Fans can celebrate launch of 1923 Classic presented by American Family Insurance with new collection now available in Pro Shop
The Green Bay Packers on Thursday introduced their new, history-inspired uniform: the 1923 Classic, paired with a leather-look, hand-painted helmet. The uniforms will debut at Lambeau Field during a game this fall, with the date to be announced in the coming weeks.
The 1923 Classic Uniform includes navy blue jerseys with dark gold numbers and dark gold stripes, tan pants and navy socks. The uniform is inspired by what the team wore in 1923, its first season as a publicly owned corporation. The historic ensemble also features, for the first time in NFL history, a hand-painted helmet designed to emulate the vintage leather look of the NFL's earliest helmets. The brown helmets feature realistic distressing and hand-decorated leather strap and stitching effects, with a navy face mask completing the look.
Fans are invited to celebrate the launch of the 1923 Classic, presented by American Family Insurance, with a new corresponding collection now available in the Packers Pro Shop and on packersproshop.com.
By the end of 1922, Green Bay's professional football franchise was deeply in debt after a weather-plagued season led to games being canceled or poorly attended. To save the team, local football boosters met at the Elks Club in December and set in motion plans for a stock sale in 1923. What emerged was the publicly owned Green Bay Football Corporation, the parameters of which remain in place today. Thanks to the stock sale, the organization finally had the funds to provide each player with matching navy blue jerseys. In the early years of pro football, the players supplied their own equipment other than the jerseys, so the pants were likely a tan-colored canvas for most players, with socks varying in color. At the time, leather helmets were the standard headwear.
While photographs showcasing the uniforms in that year are limited, the first detailed explanation of the Packers' jerseys was published in the Green Bay Press-Gazette in September of 1923, with one column in the sports section reading: "The Bay eleven resplendent in their new jerseys, dark blue with gold striped arms, made an imposing appearance."
The 1923 Classic Collection is now available for fans to purchase in the Packers Pro Shop and includes the 1923 Classic Jersey along with a new line of assorted apparel including t-shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, caps and knit hats and a variety of novelty items such as pennants, pins, decals, can coolers, coffee mugs, tumblers, pints and shot glasses. The Pro Shop will also have Riddell SpeedFlex Authentic helmets and Speed Mini helmets available for fans to pre-order online at packersproshop.com, with a very limited amount of the full-size helmets available to purchase in store for the launch. The retail version will have a similar hand decorated feel with an all-over leather-inspired aesthetic. For the first time, the Limited and Elite jerseys will be available in the Nike Vapor F.U.S.E chassis, with custom jersey availability coming soon.
The previous classic uniform the Packers wore was the 50s Classic, which celebrated the team's uniforms from 1950-53. The 50s Classic was worn from 2021-24. In earlier years, the Packers wore historic uniforms honoring the 1929 season, the year of Green Bay's first world championship, from 2010-11 and 2013-14, as well as a re-creation of the team's uniform in the 1940s, which was worn from 2015-19.
The 1923 Classic campaign is presented by American Family Insurance.
