OK, this is going to be a heavily editorialized spin.
But, the San Francisco 49ers' installment of Nike's Rivalries uniforms doesn't exactly pop to the extent the Niners' drip campaign leading up to the Aug. 28 reveal suggested it would.
If anything, it's a heavily modified throwback to those RGB uniforms from 2015 through 2017 that may go down as one of the worst alternates in San Francisco history.
In case you haven't seen the release video, which admittedly does a good job of hyping a "meh" product, check it out below:
It's an all-black uniform, not unlike those old RGB unis of a decade ago. But, instead of plain-red font for the numbers, designers went with the 49ers' iconic saloon font with gold shadowing, plus a black helmet. And "Faithful" is a statement on both jersey and helmet.
At least in that regard, the jersey numbers should be a bit easier to read than those old RGB unis. That used to be something of a headache.
However, it's not hard to feel this is just another attempt to make an all-black uniform work for the Niners.
And our old friend and colleague, Nicholas McGee of Niners Nation, summed it up about as well as anyone could have:
“So guys 49ers, any ideas?”
— Nicholas McGee (@nicholasmcgee24) August 28, 2025
“What if we just used the same black ones from 2015 and changed the font to saloon, oh and stick ‘faithful’ somewhere.”
“Works for me. Lunch?” https://t.co/p9ySBOJTBz
The Niners will don the Rivalries uniforms in Week 18 against the Seattle Seahawks.
How to make the 49ers' Rivalries uniforms better
Putting it bluntly, San Francisco's 1990s throwback uniforms are arguably the best in the NFL, so at least the 49ers have that going for them. Especially when they play the Hawks, and the NFC West foes wear their own 1990s throwbacks, too.
Since this is a different campaign, though, it only helps to suggest an alternate to what Nike has for the Niners in the Rivalries series.
Granted, I'm no fashion designer. Don't hold that against me. But, an all-gold (or at least gold tops) with red saloon font would have been fantastic, and pairing it with all-white pants would give homage to those 1990s throwbacks, too.
Opportunity missed.
We'll see how long this latest jersey instalment lasts.