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MLB the Show has the Braves City Connects in the game starting this Friday. This is our first look at the batting helmet. It shows a blue bill, just like the cap. That isn’t unusual, but it does deviate from the Braves throwbacks which always had blue bills on the caps but white bills on the helmets. You can see how they were inspired by the bell shaped white panel from the helmet. I’d have preferred a standard white panel cap but it isn’t a deal breaker. There’s a mistake in the video as it shows the cap (as well as the helmet) with “the A.” It looks like that has been fixed based on this photo. The game doesn’t seem to use the bell shaped white panel, though. These little differences make me wonder if the cap originally was intended to use “the A” logo and was changed. We will get our first on field look at them this Saturday, so long as the weather cooperates. Rain is in the forecast.

Braves will wear their City Connects for every Saturday home game. Likely sticking with reds for every Friday home game. Home white for Sunday-Thursday home games. Gray and navy on the road don’t seem to have a set schedule.

The US home shirt is fine enough. Seems like standard affair with a little design thrown on. I don’t really like the away shirt. I dislike national teams using tonal crests. Some clubs can get away with it on their away or third kits and it’s not usually a big deal. But those are clubs. This kit represents the national team. The crest should be displayed in its full colors. Also, the dark blue side panels look bad. Did we just go back in time to 2005?

I’m just going to remain calm and wait for the Cards to either leak or officially reveal. No use getting angry and changing the color palette until we see how it’s executed. The reality is yellow is such a minimal color in their scheme right now and they’re a red and white team. I could accept a change in colors if they’re still primarily dark red (maroon or burgundy) and white. Orange, yellow, copper, or sand like have been discussed could work in the palette so long as they are accent colors. If that’s the case, this could be a success. If they start adding other doses of color to the uniforms, then this has the potential to be very bad and go against the century plus of history the organization has.

Very good information. Thanks man!

I thought I saw somewhere that the 4+1 rule meant since a uniform was a permanent feature in a club’s wardrobe, they get the full treatment from manufacturers with jerseys, caps (think 59FIFTY, 9TWENTY, and snapbacks), player tees, hoodies, etc. Basically a full line of merchandise. Whereas a special event jersey (throwback or Negro League for a single series) doesn’t get quite the same treatment from manufacturers. Maybe I’m off, but I swear I saw that somewhere. This might be their solution to have merchandise year round with that retro theme. I would not be shocked to still see the throwbacks for a game or two.

These photos show the problems with modern day vests. They need to be a dedicated cut with the arm holes inset more than a usual shirt, closer to the fit of a basketball jersey but not quite that extreme. The Pirates photo above with the ASG patch just looks like a regular jersey that had its sleeves removed, and therefore looks too bulky with excess fabric.

Honestly can’t say I’ve seen a single one that was decent.

Doesn’t appear to be the case based on the leaks. Looks like it may be loosely inspired by the Pilots with some stripes and mountain iconography. So far we have seen socks and a t-shirt. ——— A few more looks at the Braves. Overall, I like it. It’s about as nice as I could have hoped for under the label of “City Connect” which has resulted in too many dumpster fires. So given that context, these are more than fine. I love how the underbrim of the cap is green and has the “Keep Swinging #44” tribute. On that same pic that shows the green underbrim, you can see how it looks like the feather pattern is inside the cap. My critiques: I don’t love how it literally says “The.” I would prefer a standard white panel cap instead of the bell shape. I don’t think anyone is buying that the sleeve designs are “crowns” seeing as they still look like the top of the feather that this uniform was known for. Also, the color balance of the cap feels off. It’s still a perfectly fine looking cap, but the original uniform has a red logo, hence why things feel unbalanced.

I wish MLS clubs would just wear their primary kits at home all the time. 99% of the time, Real Madrid is wearing white at home, Barca are in stripes, Bayern in red, Chelsea in blue, and Juve in their stripes. Instead we get matchups like Atlanta (pale green) vs Columbus (black) when we could have yellow vs red and black stripes. Earlier, we had LA wearing their new green with yellow trim playing in Portland. I get teams want to push these new shirts at retail, but they should also try to establish solid identities. I would say that brings just as much value as a few shirts sold at the team store, if not more.

Overall, the collection is good. But these are going a little too fair into the arts realm for me. Germany for example - they’ve used all of those colors before. All of them could be identifiable as a German top. But to use green, black, gold, and white all together, while also using a massively noticeable pattern? It’s a visual nightmare and it makes my head hurt just looking at it. They need to pick some colors and simplify it a bit. The shirts above that are successful are the ones that have a singular focus with a clean color palette, and not the ones that try to pack four or five ideas into one single shirt.

I wonder if this means UNC will have an updated design. They are selling 700+ football game jerseys. It could just be a template change, but possibly something to monitor.

New cream uniforms for Georgia. I am curious if this is possibly an indication of future changes to come. With the football team moving away from the Bulldog Bold font, this could be foreshadowing for baseball, too. We saw how Georgia football introduced two alternates in 2020, neither of which had Bulldog Bold and then the font was gone from the uniforms completely by 2022.

Interesting note from Atlanta United: new signing Giorgos Giakoumakis is experiencing some inconsistencies with his name on the back of his shirt. When he made his debut, his name stretched edge to edge, barely fitting within the width of the shirt. It was a tight fit, but it worked. Before tonight’s game, the club posted this on Twitter. It shows a condensed version of the MLS font, letting the name fit better on the shirt. Sorry for the dark image. I assumed this meant they fixed it for him going forward. However, he wore the condensed font in the first half and then swapped his shirt at halftime and wore the full sized font. I don’t have in game photos from tonight, but you can see what I’m talking about in these two video clips.

