upperV03

Curiosity got the best of me…

The Mariners posted a press release yesterday with all the details about this Friday’s City Connect release. Within the press release was this note:

“They will don them on the field for the first time when they return from their three-city road trip and take on the Astros the following Friday, May 5. They will then wear them for every Friday home game the rest of the season.“

We already knew that May 5th would be the on-field debut, but we didn’t know that it would become the new designated Friday home uniform. The teal jerseys and teal-brimmed hats have been the Friday home uniform since they were brought back in 2012. I find this move disappointing because it seems like the teals will be worn pretty sparingly this year. So far this year I believe they’ve only worn it twice; once at home and once on the road. Despite being the designated road jersey now that the grays have been axed, the navy tops have been worn at home more times than the teals this year (just like last year). 

1 hour ago, monkeypower said:

 

I'm interested/morbidly intrigued as to what the Jets jerseys look like with the template. The stripes follow the seams of the old template on the chest.

 

Are those stripes going to angle down now to stick with the seams? Are they going to somehow cut across across the seams? I'd imagine it make the retail version sleeves look even worse than before.

There’s an alternate version of the new template that has horizontal seams on either side of the collar instead of the ‘V’ shaped seam that sits below the collar. The Ducks used it on their 2020 “Ohana” uniform and it’s also what Seahawks players used when testing the template in late 2020:

I would imagine this^ is what the Jets will get if they make the switch to the new template. 

1 hour ago, Frylock said:

I’m expecting the black bill and blue crown, but the yellow bill really ties it all together. Any chance we could please see these mocked up with tridents on the bill, similar to the collar? 
 

Here’s a version with crossed tridents on the bill and a standalone M on the front:

Not my favorite, but I could see them doing something like this. 

^And we’ll get to see what the hat looks like as well. A blue crown seems inevitable, but I’d love to see a yellow brim:

Here’s a couple other possibilities:

24 minutes ago, VampyrRabbit said:

The problem with that is that the Pilots and the pre Nintendo owned Mariners were two sacks of s***.

The Pilots had one season in Seattle, and that season was absolutely wretched, the team played in a ballpark that was Sick in every sense of the word, and as a result of an economic downturn in Seattle, the team had no money.  When the Mariners wore Blue and Gold, they had one winning season, plenty of awful teams, and they played in a dank pit of a stadium.

Considering that Seattles MLB teams almost always stank the joint out while wearing blue and gold full time in venues that were absolute toilets,  I have no idea why Seattle are going that route instead of trying something new inspired by the city of Seattle.
 

The Pilots were the first MLB team in Seattle, so I’d say they’re still an important part of Seattle baseball history. And regardless of their success (or lack thereof) in blue and gold, it’s still an important part of Mariners history as well.  They wore the color scheme for the first 25 years of their existence, and during that time saw the emergence of iconic players like The Kid and Edgar Martinez. There is a lot of nostalgia for the blue and gold. Hell, there’s a lot of nostalgia for the King Dome as well. The fans obviously like the blue and yellow because home games are close to a 50/50 split in terms of fans wearing navy/teal and royal/yellow. The team stores are pretty much a 50/50 split, too. 
 

Yes, Seattle has a ton of non-baseball inspiration to work with but I’m not sure any of it would’ve resulted in something better than what they’re actually doing. 

White pants, please. 

@CaliforniaGlowin’s ideal Cardinals uniform set:

Did my best to recreate the wordmark (sans beveling) and sleeve logo from the leaked Mariners City Connect jersey. I think some of the mountain details in the sleeve logo will be a bit different, but overall I think these are pretty good recreations. I didn’t have time today, but I may work on mocking up the full jersey and some hat options this weekend.

 

49 minutes ago, TenaciousG said:

This ain’t a city connect, it’s a reverse retro.

 

At least it’s decent and fits with the overall branding but this further blurs the line between us being a teal/blue team or a blue/gold team. 
 

I really thought they would go with a green/white Washington State Ferries theme. Methinks they noticed how well loved the Kraken RR’s were and wanted a piece of the action. No one in Seattle is nostalgic for the Pilots… and there are better actual “city”connect ideas like using the city flag, or ferries, grunge, Mount Rainier (which they did a little in this set), pike place,  etc. 

Ehh, not sure I agree with you on the reverse retro thing. The word mark is inspired by the old Seattle Pilots mark but the rigid edges, pointed serifs, and beveling all pretty clearly nod to the trident and compass rose. The sleeve logo again has the font inspired by the Pilots, but they’re still nodding to the trident and compass rose at the same time:

I appreciate that they’re telling a “baseball in Seattle” story instead of a “10 things to do in Seattle” touristy approach. I would’ve been in favor of using the Seattle flag as inspo and going with a more familiar teal-centric look, but I think this is probably the next best thing. I do fear that they’ll go with blue pants, but I think the jerseys themselves are really pretty solid.

A few Mariners city connect leaks:

I think there’s good potential there. The blue and yellow is classic & I like the beveled number font which sort of matches the styling of the compass rose. I really hope they don’t go with blue pants, but I fear they probably will. I don’t really care for the sleeve logo, but it’s not horrible. If you look closely in the first two pictures you can see a little bit of the front word mark. I think it may well be the same as what’s on the leaked shirt below, but it seems to have pointed serifs and a black drop shadow to match the number styling.

