Minnesota Twins New Identity

[WSU151]

2 hours ago, jn8 said:

i just woke up and have read nothing, just seen the pics. 
 

I want to like it. But no matter how much I try to not see it, the way the w runs into the i makes it look like a cursive r. I can’t help but to read it as Turns. 

 

Doesn’t the dot over the i kill any thought of it being an r? 

[pluggerplugger1]

46 minutes ago, MJD7 said:

This rebrand is probably the most personally significant of my life, eclipsing the 2013 Vikings and 2014 Florida State, so I have plenty of thoughts:

 

Updated "TC" Cap

• Seeing it in an official capacity, I now definitely think it's an upgrade over the former logo. Part of me will probably always miss the serifs, and I liked that the line weight of the old "C" was more consistent throughout, but I can see why they made the updates they made. The cap looks a lot better. My first instict was that I'd miss the red squatchtee, but I I actually might like the solid navy.

"M" Cap

• This seems to be the most divisive element of the rebrand, but I've gotta say, I absolutely love it. Plenty of people online are saying it looks like the Marlins, which I understand, but, importantly, it looks like the old Marlins, from a set that only lasted 6 years at that. This is a great update of the Senators "W," whether that was intentional or not, and the star connects it wonderfully with the dual-color nature of the TC.

Home Uniform

• I love it. It's probably my favorite uniform of the set. The solid red wordmark was definitely a bit jarring when it was leaked, but now I'm so glad they went that route. A lot of people seem to be lamenting the loss of outlines, but I applaud the move, as it again connects with the dual-color TC and easily separates them from the rest of the red/navy teams, while also recalling classic baseball looks (i.e. the Dodgers, Yankees, & Tigers). Also, I love love love the thicker stripes, I've been wanting the Twins to do that for years. The fact that it's consistently navy/white/red across the set makes it even better.

Road Uniform

• I think I've made my thoughts on road pinstripes for the Twins clear, but I can't lie, something about them looks inescapably Twins. I'm glad they flipped the colors of the wordmark & front number, as a red wordmark would have been way too difficult to read. The white in the stripes really pops off of the gray background. The pinstripes being subliminated is a nice touch too, I believe it's a first in MLB.

Home Alternate Uniform

• This one is probably the most lacking for me, as I'm not in love with solely using navy. I think using splashes of red would really help it pop, much like the rest of the set does. I'm not as big of a fan of the "M" & "StP" flags logo as others seem to be. It just makes me miss Minnie & Paul. I'm not sure if anyone else noticed, but below the navy of the sleeve stripe there's a thinner pure white stripe, which is a strange choice... It reminds me of the Rams placing white on their former away jersey, seemingly just to highlight that there is in fact a difference. It won't really be noticeable from a distance thought.

Alternate Navy Uniform

• Right now this is my 2nd favorite jersey behind the home white, and it could easily top it at some point. This is where the dual-color, single-layer motif really shines, as it allows both the white & the red to really pop off of the navy background. I'm also really glad they darkened the navy to match the cap, the discrepancy between the two on the old set used to really bug me. Having the "TC" as a patch looks better than I thought it would.

Overall, I couldn't be much happier than I am with this rebrand, as my favorite team finally went the route of the Padres, Blue Jays, & Brewers by creating a modern update inspired by their most classic brand elements. The consistency, cleanliness, and thoughtfulness this time around is so refreshing compared to the past decade of completely disparate uniform designs that each looked like they were designed by different entities.

 

Honestly, this is probably my favorite overall uniform set that the Twins have ever had. 

I completely relate to you saying this is one of the most personally significant rebrands of a favorite team -- I have a vivid memory of faking a bathroom break during tennis practice in HS just to see the new Vikings marks in 2013 

 

Good point about the white stripe on the cream home alternate too; that struck me as unnecessary.

 

[Dynasty]

I think they look fine. The way they're using navy and red somewhat separates them from other navy and red teams (especially a team in their own division). You could say these are too plain, but I'd like to say they are more clean if anything.

 

I'm also glad they got rid of that peanut butter gold. That was never going to work the way they were using it.

[LEWJ]

My real issue is with the “M” cap. As everyone and their brother has noted, it is much too similar to the former Marlins cap. Especially at a distance. Not to be dramatic, but they need to address that.

