Commanders' new uniforms include alternate 'Hail Raiser' featuring spear on helmet

Given its political influence, the Washington D.C. area is certainly prone to a cyclic rhythm. Apparently, that also applies to its football team's uniforms.

After dabbling with a throwback look in 2025 that all but reinstituted the team's aesthetic from its Super Bowl glories, when the Washington Commanders were known by a now-acknowledged racist nickname that they ditched in 2020, they further re-embraced their past − mostly − with another update April 15.

The team described its new uniform closet as "a collection that fuses the franchise’s storied past with a bold, modern identity. The refreshed lineup reintroduces Super Bowl-era sets while debuting a bold, new alternate look, the 'Hail Raiser.'"

Assembly complete. #RaiseHailpic.twitter.com/evPJAU4uSZ

— Washington Commanders (@Commanders) April 15, 2026

And it's that "Hail Raiser" that might garner the most attention − and maybe support − from the team's fans. It replaces the Commanders' all-black alternates with a new mostly black look, though one that replicates the team's classic get-up in terms of the striping and jersey number fonts. However the main distinction comes with the black helmet, which features a thicker trio of centerline stripes and a new alternate logo − the Commanders' W intertwined with a spear that calls back the team's helmet logo from 1965-69. It's also similar to the one Florida State sports on its helmets.

While the spear is distinctly different from the club's former logo, it's most definitely a callback to that era − and it remains to be seen if Native American groups that largely decried the former nickname, which former owner Daniel Snyder finally retired in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder and the country's reawakened social justice movement in 2020, take issue with the Commanders' new threads.

The club also updated the crest that debuted with the rollout of the Commanders brand in 2022 by adding two crossed spears behind it.

Without further ado... pic.twitter.com/0lOyf0wo20

— Washington Commanders (@Commanders) April 15, 2026

According to the team, "The inclusion of the spear and its sharpest point – the spearhead or 'tip of the spear' – symbolizes the top fighters, the front lines, those leading a mission who are unafraid to step into the fire. This alternate logo is a joining of past and present, with the spear and the W interwoven at their center. These all-black 'alter egos' convey a stealth quality exhibited by elite units in battle and embody the identity of the Commander: a leader of warriors."

Otherwise, the Commanders' home and road uniforms are basically the ones they wore primarily from 1979 until they changed their nickname with the "W" logo on the helmet. There is also a new set of yellow pants with the two-tone stripes down the side.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Commanders' new uniforms include Hail Raiser alternate with spear logo