The official Boston Celtics colors are Celtics green, Celtics gold and Celtics brown, supported by black and white. The primary color is Celtics green (#007A33), paired with gold (#BA9653) and brown (#963821). These colors run through the leprechaun logo, the uniforms and every piece of official merchandise.
Boston Celtics Color Codes
| Color | Swatch | HEX | RGB | CMYK | Pantone |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Celtics Green | #007A33 | 0, 122, 51 | 100, 0, 91, 27 | PMS 356 C | |
| Celtics Gold | #BA9653 | 186, 150, 83 | 30, 40, 80, 0 | PMS 874 C | |
| Celtics Brown | #963821 | 150, 56, 33 | 40, 95, 100, 0 | PMS 174 C | |
| Black | #000000 | 0, 0, 0 | 0, 0, 0, 100 | PMS Black 6 C | |
| White | #FFFFFF | 255, 255, 255 | 0, 0, 0, 0 | Not published |
A note on accuracy. The Celtics and the NBA do not publish a full brand book for public use. The Pantone values above are the ones circulating across established color-code databases and match the print work you’ll see on licensed goods. Treat them as reliable references, not as a signed-off production spec. If you’re printing licensed product, ask the league for the current assets. Also worth knowing: the green pulled straight from the NBA-hosted logo file reads closer to #008348 than #007A33, because the logo art and the brand green were never perfectly synced. Nothing annoys me more than finding two “official” greens for the same team, but that’s the reality here.
Breaking Down Each Color
Celtics Green
Celtics green (#007A33) is the primary color and the one people actually mean when they say “Celtics.” It fills the road jersey, the ring around the logo, the leprechaun’s hat and vest, and the trim on the parquet at TD Garden. Walter Brown picked green in 1946 for a blunt reason: Boston was full of Irish families and he wanted a team they’d claim. That’s it. No focus group.
Technically this sits in kelly green territory, though it’s darker and less yellow than a true kelly. Fans and even some team materials use the term loosely. It is not forest green, despite what the 2022-23 Bill Russell City Edition might suggest (those ran noticeably deeper and people complained they looked like the Bucks).
Celtics Gold
Gold (#BA9653) is a support color, and it lives almost entirely inside the logo. The leprechaun’s shillelagh, the buckles, the shading on his hat. You won’t see it dominate a jersey. It shows up on championship-related graphics and banner artwork, which makes sense given 18 titles. Muted, slightly desaturated, more antique than shiny. If you want the brighter, more metallic version for a design of your own, look at gold as a broader family, because #BA9653 is closer to a warm tan than to bullion.
Celtics Brown
Brown (#963821) is the one nobody remembers, and it’s my favorite detail in the whole palette. It’s the basketball Lucky spins on his finger, plus the wood grain of the cane. It arrived with the 1996 full-color logo update for the franchise’s 50th anniversary, when the in-house design team added skin tones, gold and this reddish brown to what had been a flat green-and-white mark. Honestly it reads more like a burnt terracotta than a brown, and if you sample it you’ll see it leans red.
Black and White
Black handles outlines, the leprechaun’s shoes and trousers, and the occasional alternate uniform. White is the home jersey, per league convention, and the shamrock in the secondary marks.
Uniform Colors
Home (Association): white base, green lettering and numbers, black trim.
Away (Icon): Celtics green base, white “BOSTON” wordmark and numbers, black trim.
Statement and City: black has served as the Statement base in recent seasons. City Edition changes annually since 2017-18, when Nike took over as the league’s uniform supplier. Those have swung from gray parquet tributes to the banner-covered 2020-21 set to the 2021-22 retro build that pulled from the 1946 and 1949 looks and put “RED” on the shorts.
The core green-and-white split, though? Basically untouched since 1947.
History and Rebranding
Walter A. Brown founded the team on June 6, 1946 and settled on green uniforms before the first tip-off. From 1947 to 1970 the primary look was green with white accents and BOSTON in block letters. In 1970 the team flipped it: white primary, green accents, CELTICS across the chest.
The logo is a different story. The 1946 mark was just a green circle with a white shamrock. In the early 1950s, Red Auerbach asked his brother Zang, a newspaper graphic artist, to design something with more personality. Zang gave them the leprechaun. A 1960 revision dropped an orange background behind him for contrast, and the 1968 redesign produced the standing, ball-spinning Lucky we know now.
1996 is the year the palette we’re discussing actually locked in. The 50th-anniversary refresh added the gold, the brown and the fuller shading. Green and white had always been there. Everything else is comparatively recent.
