The Buffalo Bills’ new uniforms are ice-cold. Or at least that was their intention.
The Bills unveiled their “Rivalries” uniform designed by Nike in collaboration with the team’s design staff Thursday in a 47-second video that was posted to the team website. The uniforms that will be worn in a home game against the New England Patriots Oct. 5 were modeled in the video by Josh Allen, Dion Dawkins, Greg Rousseau and Khalil Shakir.
The NFL announced in April that the Bills and the other three AFC East teams would join the NFC West — 49ers, Cardinals, Rams and Seahawks — as part of the league’s new Rivalries series, with each team wearing a new Nike uniform for a home game against a divisional opponent.
The uniforms were dubbed “Cold Front” by the team, a play on the city’s snowy weather. The white jersey has “BUFFALO” instead of “BILLS” printed on the chest, with metallic silver numbers with the Bills’ royal blue outline.
“This is a story about our city and our region, so we decided to lean into the word Buffalo. We’ve never done that,” Bills director of design Aaron LaPorta said on the team website. “It was an obvious choice, and it was a way to celebrate our city.”
The shoulders feature a metallic silver charging buffalo logo, the first Bills uniform to have the logo on the sleeves, according to the team. On the inside tag, “Bills Mafia” is inscribed.
The helmets are white, with a metallic charging buffalo outlined in blue, with a metallic center stripe that looks like cracked ice.
The Rivalries helmets are one of four that will be worn by the Bills this year. They plan to wear the “standing buffalo” uniforms against the Falcons on the road in Week 6 and the Buccaneers at home in Week 11, along with the 1990s red helmet for Highmark Stadium’s final regular season game against the Jets.
The white pants and jersey shoulders have a cracked-ice look the team claims is designed to appear like fresh snowfall on a bison’s fur. The pants also have a metallic silver stripe along the side.
“A lot of the imagery was just some of our snow games, a lot of bison and snowstorms,” Bills graphic designer Sean Pantling said. “Just how that snow sticks to the tough to their fur, how it kicks up when we’re running through the snow, when there’s snow on the field, and just the explosions of snow, and trying to capture that.”
The uniforms are designed to have different glares under different lighting. It is also the first time since the franchise inaugural uniforms in 1960 that red is not part of the color scheme.
While there have been different shades of blue over the years, Buffalo’s original colors were silver, blue and white.
“Visually, red means warmth and in order to create a true icy and snowy feel, it needed to be stripped away,” the Bills wrote on their website.
The Bills have not announced when “Cold Front” jerseys and apparel will be available for purchase.