Was it a marketing master stroke or an anticlimactic rebrand chucked into the void of a long weekend news cycle?

That depends who you ask. Either way there’s no question the Toronto Raptors broke with tradition to unveil their new jerseys Monday night, a slate of fresh uniforms that the team hailed as bold and attention-grabbing, but has been dubbed by some as “safe” and “underwhelming.”

Drake, the city’s most famous rapper and Raptors “global ambassador,” emerged to perform at the Molson Amphitheatre wearing the team’s new gold and black alternate jersey that is inspired by his October’s Very Own music collective.

Moments later, 44 minutes before midnight on a holiday Monday, the Raptors fired out a news release with images of their four new jerseys.

The move was “mystifying,” said Alan Middleton, a marketing and brand expert from the Schulich School of Business.

“It’s not even remotely near the season, so people aren’t even thinking about basketball,” said Middleton, adding that most Toronto sports fans were likely too busy salivating at the upgraded Blue Jays lineup to notice the Raptors’ new threads.

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“Honestly the only logic I can put behind this is they don’t want a big deal behind the logo and the new identity . . . It’s almost like they are striving not to have it as a big story.”

Cary Kaplan, president of the Cosmos Sports agency, said that the unveiling, while unorthodox, could create hype amongst a key contingent of fans the team wanted to focus on by aligning with Drake in the first place.

The Brooklyn Nets pulled a similar move when rapper Jay-Z unveiled their new jersey during a performance in September, 2012.

“I think the way they unveiled it is actually more interesting than the jerseys themselves,” Kaplan said. “And maybe that’s part of it. When you have something that’s not going to blow anybody away, maybe you want to do it a bit differently.”

The new look comes in four versions. The primary home jersey is still white, while red remains the go-to colour for road games.

The Drake-inspired outfit is gold and black, while the fourth alternate is predominantly black with red trimming.

Other updates include flipped chevrons on the side of the jerseys (pointing up, or “north”), a maple leaf at the front of the shorts’ waist bands and the removal of the word “Toronto” from all four iterations. The team says this is to reflect the Raptors’ status as the “lone Canadian club” in the NBA.

“We could have easily called the press conference, we could have easily unveiled the jersey during the (NBA) draft (in late June),” said Jared Stein, a partner at the Sid Lee ad agency that is responsible for the team’s “We the North” campaign and that worked with Drake’s organization and the Raptors on designing the jerseys.

“As the only team outside of the U.S. in the league, we are outsiders, so we have the privilege to do things a little bit differently.”

The reception, at least from some quarters, has amounted to more of a collective “meh.”

Chris Creamer runs SportsLogos.net, a website that tracks and reviews the uniforms and symbols of big league teams. He said that when he saw what the Raptors had come up with late Monday night, he promptly fell asleep.

“They’re really boring, and it sort of leaves me asking, ‘What’s the point?’” he said, remarking that the new jerseys are similar to the existing ones.

“It seems like a step to the side, it seems like we did it for the money perhaps, and that’s sort of disappointing.”

Matthew Stasyna agreed. He teaches design and motion graphics at the Toronto Film School and makes Raptors artwork on his blog, Turbozone. He also won the Star’s contest asking readers to redesign the team logo two years ago, with his graphic featuring two fearsome Raptors’ heads.

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“I thought it was a practice jersey, to be honest with you,” he said. “They’re really missing out on a rich dinosaur motif. They could have added volcanoes, tropical trees, bones . . . I really just think there’s a rich tapestry here going underutilized.”

Stein said the plain, “classic” look of the jerseys was to allow fans to incorporate the apparel into their everyday wardrobes. He added that they chose not to return to the dinosaur theme of the original uniforms because their goal was to create a look that will be relevant decades from now.

“How do we take something that to a lot of people still references a very successful movie franchise from the ‘90s (Jurassic Park) and make it our own?” he asked. “It is really an evolution of where we were and where we ultimately want, hope and aspire to be.”

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