City Connect tweaks (Mets 4/19)

[coco1997]

On 4/23/2023 at 5:32 PM, mahnkej said:

Looks awesome! This is exactly what I was thinking. 

 

Good to hear!

I'm back today with the Mariners!

 

Notes:

 

- Seattle's recently-unveiled City Connect set has been somewhat divisive. While most seem to approve of the cap and Pilots-inspired jerseys, the black pants have been met with, shall we say, less enthusiasm. Personally, I've enjoyed Nike's attempts to normalize dark colored pants in baseball; case in point, I'm a big fan of the White Sox, Astros, Rockies and Rangers designs. But here, they just don't work. That being the case, I've gone with traditional white pants this time around. 

- Nike's purported "nods" to the Seattle Rainiers and Steelheads didn't even register with me; I doubt any uniform buff is going to look at black pants on a Mariners uni and think, "Now that screams Steelheads." Therefore, my biggest goal in tweaking Seattle's set was to more clearly reference the aforementioned teams, which I tried to do with the addition of thick T-bars (Steelheads) and red sock stripes (Rainiers). 

- Red replaces black across the board, serving both as a reference to the Pilots' wheel logo and to distinguish the M's a bit from a certain other blue and gold team. 

- In general, I'm not a fan of beveling on baseball uniforms, so I removed it altogether from the wordmarks and numbers. 
- As suggested by @Frylock in the MLB 2023 thread, the crossed tridents logo moves to the cap bill, evoking the "scrambled eggs" caps of the Pilots. 

- I recolored the "PNW" sleeve patch to eliminated black and incorporate red as well as a touch of sky blue. 

- Newly-added front numbers help complete the look. 

 

I also mocked up a version with blue pants for those interested:

 

C&C appreciated! I plan to work up a redesigned Mariners set based on the team's City Connect look, which I should have up soon. 

[VampyrRabbit]

The white pantsed version looks great. The T-Bars and the headspoon are exactly what nike should have went with.
 

[coco1997]

On 4/30/2023 at 8:45 PM, VampyrRabbit said:

The white pantsed version looks great. The T-Bars and the headspoon are exactly what nike should have went with.

Thanks!

As promised, up today is a full redesign of the Mariners based on the team's City Connect set:

MARINERS HOME:

 

MARINERS ROAD:

 

MARINERS HOME ALT:

 

MARINERS ROAD ALT:

 

Notes:
 

- The teal/Northwest green used here is a lot brighter than what the Mariners use in real life. I split the difference between Northwest green and the more seafoam-ish shade the team uses on their socials. 

- I really love how the T-bars looked on my City Connect tweak, so I kept them for my redesign. T-bars are awesome and at least one team in MLB should rock them in today's game, so why not Seattle?

- As you can see, the road grays are back. Now that the M's have a blue and gold City Connect set, it's redundant to keep the Sunday home off-whites around, and they never should have dropped the grays to begin with. 

- I wasn't originally planning to go with beveled wordmarks and numbers but soon realized I needed them to make the silver scripts and numbers really pop against the two alts. 

- Huge thanks to @upperV03 for generously permitting me to use his wordmarks and S compass logo for my redesign!

 

C&C appreciated! 

[coco1997]

Up next are the Reds:

 

Notes:

 

- I don't have too much to say about Cincinnati's new City Connect set, so I'll keep this brief. I think Nike missed the mark with this one, as it does little to nothing to "connect" to the city of Cincinnati nor to the Reds themselves, which is especially sad considering this team has the richest history in MLB. I like to think the mono-black look was subconsciously inspired by these all-navy throwbacks from 1911, but that's probably just wishful thinking. 

- The most common complaint about the Reds' set is the black wordmark on black jersey, a design choice that's almost always a bad idea. Therefore I've gone with a red wordmark and numbers, done up in the same wavelength line style as the cap logo. 

 

I also worked up a version with red pants:

 

C&C appreciated! The (gulp) Orioles are due up next. Might have my work cut out for me with that one. 

[Blindsay]

I know that this is a tweaks series, but I’m curious to see what you’d do here

[VampyrRabbit]

The new script and number is an improvement over the black script and number and improves what is a decent uniform in which the cap is the best part.

