MLB x NIKE Refresh (New York Mets City Connect)

[MJD7]

Baltimore Orioles City Connect

It might be a bit basic to go with the Maryland flag for the O's, but it at least has more of an actual connection to Baltimore than their real jersey does. This was heavily inspired by @raysox's Maryland design for his States Baseball League Series.

 

[sky1324]

Not big on the Maryland flag pathway. It's boring and overdone, I'd rather see an Old Bay/Charm City design. For what it is the jersey is solid, is that the number font from your MLB Redesign series? I'm still not the biggest fan of it.

[MJD7]

On 5/22/2023 at 12:37 PM, CDCLT said:

Not big on the Maryland flag pathway. It's boring and overdone, I'd rather see an Old Bay/Charm City design.

That's fair. Personally I think there's a reason the Maryland flag is so popularly used, because it's an amazing, great-looking flag, that is applicable to a lot of different mediums. I imagined this jersey as being the newest iteration in the team's "Maryland Pride" jerseys they've worn over the past few years.

 

Still, I understand your criticism and honestly anticipated it. Here's another idea, heavily inspired by @DenverKing's amazing  "City Lights" Orioles concept. The inspiration comes from two famous neon signs in Baltimore: the wordmark is inspired by the Domino Sugars sign, and the O's cartoon bird winking is inspired by the "Natty Boh" sign.

 

I think I still like the Maryland flag jersey more aesthetically, but this design probably (hopefully) resonates more with the city of Baltimore itself.

[sky1324]

I like that a lot more! The neon effect on the sleeve stripes are great. I can imagine either using that neon-ified B on the cap or the winking Orioles (which is great). It feels more Baltimore, it feels more Orioles, to me it's a no contest improvement.

[MJD7]

Pittsburgh Pirates City Connect

I mostly like the Pirates' take on the City program, I'm just not big on the 3-letter abbreviations, so I went with "Steel City," as was initially proposed.

 

[johne9109]

14 minutes ago, MJD7 said:

Pittsburgh Pirates City Connect

I mostly like the Pirates' take on the City program, I'm just not big on the 3-letter abbreviations, so I went with the full "Pittsburgh."

 

Steel City, the 'Burgh, or like you did here full on Pittsburgh, anything is better than the abbreviation. I feel for a team to use the abbreviation it has to be a well known one like NYC, BOS, LA, TX. PGH???? Yeah we can figure it out, but it's not one of the well known abbreviations. It's like the Hornets using CLT. Good call here

[VampyrRabbit]

1 hour ago, MJD7 said:

Pittsburgh Pirates City Connect

I mostly like the Pirates' take on the City program, I'm just not big on the 3-letter abbreviations, so I went with the full "Pittsburgh."

 

 l like the tuscan script here, it's a lot better than the cursive with that weird bend. I do think that out of all the CCs, if there was one team that could have gone for a sleeveless jersey, it was the Pirates. Love to see it without the sleeves.

[MJD7]

8 hours ago, johne9109 said:

Steel City, the 'Burgh, or like you did here full on Pittsburgh, anything is better than the abbreviation. I feel for a team to use the abbreviation it has to be a well known one like NYC, BOS, LA, TX. PGH???? Yeah we can figure it out, but it's not one of the well known abbreviations. It's like the Hornets using CLT. Good call here

I considered doing "the 'Burgh," but I couldn't get over how cheesy it felt:

 

I agree about abbreviations though: even the ones you listed I'm not too big on, other than LA. 

 

7 hours ago, VampyrRabbit said:

 l like the tuscan script here, it's a lot better than the cursive with that weird bend. I do think that out of all the CCs, if there was one team that could have gone for a sleeveless jersey, it was the Pirates. Love to see it without the sleeves.

Here's a look:

 

 

Personally, I think sleeveless jerseys have become a thing of the past, but I agree that if any team could pull it off, it'd be the Pirates. We'll see if sleeveless jerseys make a comeback in maybe 10-15 years.

[johne9109]

6 hours ago, MJD7 said:

I considered doing "the 'Burgh," but I couldn't get over how cheesy it felt:

 

I agree about abbreviations though: even the ones you listed I'm not too big on, other than LA. 

 

Here's a look:

 

 

Personally, I think sleeveless jerseys have become a thing of the past, but I agree that if any team could pull it off, it'd be the Pirates. We'll see if sleeveless jerseys make a comeback in maybe 10-15 years.

I agree it does feel kinda cheesy, but I think for a program like City Connect it really works

[Silence of the Rams]

Ok. I'm not gonna lie "yinzers" would work on this too. Regardless this is 200x better than what we got

[M59]

On 6/6/2022 at 9:11 PM, sky1324 said:

Thank you for those O's updates! Their orange jersey is my favorite in all of baseball. Adding white to the black set makes it actually a good jersey. I'm not really feeling the number font on these unfortunately, maybe it's just because I'm not used to it but it feels too thin and the curves and fancy serifs don't seem to fit the brand.

I'm with you on the number font. Still of the opinion that the Orioles black jersey with the orange/black/white lettering and numbers (low i version) was the best version.
https://goldinauctions.com/1999_cal_ripken_jr_baltimore_orioles_game_used_alt-lot96150.aspx

[MJD7]

On 1/24/2024 at 10:27 PM, M59 said:

I'm with you on the number font. Still of the opinion that the Orioles black jersey with the orange/black/white lettering and numbers (low i version) was the best version.
https://goldinauctions.com/1999_cal_ripken_jr_baltimore_orioles_game_used_alt-lot96150.aspx

Yeah, I'm more partial than most are to custom number fonts, so I can understand that. Maybe a number font like their City Connect would work better. I'm just not a fan of regular block beyond a few classic of the classic teams, like the Yankees and Tigers.

