GREEN BAY — The Green Bay Packers’ throwback uniforms aren’t just an alternative look to pique fans interest and drive sales at the Pro Shop.

They harken back to one of the most pivotal moments in the franchise’s storied history.

The 1923-inspired blue-and-gold uniforms the team unveiled on Thursday morning — a look that will feature hand-painted helmets designed to look like the leather helmets of that era — pay homage to the year that the Packers became a community-owed organization, as the first public stock sale saved the franchise.

“The decision in 1923 to turn the Packers into a public corporation, if that had not occurred, there’s no way the Green Bay Packers would be here today if they had been owned by an individual,” team historian Cliff Christl told reporters who attended the unveiling at the Packers Pro Shop. “[There’s] just no way they could have survived all the roadblocks and near-death experiences the team had had for years. So, that’s critical.

“[That’s why] 1923 is as big a year as there has been in Packers history. [It] put some money in the bank.”

According to Christl, a newspaper beat writer for nearly four decades who became the storied club’s official historian in 2014, that stock sale raised $5,000 — allowing the team to buy the uniforms.

Those uniforms are the ones being reproduced for the alternative outfits. The team said it would announce at a later date the game in which the players will wear the uniforms.

The leather-looking helmets replace the less-creative brown helmets the team wore in other throwback uniform fits to simulate the leather look. This marks the first time in NFL history that a team has worn hand-painted helmets, with the artistry mimicking the look of leather to an incredible degree.

The uniform look was recreated from historical research done by Christl, an endeavor made more difficult by the fact that there weren’t color photographs from 1923 newspapers to examine.

Christl said he believed the likeness is “really close” and that the look succeeds in finding a “happy medium” between being true to history and “being contemporary enough to appeal to modern fans.”

Past iterations of throwback uniforms have included most recently a version of the team’s uniforms from the early 1950s, which the Packers wore from 2021 through 2024.

Before that, the Packers wore historic uniforms honoring the 1929 season, the year of Green Bay’s first world championship, om 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014. The team also wore a version of its 1940s uniform from 2015 through 2019.

But the 1923 look is different because of its importance in Packers lore.

The Packers were founded in 1919, and while the franchise endured difficult circumstances several times in its history, the 1923 stock sale ranks as one of the team’s life-saving moments.

After a weather-plagued 1922 season in which games were canceled or poorly attended, boosters met at the Elks Club in December to plan a stock sale in 1923, which led to the formation of the publicly owned Green Bay Football Corporation.

That’s why it was so important to Christl, a stickler for detail and accuracy, that the uniforms were true to the originals. He thanked retiring team president/CEO Mark Murphy for making sure that happened.

“I really appreciate the fact that Mark Murphy and … everybody involved in this project insisted that this be done right, the colors be right,” Christl said. “We got it done correctly.”

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