Minnesota Twins New Identity

[FinsUp1214]

This Twins rebrand has my head spinning a bit. I don’t recall a rebrand in which I really liked all of the elements individually, but really disliked how they were executed together. It’s as if all the good and bad of the whole set cancel each other out to me, and leave me feeling kind of blank about it all.

 

I really like the new wordmarks and number fonts in terms of their construction and craft, but really dislike them being single color without outlines and dislike them being two different colors together. Sure, them being single color are technically “cleaner” than being outlined, but they also look unfinished, rushed, and lack the weight previous wordmarks + numbers had in comparison. The ties to team history are evident in how the wordmarks + numbers are constructed, but the ties end there. The execution is completely different in general and, to me, looks very (almost deliberately) separate from team history. That’s very important in my eyes, as it gives the largest and most visible parts of the uniform a very different look and personality than what Twins uniforms have had before. That may sound dramatic considering we’re talking about mere outlines and color distribution, but hey, that’s what we’re here for.

 

As I previously stated, I really like the new “TC” and feel like that’s the standout of the rebrand. No qualms at all there. I actually do like the new “M” logo and to be honest, would probably buy a hat with it. But here’s where it gets weird: while I really like the mark individually on its own, something about it looks wrong when paired with the uniforms. I really can’t place what it is, but it looks very out of place to me when in use with the whole package. As much as I like the logo, I think I would have much rather the hat not exist, and that they used the “TC” all across the board.

 

The red-white-blue striping looks good on the white uniform, but looks very, very out of place on the road uniform. Excluding the cap, the stripes are the only place where white is on the jersey and pants, and sticks out terribly. The striping looks very tacked on last-second on the road uniform, and probably shouldn’t have been included there at all.

 

Finally, I’m a sucker for classic, cream uniforms and like that they gave one a swing, but the execution doesn’t work for me at all. It sorely needs a pinch of red somewhere. I don’t know if this was the intention or not, but if the straight navy and cream was supposed to be some kind of a Senators nod, there’s nothing else on the uniform that drives that point home enough to warrant it. Thus, it ends up looking like nothing the Twins have ever worn before (in a bad way), and looks like nothing they should be wearing at all. The very nice “TC” and “Twin Cities” wordmark notwithstanding, the cream uniform falls very flat to me.

 

All in all, the rebrand has a bunch of individual elements I like, and probably a bunch of singular merchandise I would consider purchasing. But as a compiled, whole brand, and as executed on the uniforms especially? I don’t think it works nearly as well as it should have, and for that reason, this rebrand is one of the most confusing to me that I can remember. What’s sad to me is, it was probably just a few small pivots of execution away from being perfect. They just whiffed on the fat pitches down the middle when it counted most, in my opinion.

[TrueYankee26]

I like the new Twins look

[VampyrRabbit]

1 hour ago, 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.

The stitching on the letters is white. It's still odd.

[monkeypower]

I don't really like the single stroke script and numbers when you should have two colours to work with. I also don't like the inconsistencies between the colouring of the script, the front and back numbers and the NOB. It's bothered me before on baseball jerseys, including some of the Twins old set, and still does now.

[hormone]

Here’s my worthless 02.  The M hat is bunk. They never played off the North Star. The twin cities is lame. Cream is terrible. The one color wordmark looks low budget.  Come at me. As the gold was an over upgrade, this is two steps back. A team with this much history can do better.

[seasaltvanilla]

Went to the Clubhouse store at Target Field today, some things I noticed:

Pinstripes are dark gray, not sublimated.

 

There is indeed a white stripe below the navy stripe on the cream alt. I also saw a fridge magnet that had the same navy-white stripe on it (thought I took a picture, got home and realized I didn't). So it's an intentional choice...for some reason.