 

Other than using the navy the team used for their road uniforms in the early part of the 20th century and using the inner collar detail on the sleeves, I don't think there is anything else that would improve the design of what was probably the biggest let down of the CC series except for The Dodgers.

[coco1997]

On 5/14/2023 at 11:46 AM, Blindsay said:

I know that this is a tweaks series, but I’m curious to see what you’d do here

Are you asking how I'd redesign the Reds set from scratch?
 

On 5/14/2023 at 3:06 PM, VampyrRabbit said:

The new script and number is an improvement over the black script and number and improves what is a decent uniform in which the cap is the best part.

 

Other than using the navy the team used for their road uniforms in the early part of the 20th century and using the inner collar detail on the sleeves, I don't think there is anything else that would improve the design of what was probably the biggest let down of the CC series except for The Dodgers.

How's this?
 

[Silence of the Rams]

On 5/14/2023 at 7:40 AM, coco1997 said:

Up next are the Reds:

 

Notes:

 

- I don't have too much to say about Cincinnati's new City Connect set, so I'll keep this brief. I think Nike missed the mark with this one, as it does little to nothing to "connect" to the city of Cincinnati nor to the Reds themselves, which is especially sad considering this team has the richest history in MLB. I like to think the mono-black look was subconsciously inspired by these all-navy throwbacks from 1911, but that's probably just wishful thinking. 

- The most common complaint about the Reds' set is the black wordmark on black jersey, a design choice that's almost always a bad idea. Therefore I've gone with a red wordmark and numbers, done up in the same wavelength line style as the cap logo. 

 

I also worked up a version with red pants:

 

C&C appreciated! The (gulp) Orioles are due up next. Might have my work cut out for me with that one. 

I see you "Knew where you were gonna go" with this

[VampyrRabbit]

1 hour ago, coco1997 said:

How's this?
 

The addition of the buckeye leaf on the sleeve and the replacement of black with the navy is quite the improvement. It's what the Reds CC could have, and should have been from the start.

[Coiler]

Love the Reds ones.

[Blindsay]

21 hours ago, coco1997 said:

Are you asking how I'd redesign the Reds set from scratch?

Yes.

[coco1997]

On 5/16/2023 at 5:22 PM, VampyrRabbit said:

The addition of the buckeye leaf on the sleeve and the replacement of black with the navy is quite the improvement. It's what the Reds CC could have, and should have been from the start.

 

On 5/16/2023 at 7:26 PM, Coiler said:

Love the Reds ones.

Thanks!
 

On 5/17/2023 at 1:35 PM, Blindsay said:

Yes.

Ok, here's what I'd do:

 

Notes:

- It should be pretty obvious by now that I'm a big fan of monochrome uniforms, so I wanted to maintain that look for Cincinnati. 

- It's not the most unique idea in the world, but my redesign adapts the Flag of Cincinnati into a uniform, similar to how the Cubs' Wrigleyville set uses a Chicago flag motif. The cap "C" with leaf crown comes from the flag, as do the three wavy stripes representing the Ohio River on the sleeves and pantlegs. 

- Inspired by the Reds' primary logo from 1890, I remade the "Cincy" wordmark in Old English lettering, with numbers to match. 

And here's a black version for comparison's sake:

 

Again, not the most original idea ever, but I think this design would've probably been better received than the one we got. Let me know what you think! 

[VampyrRabbit]

6 hours ago, coco1997 said:

 

Thanks!
 

Ok, here's what I'd do:

 

Notes:

- It should be pretty obvious by now that I'm a big fan of monochrome uniforms, so I wanted to maintain that look for Cincinnati. 

- It's not the most unique idea in the world, but my redesign adapts the Flag of Cincinnati into a uniform, similar to how the Cubs' Wrigleyville set uses a Chicago flag motif. The cap "C" with leaf crown comes from the flag, as do the three wavy stripes representing the Ohio River on the sleeves and pantlegs. 

- Inspired by the Reds' primary logo from 1890, I remade the "Cincy" wordmark in Old English lettering, with numbers to match. 

