Since its introduction, the Nike Destroyer jacket has quickly become a coveted symbol of street smarts, discerning style and gritty individualism. Now, the connection between the Destroyer and classic Americana is even more definitive.

This holiday season, Nike Sportswear introduces five exclusive limited edition Destroyer jackets paying homage to the cities of Detroit, New Orleans, Miami, Philadelphia and Oakland. Along with city-specific imagery and community interaction, the City Destroyers celebrate the football stars that embody the spirit of those archetypical metropolises and their football tradition. The number 51, which is found on many of the different metropolitan-themed jackets, pays homage to the uniform worn by Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman when he played collegiate football.

There will only be 8 jackets available per city. Beginning today, both the Nike Sportswear stores in New York (21 Mercer) and Los Angeles (Montalbán) will have 8 of each jacket available.

See them all after the jump.

DETROIT
For this iteration, designers tapped into the city’s gritty cultural history to create unique embroidered graphics. The harsh black-and-white color scheme nods to the punk and hardcore music scene; the fleur-de-lis references the French explorer who founded the city in 1701; the number 3-1-3 is the area code.

MIAMI
For this iteration, designers tapped into the city’s flashy cultural history to create unique embroidered graphics. The orange color scheme references college and pro football teams of the region; the sunglasses and flames surrounding the skull-and-crossbones supply plenty of tropical heat; the anchor on the front alludes to the coastal and nautical geography.

OAKLAND
For this iteration, designers tapped into the city’s cultural history to create unique embroidered graphics. These designs were inspired the Bay Area’s cultural history. The sword highlights Oakland’s location on the silhouette of California; the black-and-white colors are a nod to iconic football teams in the region.

PHILADELPHIA
For this iteration, designers tapped into the city’s Revolutionary history to create unique embroidered graphics. The ink bottle on the front and the “stars and stripes” bandana worn by the skull reference the Declaration of Independence; the Liberty Bell is on the arm.

NEW ORLEANS
For this iteration, designers tapped into the city’s rich cultural history to create unique embroidered graphics. The fleur-de-lis patches reference the French influence on food, language and Creole traditions; NOLA is scripted in on the back in gold lettering in honor of the local pro football team.

The Golden State Warriors have unveiled a new logo for their franchise that reminds everyone of the good ‘ole days of the NBA. The days before David Stern was able to influence everything in the league to benefit his bank accounts. As Jorge Menes would say, “There’s not enough deodorant for that conversation, so let’s move on.”

Coincidentally, this re-brand is taking place right before the NBA Draft. Hmm… I’m not surprised. I’m sure they’ll sell a ton of merchandise now that their logo isn’t a nonceptual blue man.

PROS:
1) Throwback-ish look – I love the reference to the old school San Francisco Warriors’ 1960′s vibe. Apparently the franchise has been selling a lot of “Hardwood Classics” merchandise that features the old school logo, so it’s only prudent that they moved to a throwback look without directly copying it. Often times, I find myself enjoying what is sometimes referred to as a fauxback; reconceptualizations of old jams.

2) Team Colors – A franchise builds heritage by having consistent team colors. The Warriors’ decision to revert to a simpler color palette shows they’re ready to succeed again. Stephen Curry will feel fresh-to-death in his new uniforms. The most recent iteration of the Warriors had orange as one of their colors. What!?!? Why would you do that? Who designed that? Who signed off on that? Orange/Navy Blue/Yellow = Low sales. Sorry, but no one is buying that garbage.

3) New Perspective – I love that they choose to focus on just a section of the iconic Golden Gate Bridge Bay Bridge by cropping into it and featuring it from a heroic angle. Everyone already knows what the bridge looks like, so there’s no need to show the whole thing. The bridge is excellently rendered in Illustrator, and you can tell. Props.

CONS:
1) Nudge that shit, bro – It makes absolutely no sense for the blue outline to be inconsistently thin at the top and thicker at the bottom. Someone forgot to use the arrow-up key on their Macbook. Let’s go people! We have tools to align these things! This slight detail (intentional or unintentional) makes me queezy if I stare at the logo for too long.

