The Washington Commanders unveiled new uniforms on Wednesday in Ashburn, Va., bringing back a more traditional burgundy-and-gold look as the franchise tries to stitch its past to its present. The redesign includes an alternate jersey called the Hail Raiser and comes with a set of helmet and pant details that lean hard into the team’s history.
The Hail Raiser jersey carries a spear knifing through the burgundy W on both sides of a black helmet, with the spear nearly meeting in the front. Team president Mark Clouse said the spear was “such a great device” and part of the heritage that could live inside the team’s current Commander branding. The franchise also plans to keep a gold W on glossy burgundy helmets and black alternate helmets, with the black shell carrying two gold stripes and a burgundy stripe down the middle. The burgundy helmets will have a gold face mask.
Washington’s new look reaches back to the years when the team was at its most successful. The franchise featured a spear with a feather dangling from it on its burgundy helmet from 1965 to 1968, and it won three Super Bowls between 1981 and 1991 before last winning one in 1992. The team changed its name to the Commanders in February 2022, and since then it has moved away from the older design language that defined its championship run. The new uniforms will use block numbers, numbers on the sides of the jerseys and stripes down the sides of the pants, with white pants carrying burgundy and gold stripes, burgundy pants carrying gold and white stripes and gold pants carrying burgundy and white stripes.
The release is not a full retreat to the past, and Clouse was blunt about that. He said some fans will always want a complete reversal, but “that’s not the path we’re on.” Instead, he said the club has tried to be “very purposeful” in bringing heritage back while continuing to build the Commander brand. Patrick Arthur said the payoff should come next year at Northwest Stadium, where fans will see the team they grew up rooting for back on the field. The timing also points ahead to 2030, when the Commanders’ new stadium is scheduled to open and is expected to resemble RFK Stadium, the team’s home from 1961 to 1996.
Washington already tested that appetite in 2025, when it used its Super Bowl-era jerseys as alternate uniforms. Clouse said fans “really appreciated the heritage of the team,” and called that response “real encouragement.” The latest redesign suggests the franchise believes it can honor the look that defined its best years without abandoning the identity it adopted in 2022.
