Is Brown For The Padres Really a Popular Opinion?

[TheRicSlick]

Rawlings only made the home jersey in that 1969 set?

[Dynasty]

I always wanted the Padres to use brown and sand. If they execute their uniforms correctly with those colors then it could be a work of art.

[OnWis97]

Pardon me while I re-post a picture of one of the greatest uniform sets in baseball history.

I have worn out my keyboard talking about how I prefer the late-1980s brown/orange to anything with yellow. However, I know I've lost that battle...if they ever bring back brown, it's going to be with yellow (or even light blue, but not orange). Given that, this uniform is about as well as they could do; classic look with unique color scheme. I could live with this.

I do like the "taller" style of the "SD" that they adopted some time in the 1980s...this looks a little "scrunched". Similarly, I'd like the "Padres" wordmark to be a bit "taller". I prefer the "San Diego" word mark here.

[TheOldRoman]

I'd like to see the Padres go with Brown as their primary color, Powder Blue as their secondary color, and Sand/Tan as their tertiary/accent color.

That would be better than what they have BUT I feel that would just be another band aid on the brand. Like when the masses clamored for the Chargers to switch back to collegiate blue and so the team added it to the navy/yellow mix. Nice, better, but not as good as it would have been as the primary.

To be truly special, I think the Padres need to embrace brown/yellow and make it theirs once again.

I agree, other than saying the Chargers shoehorning light blue was nice, because I think it muddies the look, and every single aspect of their current set is the worst they've ever had. The Padres have gone from brown and yellow through: brown yellow and orange, brown and orange, navy and orange, navy and white, navy and tan, to navy and white again. And the last mini-rebrand they did 3 years ago sucked because it was another identity and kicking the can down the road a few years until they could possibly return to what they should have been wearing. They've gone through so many freaking uniforms now. They've done too much. There's no time for them to experiment with a 7th color scheme. Brown is the most important color for the Padres, but brown with anything other than yellow will still be a disappointment.

[AceHawk447]

I'm thinking a deep dark chocolate, or a wine (the 2015 Pantone Color of the Year, "Marsala," comes to mind and would definitely work here), with sand/champagne and sky blue. How would that be for a Padres color scheme?

[Guest]

I'm thinking a deep dark chocolate, or a wine (the 2015 Pantone Color of the Year, "Marsala," comes to mind and would definitely work here), with sand/champagne and sky blue. How would that be for a Padres color scheme?

"Marsala" and sky blue is already taken. I think it's too pink, at least to pair with a light blue.

[TruColor]

A couple of years ago, I put together a color palette of a Dark Brown, combined with the previous sets' Light Blue and Sand:

...however, I also took the suggestion to put "Marsala" in there...here's a Pantone Textile version of it - with "Marsala":

Personally, I don't think Marsala works at all...

[hawk36]

Immediately thought of this when reading those colors. OK, but a far distance from the brown/yellow.

[TruColor]

^ My favorite sports color palette ever:

[Artmanc3po]

Unfortunately, I don't think the Padres look like anything. If they're going for a minimalist look like the Yankees, Tigers or Dodgers, for one thing they don't have the rich history of any of those three franchises, nor does their particular shade of blue stand out like the deep, dark navy of the Yanks and Tigers or the bright royal of the Dodgers.

Love 'em or hate 'em, the brown Padres at least stood out as the Padres. As a kid growing up in the 70s and 80s, you knew who the Padres were on the field or on baseball cards, because of their unique identity. Now, they literally look like nothing to me, because for the life of me I can't discern what they're trying to do with their identity. If they love navy, then darken it and go with orange or red to hearken back to two better franchise looks from their MLB and MiLB pasts. If they want to become relevant again, though, in fashion and in conversation, embrace the brown!

[OnWis97]

Unfortunately, I don't think the Padres look like anything. If they're going for a minimalist look like the Yankees, Tigers or Dodgers, for one thing they don't have the rich history of any of those three franchises, nor does their particular shade of blue stand out like the deep, dark navy of the Yanks and Tigers or the bright royal of the Dodgers.

Love 'em or hate 'em, the brown Padres at least stood out as the Padres. As a kid growing up in the 70s and 80s, you knew who the Padres were on the field or on baseball cards, because of their unique identity. Now, they literally look like nothing to me, because for the life of me I can't discern what they're trying to do with their identity. If they love navy, then darken it and go with orange or red to hearken back to two better franchise looks from their MLB and MiLB pasts. If they want to become relevant again, though, in fashion and in conversation, embrace the brown!

This is a big part of why I want to see them back in brown. I also like the idea of adding this un-used color back to MLB; and I think it looks good.

