'm not sure how that's going to work with coach Minter but we got time to figure that out. We're just letting these things see the light of day so we'll cross that bridge when we get there."