 

As for the O's jersey you linked, I definitely don't mind that version at all, the O's just don't feel like a double-outline team to me, at least not anymore. It'd definitely be my 2nd choice ahead of orange with only a white outline or vice versa.

[MJD7]

I have a few loose concept ideas I'd like to post here, plus I'm sure I'll be revising each of the new City Connects once they begin to be released. 

 

First up is an attempted revision of the Nationals' recent jerseys: I tried to see if double-outlines across the board could work. I'm not sure if I'd take it over my original Nats' concept, but I think it does work. It definitely gives an added patriotic feel to it.

 

 

 

 

 

Let me know what you think.

[GriffinM6]

I think it looks good, but maybe do it like the Florida Gators do on their football uniforms and have a master stripe pattern of R/W/B on every uniform element. 

[VampyrRabbit]

I prefer the original concept, never liked the double outlines for the Rangers script and not really a fan of them for the Nats. Though I dig the original Bevelled look for the Nats and would like the Padres/Brewers/Blue Jays treatment for that era someday, so make of that what you will.

The W Nats are a good look, just not my cup of tea.

[MJD7]

16 hours ago, GriffinM6 said:

I think it looks good, but maybe do it like the Florida Gators do on their football uniforms and have a master stripe pattern of R/W/B on every uniform element. 

That could work, it would allow the (now former) red alt to remain pretty much as it was, which would be an upgrade in my book:

 

 

14 hours ago, VampyrRabbit said:

I prefer the original concept, never liked the double outlines for the Rangers script and not really a fan of them for the Nats. Though I dig the original Bevelled look for the Nats and would like the Padres/Brewers/Blue Jays treatment for that era someday, so make of that what you will.

The W Nats are a good look, just not my cup of tea.

Yeah, I probably prefer the original too, although this is growing on me. I actually like double outlines for the Rangers, but an outline & dropshadow might work even better.

 

Trying to update the beveled Nats might be an interesting endeavour.

[MJD7]

On 1/26/2024 at 8:38 PM, aawagner011 said:

 

The City Connect should be the basis for an update. That script is so much better! It’s also much simpler because it has a single contrasting color whereas the current script has two trim colors.

 

Imagine that design (with or without the pinstripes), but with a black base, white script, and that thick, vibrant blue drop shadow. The drop shadow would pop so much more than the new black jersey’s blue and red outlines. I could see a blue version with a white script and black drop shadow. And then white and gray with black scripts and blue drop shadows. The Marlins have long emphasized black and that would be a great way of continuing black while heavily showing off the blue because of that incredible script with the big drop shadow.

This comment inspired me to try out @aawagner011's suggestions, and I quite like how it turned out, especially the black jersey:

 

 

 

 

 

I prefer the current scripts myself, ideally without red, but I wouldn't be upset at all if the Marlins went with something like this.

 

Next up will be another Marlins set, but with more of a throwback twist.

[aawagner011]

^Marlins look great! I love how they now have an established color palette with that concept. Currently, you look at their main jerseys (let’s say white, black, and gray, TBD how much they wear the blue since it’s new) and they’re basically just a black and white team. You see a tiny bit of blue and red but it’s so small and neither color is dominant over the other. This concept clearly establishes them as black and blue and vaguely alludes to their old teal sets, so I’m all about it. I think this would have more staying power than the teal, which quickly looked outdated.

[VampyrRabbit]

1 hour ago, aawagner011 said:

 I think this would have more staying power than the teal, which quickly looked outdated.

The teal was great, the mistake Miami made was relegating it to an accent colour, with just the right shade it popped against the black.

The problem wasn't that the teal looked dated, it was with the wordmark and the logos, which were well past their sell by date when the team moved to their new stadium and would have been so even if the Fish had used light blue instead.

[MJD7]

On 1/30/2024 at 2:37 PM, aawagner011 said:

^Marlins look great! I love how they now have an established color palette with that concept. Currently, you look at their main jerseys (let’s say white, black, and gray, TBD how much they wear the blue since it’s new) and they’re basically just a black and white team. You see a tiny bit of blue and red but it’s so small and neither color is dominant over the other. This concept clearly establishes them as black and blue and vaguely alludes to their old teal sets, so I’m all about it. 

Thank you! I agree, their current set is way  too black & white heavy, which thankfully the blue jersey will help with at least a little bit.

 

On 1/30/2024 at 2:45 PM, VampyrRabbit said:

The teal was great, the mistake Miami made was relegating it to an accent colour, with just the right shade it popped against the black.

The problem wasn't that the teal looked dated, it was with the wordmark and the logos, which were well past their sell by date when the team moved to their new stadium and would have been so even if the Fish had used light blue instead.

I do agree that the teal itself wasn't the problem, it was their minimal use of it. Teal/aqua is pretty much the quintissential Miami color, so I think it would've been fine had they stuck with it. The only reason I'd not want them to get rid of the current blue doesn't really have anything to do with Miami itself, more-so that I'd be sad to see that beautiful shade go. However, I'm starting to be more convinced that going back to teal might be the way to go with the Marlins, which you'll see pretty soon...