2) Copperplate. Really? – Out of all the possible typefaces in the world they chose Copperplate?!? I’ve seen this typeface used on everything from a lawyer’s business card to T.I.’s King. Everyone has it and it doesn’t help distinguish one brand from another. This is a PRO BASKETBALL franchise! They should be able to hire someone to create a custom/proprietary typeface. I don’t care if the deadline for this project was less than a day, I would’ve NEVER EVER put this typeface in front of a client. As a designer, you owe it to your client to suggest positive directions and guide them with your reasoning. And if you don’t know type, then you don’t know jack. I can just picture some suit at the Warriors walking in and saying, “My wife typed out a bunch of versions of ‘Golden State Warriors’ on her Compaq Presario and I really like THIS ONE!” while pointing at a sheet of 8.5″ x 11″ computer paper. I’m not a fan of this decision and I look forward to the 2011/2012 season when they revisit this and make an appropriate type tweak.

3) Lil’ Type / Big Type – This is going purely on gut here, but I can’t stand that GOLDEN STATE is so much smaller than WARRIORS. It makes the whole composition very bottom-heavy. Look at the spirit of the 1960′s logo, it’s so lively and optimistic. It directs the eye up and out. The new type treatment makes my eye glaze over the Golden Gate Bridge and focus on WARRIORS; which will probably be situated right around every player’s belly-button. Get ready for weird and off-balanced jerseys. I guess they’re assuming that the logo is “hot enough” and that it will move units regardless of type.

Overall Score:

I can’t hate too much. They made a strong decision to reference a popular design that has done well in the past and I’m a fan of that decision. Therefore, this logo gets 3.5 stars. If they had paid a little more attention to the details it would’ve easily gotten a 5.

Leaving The Zoo recording studio, we were bussed-off the Laney College where the Oakland Nike Football Combine was taking place. We were about to get our butt’s handed to us as we were about to get very familiar with Nike SPARQ training.

Using SPARQ training drills, students are able to see where they stand among the nation’s top prospects. (LANEY COLLEGE – Nice use of Helvetica 83 Heavy Extended)

We were ushered to the Laney College locker rooms where our training gear greeted us.

I strapped on my Nike Trainer SC 2010′s while Joe admired his sweet-looking Free TR’s.

Chester Berry from Complex took in the scene as we hit the Laney College track / field.

Mark Beier from ChicagoNow.com rocks his new Dri-Fit training tee.

New York Jets cornerback, Darelle Revis, came out to give us a few pointers as we were about to run our 40′s.

Tim Tebow came out to support us as well.

Tim Tebow gives Matt Halfhill from NiceKicks.com a few pointers on his vertical jump.

I’m proudly wearing my new Windrunner jacket…

…and my new strawberry that I received while falling during my 2nd 40 run. My SPARQ rating suffered from the fall, but I’ll never forget the chance to train alongside these great athletes.

After waking up in San Fran last Saturday, the Nike Media Group (including myself & Joe Martinez), boarded a bus to Oakland’s The Zoo recording studio for a footwear briefing. The briefing was structured to cover Nike’s 2010 releases in the athletic training department which would expose the design decisions and technological advances that went into the creation of the Trainer SC 2010 (which I would later test drive), Edge TR, Trainer 1.2, Huarache TR, and finally Free TR (Joe spent the weekend in these).

The spectrum of Nike Training ranges from STRONG to SPEED, where designers choose to dial up or dial down certain tenets of cross-training such as 1)Multi-directional Flexibility & Traction 2)Forefoot Security 3)Lateral Stability 4)Support 5)Fit & Comfort 6)Protection. All of these decisions factor into the individual athelete’s needs. For instance, Larry Fitzgerald would definitely train in a different trainer than Albert Pujols.

These outsole pattern variations show the detailed thought that each designer puts into each trainer, before a 3D model is even created.

Here’s a preliminary sketch of the Trainer SC 2010. You may recall old-school versions of this trainer endorsed by Bo Jackson, who still sits on the advisory board for Nike Training.

The Huarache TR is no joke. Almost everyone in the media group was most excited about this model. It looks so similar to the old school Huarache that a sense of nostalgia overwhelms you. I’m holding the breast cancer awareness colorway, as designed by Larry Fitzgerald. It’s a cause that is close to him, as his mother passed away from breast cancer. I can’t wait to score a pair of these. They are set to release later this year.

More footwear sketches on display among the studio elements of The Zoo.

These Huaraches scream!