How the Heat made the coolest jerseys in the NBA

When Nike succeeded adidas as the NBA's official jersey supplier, it already had ideas for all the new alternate uniforms it would produce -- the so-called "city edition" uniforms, and the new "earned edition" set the NBA unveiled today as a sort of replacement for the mothballed one-day-only Christmas jerseys.

Almost every team listened. Some teams adopted Nike's ideas almost wholesale. The Heat looked over Nike's proposals, which included one jersey featuring a palm tree print, and politely sent them back. They had a plan, and they weren't deviating.

They were right to hold fast. The so-called "Vice" jerseys, in white, then black, and as of today in pink as part of the "earned edition," have rolled out to near-universal praise. Last year's white version -- the original -- finished as the No. 1-selling "city edition" jersey, per the NBA's official data. (Only teams that made the playoffs in the prior season will receive "earned edition" uniforms.)

If they aren't the best uniforms in the NBA, they are certainly the coolest. Just don't call them "Miami Vice" uniforms, even though they use the name "Vice" and the pink-and-turquoise coloring from the wordmark of the classic 1980s cop show. The Heat have been very careful, almost comically so, to avoid using "Miami" and "Vice" together in a way that might suggest infringement upon NBC Universal's intellectual property. They are the "Vice" jerseys, and that's it, the team says. (As they prepped the uniforms, the Heat did call NBC Universal to give the company a heads up, says Michael McCullough, the team's executive vice president and chief marketing officer.)

The team had been toying with "Miami Vice" colors for years. Micky Arison, the Heat's owner, even teased the idea of pink-and-turquoise jerseys on Instagram in August 2015.

But for reasons both artistic and practical, they knew the "city edition" jersey could not be a simple homage to a television show.

Upon learning of the city edition campaign, Brett Maurer, the Heat's graphic designer, sent his five-person team running all over Miami and the surrounding area looking for inspiration, he says. They put together a "mood board" of images and colors that felt most evocative of the city, and of the look they were chasing: