The 90’s teal fad

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The fad, color wise, during the 90s was teal. Purple was also quite prevalent (including some teams using both purple-and-teal at once - double trendy!) but teal is what we all remember. It was new, it was everywhere, and it sold merchandise.

While the Miami Dolphins were the first to wear a shade of teal, introducing it back in the '60s, it was the Charlotte Hornets who are really responsible for what was about to come. The Hornets unveiled their teal and purple look in 1988 and quickly soared to the top of the NBA's merchandise sales charts, easily beating out other equally unsuccessful and equally new franchises in Miami, Minnesota, and Orlando.

The sports marketing world took notice. Suddenly teal-clad expansion clubs were popping up everywhere.

Hockey's newest team, the San Jose Sharks, jumped on the teal bandwagon with their inaugural uniforms in 1991; baseball first went teal with their expansion team, the Florida Marlins, in 1993. Hockey countered later that year with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks in both purple and teal while the NFL took their first expansion teal shot with the Jacksonville Jaguars two years later. The NBA raised their expansion teal game with the Vancouver Grizzlies in 1995, and the MLB finished things up with the Arizona Diamondbacks, relatively late, in 1998 (but wearing a purple-and-teal identity introduced during the height of the craze in 1995).

Quite the expansion teal-a-palooza, but this teal trend wasn't limited to just the new teams. Actual established clubs with history and bonafide traditions also made the swap. None was more unexpected and jarring than the Detroit Pistons in 1996, shedding their "Bad Boy"-era look, the forever blue-and-red color scheme for a eyebrow-raising combination of teal, black, burgundy, and gold. The Philadelphia Eagles, New York Islanders, Seattle Mariners... teal, teal, and "hey look!" even more teal.

Wanted to make a quick dollar? Switch to teal. That spot on Gorbachev's head? Teal!

Of all these teams who went to teal in the 90s, most discarded it quite quickly. Others, such as the Hornets, Mariners, Jaguars, Eagles and Sharks all currently have it in their color scheme - the Hornets disappeared altogether for a bit while the Jaguars, Mariners, and Sharks almost scrapped it completely before finally bringing it back. The Eagles, meanwhile, like to pretend theirs is actually "green". Everyone else dropped it shortly after initially adopting it. The very definition of a fad - suddenly it's everywhere and then just as quickly, it's forgotten.

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