Brewers AL & Astros NL Legacy Uniforms UPDATE: 9/15

[coco1997]

Hey everyone,

 

A few weeks ago in the MLB changes for 2019 thread, @NicDB suggested the Brewers wear their powder blue road throwbacks when they play AL opponents. That gave me the idea that it might be interesting if both the Brewers and Astros, the other team with a past life in a different league, wore special throwback uniforms for inter-league play. But rather than straight throwbacks, I thought it might be more fun if each team received a new home and road alt that paid tribute to their full history in their original league, incorporating elements from many different eras, even the less popular and more short-lived ones. And with that, I came up with some designs and I'm pretty happy with the results. Enjoy!

 

BREWERS HOME:

 

BREWERS ROAD:

 

- The Brewers home set is a pullover design that uses a simplified version of the home script and numbers from their '94-96 look, and the BiG logo makes an appearance as a sleeve patch.

- The home cap features a gold front panel and their '97-99 cap logo in royal blue. 

- The road set is powder blue and uses the team's 1990-93 script in yellow, as a nod to the team's '70-71 uniforms.

- The road sleeve stripes are from their 1970 road set, a holdover from their Seattle Pilots days.

 

ASTROS HOME:

 

ASTROS ROAD:

 

- The Astros home set is a pinstriped version of their orange-heavy '71-74 uniforms. The star on the cap and jersey design is from their '94-99 era look, and the number style on both sets comes from their 1975 uniforms. 

- The road set uses the dark cream color from their '83-93 road uniforms and a simplified version of their '01-12 "Houston" script. 

- I didn't want to go full tequila sunrise for either set, so I used a variation on the sleeve stripes from their '80-93 uniforms. 

 

C&C appreciated! 

[Blindsay]

I’m interested.....

[StrongXStyle]

I really like the Houston script 

[MilSox]

I understand what you're going for; but for the most part, these feel like your primary concern was making sure every era was represented rather than how well all the different aesthetics would work together. 

 

That said, I think you've stumbled on to something with your Astros roadies. The 2001 script with the 1975 numbers work surprisingly well together.

 

My advice is try to draw from fewer eras, giving priority to those which as associated with the best moments from each team's tenure in the other league. Because as a fan, I can promise no one wants to be reminded of those painful post-Yount years.

[coco1997]

14 hours ago, NicDB said:

I understand what you're going for; but for the most part, these feel like your primary concern was making sure every era was represented rather than how well all the different aesthetics would work together. 

 

That said, I think you've stumbled on to something with your Astros roadies. The 2001 script with the 1975 numbers work surprisingly well together.

 

My advice is try to draw from fewer eras, giving priority to those which as associated with the best moments from each team's tenure in the other league. Because as a fan, I can promise no one wants to be reminded of those painful post-Yount years.

 

Thanks for the feedback! I thought simplifying the late ‘90s Brewers scripts and numbers would make them more palatable, but I definitely get what you’re saying about the Milwaukee sets looking a bit like a hodgepodge of different throwback elements.

 

I agree with your assessment of my Astros road design. I really wanted to use that funky number style but never expected it to work so well with the stripped down 2000s Houston script. And I always liked those “dusty” cream unis. I’m pretty happy with both Astros sets overall. Bright orange pinstripes would be fun to see on the field.

 

As a Brewers fan, do you have any specific requests or suggestions for what you’d do differently? I suppose the most obvious change would be to use traditional style block numbers. 

[MilSox]

@coco1997 I would probably stick to design elements that were used from 1975 (Hank Aaron's debut) to 1993 (Robin Yount's retirement).  The Seattle Pilots hand-me-downs don't have as much cache locally as a lot of us logophiles might be inclined to believe.  And the Germanics (which I personally like from a strict design POV) just remind fans of the worst era for the team.  But you're still representing 18 of the Brewers 27 AL seasons.

[coco1997]

On 9/14/2019 at 2:45 PM, NicDB said:

@coco1997 I would probably stick to design elements that were used from 1975 (Hank Aaron's debut) to 1993 (Robin Yount's retirement).  The Seattle Pilots hand-me-downs don't have as much cache locally as a lot of us logophiles might be inclined to believe.  And the Germanics (which I personally like from a strict design POV) just remind fans of the worst era for the team.  But you're still representing 18 of the Brewers 27 AL seasons.

 

Alrighty, some updates to the Brewers:

 

HOME:

 

ROAD:

 

- For both sets, I replaced the late '90s style numbers with more traditional block numbers from the '70s-80s. 

- The '90s "M" on the home cap is replaced with the face of the Barrelman mascot. I also used the Barrelman for the road set's sleeve patch. 

- I know @NicDB suggested I focus strictly on the 1975-93 era, but I really like the 1970-71 road script, so I rolled with that for the home jersey. 

- The Pilots-inspired sleeve stripes on the road jersey are replaced with three thick pullover era stripes. 

 

Hopefully this is a bit of an improvement. C&C appreciated as always!

[MilSox]

This is definitely an upgrade over your last one.  But I'm still not quite sure all the elements are gelling together.  When I think of a "legacy uniform" I think of the current Brewers retros.



It's worth noting that in the Brewers' AL days:

-They never wore the block "BREWERS" on a button-front jersey.

-The only time they ever wore pinstripes on a button-front, they used a totally different wordmark.
-The ball-in-glove had never been used as a sleeve patch until these uniforms came along.

Yet they took all these disparate elements and put together something that looks concise and cohesive.  I definitely don't hate the Pilots-style wordmark.  But much like the Germanics, I think it's just too different from everything else they used that just it stands out like a sore thumb.  In fact, that was even the case when they actually wore that script.  Everything else about their brand at the time was based on block fonts.


I will say, your yellow script on the powder blue looks pretty good.  If I were to work the Pilots branding into this, I would keep that, but make the numbers yellow too.  Maybe play around with the Pilots piping too, but I'm not sure that's even necessary.  The gold scripts and numbers are an obvious enough nod to the Brewers first days in Milwaukee.