The State of the Uniforms is Not Good: An MLB Concept Series

[colinturner95]

Happy Saturday! Today's special is gonna be a little bit boring, but not without some changes. 

 

 

Home - Away: I said it the last time I messed with the MLB, and I'll say it again, if you're expecting anything crazy, you're in the wrong area of town. HOWEVER, there are still some slight tweaks here and there. 

• Headwear - Nothing changes. 
• Jerseys - A carry over from my last swing at the Yankees is the streamlining of the team's logos. Look I get the tradition, the history, heritage, all that jazz. But I personally believe that the hat logo is the better of the 3 NY logos used on the uniforms. The grey uniform has all the changes that were done to it undone. 
• Pants/Socks - No changes. 
• Hanger Effect - A subtle visage of the Yankee Stadium frieze with a script "Pinstripe Pride" wordmark. 

 

Alternate: In 1974, a radical idea was put forward to replace the iconic road greys with a navy jersey and white pinstripes. What a world we might be living in now had that happened. 

• Headgear - same as home/away
• Jersey - color flipped version of the grey roads with a YANKEES wordmark in the same style as the NEW YORK one. 
• Pants/Socks - In a perfect world, this uniform would be worn on the road, hence the grey pants featured, but I did add a pair of plain white pants. But lets be real, the chances of the Yankees wearing a navy uniform in a regular season game at all are about as likely as the grooming policy going away. 

Legends: The Yankees don't even need a third uniform, so what on Earth would you do for a fourth? I envision this uniform being treated a lot like the Lakers' Lore Series of uniforms, honoring a team legend, so the Yankees honor the catalyst for the dynasty of the 1920's. The overarching inspiration for the uniform, beyond the Babe, is a sweater he wore in 1922.

• Headgear - Went to 1921, the last time the Yankees wore a non-navy hat, which at the time was a white hat with navy pinstripes. To better match this uniform, the hat goes to a faux-wool grey pattern. 
• Jersey - I believe the sweater I used for inspiration on this uniform was a team-issue, not unique to Babe Ruth, but the overall style lent it self well to a fauxback style design. Full color placket color, larger than your standard baseball sleeve stripe, mimicking the full color sleeve cuffs. Era-appropriate logo on the left chest.
• Pants/Socks - knee length faux wool pants, navy stirrups and black cleats. 

Batting Practice:

• Hat - I was struggling with these and ultimately defaulted to this years model, with the NY logo set on a pinstripe circle. 
• Tops - Nothing wild. I tried fitting in some pinstripes on these but felt the simpler route was better. The hat logo comes down to the chest. Player number on the sleeve. 

C&C welcome!

 

 

 

[coco1997]

Can't believe I never thought to design a Yankees jersey based on that old dugout sweater. Brilliant!

[Brave-Bird 08]

I love, love, love everything in here. The wing sleeve stripes for Cleveland are so classy, yet distinct. Completely nailed it. Amazing how such a small change brings that entire branding suite to life.

[salamiolivesonions]

long long long long long time lurker here, i had to log in to tell you how :censored:ing SICK this is so far. i will 100% be re-creating the red sox cream uniform in the show. also cant believe you put together a yankees concept that feels fresh but also timeless at the same time. 

 

[raysox]

EXCELLENT so far!

[BlueMoon18]

Oh my days....this is some genuinely amazing work you've done so far...I'm excited for my local team, the Rangers (though I am aware that is going to come much later on)!

[jbayer]

The vintage Yankee alternate is a brilliant idea! It has me thinking what a jersey would look like based on the 1950s era jackets. 

[colinturner95]

Hopefully these get a warmer reception than my small opinion on the Tigers' City Connect uniforms ... 

 

It's just dawned on me that I forgot the hanger effect on all these so that'll be addressed shortly  Hanger Effect fixed. 

 

 

Home - Away: Like I did in my first MLB series, I went with claret/maroon/burgundy and light blue as the new old colors for the Phillies. The MLB does have a pretty big blue and red problem, so what's an easy fix? Move the sliders on the shades of the colors. The shade of red is different from the team's original shades, going for a little darker red with just a little tinge of purple in there. Also new to the uniforms are some slightly tweaked logos. I modified the wordmark to be a little less bubbly and returning from the mid-30s is a tail on the wordmark. The P modifies to match and the number font is also tweaked to be less bubbly. 

• Headgear - all-burgundy with the P on the front. 
• Jerseys - Unlike my previous take, the pinstripes remain. Added to the uniforms is the trim from the 1947-1948 uniforms that inspired the team's cream uniforms. The sleeve number is replaced by the City Connect's hat logo that is now part of the team's logo rotation. Updated wordmark on the chest of the uniforms. The grey roads dump the pinstripes. 
• Pants/Socks - White pants have the pinstripes and no stripes. Grey pants have no pinstripes and matching stripes to their jersey. 