 

Speaking of the Twin Cities alt, in the middle left of this picture you can see the script has a white outline on it on the beer koozie. So they're not opposed to it. (Sorry for blurry picture)

 

Also found the use of 1901 interesting on this shirt. My recollection in the past is that basically all merchandise used 1961 as the founding date of the Twins. as opposed to 1901 as the founding date of the franchise as the Senators. Might signal that the organization is going to more actively promote that part of the Twins' history, perhaps we see Washington throwback uniforms and apparel at some point.

 

Which, overall, is a bit odd, considering how much of the rebrand is on the Twins being a Minnesota team (Twin Cities jersey notwithstanding). M star merch was heavily represented in the store, felt like more than the TC. The messaging seems a bit confused.

[BBTV]

9 hours 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.

 

 

8 hours 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 always thought that the zig-zag style stripes were woven, vs the lighter ones which were printed - no? Also, zig-zag seems to be more affiliated with raglan templates vs set-in - if you look at the White Sox, Phillies ('92 on), they're printed and lighter.  It's easier to see on the pre-CoolBase jerseys.  If you look at Cubs and Yankees and pre-92 Phillies, they were woven / zig-zag.

 

Is there a non-raglan team that uses zig-zag stripes?  I don't think I've seen one.

[Carolingian Steamroller]

1 hour ago, BBTV said:

 

 

I always thought that the zig-zag style stripes were woven, vs the lighter ones which were printed - no? Also, zig-zag seems to be more affiliated with raglan templates vs set-in - if you look at the White Sox, Phillies ('92 on), they're printed and lighter.  It's easier to see on the pre-CoolBase jerseys.  If you look at Cubs and Yankees and pre-92 Phillies, they were woven / zig-zag.

 

Is there a non-raglan team that uses zig-zag stripes?  I don't think I've seen one.

 

This is a topic for another thread but I once went down a deeeeeep rabbit hole on the zig-zag vs thin straight pinstripe pattern.

The short answer is that the zig zag was earlier and was used across the board in early polyester double knit fabrics. If your team wore pinstripes in the 70's, raglan sleeves or not, they were zig zag.

Starting in the 80's with the Twins and the Padres, a new style was developed that was significantly thinner but also straight. The White Sox adopted them in 1990 and since then every other team that wears pins came to use them with the notable exception of both New York clubs.

[BBTV]

10 minutes ago, Carolingian Steamroller said:

 

This is a topic for another thread but I once went down a deeeeeep rabbit hole on the zig-zag vs thin straight pinstripe pattern.

The short answer is that the zig zag was earlier and was used across the board in early polyester double knit fabrics. If your team wore pinstripes in the 70's, raglan sleeves or not, they were zig zag.

Starting in the 80's with the Twins and the Padres, a new style was developed that was significantly thinner but also straight. The White Sox adopted them in 1990 and since then every other team that wears pins came to use them with the notable exception of both New York clubs.

 

Huh.  According to this you're right (at least about the Cubs - I coulda sworn they still had the Old Style.)

 

You can tell they're simply printed on since they're barely visible on the inside.  This style sucks.

 

(game worn)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/385234316978?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=385234316978&targetid=1262749490862&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=9007323&poi=&campaignid=14859008593&mkgroupid=130497710760&rlsatarget=pla-1262749490862&abcId=9300678&merchantid=663979633&gclid=CjwKCAiAmuKbBhA2EiwAxQnt78kQkH6xCmN3TA0hq_tqm5-VTOnBs7CLiba63fZL__lUzVXIhBjGNhoCklUQAvD_BwE

[Carolingian Steamroller]

4 minutes ago, BBTV said:

 

Huh.  According to this you're right (at least about the Cubs - I coulda sworn they still had the Old Style.

 

You can tell they're simply printed on since they're barely visible on the inside.  This style sucks.

 

(game worn)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/385234316978?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=385234316978&targetid=1262749490862&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=9007323&poi=&campaignid=14859008593&mkgroupid=130497710760&rlsatarget=pla-1262749490862&abcId=9300678&merchantid=663979633&gclid=CjwKCAiAmuKbBhA2EiwAxQnt78kQkH6xCmN3TA0hq_tqm5-VTOnBs7CLiba63fZL__lUzVXIhBjGNhoCklUQAvD_BwE

 

That the zig zag pins are woven and show on the other side is an interesting note on manufacturing.

