MJD7

11 hours ago, itsmb8 said:

Id say I agree that teams in general should be limited to 4 main uniforms.  Teams like Minnesota and Arizona have 5 or 6 and it gets to be too much.  

 

What about possibly making the home cream uniform a cream pinstripes uniform?  Of course this is just me spitballing, your refresh ideas are essentially perfect IMO.

Here's a look at pinstripes with the home uniform:

I personally prefer it plain, but it's not bad with pinstripes either. 

11 hours ago, NicDB said:

I would have kept the pinstripes and dropped the navy. But otherwise I love pretty much everything about what you've done here. The cream uni looks so much better with matching piping.

I personally really like the navy jersey, so it would have been hard to let that one go. If there was any jersey I would have traded it for, it would have been the powder blue throwback, which also would have been a tough sell, of course.

Minnesota Twins

Gold is minimized to the sleeve patch, 70's-inspired striping is consistent across all jerseys, the navy alternate better matches the home jersey, & the powder blue throwback stays in the rotation full time.

57 minutes ago, itsmb8 said:

Thank you for getting rid of the barley ball logo, the state outline logo is 10x better and should be on a sleeves.  One thing I'm kinda surprised about though, no pinstripe alt?

In trying to limit myself to a 4 jersey maximum for every team, the pinstripe alternate had to be the one to go, if I wanted to keep the powder blue throwback.

I'm thinking about maybe posting an additional throwback look for each team once I've completed the main uniforms, and if I end up doing so, the pinstripe jersey would definitely be the Brewers' choice.

Milwaukee Brewers

I think the Brewers' 2020 redesign was nearly perfect; I just matched the home sleeve stripes to the away jersey, put the City Connect sleeve stripes on the navy alternate, & put the "ball-in-glove" on the pinstriped jersey.

2 hours ago, MCM0313 said:

Thanks for keeping the road script here. It puzzles me that some people don’t like it. 

First I've heard of it! Detroit's road script might be among my favorites in baseball.

6 hours ago, CDCLT said:

Absolutely gorgeous. Exactly what the Marlins should do.

I appreciate it!

7 hours ago, coco1997 said:

Great job! The pink is so much more distinctive than "caliente red."

 

I would like to see the set with front numbers, though. It's a nitpick I have with the current Fish jerseys. They look too barren without them. 

Thanks! Here's a look at the home jersey with a front number:

Personally, I could take it or leave it.

Miami Marlins

The Marlins are a rare team that do not need a road gray in my opinion, and "caliente red" is replaced with a salmon pink, unashamedly taking inspiration from the Heat's popular "Vice" uniforms.

Milwaukee's City Connect is the epitome of "meh" for me. It's not necessarily bad, but it just doesn't really do much for me, either.

I think a big part of that is because they didn't match the jersey with powder blue pants, which I'm honestly baffled they didn't do, especially given the program's proclivity towards monochrome color looks. It's also strange that now they seem to have a new pair of white pants that matches their regular uniform set, even though their main home is off-white. If you're going to add a new pair of pants anyway, why not make them powder blue to match the jersey, and further tribute the throwback look?

I didn't like the white in the sleeve stripes until I saw the beer foam explanation. I still don't love it purely from an aesthetic standpoint, but the reasoning makes it passable for me. 

Otherwise, the rest of the logo set feels pretty generic (the jersey wordmark is too small), and I don't even really like the grill logo much, either.

Out of all of the City Connects so far, this one's very much middle-of-the-pack for me, probably right around Miami or Kansas City. It's definitely not a uniform that I feel we needed.

9 hours ago, BiggityBerfa said:

what about navy letters?

Sure thing, here's a look:

I took the liberty of making the stripes navy, which would match well with former mangager Joe Maddon's socks:

8 hours ago, coco1997 said:

What's the name of the font you used for the Dodgers' numbers? I might want to use that in the future. 

It's a super-thickened and slightly-modified version of "Rockwell," which is a font that should be already installed on most computers, if I'm not mistaken.

Los Angeles Dodgers

I removed the piping on the road jersey, added a white outline to the "Dodgers" road alternate to make it a throwback, went with a number font that matches the serifs of their "LA" logo, & added a Dodger blue alternate to wear at home or on the road.

Might be an unpopular opinion, but I think I prefer the all-navy cap with the gray road uniform. With the navy jersey the gold front panel works though.

