Philadelphia Eagles - Logo and Uniforms

Logo and Uniforms

• 1973–95

• Primary Logo
  1996–present

• Alternate logo
  1996–present

For several decades, the Eagles' colors were kelly green, silver, and white. Since the 1950s, the club's helmets have featured eagle wings, originally silver on a kelly green helmet. In 1969, the team wore two helmet versions: Kelly green with white wings in road games, and white with kelly green wings at home. From 1970 to '73, they wore the white helmets with Kelly green wings exclusively before switching back to Kelly green helmets with silver wings. By 1974, Joseph A. Scirrotto Jr. designed the silver wings took on a white outline, and this style on a kelly green helmet became standard for over two decades.

From 1948–95, the team logo was an eagle in flight carrying a football in its claws, although from '69–72, the eagle took on a more stylized look. As the design was similar to the Apollo 11 emblem, and its moon-landing craft was dubbed Eagle, players wore the flight's mission patch on their jerseys during 1969.

In 1973, the team's name was added below the eagle, which returned to its pre-'69 look.

However, both the logo and uniforms were radically altered in 1996. The primary kelly green color was changed to a darker shade, officially described as "midnight green." Silver was practically abandoned, as uniform pants moved to either white or midnight green. The traditional helmet wings were changed to a primarily white color, with silver and black accents. The team's logo combination (the eagle and club name lettering) also changed in 1996, with the eagle itself limited to a white (bald eagle) head, drawn in a less realistic, more cartoon-based style, and the lettering changing from calligraphic to block letters.

Since the 1996 alterations, the team has made only minor alterations, mostly relating to jersey/pant combinations worn during specific games. For example, in 1997, against the San Francisco 49ers, the team wore midnight green jerseys and pants for the first of only two occasions in team history. The second occasion was the final regular season game at Veterans Stadium, a win over the division-rival Washington Redskins. And in the first two games of the 2003 season (both home losses to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New England Patriots), The Eagles wore white jerseys with white pants. Since 2003, the white jerseys along with white pants have been worn during preseason games. However, in every regular season game since the New England loss, when the team has worn the white jersey, they have paired it with green pants. The Eagles, though, did wear the white jerseys with white pants in two regular season games on the road since then. The first was against the Green Bay Packers on September 9, 2007. The second was on September 26, 2010, in a 28–3 win at the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The 2003 season also saw the first (though only subtle) change to the 1996-style uniform. On both white and green jerseys, black shadows and silver trim were added to both the green and white numbering. The stripe on the pants changed from black-green-black to black-silver-green on the white pants, and from a solid black stripe to one stripe of black, another of silver, with one small white stripe in between for the midnight green pants. The 2003 season also saw the team debut black alternate jerseys, with a green (instead of black) shadow on white numbers, and silver trim. These black jerseys have been worn for two selected home games each season (usually the first home game after bye week and season finale). In the 2003 and 2004 regular-season home finales, the team wore the green road pants with the black alternate jerseys, but lost each game. Since then, the Eagles have only worn the black jerseys with the white pants. However, due to the special 75th anniversary uniforms serving as the "alternates" for one game in 2007, the Eagles could not wear the alternate black jersey that season per league rules (alternate uniforms are permitted twice per season but only one can be used). However, the black jerseys with white pants re-appeared for the 2008 Thanksgiving night game against the Arizona Cardinals. The black jerseys were most recently used in a November 29, 2009 game against the Washington Redskins. Since 2006, the Eagles have only worn the alternate black jerseys once a season and for the last November home game, but did not use them in 2007, 2010, and 2011. For the 2007 and 2010 seasons, the Eagles used throwback uniforms in place of the black alternates for their anniversary to commemorate past teams. The team also started wearing black shoes exclusively in 2004.

To celebrate the team's 75th anniversary, the 2007 uniforms featured a 75th-season logo patch on the left shoulder. In addition, the team wore "throwback" jerseys in a 2007 game against the Detroit Lions. The yellow and blue jerseys, the same colors found on Philadelphia's city flag, are based on those worn by the Philadelphia Eagles in the team's inaugural season, and were the same colors used by the former Frankford Yellow Jackets franchise prior to their suspension of operations in 1931. The Eagles beat Detroit, 56–21.

The Philadelphia Eagles wear their white jerseys at home for preseason games and daytime games in the first half of the regular season from September to mid-October when the temperature is warmer. In night contests in the first half of the regular season, the Eagles do not need to wear white at home since the temperature is cooler. However, there have been exceptions, such as the home opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2003 and the Washington Redskins in 2007 that were played at night. In late October or beginning in November, the Eagles start to wear their colors at home (although they have done it earlier before), be it the midnight green jerseys or a third jersey. On one occasion the Eagles wore white at home after October in a meeting against the Dallas Cowboys on November 4, 2007 to make the Cowboys wear their road blue jerseys. Since moving to Lincoln Financial Field in 2003, the Eagles have worn white at home for at least their home opener. The Eagles have worn white for their home opener in every game since moving to Lincoln Financial Field in 2003, with the exceptions for the 2010 home opener (see next paragraph) and the 2011 home opener against the New York Giants. For the 2011 season, the Eagles did not wear white for any of their home games.

In the 2010 season against the Green Bay Packers, on September 12, 2010, the Eagles wore uniforms similar to the ones that were worn by the 1960 championship team in honor the 50th anniversary of that team.

For the 2012 season Nike took over from Reebok as the NFL's official apparel licensee but Eagles decided that they would not be adopting Nike's "Elite 51" uniform technology. Aside from the Nike logo replacing the Reebok logo, the only other change is the league-wide revision of the NFL shield on the uniform (replacing the NFL Equipment logo), other than that the uniforms essentially remain unchanged. The Eagles also revived their black alternate jersey.