Check the difference between this 80's Phillies jersey and early 90's Twins:

 

You can see from the neck hole that the pins show through on the Phillies jersey (zig zag) but not on the Twins (straight).

Again, the Twins were pioneers in this area. The Padres debuted them in 1985 and the Twins followed suit as the second team in 87.

 

[MJD7]

2 hours ago, seasaltvanilla said:

Pinstripes are dark gray, not sublimated.

Just out of curiosity, what's the difference? I always thought sublimated (or is it subliminated?) basically meant "slightly darker shade of the base color."

[BBTV]

5 minutes ago, MJD7 said:

Just out of curiosity, what's the difference? I always thought sublimated (or is it subliminated?) basically meant "slightly darker shade of the base color."

 

Sublimation basically just means that the fabric is dyed rather than a design being woven in, printed on, stitched on, etc.  Has nothing at all to do with colors.  It's a process.

[MCM0313]

On 10/30/2022 at 2:46 AM, VampyrRabbit said:

No, and Houston aren't the only team to use stars/a star in their branding.

 

The Phillies play with two stars on their script with the earliest version of that script dating from 1944, The Washington Nationals use two stars on their roundel, the Texas Rangers use two stars in their roundel and one on their TX alternate logo, the Rays use a star/sunburst thing on their script and the Mariners use a nautical star in their logo

As long as the Twins don't blatantly copy the Astros, it should be fine.

 

I dunno, I think being blatantly copied would be the sort of comeuppance the Astros deserve. 

[itsmb8]

Overall I think its definitely a step back, but I still think its growing on me since they essentially did exactly what Milwaukee did in white/cream at home and gray/navy on the road (yes I know they will still wear navy at home too).   The M Star hat definitely sucks though.

 

Off hand though, has anyone seen flat images of the MSP and state outline logos?

[Bmac]

12 hours ago, BBTV said:

 

Sublimation basically just means that the fabric is dyed rather than a design being woven in, printed on, stitched on, etc.  Has nothing at all to do with colors.  It's a process.

Yeah, this thread is revealing that many people don't seem to understand what sublimated means. I think within the sports uniform world we have here, it's become synonymous with a design that utilizes a color slightly darker or lighter than the base color to add subtlety to a design element. But in actuality, it's just a printing process that is extremely common.

[adsarebad]

yikes, these jerseys are bland with a side order of bland.  only one color script on the front, and on  name, numbers?!

 

very boring, and the "twin cities" jerseys look just the royals home jersey!

 

[IceCap]

I really want to like these but... there's enough "close but miss" decisions here to ruin it. The cream Twin Cities look isn't working. I actually think the current marks and colour layout would look great with an powder blue base if they wanted to do that for an alternate. But this isn't working. 

 

I'd trash the cream alternates. 

Go with the TC caps across the board.

Minnesota logo on the sleeves of the road and navy alternate. 

Powder blue alternate for home games. 

M/StP flag logo on the sleeves of the home and powder blue. 

Single layer sans-serif block font for numbers. 

 

[ManillaToad]

What's the point of the new M logo when the old one was already perfect and matched the Twins script?

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

5 hours ago, ManillaToad said:

What's the point of the new M logo when the old one was already perfect and matched the Twins script?

 

That's a good point. The M logo introduced in 1987 is the better one.  But I'm just pleased to see any M logo in use.

 

I wish the cap with the TC logo were used only with the Twin Cities alt, and that the TC logo appeared on the sleeve of all other uniforms.

[63Bulldogs63]

Not a fan of any of this. While ditching the mustard was a huge upgrade, everything else is a fail. All they had to do was go back to the  dome era uni's and all would have been right.