MLB Uniform Concepts

[rroy0824]

A concept series that I have been working on for some time now. With today being opening day, I feel it's a good day to start posting. The MLB currently has a lot of good looks, but there are also some bad ones. I also wanted to challenge myself a bit and think outside the box on a few teams. Also, in order to have something different for some of the classic teams and to cut down on others, the following rules are being implemented for all teams:

* Every team is required and restricted to 4 uniforms only.
* Each team will have a home (white), a road (gray), a home alternate, and a road alternate.
* The home alternate can be white, cream, or a color, but the road alternate must be a color other than gray, white, or cream.
* Every team is also required and restricted to 2 hats only.
* I am allowed to recolor any logo I see fit, but can only use logos currently used by the team.

I hope you will follow my series. Most teams are finished so they will all be posted by division and by order of worse record to best record. Because of it being the older league, I will start in the NL with the West division. Big thanks to jayjackson3 and TimEOBrien for their templates.

Index
National League
NL West: San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers, Arizonia Diamondbacks (Update), San Diego Padres, Colorado Rockies (Update)
NL Central: Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals (Update), Milwaukee Brewers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs (Update)
NL East: Washington National, Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies (Update), New York Mets, Miami Marlins (Update)

American League
AL West: Oakland Athletics, Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (Update), Seattle Mariners, Houston Astros
AL Central: Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox, Kansas City Royals, Cleveland Indians, Minnesota Twins
AL East: New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, Tampa Bay Rays (Update), Toronto Blue Jays (Update), Boston Red Sox (Update)

[rroy0824]

Colorado Rockies

First up, the Colorado Rockies. Being the only purple team in the MLB, I think the Rockies should embrace the color and ditch the black. With this concept I wanted to use purple and a sliver color with white being an accent. Unfortunately, that means the team has two purple jerseys with one using white and the other silver. I did not want to start with that, but that's just how it worked out with the records. I did not think a vest really fit in with the rest of the set so that's just how it is. Went with solid over pinstripe because it looked better with the purple. Alternate hat has a gray bill and button to be used with the purple uniforms. Logos changed to reflect new colors.

[Brave-Bird 08]

I really like this. I think the wordmark on the grey shirt would look best if the interior of the lettering was also grey. Other than that, great concept. Good job.

[cohenj21]

Really good start to this series, and I look forward to seeing more. As for this concept, I agree that the team should embrace purple and if not ditch black, then use it much less. You have accomplished that here almost perfectly. The one thing I would change is on the road jersey, write the "Colorado" script in purple. It's pretty hard to read as is, and using purple would contribute the goal of embracing purple. Nice job here.

[bradsbeard]

The Rockies set looks awesome. Exactly what they should be going for. Great job!

[rroy0824]

The one thing I would change is on the road jersey, write the "Colorado" script in purple. It's pretty hard to read as is, and using purple would contribute the goal of embracing purple.

Yeah, that was something I was worried about when I was making this. I felt that the inside being purple made it too different from the other logos and it being gray made it blend in too much. It is something I'll look into when I go back and make changes. Thanks to everyone so far though.

[rroy0824]

San Diego Padres

Next up is the Padres. I decided to go back to brown and gold. It may be the easy thing to do, but I think it's what they need. I don't think the current set is as bad as most people say, but when you've worn things like this and this, you can afford to be different then everyone else. I realize it is not the 70's anymore and things like that would not work today. I found my inspiration for this concept in what they wore in 1974. It is traditional enough, while still being able to work today. The stripes on the sleeves are a bit thinker to mimic the originals. A gold bill hat for home games and an all brown replaces the "Taco Bell" hat. I felt that it made the set fit more in today's game. Friar now on all uniforms.

[cohenj21]

This is a big step in the right direction for the Padres. Their current set's design and wordmarks are sharp, but the generic navy blue is incredibly dull for a team with such an, ahem, vibrant uniform history. The yellow-billed cap is a nice touch in particular. I'm not sure I love the road alternate, though. The brown jersey-gray pants combo is very unexciting. Did you consider using yellow socks? I'm not sure how that would look, but it might add a dash of color to that set. Love the home alt though, nice job.

[rroy0824]

This is a big step in the right direction for the Padres. Their current set's design and wordmarks are sharp, but the generic navy blue is incredibly dull for a team with such an, ahem, vibrant uniform history. The yellow-billed cap is a nice touch in particular. I'm not sure I love the road alternate, though. The brown jersey-gray pants combo is very unexciting. Did you consider using yellow socks? I'm not sure how that would look, but it might add a dash of color to that set. Love the home alt though, nice job.