 

 

Alternate: While this does ruin the light blue throwback market in Philadelphia, it would give them a shot at doing something new with their throwbacks, something I did not do here. 

• Headgear - A new addition, a light blue hat with a burgundy brim and a burgundy and white P. To the best of my knowledge this would be a first in their history. 
• Jersey - The script goes away in favor of the Liberty Bell logo, anchored by the number on the other side of the placket, with the same stripes as the home/away. 
• Pants/Socks - Light blue would be the primary with these uniforms, but I added in a pair of pinstripe-less white pants for use with these as well, and with the 4th uniform as well. 

Liberty: Not the most creative name, but I didn't want to call it a Reverse Retro or anything similar to that. But in reality the idea was very much inspired by the reverse retro ideals. 

• Headgear - same burgundy as the home and away. 
• Jersey - All-maroon returns, this time with light blue getting to play along. Biggest differences from the original uniforms are the larger stripes down the sleeves and the V-neck collar. 
• Pants/Socks - Maroon with the larger stripes down the side would be the primary wear with these, but the white pants from the alternate jersey would be able to slot in here too. 

 

Hanger Effect - Colonial typeface honoring the work of the Founding Fathers in Philadelphia with the team's phrase RING THE BELL and a subtle visage of the Liberty Bell logo. 

 

Batting Practice:

• Hat - Burgundy and light blue with the Liberty Bell logo on the front. 
• Tops - Light blue with the triple stripe on the cuffs of the sleeves and on the hem. Liberty Bell logo with an arched PHILLY above it, which is inspired by the 1900 PHILA wordmark.

Now while my work pays me to be decisive with my designs, Chris doesn't pay me to be decisive here. Matter of fact, he doesn't pay me at all.

 

 

Home - Away: These designs are pretty much the same as above, just in the team's current colors. So pretty self explanatory when you look at them. 

 

 

Alternate: With the collar and sleeve striping coming from the uniforms that inspired the cream uniforms, they are retired in favor of returning the red uniforms. 

• Headgear - The blue hats stick around and wouldn't be married to these uniforms, but just the one they got paired up with. 
• Jersey - I never liked the way the wordmark was treated on red backgrounds so now it flips to white with an additional outline to make it work. But otherwise the uniforms are pretty much the same as the grey tops, just color adjusted. 
• Pants/Socks - Another set of pinstripe-less white pants, just with the current colors. 

Throwback: No fancy nickname for this one, as it's just a straight up throwback, which entitled it (based on my completely arbitrary rules on the Cooperstown branding) to having the Cooperstown Collection logos. You could call them 1980 throwbacks, but they're the team's light blue uniforms from the majority of that decade.

 

Hanger Effect:

• (home/away/alt)- Colonial typeface honoring the work of the Founding Fathers in Philadelphia with the team's phrase RING THE BELL and a subtle visage of the Liberty Bell logo. 
• Throwback - honoring the World Series winning team, "The Cardiac Kids" is found on the inner collar with the team's series wins from that season below. 

 

Batting Practice: Same designs as above, just in red, white and blue. 

 

C&C welcome!!

 

On 5/3/2024 at 10:41 PM, jbayer said:

The vintage Yankee alternate is a brilliant idea! It has me thinking what a jersey would look like based on the 1950s era jackets. 

 

Definitely bookmarking this for later!

 

On 5/2/2024 at 4:58 PM, BlueMoon18 said:

Oh my days....this is some genuinely amazing work you've done so far...I'm excited for my local team, the Rangers (though I am aware that is going to come much later on)!

 

The Rangers are closer than you'd think ... (not up right away but not far away ) 

 

[Axe]

I gotta go with the burgundy set. It's fantastic.

[Kevin W.]

I love the City Connect font for the White Sox. I don't love the all-black look and if you're going to keep it, it should be an alternate, not the primary road uniform.

 

All-solid color uniforms are a softball thing. They've never looked good in baseball. Unless it's all-white or all-gray, just don't do it. The same goes for the all-powder blues. I get that there's tradition there for multiple teams but it just doesn't look good.

[coco1997]

Love that first Phillies set (and the red and blue set ain't half bad, either). Not totally sold on the tail under the "Phillies" script, but since there's a precedent for it, I'm sure I'd get used to it. My only real nitpick is with the alt; the stars flanking the Liberty Bell get lost against the powder blue jersey. 

