The team that arguably has the best uniforms in professional sports has just tripled down on its wardrobe.
The Los Angeles Chargers introduced three new elements to their iconic look Tuesday while removing two others. They rolled out an all-gold ‘Charger Power’ look intended to honor the ‘Air Coryell’ teams of the late 1970s and early ’80s. The Bolts are also bringing back the predominantly navy and white uniforms best known for when Hall of Famers LaDainian Tomlinson and Junior Seau were with the team, calling it a ‘Super Chargers’ version. Finally, they’ve added powder blue pants to their uniform closet.
A team spokesman told USA TODAY Sports that both Color Rush versions used from 2020 to ’24, one navy and the other Royal Blue, were retired in favor of the new alternates.
This will mark the first time since 2006, when they were still based in San Diego, that the Chargers will don blue helmets.
“We’ve always considered ourselves to be leaders in the uniform space,” said team president of business operations A.G. Spanos said in a statement. “We take pride in the fact that the Chargers are widely considered to have the best uniforms in the NFL; some even argue in all of sports. One of the main reasons for that is our continued push to evolve, authentically, with every opportunity.” (No argument there.)
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Since changing their uniforms in 2007, the Chargers have exclusively worn white helmets, albeit different variations depending on whether or not jersey numbers were included and/or the color of the lightning bolt. Prior to 2007, the Bolts mostly featured what is now called the ‘Super Chargers’ uniform − the team dubbed it as a ‘modern throwback’ − a design that had succeeded the Air Coryell version, which featured Royal Blue, in 1988.
Led by Seau, the team made its lone Super Bowl appearance in the predominantly navy look to cap the 1994 season. Tomlinson scored a single-season NFL record 31 touchdowns in it in 2006, when he was also named the league’s MVP.
And yet since joining the NFL in 1970, the Chargers’ best run arguably occurred under Hall of Fame coach Don Coryell and quarterback Dan Fouts, who led the team to four consecutive playoff berths from 1979 to ’82, losing the AFC championship game twice during that stretch − including the notorious ‘Freezer Bowl’ in Cincinnati, when a minus-59 degree wind chill grounded an offense which ranked No. 1 overall five times between the 1980 and ’85 campaigns.
Those teams helped revolutionize the passing game in the NFL, Fouts throwing for 4,802 yards in 1981, a record at the time.
“It was wonderful. It really was,” Fouts said via a team news release Tuesday.
“As a quarterback, one of the great, unique things you can do is quiet your own crowd. I had to do that so often so the team could hear my signals at the line of scrimmage. Charger Power was real, it wasn’t just a slogan on a T-shirt. That stadium was absolutely alive every time we took the field. We had to calm everyone down, they were so excited.”
While the team hasn’t reproduced uniforms like the ones Fouts and his teammates wore − think Kellen Winslow, Charlie Joiner, John Jefferson, Wes Chandler and Chuck Muncie, among others − the club said of the new ‘Charger Power’ look: ‘While the all-gold ‘Charger Power’ uniforms are the first of their kind to be worn by the Bolts, they manage to still evoke a sense of familiarity and capture the energy of a revolutionary chapter in Chargers football.’
The organization has never worn the NFL crown, blown out 49-26 by the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl 29. However, prior to the merger in 1970, the Bolts did win the AFL title in 1963.
The ‘Charger Power’ uniforms will be initially worn for Legends Weekend against the Indianapolis Colts on Oct. 19. The ‘Super Chargers’ navy throwbacks will debut four days later against the Minnesota Vikings on ‘Thursday Night Football,’ when former Bolts safety Rodney Harrison will be inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame.
Since updating their current uniforms, which coincided with the club’s move into SoFi Stadium in 2020, the Chargers have worn six different uniform combinations, including the new-defunct Color Rush options. They were 0-6 in those navy alternates, which featured dark pants, jerseys and lightning bolts on the white helmet.
Spanos said the new powder blue pants cater to a request from fans.
“Pretty soon after our 2020 uniform launch we began getting the question, ‘Why don’t you have powder blue pants?’ We heard it from fans and players alike,” he said.
“Everyone wanted what we knew was probably a missing look, but rules only allowed for so many pant options and we were at our limit. We knew this time around we needed to be creative in how we could incorporate them into our uniform kit, and we’re excited to bring even more versatility to our primary look for 2025 and beyond.”