As a Braves fan, I was nervous at the prospect of a City Connect but had more hope when I saw the first leak of the socks and t-shirt. I am more than okay with this design. They pass my test of still looking like the Braves when I turn on the TV. I don’t like how it literally reads “The A” but there are so many City Connect designs that are absolutely horrible, so I consider these a best case scenario. I’ll be curious to see the full uniform with the cap. Expecting a white panel. The sleeves look like they have a hint of the feather but less pronounced compared to the throwbacks.

I had to pick up an AFC Richmond home shirt. If you haven’t watched the show, it’s great. Super wholesome, but still funny and relatable. One oddity I noticed is that the shirt for sale looks like standard Nike affair. A customized teamwear style with the usual crest embroidery. However, it doesn’t match the style that is worn in the show. The shirts worn on the show look like lower quality with cheaper Nike swooshes and AFC Richmond crests. You can see what I’m talking about here. The Nike shirts for sale have much higher quality embroidery. I think it is likely the ones on the show were manufactured by people responsible for the on set costumes and not actually by Nike. I am waiting for more episodes to come out so I can binge so I can’t confirm for sure. But the promotional jerseys are definitely different. ——— Also, I am loving the Premier League font update. Great clean look.

This Twins identity is following the modern day trends we see across other brands across all walks of life. As companies refresh their branding in the modern era, they tend to be more minimalistic and simple. Especially when you account for optimizing the visual package at various scales, such as how the brand reads on an iPhone with the app icon. On the whole, I find myself really liking the Twins update, but I have a couple nitpicks. They need to pick whether they go with the white panel design or use all navy. Considering the white panel helmet is used with their primary uniform, there needs to be consistency there. If they really want both, then they need to introduce a matching cap. Make it the weekend alternate or something. But make it consistent. It will look goofy wearing the navy cap in the top of the inning but a different design in the bottom of the inning. I’m not sold on the M* cap. Might grow on me. But I really dislike the decision for that to be the primary road cap. The TC is too classic and should be worn the majority of the time. The M* can be used as an alternate but shouldn’t be more than once or twice a week. Also, not sure about the number font. But overall, I like what I’m seeing and the overall package is nice. I like the colors, the striping, the cleaner TC logo, and the white paneled helmet is great. Before the update, they were a mess with the gold and multiple scripts (modern and retro). Everything feels very cohesive now.

Their season opener was equally horrible. I tuned into the highlights and could barely tell them apart.

Seems a stretch when Atlanta’s home kit has consistently featured red and black stripes three out of four times, while the fourth was a reinterpretation of black with thin red pinstripes. Meanwhile, Charlotte’s primary kit is light blue and white with minimal black trim. Though, I will say I quite like Charlotte’s home kit. I have been begging MLS to continue establishing firm identities. Introduce more stripes, more sashes, more contrasting sleeves, more hoops, etc. There has been some progress lately. Atlanta has claimed the red and black stripes, Austin is making a concerted effort towards green and black stripes, SKC seems to be settling in with hoops of varying styles, Vancouver has established the thick chest stripe (hopefully Chicago reverts back to that in red next year, I suspect they will after the massive rebrand correction), the Montreal leak that was delayed suggests they’re getting back to blue and black instead of mostly black. I hope Charlotte makes the Arsenal look their signature.

When I saw the customized side stripe a few MLS teams had, I wished Atlanta went with a red and black striped design instead of the gold. I like the gold on the collar and cuffs but it sticks out too much on the sides. It bothers me how the gold doesn’t match with the red trim on the shorts. Those two elements look like they are supposed to match. It would make things much more cohesive and wouldn’t stick out like a sore thumb when viewed on TV. The 17/18 design that this is trying to emulate let the stripes be the focal point with minimal gold details. By contrast, the design above has a bit too much visual clutter. The eye doesn’t know whether to look at the stripes or the gold. It’s still a nice shirt, but could have been a touch better.

Better pics of Minnesota Toronto FC: will be paired with red shorts but still too much gray. Gray accents are fine but Toronto should be primarily red.

That last sentence is what is holding MLS clubs hostage. When adidas puts out a new kit for Real Madrid or Bayern, they have to put their best foot forward because they are directly paying the club. They also have 100+ years of history to respect and a fan base that expects the utmost care for team apparel. Anything less could result in a supporter protest. With MLS, they don’t pay the clubs, they pay the league who controls the clubs’ assets. Younger league with less responsibility for the manufacturer, and also less expectations from its fans, unfortunately. I am not opposed to a league wide contract. The NFL and NBA manage to figure it out. But we have seen some of the issues that come with such a deal (unwanted alternates, new alternates that must rotate every year, etc). MLS just needs to ask more from adidas going forward.

^ adidas has treated MLS replicas like garbage for years with many missing design elements. I wish MLS would hold their provider to a higher standard because that’s not how adidas treats their top flight global teams that they sponsor. Adidas should keep the differences to materials and fit, not critical design elements that change the feel of the shirt.

It’s a shame the St Louis away kit will be the one replaced next year because I actually think it’s the stronger of the two. Their home shirt tries to do way too much with color overload and an abstract generic pattern. The away shirt is much cleaner and something that I’d wear if I was a fan. Regarding Miami, I don’t mind the under arm panels since it gets a bit more pink in the design. Their black kits have felt a bit lifeless at times so I like having some more color involved.