City Connect

City Connect is a brand name of alternate uniforms made by Nike, Inc. for Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. The jerseys feature different color schemes, fonts, and graphical elements compared with the teams' typical home and away uniforms. Twenty of MLB's 30 teams have a City Connect uniform.

Descriptions

Nike and MLB introduced the first round of City Connect uniforms before the 2021 season. A second round debuted during the 2022 season, followed by a third during the 2023 season.[1]

Introduced in 2021

Seven teams started wearing City Connect jerseys during the 2021 MLB season.

  • Arizona Diamondbacks, sand-colored with black letters and red numbers, and with "Serpientes" in front as an homage to Arizona's Hispanic community.[2]
  • Boston Red Sox, with a yellow base and blue letters as homage to the Boston Marathon, which normally takes place on Patriots' Day.[3]
  • Chicago Cubs, dark blue with sky blue accents, with elements inspired by the flag of Chicago. The uniform has "Wrigleyville" on the front, in a lettering style similar to the Wrigley Field marquee.[4]
  • Chicago White Sox, in a dark grey shade with white pinstripes and featuring Gothic-styled lettering as homage to the South Side of Chicago.[5]
  • Los Angeles Dodgers, with a blue cap, jersey, and pants with “Los Dodgers” written on the cap and jersey. Jersey also includes black on the sleeves as a nod to street art culture in Los Angeles.[6] Cap was revised in 2022, moving the "Los Dodgers" to the side, replacing it with the traditional "LA" logo, and adding black to the brim and button.[7]
  • Miami Marlins, with a red base, white pinstripes and white letters with light blue trim as a tribute to the Cuban Sugar Kings.[8]
  • San Francisco Giants, with an orange and white design, a silhouette of the Golden Gate Bridge and a unique fog gradient across the front, sleeves and numbering of the jerseys.

Introduced in 2022

The seven teams that introduced City Connect uniforms in 2021 continue to wear them for selected games. Seven additional teams introduced City Connect uniforms in 2022.

Introduced in 2023

The Atlanta Braves, Texas Rangers, Seattle Mariners, Cincinnati Reds, Baltimore Orioles, and Pittsburgh Pirates will wear City Connect uniforms for the first time in 2023.[16]

  • Atlanta Braves, with a white base, blue sleeves and red accents, heavily inspired by the team's 1974 season home uniform worn by Hank Aaron when he surpassed Babe Ruth with his 715th home run.[17]

Reaction

Boston.com conducted a poll of its readers in April 2021 and found a polarized reaction to the Red Sox's yellow and blue City Connect jerseys. About 49% of respondents said that they loved the new uniforms, about 36% said that they hated them, and about 9% chose the "I'm speechless" option.[18] After the Red Sox wore the City Connect uniforms for four consecutive games in September 2021, winning all four, manager Alex Cora said that the team would continue to wear them for as long as they kept winning. "I'm sorry, but if we continue winning, we've got to stay with them," Xander Bogaerts told NESN.[19]

A columnist for the San Francisco Examiner wrote in May 2022 that the Giants had a record of 12 wins and 2 losses in their City Connect jerseys. Although some fans derided their design as looking like an orange Creamsicle, fans eventually warmed to the jersey, increasingly wearing them to games on Tuesday nights, when the team typically wears their City Connect uniforms.[20]

Of the first 11 City Connect designs, USA Today's For the Win blog ranked the White Sox's uniform design as the best and the Giants' design as the worst.[21] In a July 2022 review ranking the first 14 uniform designs, ESPN's Joon Lee described the City Connect program as the league's boldest alternative jersey designs since the Turn Ahead the Clock promotions of the late 1990s. Lee rated the Rockies' City Connect uniforms as the best, and the Dodgers as the worst.[1]

The Padres' City Connect uniforms generated $240,000 in revenue at the team's official store on July 1, 2022, their first day of sale. The last time the team had introduced a new alternative uniform, in 2020, the team store sold $73,000 worth of merchandise on launch day.[22]

References

  1. Lee, Joon (July 1, 2022). "Ranking MLB's radical City Connect uniforms: Which one's No. 1?". ESPN. Retrieved August 14, 2022.
  2. "D-backs reveal City Connect series uniforms". MLB.com. Archived from the original on 2021-06-14. Retrieved 2021-06-15.
  3. "Red Sox unveil Patriots' Day-inspired unis". MLB.com. Archived from the original on 2021-04-06. Retrieved 2021-04-06.
  4. "Cubs embrace all of Chicago with new unis". MLB.com. Archived from the original on 2021-06-08. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
  5. "New White Sox jerseys a true game changer". MLB.com. Archived from the original on 2021-06-08. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
  6. "Los Dodgers! Los Angeles Unveils New, Truly Dodger Blue, City Connect Uniform".
  7. "New Dodgers City Connect Cap for 2022 Season". 6 June 2022.
  8. "Marlins unveil Cuban-inspired uniforms". MLB.com. Archived from the original on 2021-05-22. Retrieved 2021-05-22.
  9. "Rockies City Connect uniforms a nod to iconic Colorado plates". Colorado Rockies. MLB. May 27, 2022. Retrieved May 27, 2022.
  10. "Astros reveal space-themed City Connect unis". Houston Astros. MLB. April 10, 2022. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  11. "Royals unveil City Connect uniform". Kansas City Royals. MLB. April 25, 2022. Retrieved April 25, 2022.
  12. "Angels City Connect unis rep SoCal beach scene". Los Angeles Angels. MLB. June 6, 2022. Retrieved June 6, 2022.
  13. "Brewers unveil "Brew Crew" City Connect uniforms". Milwaukee Brewers. MLB. June 17, 2022. Retrieved June 17, 2022.
  14. "San Diego culture, colors highlight Padres City Connect unis". San Diego Padres. MLB. July 1, 2022. Retrieved July 2, 2022.
  15. "Cherry blossoms burst with flair on Nationals' City Connect uniforms". Washington Nationals. MLB. April 1, 2022. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  16. Svoboda, Dylan (March 27, 2023). "Braves, Rangers, Mariners, Reds, O's, Bucs to wear City Connect unis". MLB.com. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  17. "Braves honor Aaron's legacy with new City Connect uniforms". Major League Baseball. MLB Advanced Media. March 27, 2023. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  18. Chianca, Peter (April 8, 2021). "Boston.com readers love the Red Sox Patriots' Day look - except for the ones that hate it". Boston.com. Retrieved August 14, 2022.
  19. Starr, Gabrielle (September 22, 2021). "Red Sox will continue to wear lucky yellow City Connect uniforms". BoSox Injection. Fansided. Retrieved August 14, 2022.
  20. Kassel, Ethan (May 26, 2022). "San Francisco Giants win but eyeballs lose with Creamsicle uniforms". San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved August 14, 2022.
  21. Curtis, Charles (June 6, 2022). "The MLB alternate City Connect Nike jerseys, ranked: Where the Angels' threads land". For The Win. USA Today. Retrieved August 14, 2022.
  22. Bacharach, Erik (July 19, 2022). "Padres City Connect jerseys bring revenue bump". Sports Business Journal. Retrieved August 14, 2022.

See also

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