The seven City Connect uniforms this season have polarized fans, but Major League Baseball considers them a success.
Nike’s alternate uniforms, according to league officials, are not only here to stay, but there will be another 23 by the end of 2023, and they are also helping to lay the groundwork for even more radical designs in the future.
In April, the Boston Red Sox became the first team to feature a City Connect uniform, featuring a jersey that discarded the color red entirely. in favor of yellow and blue, a tribute to Patriots Day and the Boston Marathon. The Red Sox were followed by the Miami Marlins, who paid tribute to the Cuban Sugar Kings; the Chicago White Sox, who walked away with a black striped look and a gothic “Southside” typeface ; the Chicago Cubs, greeted the neighborhood of Wrigleyville surrounding its ballpark; the Arizona Diamondbacks created gold uniforms with the name “Serpents” stamped across the chest; and the San Francisco Giants, who honored the Golden Gate Bridge. The final team on this year’s roster, the Los Angeles Dodgers, revealed their uniforms on Thursday.
While the look surprised some traditionalists, the new uniforms proved to be a success. Excluding the Dodgers’ latest addition to the series, each team’s jerseys were sold out. As sales exceeded projections, the league was unable to keep City Connect merchandise in stock, in small part due to global supply chain issues. Those strong sales, and all the buzz the series has generated, make MLB teams look at their uniforms in a different way.
“They’re getting a little more aggressive where they’ve been a little more traditional,” said MLB chief revenue officer Noah Garden. “They see what happened. They see the conversation that’s out there. They see the overwhelming positive support and they see it attracting an audience that they want to attract, which is a younger demographic that is more on trend, loves the game, but it may not be so traditional. “
Some teams, like the Marlins and Diamondbacks, are adding uniforms to their regular rotation. All 30 MLB teams are expected to have a City Connect jersey by the end of the 2023 season. The popularity of the inaugural pool of uniforms has clubs leaping headlong into the series, including some of the more conservative teams. According to league sources, the New York Yankees, whose uniform, with a few minor exceptions, has remained intact for generations, initially expressed doubts about the City Connect designs. Now, the sources said, they are aggressively looking for an alternative.
Even the “Dodgers” look of the Dodgers, at first glance, the least risky in the series to date, was a leap of faith.
“The City Connect uniforms were familiar by design, as any change to our uniform is significant. The Dodgers uniform has remained largely unchanged since the team moved to Los Angeles in 1958,” said the executive vice president and chief executive officer. Dodgers marketing, Lon Rosen. “We don’t have a third jersey, we don’t wear different jerseys based on days of the week or pitchers preference, so a blue uniform with spray paint details and anything but our iconic Los Angeles cap are drastic changes for U.S. “
Other teams, sources said, have already scrapped plans for more conservative City Connect designs in favor of more edgy looks.
“The issue definitely feels more open from the clubs, definitely more involved in the process and definitely more excited about its launch,” Garden said. “Now we have clubs that used to say, ‘I’ll do it in three years’, and now they say ‘How do I do it next year?'”
While some have criticized City Connect as another revenue-generating opportunity, Garden questioned it, saying merchandise sales represent a small portion of the league’s overall revenue. Garden said City Connect is more about using fashion to better market the sport.
“When I look at the merchandise, I look less at how many we are selling, because at the end of the day, that number, in relation to ticket sales and everything else we do, is really not a large number,” Garden said. “It’s more about marketing the product. When you see someone with a Yankees cap on or a Yankees jersey on, or a Red Sox cap or jersey, they are promoting the product for us. The more people are wearing that. product, the more relevant you are. “
In recent years, the league collaborated with brands such as Supreme, Ralph Lauren, Aimé Leon Dore, Kith, and Awake NY to bring baseball products to the world of streetwear and fashion. The success of those collaborations and City Connect is accelerating the league’s plans in those spaces.
While the NBA took a comprehensive approach to uniform design, beginning with the 2017-18 season and completely revamping the on-court fashion of sports through the City Edition collection, MLB has taken a much slower and more cautious approach. . Dr. Brandon Brown, an assistant clinical professor of sports marketing at New York University, said the partnership between Nike and the NBA is a case study in how MLB could address changing fashion culture in baseball. When MLB hired Nike as its official uniform supplier in 2019, the hope was to bring the baseball uniform into the 21st century. But it won’t happen overnight.
“If the fans [de la MLB] it was just younger generations, I think they would do a better approach to go all out from the serve. But since they understand that they have older generations, they can’t go with everything from the start, “said Brown.” I think it’s a first step. They are not going to completely change their personality, but at least they are changing their approach to get in touch with the younger generation. “
Brown said the MLB vision for City Connect is based on regional identity, in an attempt to appeal to those who would not normally consider buying a baseball jersey.
“People always want to show an identity. The region is a big part of that,” Brown said. “I love Jay-Z’s quote, who said, ‘I made the Yankees cap more famous than a Yankee can.’ Wearing the Yankees cap doesn’t necessarily represent that you are a Yankee, but It represents the fact that you are a New Yorker. So the shirts, in essence, not only celebrate the team, they celebrate where you are from. “
It is also an attempt to woo Generation Z.
“That’s why these City Connect jerseys are so important,” Brown said. “They do something different, and that’s what Gen Z culture connects with, to be different. MLB wants their teams to be in the conversation mix. MLB wants their teams to be in the mix to represent the identity of the city. “
It was not just City Connect. MLB has experimented with its uniforms in recent years with mixed success. At this year’s All-Star Game, an event in which each player has historically worn their own team’s uniform, the league unveiled uniforms for the American League and National League teams. Those received a lukewarm reception. The league’s Players Weekend has pushed the boundaries too, with nicknames on the back of jerseys, including emojis, though the most recent 2019 monochrome black and white designs were widely criticized.
But momentum is not slowing down. Much of the changes in fashion within the field have been driven by the players. A younger generation of stars, which includes Fernando Tatis Jr., Mookie betts, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Tim anderson and Ronald Acuna Jr., they are reinventing the sense of style of the game. Anderson played a consultant role in the launch of the White Sox uniforms, which are among the most popular at City Connect.
“We wanted to do something cool and be authentic,” Anderson told The Athletic in May. “I think this is as authentic as possible. Having the ‘Southside’ name on the front is relatable. Using that term makes it a lot more realistic for people who really grew up on the South Side and have been Sox fans their entirety. life. I think it’s definitely really relatable, really cool and real. “
The game has seen showy stockings, the increase in the use of chains, the use of painted bats during the Home Run Derby, and the rise in sneaker culture in the sport, something that has also spread to umpires’ shoes. Garden said MLB is considering loosening the rules on self-expression even further, and that painted bats could soon find their way into regular-season games like colorful custom sneakers have. That will only push the uniform craze further.
“We always have to make sure that everything we do remains in good taste and does not detract from the product in the field, but yes, all of that is on the table,” Garden said. “I think all of that should be on the table. Once again, I think everything is positive. I think that trend will continue.”
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