5 minutes ago, jerrylawless3 said:

That jersey material looks an awful lot like their current red, unless that is another red herring

Those actually look to be pants. The different sized holes match the perforation pattern on the Vapor Fusion pants, so they should be part of the new set.

Yeah, it’s not a new uni reveal at all, just showing off the combos for the spring game. Who knows, they may update templates or have a completely new set in the fall, but this “reveal” isn’t really anything at all.

Still no shirt release, but Montréal wore the shorts from their new primary kit in tonight’s Canadian Championship match:

 
Wasn’t totally clear in the latest leaks whether the new shirt has white or light gray accents; these shorts seem to show that it’ll be a light gray. Nice to see black shorts instead of blue. Would assume the socks of the new kit will be blue, but we’ll have to wait and see.

22 minutes ago, trekbkr said:

 

"Mar-A-Lago Blush"

Would be better than “Mar-A-Lago Bush”, I suppose.

….

Just what the NBA needs, more uniforms. 

19 minutes ago, gosioux76 said:

Or just make every jersey all season long out of this ocean-plastic fabric. 

 

I agree that it's an important and worthy cause, but doing it as a one-off is more about feel-good marketing than actually embracing change. It's like someone saying, "I recycle, but only on Earth Day."

Agreed. Nike has been making kits out of recycled plastic bottles for over a decade; they’ve of course highlighted that in their releases but they haven’t felt a need to make special kits for it. 

11 minutes ago, SSmith48 said:

I just find it funny that the way they promote sustainability is to create a "recycled" jersey that is only worn once and never again. Kinda dilutes the message, doesn't it? If the NHL can do the whole PrimeGreen thing with their regular jerseys, can't they do that with MLS products as well? 

The regular kits are already made using recycled materials. What makes the Parley kits different is that they use a yarn that contains 50% recycled ocean plastic. I’m fine with them doing the Parley jerseys because it’s a worthy cause to promote, I just hate that they’re worn in matches. Either make team-colored versions or only have them used as prematch tops.

Most of the Parley (officially called “One Planet”) jerseys are up on the Dick’s site. They’ll be available on MLS Store later today.

Here are all of the selections: 

Charlotte (turquoise) vs. Columbus (black)

Cincinnati (black) vs. Portland (turquoise)

Montreal (black - no pic yet) vs. NYRB (turquoise)

New England (turquoise) vs. SKC (black)

NYCFC (turquoise) vs. Dallas (black)

Orlando (turquoise) vs. DC (black)

Philadelphia (black) vs. Toronto (turquoise)

Houston (black) vs. Miami (turquoise)

Nashville (turquoise) vs. LAFC (black)

Colorado (black) vs. St. Louis (turquoise)

RSL (turquoise) vs. San Jose (black)

LAG (turquoise) vs. Austin (black)

Seattle (turquoise) vs. Minnesota (black)

Atlanta (black) vs. Chicago (turquoise)

The home team picks which color they want. 8 of the 14 home teams picked the turquoise color way, while the other 6 picked black. Vancouver has a bye this week, but I assume they’ll still have a version to buy. As with the previous Parley jerseys, they all have color-matched sponsor logos except for Minnesota who has the big white bullseye on the chest:

3 hours ago, aawagner011 said:

So are we expecting this to finally release? Or are they just going to use the gray all season?

The indigenous inscription is nowhere to be seen on the new leaked images, so it’s possible Adidas has finished producing updated versions and is starting to send them out to retailers. Wouldn’t surprise me if they end up launching it in May.

Shifting back to the Parley kits for this week, St. Louis has posted a teaser with tomorrow’s date:

Looks like the turquoise colorway, so that means Colorado chose the black as the home team for Saturday’s matchup between the two clubs.

So far then we know the colors for these two matchups:

Atlanta (black) vs. Chicago (turquoise)

Colorado (black) vs. St. Louis (turquoise)

The original leak showed that the authentic version will have black cuffs with white trim and black back panels, so at least that should help the color balance a little  bit. 

Austin was another team that wore their secondary kits at home yesterday, which allowed Vancouver to wear their awesome navy/white/navy combo:

Even as a Timbers fan, I think this is the single best kit (when worn with the white shorts) in the league right now. It looked great last year and looked great again last night.

One more thing for tonight, I just noticed that St. Louis did indeed wear their secondaries at home against Cincinnati but debuted the navy shorts with them:

Seriously, they should just wear the navy shorts full time. With both kits.

Yeah, Portland/Seattle is the league’s premier rivalry and tonight’s edition looked almost completely unrecognizable:

Here’s the reasoning that a Timbers’ official gave to one of our local reporters:

And apparently the two remaining Timbers/Sounders matchups this season (both in Seattle) will have the same kit matchup:

Not really sure why it’s necessary in Seattle, as the two clubs went pink vs. green in Seattle last year. In any case, it’s extremely dumb. The home team shouldn’t have to change for a derby match; that possibility shouldn’t even be on the table. I’ve said enough about this issue this time and in the past, so I’ll keep it at that for now.

FC Cincinnati has posted that they’ll be in all-orange at St. Louis tonight, so it’ll either be all-pink/red vs. all-orange (which wouldn’t make much sense) or St. Louis will be in gray at home.