The only obvious difference in the new Panther jersey is that it includes the new logo on the sleeves (the new logo is at right in this side-by-side comparison).
Here's a picture of the Panthers' "new" Nike jersey -- the black jersey with Cam Newton's number -- now available for pre-order for $100 in men's sizes.
The Panthers this week -- along with the 31 other NFL teams -- have started to accept pre-orders on new jerseys made by new NFL jersey supplier Nike. The orders don't actually ship until around April 26th, which is the first day of the NFL draft, but you can order them now online at the Panthers' website or the NFL.com website if you've just been aching to do so.
But as we've talked about before in this blog, I think that unless you're dead set on having that slightly tweaked new Panther logo on the sleeves or just love seeing the Nike swoosh, you can easily get by with wearing your old jersey. There's just not much difference. To paraphrase the old rock band The Who: Meet the new jerseys, the same as the old jerseys.
Well, there is one key difference -- these cost more. The old Reebok jerseys were $85 for the basic model. These are $100 for men's sizes, according to the Panthers' website -- women's jerseys are $95 and youth jerseys are $70. (Those old Reebok jerseys, incidentally, are now $42.50 on the Panthers' website, but you won't find any Cam Newton ones among them).
One mistake I think has been made: the initial offering on Panthers.com for the Nike "Game" jerseys only includes Newton (No.1), Jonathan Stewart (No.28) and DeAngelo Williams (No.34) for men's sizes (and then Newton only for women's sizes).
What, no Steve Smith? (Smith is available in men's sizes on nflshop.com, however, in both white and black jersey colors -- thanks to several alert readers for telling me this.)
Smith is only the greatest player and the leading touchdown scorer in Panther history. Smith's No.89 is available in $70 youth jerseys right now on the team website for pre-order, however, and his number will be available in the $100 men's jersey version in July on Panthers.com (again, it's available on nflshop.com right now). I know a lot of people own Smith's No.89 already, but still.... I think Smith should have been available in the first batch on the team site.
For the folks who just have to have sewn-on letters and numbers, the Nike "Elite" jersey is available for a cool $250 and is only available in Cam Newton's No.1 at this time.
So what do you think? Are you going to buy one of these new $100 jerseys, stick with what you've got or do something else entirely?
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