‘We Knew We Had Something’: A History Of The Miami Heat’s ‘White Hot’ Brand

UNITED STATES - JUNE 18: Basketball: NBA Finals, Aerial view of American Airlines Arena after ... [+] Dallas Mavericks vs Miami Heat Game 5, Miami, FL 6/18/2006 (Photo by Greg Nelson/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images) (SetNumber: X76172 TK1 R16)

The Miami Heat returned to the NBA playoffs in 2004 after a two-year absence, led by first-year head coach Stan Van Gundy and a promising young rookie named Dwyane Wade. Miami's marketing team, led by chief marketing officer Michael McCullough, had the idea of trying to get more fans to wear the team's jerseys to the game.

"So we had this thing called ‘Saturday Night Jersey Night,’" recalls McCullough, "when you would wear a jersey, we would give them this black T-shirt. It wasn't anything special, but people started wearing more and more jerseys." McCullough and his group saw the campaign's success and decided to continue it through a magical regular-season run when Wade and the Heat would win 16 out of their last 20 games to earn a postseason berth. They rebranded the campaign as "Back In Black" — "like being in the black on the ledger, on the positive side in a business" — and gave away black T-shirts to everyone in attendance for Wade's first playoff run.

"And the thing I remember the most about that first night [at home] was when the team came out of the tunnel," says McCullough. "They just stopped and were looking around. Everyone's literally wearing the same black shirt. I can remember it plain as day, that you could see this wonder on their faces, like, ‘I've never seen this before.’ Coaching staff came out, they did the same thing. We won that first game, the fans loved it. And so something was born that night, and we knew we had something, right?"

MIAMI - APRIL 21: A general view of the interior of American Airlines Arena prior to the start of ... [+] game two, round one of the 2004 NBA Eastern Conference playoffs between the New Orleans Hornets and the Miami Heat April 21, 2004 at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Eliot J. Schechter/Getty Images)

Wade's star-in-the-making performance through that first postseason sparked Miami's acquisition of Shaquille O’Neal from the Los Angeles Lakers a few months later, propelling the team into immediate contending status and putting the Heat at the center of the NBA landscape for the first time in the franchise's history. When the team made the playoffs in 2005, Miami kicked off a new color-themed campaign, "The Red Zone."

The campaign was a success but, as McCullough remembers, somewhat inconvenient for Miami's more fashionable crowd. "We heard from the fans. Black was easy. Everyone has black in their closet. Red is a little different." The third base color of Miami's uniforms – white – was the next option. "But we didn't want to just change for change's sake. So we developed this theme of ‘white hot,’ like the dictionary's definition of when a flame burns it's hottest. We win the Finals, and being the superstitious franchise that we are, we knew that ‘white hot’ wasn't going anywhere."

And it didn't. Through 13 more playoff runs. Six more trips to the Finals. From Wade to LeBron James and now with Jimmy Butler, "White Hot" has been (mostly) the one constant.

The team made an exception during the 2020 playoffs in the Orlando "bubble" when the team wasn't playing at home. "But that was more about showing solidarity [to social injustices] and being aware of the climate in our nation, and really around the world, at that time. That was a change that was necessary."

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA - OCTOBER 11: Jimmy Butler #22 of the Miami Heat wears a VOTE shirt and ... [+] warms up prior to the start of the game against the Los Angeles Lakers in Game Six of the 2020 NBA Finals at AdventHealth Arena at the ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex on October 11, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images)

But when Butler and the Heat play their first Finals home game since 2014 on June 7, "White Hot" will be back.

Miami's players are no longer surprised by the unicolored mass of fans, as they were in 2004. It has become as much a part of franchise's history as Pat Riley, or the catch-all "Heat Culture" phrase that has become synonymous with the team's gritty, tenacious identity. Even opposing players are familiar with it, as McCullough explains.

"When Kevin Love joined the team [in mid-February], we started doing some promos for the playoffs. When [Love] was asked what he was most looking forward to in the playoffs, the first words out of his mouth were, ‘This place is going to be White Hot.’ The players recognize it. They understand it. Everybody knows and everybody expects it, and it has now become a playoff tradition that's recognized not only in our sport, but in others."

That consistency applies to the team's sales, as well, with a revamped line of apparel and merchandise rolling out each season, adding to Miami's top-selling "Vice" or "Mashup" campaigns. "Apparel manufacturers throughout the NBA know when the playoffs come, they’ll have a complete line of white-only merchandise for us. It's not even a thing we get asked about anymore."

The expectation of an annual playoff berth — and wearing white when you attend Heat home games — has become the norm for fans of one of the league's most successful franchises in recent history. So much the norm, in fact, that the team has chosen not to give out t-shirts to fans in attendance during this particular playoff run. When fans go to Kaseya Center for Game 3 to watch the Heat take on the Denver Nuggets, each seat will be adorned with a "rally towel," a decision that has been met with some criticism.

"We’re well aware of the fans who are talking about the t-shirts," admits McCullough, dismissing the notion that Managing Partner Micky Arison is, as some fans allude, too concerned with pinching pennies (a point often voiced when the team failed to land a coveted star at the NBA Trade Deadline, a move that, in retrospect, seems unnecessary given the team's current playoff run).

McCullough says the defining moment of the campaign was during the 2013 NBA Finals, a moment that is woven into the lore of not just team marketing but the history of the sport itself: Ray Allen's game-tying 3-pointer in Game 6.

"Heat fans take a lot of shit, right? We get there late. We leave early. All that stuff. But you look at that shot and you look at the crowd and there's literally one fan wearing the giveaway shirt from that night.

"What captures the perfect essence of a marketing campaign is the fans taking complete ownership it, and that's what they’ve done with ‘White Hot.’ I’ve watched fans as they’re crossing the street to the arena and about 97 percent of them are already wearing white. They went shopping, they did their own thing. They understand the assignment. We could easily give t-shirts away. But the point isn't that. The point is to have something that the fans feel like they own and that they bring to life. Heat fans do this better than anyone. "

Ray Allen (R) of the Miami Heat shoots a three-pointer before Tony Parker (2nd-R) of the San Antonio ... [+] Spurs to tie the game with five seconds remaining in regrlar time during Game 6 of the NBA Finals at the American Airlines Arena June 19, 2013 in Miami, Florida. Miami defeated San Antonio 103-100 in overtime to even the best-of-seven championship series 3-3. AFP PHOTO / Brendan SMIALOWSKI (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

Beyond the front office's superstitions, McCullough insists that "White Hot" will continue to be part of the team's identity. "When the playoffs come around every year, you should expect to come to an arena of people dressed in white head-to-toe, supporting the team with what is now a Miami Heat staple. It's going to be the norm for as long I’m part of the team."

And if Miami's unlikely run this season culminates in a fourth championship parade down Biscayne Boulevard, it's a safe bet the crowd will be wearing white.