With the Vice City era coming to an end, the Miami Heat basketball team has released their new City jersey, the “Miami Mashup” jersey. These new jerseys highlight several iconic events and uniforms of the past, putting them all into one jersey for Heat fans to appreciate.

Our Rating: A

Starting off with the most noticeable feature, the Miami Mashup jersey, released on Nov. 15, uses the widely-loved classic black of the Miami Heat as the foundation. The frames are traced with golden lines almost all throughout, commemorating the yellow ropes that were brought out seconds before Ray Allen’s infamous shot in their 2013 National Basketball Association championship finals. This nod to “The Shot” appealed to many Heat fans as they reminisce on the past.

The letters of the “MIAMI” on the front of the jersey are also composed of a combination of letters from iconic Heat uniforms of the past. Font styles of the Miami Floridians, Classic Home, Classic Road, Vice Nights and Championship Ring Ceremony jerseys are all found on the front, as well as on the “HEAT” written on the bottom part of the shorts. This theme is further expanded upon through their new logo, using the classic “flaming ball” with mixes of different shades and colors of the logo through the years.

The Miami Mashup jerseys also contain subtle features that are pleasant to see as a long-time Heat fan, such as a “15 STRONG” on the bottom of the jersey, referencing the rallying cry that Miami used during the 2006 championship run. Some other features include a satin band on the side honoring their “black tie” opening event that they hosted in 1998 and the numbers 2006, 2012 and 2013 on the waistband of the shorts in reference to their years winning the NBA Championship.

“Despite the fact that some people don’t like it, I think the jersey is a good change-up. I like that they made it unique, but also simple and not doing too much with the designing part of it. The jerseys look fire and it was smart of them to release it,” freshman Bryan Martinez said.

However, these are not the only things the Miami Heat is offering with their novel City jerseys. One sweet surprise for fans of Miami is their new customization options for the jersey.

This option allows customers to customize a Miami Mashup jersey with their own name and number, as well as choosing number styles from the black and white Hardwood Classics, the Back in Black uniforms and the aforementioned jersey options. These choices allow for a total of 5,256 possible combinations of different number styles for jerseys, making these jerseys unique to the person wearing them.

“I really like how they made [the jersey] a combination of all the other different jerseys. I think it’s a good beginning after the Vice era with their ‘final dance’ type thing last year. It is probably the best way for them to really show the Miami culture,” freshman Kristopher Zapata said.

These jerseys are being sold exclusively by the Miami Heat at both their online store and at the American Airlines Arena, with adult-size jerseys being sold for $140 and youth jerseys being sold for $100. Considering all of the customization involved, this is a reasonable price for fans interested in merchandise with meaning.

The Miami Heat’s amalgamation of moments in their history has shown itself to be a large success. Despite their change from the Vice City that we have known for years, the uniqueness of the uniform itself and its customization has not been disappointing at all. While this may just be the jersey of one season, it shows the true spirit of Miami and will likely become one of the most iconic jerseys of all time.