And here's a black version for comparison's sake:

 

Again, not the most original idea ever, but I think this design would've probably been better received than the one we got. Let me know what you think! 

I like the navy set more, but the black is also pretty great. Love the wordmark and sleeve design.

[Coiler]

Red and black looks like some gothic horror special uniform-Halloween maybe?

[coco1997]

On 5/18/2023 at 6:14 PM, VampyrRabbit said:

I like the navy set more, but the black is also pretty great. Love the wordmark and sleeve design.

Thanks!

 

On 5/19/2023 at 6:32 PM, Coiler said:

Red and black looks like some gothic horror special uniform-Halloween maybe?

Maybe "Halfway to Halloween" should become a thing and the Reds could wear those. 

 

Back today with the Orioles!

 

Notes:
- @M59 summed up every way in which the O's went wrong with their City Connect set in this post:

- My main goal here was to address the biggest criticism of the O's uniforms: a distinct lack of color, namely orange. Therefore, the cap "B" and belt are now orange, as are the newly-added front numbers which make the uniform a little more complete-looking. 

- A "BIRDLAND" wordmark replaces "BALTIMORE" to give the jerseys some more personality. The wordmark against the grayscale neighborhood mosaic, bordered by orange stripes, is based on the early Orioles sock design that leaked a few months ago. 

- It's hard to convey in a concept like this one, but my design has the colorful neighborhood patchwork pattern printed on the sleeves themselves rather than inside of them. I appreciate the symbolism Nike was going for, but the only way this works is if every single player on the field rolls up their sleeves and unbuttons their jerseys, which I can't see happening. I also applied the colorful pattern to the pants, replacing the grayscale pattern used on the actual pants.  

 

C&C appreciated! The Pirates are due up next. 

[VampyrRabbit]

The cuff trim and chestband are huge improvements, and the stripes on the pants look great. I do think either the cartoon or realistic bird would work better as a sleeve patch than the B.

The sock design looks great, but I would probably just use the cap B instead of BIRD.

[coco1997]

On 5/23/2023 at 12:32 PM, VampyrRabbit said:

The cuff trim and chestband are huge improvements, and the stripes on the pants look great. I do think either the cartoon or realistic bird would work better as a sleeve patch than the B.

The sock design looks great, but I would probably just use the cap B instead of BIRD.

Thanks! The lettering on the socks is actually meant to be "BIRDLAND," I just didn't shrink the letters to scale. 

 

Up today are the Pirates!

 

 

Notes:

 

- An astute reader at Uni-Watch caught that the Pirates' low profile City Connect cap (which now seems to have been scrubbed from the MLB Shop website) had a "Steel City" wordmark on its back, and since @Carolingian Steamroller pointed out that most of the 39THIRTY Stretch Fit City Connect caps feature each team's respective jersey wordmark on their backs, I have to believe that "Steel City" was originally planned for the Pirates jerseys before being replaced by "PGH," possibly because it was too similar to the Astros' "Space City"? I've recreated that wordmark using a tweaked version of the Star Trek: The Next Generation font. 

- In a riff on the Giants' CC set, I added a bridge pattern to the sleeves. @Paul Lucas and I actually had this exact idea five years ago (two years before the City Connect program was even announced) for our joint MLB Statement Series project, so I don't feel bad about repurposing it here. 

- As suggested by @GriffinM6 in another thread, I made the subtle shift from black to anthracite/steel gray, highly appropriate for a Pittsburgh-inspired design. I like the idea of a team's City Connect uniform seemingly fitting with the rest of their regular uniform rotation, but upon closer inspection, being just different enough that it has stand as its own thing, like the Royals using a much darker shade of blue for their set. 

- This is one team for whom black pants make total sense, so they go untouched, with the exception of some newly added numbers. 

 

And that's the final City Connect team planned for this season. C&C appreciated!

[coco1997]

I figured people might be interested in seeing all six of my 2023 City Connect tweaks together, so here you go!

 

 

[VampyrRabbit]

I dig the Pittsburgh uniform, but wondering if I would dig it more with a Steel Grey cap with a gold bill.

[mahnkej]

Nice work on this series! I really like what you did with Pittsburgh in particular, the bridges on the sleeves was a nice touch.