They may be the lowest-profile team in MLB. Certainly one of the lowest-profile teams. And I'd suggest the uniforms play at least a small role. No championships, pacific time zone, one of five teams in their own state, etc. all are important too, of course. However, given all of those factors, having a forgettable uniform seems like a questionable decision.

[The_Admiral]

Are the Padres' new uniforms the result of new O'Malley ownership trying to make them into Dodgers Lite? Whatever the reasoning, it's not working at all. Horrible case of Identity Rot, where they take elements designed years ago and tweak them and tweak them until the whole concept as intended falls apart. Of course, the 2004 set had flaws to begin with, but the updates along the way have only made the situation worse.

I'm not gung-ho about the Padres in brown, but I'd take a good brown and yellow identity over anything but a thoughtful retooling of the 2004 package, which I do like very much.

[Silver Shamrock]

I am really loving what the Padres are doing this offseason, with the acquisitions of Matt Kemp, and Wil Myers as the most notable so far. New GM A.J. Preller is looking to transform this team into a contender overnight it seems. For a change, the Padres org. is making some bold moves.

Unfortunately, those two players won't look a whole lot different than they did on their previous teams, and that's a shame. The Padres have a very weak visual identity.

With the reshaping of the roster, I think it is time to make some more bold moves, and reshape the identity of this team. They should get out of the shadows, have some pride in being the San Diego Padres, and not just a copycat franchise.

I love the Dark Brown, Light Blue, Sand and White posted by ColorWerx. On board with that in a second

[Telemundo219]

Those — from 1969 and 1974, respectively — are pretty standard or even conservative uniforms, not unlike the sort you may see today. And, of course, there are any number of variations the Padres could do with this color scheme. Things they never did with it before and which would not be tacky or kitschy.

The key is that they should embrace the one unique thing the Padres always had going for them before they decided that identities were overrated, oh, a decade ago: their own colors. The brown, which is appropriate for a friar, and the mustard which was different, much like the city of San Diego is different from most other cities. Certainly fine in small doses as an accent color, even if we got a bit overloaded on it later.

But I’d even take the overload over this:

I mean, my God. There are unlicensed 1990s baseball video game teams dressed with more imagination than that.

That last line hits the nail perfectly about my view on the current the Padres uniforms. Bring back the Brown and Gold (Vegas, Athletic, Mustard..any kind of Gold)

[VikWings]

Why do so many people wanna see brown? Just because it's unique doesn't make it not ugly. The Browns pull off (for now at least until Nike gets a hold of them, and when they don't wear brown pants) but that's it.

We all can agree there's too many Navy teams but the Padres should just add more color to complement the navy or find a different color to become their own, like powder blue or something.

My favorite Padres unis are the 90s set, but at the same time since the Astros are blue and orange again now too, I don't know if we need a 3rd blue and orange team.

The Michigan Panthers scheme shown above could work but that's because that color is closer to maroon than brown.

[hawk36]

Seems like I need to continually remind people of why brown and yellow are the most logical color for the San Diego Padres. But, here we go again.

[Packid]

Seems like I need to continually remind people of why brown and yellow are the most logical color for the San Diego Padres. But, here we go again.

Was that cap actually worn with that uniform? Looks to me like a recolor of the current one. Regardless, it's beautiful.

[Jungle Jim]

It is a recolor of the current one.

[WavePunter]

Firstly, there's a very good reason there are too many navy teams in baseball.. it's very popular, sells well, and looks good. Each team shouldn't be taking other teams' identities into consideration when developing their own just to avoid being too similar. It weakens their brand and almost inherently contradicts having your own brand. This is why the Padres went to navy and have embraced it, regardless of it's overuse in the mlb.

With that said,

The brown cap, gold front panel, brown SD outlined in orange, was one of the greatest caps of all time. They need to re-adopt that color scheme asap, even with their modern fonts, etc.

And for what it's worth, I actually loved it when they came out with the champagne road alts, and paired it with that really dark mix of navy and midnight green color.. I thought it was really unique, and the champagne sort of acted like the grey would, without being grey.. clever, imo..

But to reiterate, brown and yellow, with hints of orange is the strongest and best identity the pads could have

[hawk36]

I'd love to see the numbers but my guess is the Padres generic navy look is a worse seller of merchandise than the brown was. Would be tough to figure out exactly since the industry has skyrocketed in recent years but you could look at:

- Percentage navy sold vs the rest of the MLB in 5 year increments during the navy era

- Percentage of brown sold vs the rest of the MLB in 5 year increments during the brown era

As it is, my experience has been I see more brown merchandise being worn than navy when I'm in San Diego. And, funny enough, I almost exclusively see brown Padres merchandise being worn outside San Diego, when traveling around the country. Guess it's trendy? Cool?