Using the Palette in Your Own Work
For screen, use the HEX values. For print, go with CMYK or the Pantone equivalents above. One thing I always do before shipping anything green-on-white: check the contrast. #007A33 on #FFFFFF passes AA at normal text sizes, but white text on that same green gets tight at smaller weights, so bump the size or go bold.
“ :root { --celtics-green: #007A33; --celtics-gold: #BA9653; --celtics-brown: #963821; --celtics-black: #000000; --celtics-white: #FFFFFF; } `
A practical tip: don’t use gold and brown at the same weight as green. They’re accent values. In the logo they cover maybe five percent of the surface area. Designers who split the palette evenly end up with something that looks like a pub sign, not a basketball brand. If you need help balancing a green-led scheme, browsing a few green color palettes is a faster way in than guessing. And for the accent side, some gold color palettes will show you how little gold you actually need.
Related Reading
- Full league reference: NBA team color codes
- Across town: Boston Red Sox colors
- Baseball equivalent hub: baseball team color codes
FAQ on The Boston Celtics Colors
What are the Boston Celtics colors?
The official Boston Celtics colors are Celtics green, Celtics gold and Celtics brown, with black and white as supporting values. Green (#007A33) is the identity color and covers the road uniform, the logo ring and most team branding.
What are the Boston Celtics color codes in HEX and RGB?
Celtics green is #007A33, RGB (0, 122, 51). Gold is #BA9653, RGB (186, 150, 83). Brown is #963821, RGB (150, 56, 33). Black is #000000 and white is #FFFFFF.
What is the Boston Celtics Pantone color?
Celtics green matches PMS 356 C. Gold is PMS 874 C, brown is PMS 174 C, black is PMS Black 6 C. The team doesn’t publish a public brand book, so treat these as widely used references rather than a signed-off print spec.
What is the primary color of the Boston Celtics?
Green. It dominates the away jersey, the circular logo frame, Lucky the Leprechaun’s hat and vest, and the trim on the TD Garden parquet floor. Gold and brown only appear as small accents inside the logo artwork.
When did the Boston Celtics adopt their current colors?
Green and white date to the team’s founding in 1946. The current five-color palette, adding gold and brown, arrived with the 1996 full-color logo update marking the franchise’s 50th anniversary.
Why are the Boston Celtics green?
Walter A. Brown chose green in 1946 as a nod to Boston’s large Irish-American population. The shamrock and the leprechaun mascot came from the same idea. No branding study, just a founder reading his own city.
Are the Celtics green and the Milwaukee Bucks green the same?
No. Celtics green (#007A33) is brighter and closer to kelly green. Milwaukee’s Good Land Green is deeper and more hunter green. The 2022-23 Bill Russell City Edition confused people precisely because it darkened Boston’s green toward that range.
Is Celtics green the same as kelly green?
Close, not identical. True kelly green is lighter and more yellow. Celtics green sits deeper and slightly cooler, which is why the shade reads well against white lettering. Many fan sites still label it kelly green out of habit.
Why do some sources list the Celtics green as #008348?
Because the green sampled directly from the NBA-hosted logo file differs from the brand green. Both circulate. Use #007A33 for brand work and #008348 only if you’re color-matching that specific logo asset.
What colors do the Celtics wear at home?
White, following league convention. The home Association uniform is a white base with green lettering and numbers plus black trim. The green primary jersey is the road Icon Edition, and black serves as the recent Statement base.
Conclusion
The Boston Celtics colors come down to one shade doing the heavy lifting, with four others filling in the details. Copy #007A33 for web, PMS 356 C for print, and keep the gold accent small.
Everything else is context: the shamrock, the parquet, Lucky, seventy-plus years of banners.
Bookmark the color codes table. You’ll come back to it the next time a jersey mockup or fan-site build needs the exact green.
Renowned for his expertise in logo design and visual branding, Bogdan has developed a multitude of logos for various clients.
His skills extend to creating posters, vector illustrations, business cards, and brochures. Additionally, Bogdan's UI kits were featured on marketplaces like Visual Hierarchy and UI8.
He also wrote in the past years on sites like Design Your Way, WebDesignerDepot, WPDean, Designmodo, Speckyboy, Slider Revolution, and more.
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Bogdan Sandu is a seasoned designer who has been designing websites since 2008. Renowned for his expertise in logo design and visual branding, Bogdan has developed a multitude of logos for various clients. His skills extend to creating posters, vector illustrations, business cards, and brochures. Additionally, Bogdan's UI kits were featured on marketplaces like Visual Hierarchy and UI8. He also wrote in the past years on sites like Design Your Way, WebDesignerDepot, WPDean, Designmodo, Speckyboy, Slider Revolution, and more.
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