 

9 hours ago, Kevin W. said:

All-solid color uniforms are a softball thing. They've never looked good in baseball. Unless it's all-white or all-gray, just don't do it. The same goes for the all-powder blues. I get that there's tradition there for multiple teams but it just doesn't look good.

Gotta disagree with this! Lots of teams in the early 20th century wore solid black or navy uniforms and looked great:
 

 

 

I'm glad Nike has normalized this look again, though they've admittedly overdone it with some of the City Connect designs dating back to last season.

[Kevin W.]

2 hours ago, coco1997 said:

Gotta disagree with this! Lots of teams in the early 20th century wore solid black or navy uniforms and looked great:

And much like pullovers and stirrups, it should be left in the history books.

[MJD7]

That Phillies script looks great! It'd be a pretty seamless transition from their current script. I recognize it as being essentially the same font as that "White Sox" script that they only ever wore on their Players' Weekend uniforms, but since they never fully committed to it, I'd say it works great for the Phils. 

 

I've gone back & forth on red & blue or maroon & powder for the Phillies myself as well, but I think maroon & powder is just too good of a color scheme to pass up on, especially in the blue & red heavy league that is Major League Baseball. 

 

Great work as always!

[colinturner95]

 

 

Home - Away: I would have been content with not touching a hair on the Dodgers' figurative head. I think there's a convincing argument to be made that they have as iconic as uniforms as the Yankees, maybe even more so. But where's the fun in leaving things to the mercy of the status quo? 

• Headgear - Lol. Like I was going to change things drastically. And in the headwear department, not a thing changes. Classic Dodger Blue with the LA lockup on the front.
• Jerseys -  Again, could have left things completely alone. But I didn't. These changes are rooted in the team's history, which can be said in someway about all the uniforms. The famously barren white jerseys see a little bit of adjustment, with the addition of skinny placket piping and a single blue stripe on the sleeves. The LA logo returns to the sleeves after being unceremoniously discarded in place of a jersey ad. The grey jerseys have the same piping as the white jersey, which brings them a little closer to the uniforms the team wore in the 50s during their last years in Brooklyn. And because I'm a firm(ish) believer in home jerseys having the team nickname and away having the location name, the Los Angeles script becomes the script of choice. 
• Pants/Socks -Nothing wild. Single blue stripe down the sides of both the white and greys. Solid blue socks or stirrup blues round out the lower half options. 

 

Alternate - Another step back into history but keeping an eye on the future, or maybe just the present. 

• Headgear - Same as the home & away. 
• Jersey - It bears a similarity to the 1999 blue alternate uniform, but this time no silver or grey to be found here. The placket and sleeve striping changes up to a double stripe version, something that was lifted from the early 30's uniforms. 
• Pants/Socks - Also carried over from the home & away uniforms. 

Dodger Legacy - Spanning almost 150 seasons, two major cities and seeing the careers of countless legends of the game, the Dodger Legacy uniforms celebrate much of the team's history. 

• Headwear - A small carry over from my Reverse Retro take on the Dodgers, but an LA monogram done in the style of the Brooklyn Dodgers' logo. 
• Jersey - Faux flannel. T-bar stripes come from the 1944 satin uniforms, The Tuscan font DODGERS comes over from the 1933 uniforms, which featured larger than average B's on the sleeves, which in this case are replaced by another logo flip, taking the 1911 Brooklyn logo and giving it some LA style, and using the light blue featured on the satin nights uniforms. The number font can be found from any of the uniforms from this era, and hidden in the numbers is the grid/checkerboard design from the 1916 uniforms.
• Pants/Socks - The only real change is the side stripe is sized up to match the stripes on the jerseys. Blue stirrups and black cleats. 

Hanger Effect - Vin Scully's signature introduction to Dodgers' baseball is immortalized on the inner collar. 

Batting Practice:

• Hat - I don't hate the grey version of these, but I went with white with the cursive D on the front. 
• "Jersey" - Full logo on the chest on a blue top, double stripes around the collar and ends of the sleeves, with the player number down near the hem. 

C&C welcome! 

 

On 5/11/2024 at 12:01 AM, MJD7 said:

That Phillies script looks great! It'd be a pretty seamless transition from their current script. I recognize it as being essentially the same font as that "White Sox" script that they only ever wore on their Players' Weekend uniforms, but since they never fully committed to it, I'd say it works great for the Phils. 

 

I've gone back & forth on red & blue or maroon & powder for the Phillies myself as well, but I think maroon & powder is just too good of a color scheme to pass up on, especially in the blue & red heavy league that is Major League Baseball. 

 

Great work as always!

It always feels like the biggest question mark with the Phillies. But IMO they can make either work for them really well.