Let’s Talk About These New Uniforms

Harry Hooper

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Yeah, there was a time when you could tell the real deal from a replica or cheap knock off. Now, not so much.
It's just like hard seltzer vs. beer or liquor. Come up with something that doesn't require anything near the level of craftmanship but price it at the same level as the former mainstay = bigger profit.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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They really do look like jerseys from TJ Maxx. MLB jerseys for decades have been awesome. What a disaster.
Agreed. And it was all done because Nike thought that uniforms needed to be “improved” for some reason. Lighter weighted material, smaller letters, ironed on patches. How much improvement does this bring to the athlete? An eighth of a second? Maybe a quarter of a second?

I know it’s been three games, but has it made a bit of difference to any play in any game? How much difference will it make during the year? Probably none.

But the lighter material reasoning is all marketing speaking. My cynical take is that these bullshit Little League uniforms are simply saving Nike and Famatics x amount of dollars every year. Never mind that it makes the players look cheap and chintzy.

Of course MLB and Rob Manfred will go along with this and hope that it will go away and become normalized because it’s another debacle in a long line of foolish gambits to make the owners and their partners a couple of more dollars at the expense of the game itself.

This is another small instance of MLB debasing itself for a dollar that has been going on for ten plus years. Anything not nailed down is for sale.

It really is a pity. Rob Manfred is the worst thing that ever happened to baseball.
 

The_Powa_of_Seiji_Ozawa

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how long before the ironed on lettering begins to crack and peel? It would be funny if a player insisted on wearing the same beat up uniform with cracked peeling letters throughout the season.
 

Humphrey

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Aug 3, 2010
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The tiny font for the names look ridiculous.
The details make a big difference. BC football is a prime example; you couldn't see the names on the back when they were an Under Armor school. Plus, with the MLB unis, arching the names on the back versus straight across makes thing even worse.
 

The Gray Eagle

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The Mets broadcast just mentioned that the names on the backs of the uniforms are smaller now because MLB moved the MLB logo down lower on the backs of jerseys so it would be more visible. I hadn't yet heard that that was the reason for the smaller lettering. And it's predictably stupid, unnecessarily creating an annoyance for dumb reasons.
From the fan point of view, the previously larger names on the uniforms were helpful, so you can clearly see who is playing.
Smaller names but a lower MLB logo does nothing for any fan, it just makes it harder to read the player names. But who cares about the fans or what they want? They are just customers, screw 'em.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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The Mets broadcast just mentioned that the names on the backs of the uniforms are smaller now because MLB moved the MLB logo down lower on the backs of jerseys so it would be more visible. I hadn't yet heard that that was the reason for the smaller lettering. And it's predictably stupid, unnecessarily creating an annoyance for dumb reasons.
From the fan point of view, the previously larger names on the uniforms were helpful, so you can clearly see who is playing.
Smaller names but a lower MLB logo does nothing for any fan, it just makes it harder to read the player names. But who cares about the fans or what they want? They are just customers, screw 'em.
Yeah. This is an example of the logo being more important than the game--something that MLB has become very conscious of during the Manfred era.

The plackert (spell? also I think that's what it's called), basically it's the part of the jersey that goes around the neck (the Sox version is visible, it's the red "headspoon" on the front of the home jersey that encircles the neck). Nike made it smaller, because of PERFORMANCE IMPORVEMENTS!, so MLB had two choices: make their logo smaller to fit on the smaller section on the back of the jersey or keep the logo the same size but put it lower on the shirt--which screws up the names on the back of the jersey. Again, MLB took the road that leads to a worse option for the fans (like you said) but you know, now we all know that the Major League Baseball players playing on a Major League Baseball team in a Major League Baseball stadium (non-A's division) are real live Major League Baseball players! If the logo wasn't there, how would you know?
 

DanoooME

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Agreed. And it was all done because Nike thought that uniforms needed to be “improved” for some reason. Lighter weighted material, smaller letters, ironed on patches. How much improvement does this bring to the athlete? An eighth of a second? Maybe a quarter of a second?

I know it’s been three games, but has it made a bit of difference to any play in any game? How much difference will it make during the year? Probably none.

But the lighter material reasoning is all marketing speaking. My cynical take is that these bullshit Little League uniforms are simply saving Nike and Famatics x amount of dollars every year. Never mind that it makes the players look cheap and chintzy.

Of course MLB and Rob Manfred will go along with this and hope that it will go away and become normalized because it’s another debacle in a long line of foolish gambits to make the owners and their partners a couple of more dollars at the expense of the game itself.

This is another small instance of MLB debasing itself for a dollar that has been going on for ten plus years. Anything not nailed down is for sale.