9 hours ago, CDCLT said:

Great update for the Angels! Love the use of the City Connect striping and the change of the halo to gold is so obvious it's crazy the actual team hasn't done it. The only miss for me is the continued use of red lettering on the red alternate. White would look much better in my opinion.

Thanks! The team actually did use a gold halo back in the day:

As for the alternate, I used to always try to avoid the red-on-red, but over the years, it's started to look inescapably "Angels," if that makes sense. Here's a look at white letters, though:

Honestly, on its own aesthetically, I actually like the Saints helmet, as unpopular as that seems to be. I can see the Louis Vuitton comparison with the helmet stripe, but something about it captures something that feels very “New Orleans” and very “Saints” at the same time, if that makes any sense at all.

However, pairing it with the Color Rush jersey is an absolute travesty. I didn’t think it could possibly get worse than the vegas gold helmet that didn’t match. An old gold helmet would have been so much better, even a white helmet would have been nice. The only combo I think this helmet would look good with is all black, although I understand that’s impossible under the current rules.

As for the Eagles’ wordmark, I similarly like it on its own, it’s a nice refresh that feels fitting for the team. However, in keeping the old eagle logo & presumably the old number font, I imagine the wordmark will look quite out of place. It feels like a half-measure when I would have preferred them to try a complete refresh.

Los Angeles Angels

I like the City Connect stripes so much I put them on the main set, I removed the middle "spikes" in the wordmark & numbers to look more sleek, and I made the halo gold.

9 hours ago, gosioux76 said:

These are all inspired designs. I rarely say this about concepts on here, but with very few exceptions, I'd be elated if these teams adopted similar looks to what you've presented here.  

 

I'm a big fan of bringing back the '80s polyester-era aesthetic but in the modern-day button-down style, which you did perfectly here with the Reds and Cubs. And that Astros look is a perfect way to inject some life into that set while keeping it within the boundaries of the team's visual history. 

 

If I have any quibbles, they're minor ones:

1. While I generally love the consistent use of red/black/turquoise for the D-Backs, I worry there isn't enough contrast between the off-white home and sand-colored aways. I have to imagine that if the team came to adopt these looks, they'd end up wearing the solid color alternates more often than the actual away jerseys. 
2. Someone else said this earlier, but I'm not feeling the serifed fonts you've added to several of these. For most, I can see the logic behind them, particularly the Royals, Reds and ChiSox, but I still prefer a more traditional number font.

But seriously, incredible work. 

Thank you so much for your feedback, I’m truly glad you like the designs so far! 

I did realize as I was creating the original incarnation of this series that a lot of my designs were inspired by the 80’s. If I had to pinpoint why that is the case, I’d probably say that the 80’s struck a nice balance between the more “out-there” designs of the 70’s and the more traditional baseball aesthetic of the decades before. I tend to appreciate that balance of being unique but not too outlandish.

To address your “quibbles”:

I had the same concern about the Diamondbacks as I was creating their designs. I just really liked how their original home uniforms had that off-white tint, & I really think they could make a sand road uniform work, sort of like how the Padres did in the early 2000’s and do again in the modern day. If I had to change one to increase the contrast though, either the home or the away, I’d probably make the home uniform a pure white. I think Arizona’s City Connect shows that sand could work as a full-time road uniform.

As for the number fonts, that likely comes down to personal preference. I almost always prefer a custom number font over a traditional block, as it helps each team to look more unique and less “standardized,” if that makes sense. I do always try to make sure that the number font I choose fits in seamlessly with the rest of the identity, though.

8 hours ago, coco1997 said:

Those rounded numbers for the Royals are just excellent. I'd love if they adopted something like that in real life. 

Thanks! I like it because the serifs in the numbers almost perfectly match the iconic “KC” logo.

Kansas City Royals

I like a lot of what the Royals did in their recent redesign, but I kept the "Kansas City" script for their road & royal blue jerseys, & added a new number font that better matches their logo.

Houston Astros

I tried to inject a bit more "fun" into the Astros' look by adding a tequila sunrise shooting star & sleeve stripes, as well as elevating orange to the primary color over navy.

Detroit Tigers

Thicker headspoon striping, and no more white outline on the road jersey.

31 minutes ago, Ark said:

It looks better with the light blue, otherwise they have one of the most boring identities in MLB.

I like the idea of the powder blue alternate. It’s just weird that on the royal blue alternate, the powder was only on the stripes, and nowhere else. If they wanted to include powder into the color scheme, they should have at least gone all the way & embraced it fully.