Fwiw, I don’t really buy the idea that it was a necessity for the fans either. If they wanted to further embrace fans from outside of the twin cities, that home alternate was certainly a choice. But I get it, caps sell. (But i don’t think this one will.)

 

Only other gripe is the Twin Cities set. Byeeee. It adds nothing to the set. I see what they’re doing, but it’s nothing anyone wants to see more than once a year. And quite honestly looks like something they’d put on an unlicensed shirt or jersey.

 

Edit for additional thoughts:

i really do love the “cleanliness” Of the set and identity as a whole, I think minus the above this could be an instant classic.

Also, I don’t find it necessary for the home script to match the road wordmark/new font, as some suggest. I get what people are saying, but to me it’s just personal preference. It’s a font now, and it *does* compliment the home script, just not how everyone wants it to. In my opinion, of course haha

Edited November 19, 2022 by LEWJ

[dont care]

I really don’t like the “M” hat. I stated in another thread that it looks like a Milwaukee Braves cap someone spilled ketchup on, and I think it looks even more so like that in real life.

[infrared41]

They're perfectly fine. My biggest issue is the M on the cap. The TC logo is a classic and there's no reason not to use it on all the caps. The fonts are a little fonty for font's sake. Other than that, I've seen worse and these could have been a lot worse. They're pretty solid baseball uniforms.

[Old School Fool]

[BadSeed84]

All they had to do was scale it back to the 2010-2014 look.

[tBBP]

Just dropping in to say there's still room yet for independent designers in this space--though I'm sure he still had to adhere to a pretty strictly set design brief (unless the Twins/MLB also allowed him to contribute to said brief):

 

Quote

The uniforms were designed by Minnesota native Matthew Wolf, who also designed the Minnesota United uniforms and the very popular Nigerian national soccer team uniforms from the 2018 World Cup. 

 

From Sports Illustrated online.

[Carolingian Steamroller]

I want to point out that the Twins did not use a plain navy blue soutache on the sleeves/pants of the cream alternate. It's actually a piece of fabric the same width as the tri-color braiding on the home/road jerseys and pants. What they did is make the bottom quarter(half?) inch of fabric cream so it blends in with the jersey rather than just making braiding that was a quarter inch narrower.

 

You can see how the sleeve braiding has a lip on the bottom where there's a clear change from the jersey fabric:

 

 

You can really see it on Instagram:

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/ClHLCO_OnIR/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

[Carolingian Steamroller]

The Twins famously were among the first teams in MLB to deploy the thinner, non-zig-zagged style of pinstripes now favored in most of baseball. 

 

Reportedly, the White Sox opted for this style in their current set as it was the only way to convince owner Jerry Reinsdorf that the pinstripes didn't make them look too much like the Yankees.

 

[eRay]

2 hours ago, tBBP said:

Just dropping in to say there's still room yet for independent designers in this space--though I'm sure he still had to adhere to a pretty strictly set design brief (unless the Twins/MLB also allowed him to contribute to said brief):

 

 

From Sports Illustrated online.

The guy who did the Vermont Green FC branding, LAFC crest, Chicago Fire crest, One Knoxville SC crest, and countless other crests. Very cool, I love his work and you can see his style shining through in this. Very clean and classic and considered.

[SCL]

Day after opinions:

 

Home: The red Twins remains a bit corny but the rest of the uniform is great

 

Away Gray: Overall a great look even if unconvinced on the Minnesota font

 

Navy Alternate: Needs a Minnesota script or Twins script to improve this jersey

 

Cream Alternate: Terrific, reads like a throwback St. Paul Saints uni. The flags are an early 1900's vibe bringing Millers and Saints together. Would love to see throwback style Millers and Saints hats (Navy and Cream) utilized at some point for Sunday games.

 

M * Hat: There is no saving this one, needs to be brought back to the drawing board and revised.

[MJD7]

6 hours ago, Carolingian Steamroller said:

I want to point out that the Twins did not use a plain navy blue soutache on the sleeves/pants of the cream alternate. It's actually a piece of fabric the same width as the tri-color braiding on the home/road jerseys and pants. What they did is make the bottom quarter(half?) inch of fabric cream so it blends in with the jersey rather than just making braiding that was a quarter inch narrower.

