After more than 25 years, the Broncos are updating their threads.
Denver unveiled new uniforms on Monday, officially retiring the sets worn since the 1997 season. The Broncos rolled out three jerseys: the home Sunset Orange top, Summit White road shirt and Midnight Navy alternate jersey, which can be paired with navy, white or orange pants. New navy and white helmets are also included in the changes, as is a long-desired throwback kit intended to harken back to 1977, the year in which the Broncos made their first Super Bowl appearance.
The new duds feature a number of region-specific details, including a mountain peak on each sleeve cap, inspired by both the Rocky Mountain landscape of the Denver area and the linework of the team's existing Broncos logo, which the team carried over to its new look.
That's not the only geographic detail in the uniforms, either. Denver has included the use of upward-pointing triangles throughout its uniform, including as a gradient within the jersey numbers -- which also sport a custom typefont intended to blend traditional block numbers with the Broncos' trademark typefont used from 1997-2023 -- as a stripe of triangle clusters on the helmet, starting from the bottom of the backside of the helmet and stopping at the crown, and in a trio along the side of the jerseys under the sleeves. The meaning of the triangles points toward Denver's status as the Mile High City, where opponents must deal with altitude from the moment they step off the plane.
Denver's uniforms also include changes to their helmets, with both their standard navy and alternate white shells featuring metallic satin finishes. Gone are the pointed stripes worn since Nike and the Broncos propelled uniform design into the new millennium in 1997, and in their place are the aforementioned triangle clusters, which are orange on the navy helmets, and navy on the white helmets.
The Broncos stated the navy helmet is intended to be paired with the orange and white jerseys, while the white helmet will be used with the team's alternate navy look, but it's easy to see scenarios in which the navy helmet could be worn with the navy jersey, and the Broncos could go for an all-white appearance with their road uniforms.
If the triangles didn't serve as enough of a reminder of Denver's place one mile above sea level, one look at the Broncos' helmet nose bumpers will do the trick. Denver will sport "5280" (Denver is 5,280 feet or one mile above sea level) on the bumpers of both their navy and white helmets, and have emblazoned the number (with accompanying triangles) within their two-color pants striping, which appears as orange and white on the navy pants, and orange and navy on the white pants.
The throwbacks feature a brighter blue helmet with a period-accurate "D" logo with a bronco rearing within it, white-orange-white helmet striping and white facemasks. The shell complements orange jerseys, white pants and blue socks all designed with the intent to match the team's 1977 uniforms. Though these uniforms were inspired by gear worn by the first Broncos team to reach the Super Bowl, many fans will instantly associate them with the era in which John Elway led Denver to multiple Super Bowls before the 1997 uniform changes preceded the team's first triumph on the game's greatest stage.
Denver owned one of the longest-lasting uniform sets in the NFL, carrying a style that was once incredibly unique beyond multiple different eras of uniform trends. Despite their lasting look, the Broncos decided 2024 would be the time to refresh, and are hoping their new Mile High Collection will lead them to new heights.