It really is a pity. Rob Manfred is the worst thing that ever happened to baseball.
The best part will be when they announce that jersey sales overall have decreased for the first time in x years, and they won't understand why it happened. So they lose money instead of make it.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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The best part will be when they announce that jersey sales overall have decreased for the first time in x years, and they won't understand why it happened. So they lose money instead of make it.
Totally. This is another text book example of MLB going for the easy cash grab now ("Our uniforms are cheaper to make! We'll save so much money! We're such smart businessmen!") and realizing that any quick money they make ends up costing them more in the long run because who wants to buy these POS jerseys. Sorta like when they decided to save cash by getting rid of 40 minor league teams ("Who wants to pay minor leaguers $1000 a month? I'm losing my shirt over here!") only to realize that those minor league franchises are a life line to a lot of potential fans who don't live super close to major league teams.

This is page one of Rob Manfred's playbook (and why he's such a shitty, shitty leader): take the every single penny you can right now and fuck the consequences.
 

SemperFidelisSox

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The Cardinals will not be able to wear their powder blue uniforms until June because of a delay in production and shipping.

The Rangers have not received their city connect uniforms yet but expect to have them by next Friday.
 

YTF

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Koko the Monkey
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It looks like it's by design, but you would think there should be some sort of standard/uniformity as to how much of the logo is covered and it all looks so random.
Yes, "by design" after the container crates showed up at the warehouse like that. No one designs something like that. Not even New Era.
 

Red Right Ankle

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Oh man. This is so embarrassing.

And the silence from MLB, Nike and Fanatics is just deafening. They're all really hoping that people (both fans and ball players) are going to forget this. I hope that they don't. What a complete disaster.
They got really lucky he was wearing tights underneath and he didn't slide on his ass.
 

Comfortably Lomb

Koko the Monkey
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The enshitification of uniforms by Nike brings us this gem:

80958

Number replaced with a question mark (why?) and the red, white, and blue Phillies are wearing... Marlins colors for some reason?
 

Sad Sam Jones

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They used a terrible font for the numbers and they're wearing the Marlins colors for the same reason the Red Sox have worn UCLA's colors. That's a City Connect problem, not a "the uniform quality is awful now" problem.
 

santadevil

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Nothing to see here...everything is made with the same material as before
We just can't figure out why the pants are ripping on regular slides

This is so freaking embarrassing for the league. Stop being so cheap and go back to the proper uniforms
 

nattysez

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Maybe I just haven't noticed previously, but the Sox's pants tonight are INCREDIBLY see-through.
 

santadevil

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If that’s the toned down version remaining after the lawyers and political folks re-wrote that statement, MLB must be really really pissed at Nike
I'll start by saying that I am a Nike shareholder

As they should be, but I still think it's funny that MLB is completely absolving Fanatics on this. Everyone that has ever bought anything Fanatics branded knows how shitty their products are, but MLB jumped fully into bed with them to make absolute garbage since they had the fastest product line production speeds. Don't think the Mets can blame Nike, or the rest of MLB can blame Nike for the lack of alternate and City Connect uniforms.

Edit:/ Just this paragraph
Also, as far as I know about the small names, larger MLB logo on the back, I believe that guidance came from MLB, not Nike. Unless I'm mistaken

Maybe with Nike providing the entire uniform and design, Nike figured they could blame Fanatics for this fiasco as a way to make them look bad, based on everyone's perceptions? Who knows, but it doesn't 100% surprise me that Fanatics built gear is shit on the field.

Now, the AllStar game was the obviously the smallest of sample sizes, but was this change ever pointed out to the public when the game happened? Did we hear anything from the players at all? Did Nike actually produce them in house, or farm them out to Fanatics for the build?

It's entirely possible I'm totally wrong, but there still seams to be some drama here. Can't wait for the movie

Not sure if this video was posted, but I watched it last month
View: https://youtu.be/lUw3KuETG24?si=Kh8HfX_ZaFzjmElr
 
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John Marzano Olympic Hero

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Nike gave Fanatics the instructions on how to make the uniforms, they designed--er I mean "innovated"--them. Fanatics made them exactly how Nike instructed them to do so. The MLB logo on the back was moved because the plackets are smaller (another Nike innovation) and don't fit how they did in previous years' uniforms, so it had to be moved lower on the shirt. The fix for this was to make the names on the back of the jerseys smaller.

I'm not a Fanatics person at all and I wear a lot of Nike stuff, but the blame of this entire mess is Nike who couldn't leave well enough alone. Since they left flannels and went to double-knits almost 50 years ago, baseball uniforms have been fine. There was literally no need to change them. I presume that the reason Nike felt like they needed to do this is because they're Nike and everything continuously needs to be changed. And MLB said sure because MLB (rarely) ever stands up to its sponsors and I would bet that these uniforms are cheaper to produce. If it saves an MLB owner a nickel, but they get a week's worth of shit; they'll take that nickel every single time.
 

santadevil

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Thanks for the additional info. I know my take is definitely biased against Fanatics

Are you a big Paul Lukas guy? Can you replace him when he retires?