The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, praised the new hijabs.

“It sends a powerful message of inclusion to the Muslim community,” Ibrahim Hooper, the group’s national communications director, said. “I think the Raptors deserve to be congratulated for taking a step that other teams have yet to make.”

Norm O’Reilly, the director of the International Institute for Sport Business and Leadership at the University of Guelph near Toronto, said the marketing decision was a big step but not a surprising one.

He said it reminded him of when the National Football League started marketing clothing for women.

“When that initially happened, there was a lot of public press and the campaign was scrutinized, but now it’s common practice,” he said. “It takes a first step to push for acceptance in a gender, race or cultural issue, but it usually ends up working out in the end.”

He said that it was possible the organization would lose fans over the branded hijabs, but that the team must have determined the benefits outweighed the risk. Some critics on social media called hijabs a symbol of oppression.

Professor O’Reilly compared the move to the time Nike used Colin Kaepernick, the divisive quarterback who knelt during national anthems in protest of police brutality and social injustice, as the face of its marketing campaign.

“From a marketing perspective, those who don’t embrace change and humanity tend to not have things work out as well in the longer run,” he said. “It’s the natural progression. The N.B.A. is global and the Raptors have a global audience.”