Again, good points. With brown not being a real "exciting" color, I was hoping that the piping and logo gave it enough color. I don't know if yellow socks is the answer because I think it might contrast too much with the gray pants. Maybe there is something else that can be done. I really appreciate the feedback though. I like hearing what other people think.

[bradsbeard]

Yellow socks ("sannies") with brown stirrups for the win.

[rroy0824]

Yellow socks ("sannies") with brown stirrups for the win.

Yeah, that would look nice, but not too many players still wear stirrups. I wanted to go for a realistic approach to what socks the players would wear.

[AlexWilson]

Maybe flip the alts around? Yellow as Road, Brown as Home?

[Fox]

Maybe flip the alts around? Yellow as Road, Brown as Home?

Yellow jerseys almost never look good with grey pants. In nearly every case it looks better to use the lighter color as a home alternate and the darker color for the road alt. I really like this set. On the road alternate, I would drop all of the white outlines. The white bleeds into the yellow badly and makes it look cluttered IMO.

[rroy0824]

Maybe flip the alts around? Yellow as Road, Brown as Home?

Yellow jerseys almost never look good with grey pants. In nearly every case it looks better to use the lighter color as a home alternate and the darker color for the road alt. I really like this set. On the road alternate, I would drop all of the white outlines. The white bleeds into the yellow badly and makes it look cluttered IMO.

Yeah, that's what I think too. For my concepts, the darker color is almost always the road alternate. I think that brown almost has to be the color of the road alternate with this color set.

I was trying to keep the same look as the other uniforms and that is why there is a white outline. If people think it doesn't work then that is something that can be changed. I wouldn't want to make it too different from the rest of the set though. But yeah, I see your point.

[rroy0824]

Arizona Diamondbacks

I do plan on fixing the other concepts, but first the Diamondbacks. I was going to post this earlier, but decided to redo it first. I'm not sure how people will feel about this one. The current set for the Diamondbacks isn't great. The D-Backs script just doesn't work. I do think that the black set is by far the best of the bunch and decided to base the set off that. The Diamondbacks have previously worn the A logo on the front and it looked pretty good IMO. In a move that may not be too popular, I kept the colors red, black, and sand. It's a fitting scheme for a team in the desert. The hats now have the A logo instead of the D snake logo. The D is a great idea but it doesn't look as good on a hat as the A does. The new black hat is the same as the new spring training hat, which looks great and adds a little more color to the new black set.

[AlexWilson]

1st of all, thank you for dropping the D-Backs script. I hated that mark, it made Arizona look like a AA team. Second, this looks great. I love the A on the cap and sweater, but I've always wondered what the "DB" logo would look like on a black cap. Could we see you add a bit more black somewhere?

[GangGr33n FTW]

Black cap on the away, with black socks? Try that, but love home, away alt.

[cohenj21]

Really good job on this set. The "Dbacks" mark has always seemed pretty amateurish to me, but you can't really fit Diamondbacks on there nicely so the "A" is a nice compromise. I always thought the D-snake looked good on a jersey, but not on a hat so while I would have been fine with seeing it on the home alt, I'm glad the "A" is on the hats again. One suggestion: Did you consider a red hat with a black bill for the primary road set? I think that set could use some more black, unless you don't want more than two hats per team. Overall, nice job.

[Audiodrama]

I think the ARI home primary jersey is missing piping down the center. Consider the Reds' home jerseys, for example -- they use a piping to fill out the otherwise white space that would make things look a tad too empty. Otherwise, the home jersey is a drastic improvement which I really enjoy. For the piping pattern, mimic the piping currently featured on your sleeves. (Same goes for the brick home alternate.)

[rroy0824]

I think the ARI home primary jersey is missing piping down the center. Consider the Reds' home jerseys, for example -- they use a piping to fill out the otherwise white space that would make things look a tad too empty. Otherwise, the home jersey is a drastic improvement which I really enjoy. For the piping pattern, mimic the piping currently featured on your sleeves. (Same goes for the brick home alternate.)

It's funny you say that because about a half hour before I posted that concept I had this ready to go.

Originally I had that piping on all of the jerseys. I really didn't like it on the road uniforms because I think it cluttered it up too much and that may have influenced me to take it off the home. I am curious to know if people like it on the home uniform because it is something I thought about. I'm glad that people like the basic idea of it though.

One suggestion: Did you consider a red hat with a black bill for the primary road set? I think that set could use some more black, unless you don't want more than two hats per team. Overall, nice job.

Yep, I set a rule that teams have to and can only have two hat each. It was done to limit the amount of hats some teams have and to make me think outside the box for some of the more classic teams.

Thanks guys. Depending on how the rest of the day is, I may have the Dodgers up tonight.