 

You can see how the sleeve braiding has a lip on the bottom where there's a clear change from the jersey fabric:

 

 

You can really see it on Instagram:

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/ClHLCO_OnIR/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

As I mentioned in my review, in a Rams-like move, the bottom stripe of the jersey actually appears to be a pure white, as opposed to cream:

 

It's a decision I don't quite understand the reasoning to, as it looks like even the stitching on the "M" & "StP" might be cream, so there's no pure white in the rest of the uniform. Really strange choice.

[MinnyHockey]

After sleeping on it, the M logo and cap has grown on me a bit. The initial shock of "Oh no it's the Marlins!" has faded away a bit. Still not amazing but it's really not that bad. 

 

Something I noticed is how the M logo is similar to the Minnesota State Colleges & Universities logo used here:

 

Does anyone have the new color codes for the team?

 

 

 

 

 

[Carolingian Steamroller]

Just now, MJD7 said:

As I mentioned in my review, in a Rams-like move, the bottom stripe of the jersey actually appears to be a pure white, as opposed to cream:

 

It's a decision I don't quite understand the reasoning to, as it looks like even the stitching on the "M" & "StP" might be cream, so there's no pure white in the rest of the set. Really strange choice.

 

It's also asymmetrical. If there was another white stripe on top, that might make a little more sence, or even if the white and blue stripes were equal size.

[tBBP]

1 hour ago, Carolingian Steamroller said:

The Twins famously were among the first teams in MLB to deploy the thinner, non-zig-zagged style of pinstripes now favored in most of baseball. 

 

Reportedly, the White Sox opted for this style in their current set as it was the only way to convince owner Jerry Reinsdorf that the pinstripes didn't make them look too much like the Yankees.

 

 

I've been looking for an up-close view of this, so thanks for posting! I can't tell if the pinstripes are sublimated or just dark gray (looks to be a really thin dark gray); either way that is about as perfect an execution as you can get with those--and I actually really wish the home whites had ghosted (okay, light gray, or even sublimated) pinstripes on them, as well. 

 

(Side note no one cares about: the away grays are my favorite of the set; just wish they'd have paired the TC cap with it instead of the *M.)

[SCL]

12 minutes ago, MinnyHockey said:

After sleeping on it, the M logo and cap has grown on me a bit. The initial shock of "Oh no it's the Marlins!" has faded away a bit. Still not amazing but it's really not that bad. 

 

Something I noticed is how the M logo is similar to the Minnesota State Colleges & Universities logo used here:

The Timberwolves sold a hat post rebrand that did a far better job:

 

 

 

[Carolingian Steamroller]

4 minutes ago, tBBP said:

 

I've been looking for an up-close view of this, so thanks for posting! I can't tell if the pinstripes are sublimated or just dark gray (looks to be a really thin dark gray); either way that is about as perfect an execution as you can get with those--and I actually really wish the home whites had ghosted (okay, light gray, or even sublimated) pinstripes on them, as well. 

 

(Side note no one cares about: the away grays are my favorite of the set; just wish they'd have paired the TC cap with it instead of the *M.)

 

I wonder if they'd opted for white pinstripes against the black would work.

[GrayJ12]

30 minutes ago, SCL said:

Day after opinions:

 

Home: The red Twins remains a bit corny but the rest of the uniform is great

 

Away Gray: Overall a great look even if unconvinced on the Minnesota font

 

Navy Alternate: Needs a Minnesota script or Twins script to improve this jersey

 

Cream Alternate: Terrific, reads like a throwback St. Paul Saints uni. The flags are an early 1900's vibe bringing Millers and Saints together. Would love to see throwback style Millers and Saints hats (Navy and Cream) utilized at some point for Sunday games.

 

M * Hat: There is no saving this one, needs to be brought back to the drawing board and revised.

I have to agree with this.

 

After sleeping and looking back at the design once more, I just can't get behind the M* star. I like the idea behind the concept, but the execution is not there. It looks too much like the 2012 Marlins logo. That and I don't see adding another logo to tandem the TC logo, a cornerstone of the Twins identity. The cream alts really are the stars of this set.

 

Most of this set just doesn't have any pzazz or magic in it, it just feels too simplistic. One-dimensional, I would call it. I just hate the recent trend of corporate minimalism...the logos really make me turn against the whole set.