I may be late to noticing this, but the Rangers wore their royal blue alternates today, and it appears they have subtly removed the light blue trim from the sleeves. Not sure if this is new or if it’s been the case the last couple of years. Either way, it’s an improvement in my book.

new (above) vs. old (below)

Colorado Rockies

The color palette is simplified to purple & dark gray, the stripes are made thicker, & I added a snow white alternate to wear at home on occasion.

31 minutes ago, coco1997 said:

Angels City Connects look great on the field tonight. 

They really do. Seeing them in action might put them neck & neck with the White Sox for #1 City Connect for me.

Cleveland Guardians

I went with a more interesting striping pattern inspired by other Cleveland teams, and made some tweaks to both of the alternates.

Cincinnati Reds

Naturally, I got rid of black, and went with a striping pattern reminiscent of the Big Red Machine uniforms, while also adding a pinstriped throwback.

Out of all the City Connect uniforms so far, Boston’s is an interesting case. From a purely aesthetic standpoint, I’d say it’s among my favorites, as the bright blue & yellow is refreshing among a sea of navy & red.

However, I simply cannot bring myself to divide that from the context that it’s supposedly a Red Sox uniform. @Kg54mvp & @guest23 hit the nail on the head, in that the Red Sox are about as representative of Boston as possible, simply as they are. Maybe I’m biased in already being a baseball fan, but my immediate association with Boston is the Red Sox & Fenway Park. 
 

As much as I like the City Connect aesthetically, I don’t think it will ever feel like the Red Sox to me, which is unfortunate.

17 hours ago, gosioux76 said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the suggestion that Boston's City Connect is the one that seems the least connected to the team has nothing to do with the theme or spiritual connection to the city and everything to do with visuals. As many of you has testified, there's indeed a solid link between the marathon, the Red Sox and the city of Boston that these uniforms speak to and apparently resonate with Bostonians. 

 

But at a surface level, the Boston uniform is the one out of the bunch that, visually speaking, doesn't immediately register as being representative of that specific team. The Chicago and L.A. looks, the Giants,  Astros, Royals, and even the Marlins, at first glance, are immediately recognizable as alternate uniforms of the teams they represent. The designs bear resemblance to the core brand. The Red Sox, and I'd say to a lesser degree the Nationals and D-Backs, can't say the same. 

 

That's not to say it's wrong. I presume there's no defined rulebook when it comes to determining the spirit of this program, so teams choose to implement it in their own ways. 

This is a great analysis. Although I don’t like the implementation of the City program into MLB, I think it works best when the uniform still has some resemblance to the team’s main branding. While the White Sox & Astros, two of my favorites out of the program, nearly look like they could be regular alternates, the Red Sox doesn’t look like it’s part of the same team at all. The disconnect between the two is made that much stronger because the Red Sox main brand is already so iconic & inherently associated with the city of Boston on its own.

15 hours ago, sitboaf said:

Good observation. There's a wide variation in approaches, for sure.

To me, succeeding at your City Connect lies in how well your uniform reflects the community, regardless of whether it looks recognizable as part of the regular brand. In other words, this is a chance to attach a secondary brand to your club. A city brand. Not a team brand. Whenever I see a comment here in New England like, "Boo! It doesn't look like a Red Sox uniform!" I say, "Good, Because it's supposed to reflect Boston."

Houston, Miami, SF, and KC landed in a middle ground, with city/history features AND recognizable brand elements. I can certainly understand that. But to me, the ChiSox and Angels failed, making delightful alts, while misreading the assignment. And the Dodgers? Were they trying at all? Their recent additions of black have at least helped draw a distinction, but to use your MLB-issued blank check to make essentially another Cactus League uniform?  Just why?

While I understand your point of view, and it’s certainly a compelling idea to have a “secondary brand” that solely focuses on the city, I don’t think it works for me, personally. With the Red Sox example, to me their classic home jersey reflects Boston more than any City Connect ever could. I like the Marathon jersey aesthetically, but I’d say “secondary brand” just reads to me as “competing brand,” diluting the Red Sox traditional identity. 
 

If they have to do City jerseys, I much prefer the “middle ground” approach, where teams recognize iconic aspects of their respective city while also still fitting in with the rest of the pre-established brand (I think the White Sox & Angels both succeed at fitting into this camp as well).