Third jersey
A third jersey, alternative jersey, third kit, third sweater or alternative uniform is a team jersey or uniform that a sports team can wear instead of its home outfit or its away outfit during games, often when the colors of two competing teams' other uniforms are too similar to contrast easily.
Alternative jerseys are a lucrative means for professional sports organizations to generate revenue, by sales to fans. Of North American sports leagues, the National Football League generates $1.2 billion annually in jersey sales, with the National Basketball Association second, selling $900 million annually. Another use of the alternative uniform is for identifying with causes, like the Central Coast Mariners wear an alternative pink kit on pink ribbon day.
Extra alternative uniforms or fourth and fifth kits are not commonly used, but are sometimes required when teams' other uniforms cause color clashes, or the uniforms are unavailable to use. In cases where teams have worn more than three kits in the same season, the extra kits were usually recycled from previous seasons.
Third-choice jerseys or uniforms are used in all five major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada.
Third kits are commonplace in professional European association football and in some professional European rugby union clubs. Alternative uniforms are common in Australia's two biggest domestic leagues, the Australian Football League and National Rugby League.
Background
As a general rule in most sports, the home team has the privilege to select its desired color first, and the visiting team must then choose a suitable contrasting color. The "third" jersey should be distinct from the "first" and "second" and thus a visiting team should always have at least one suitable alternative choice. The actual choice may be guided by tradition, but modern sports leagues often impose specific rules, especially in professional leagues.For home and away jerseys in North America, historical convention has often dictated the colors used by teams in a given league. Teams generally have one jersey which is primarily in a team color, and another jersey which is primarily white and accented with a team color. "White at home" is the convention in baseball, basketball, minor league professional ice hockey, and college ice hockey. "White while away" is the convention in football, major league professional ice hockey, and professional lacrosse. Association football does not have a "white at home" or a "white while away" convention.
The NHL enforces the color/white rule strictly; any NHL team seeking to wear white at home must get express permission from the league office to do so. In minor league hockey, the rules are set in both the AHL and ECHL where the team wears white jerseys at home during one half of the season, then wears the color jerseys during the other half at home, and vice versa on the road. In the NFL, the rules state that the home team has the first choice of color, with the visiting team forced to choose a contrasting color; an exception was Color Rush, in which uniform choices were coordinated by the league itself.
Starting with their uniform contract with Nike that begins with the 2017-2018 season, the NBA has abolished the color/white rule. Instead, each team will designate whether their white uniform, now dubbed the "Association Edition," or their colored uniform, called the "Icon Edition," will be the home uniform, with the other becoming their designated away uniform.
In American sports, throwback jerseys are generally only used for special team games and not for the "third" purpose. In American football a third jersey may be a throwback uniform based on designs the team used in the past. In association football, meanwhile, it is more commonly a radically different design.
American football
National Football League
The NFL was the last of the major professional sports leagues to adopt the third jersey rule in 2002, with the only exceptions being the 1994 season, when teams issued a throwback uniform in honour of the league's 75th Anniversary. Initially, the NFL rule stated that a team may wear their third jersey only once a year, however, after one year this restriction was increased to two times a year, and then three soon after. Some teams have exceeded the limit; the 2017 Baltimore Ravens were an example, wearing their all-black uniforms twice that season, and the less-frequent black jerseys on white pants once. There are currently no rules on wearing alternative pants. Teams are only permitted to wear alternative jerseys once in playoff games ; the only team to do so was the 2008 San Diego Chargers. In 2021, the Los Angeles Rams were permitted to wear their white alternate uniforms for Super Bowl. In the past, rules allowed for teams to wear their third jersey two times in the regular season and once in the preseason until 2010. In 2011 teams were no longer allowed to wear their third jersey in the preseason. However, there have been some exceptions since 2011. Beginning in 2018, the NFL began allowing teams to wear their alternates three times, and allowed two different alternates to be worn during the season.Some teams will generally use one of their third jersey allotments against a particular division opponent each year. For instance, the Los Angeles Chargers would frequently wear their popular alternate powder blue jerseys at home against the Oakland Raiders, while the Houston Texans were known to wear their alternate "Battle Red" uniforms at home against the Jacksonville Jaguars, and the Pittsburgh Steelers usually wore their throwbacks from 2007 to 2011 at home against the archrival Baltimore Ravens. The New York Giants were known to wear their alternate red jerseys at home against the Dallas Cowboys until the red jerseys were retired in 2009. The Los Angeles Rams have frequently worn their throwback uniform against the San Francisco 49ers in recent years. The Washington Commanders wear their alternative uniform on home games to commemorate their annual homecoming game once a year since 2012.
When wearing their third jerseys, especially if the team is wearing a throwback uniform, the team may theme the field around the uniforms. When the New York Jets, for instance, wore their 1960–1962 "Titans of New York" throwbacks at home, they painted the field in the Titans blue-and-gold color scheme. In addition, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers dressed the field up in orange when they wore their "Creamsicle" throwbacks in 2009.
Teams will generally wear their third jerseys at home, although clubs may wear them as the visiting team as well. The Carolina Panthers are known to wear their electric blue jerseys on the road if the home team opts to wear their white jerseys against the Panthers and depending on the circumstance. Since introducing a wolf grey alternate in 2012, the Seattle Seahawks have worn their alternates only when on the road. The Denver Broncos wore their alternate navy blue jersey with blue pants in a game against the Dallas Cowboys in 2013, and in 2017 the Los Angeles Chargers also wore their alternate powder blue jersey against the Dallas Cowboys for a Thanksgiving Day matchup despite Dallas wearing navy blue. The New York Jets have worn their Titans throwback uniform once in 2007 against the Miami Dolphins at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, and in 2017 the Buffalo Bills also wore their white throwback uniform against the Miami Dolphins in a week 17 meeting when Miami was also wearing their throwbacks. The Tennessee Titans, who switched back to navy as the primary color in 2015, wore their alternate Columbia blue jersey with white pants on the road in 2016, 2017, and 2018 when their home opponent forced them to wear their dark colors. The Las Vegas Raiders, who previously wore their white jersey with silver numbers for the color rush promotion from 2016 to 2017, wore the alternates for road games at San Francisco in 2018 and at the Los Angeles Chargers in 2020.
Because the football helmet is such a significant and visible part of the football uniform, some teams also wore alternate helmets when wearing their third jersey. This was particularly true for throwback uniforms, such as those worn by the Cowboys, Patriots, Steelers, Jets/Titans, and Buccaneers. The NFL outlawed the use of alternate helmets beginning in the 2013 season. This has had impact on some teams wanting to wear their throwback jerseys while other teams are not affected by the limitation. Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie has tried to persuade the league to reverse its one-helmet policy, to allow the Eagles to wear matching kelly green helmets and jerseys. However, beginning in 2022, teams will be allowed to wear an alternate helmet if they so choose.
Outside of league-wide promotions, the only team to not have had an official third uniform as of the 2025 season are the Kansas City Chiefs.
Color Rush
For the 2015 season, the NFL debuted a "Color Rush" jersey concept for select Thursday games in celebration of 50 years of games being broadcast in color. The games featured, mostly, both teams wearing one color matching jerseys, pants, socks and shoes, specially designed to clash with the color of the other team.The games were as follows:
- November 12: Buffalo Bills at New York Jets
- November 19: Tennessee Titans at Jacksonville Jaguars,
- November 26: Carolina Panthers at Dallas Cowboys,
- December 17: Tampa Bay Buccaneers at St. Louis Rams.