Mets Players Dislike Black Unis?

[TheOldRoman]

The black actually isn't terrible as an accent color, it adds some depth to the uniforms. That being said, I greatly prefer the racing-stripes look (especially with the script New York on the roads) to everything else the Mets have ever worn, and that doesn't have black.

Black doesn't add depth to the uniforms, it muddles them. It makes the wordmark and numbers harder to read.

And while I agree with the other posters that the snow-white home jersey is the best, I can't ignore the fact that the Mets wore home pinstripes exclusively and won two World Series over their first 35 or so years. Although the plain white jersey looks better, I think I would stick with the pinstripes.

[Gothamite]

The black actually isn't terrible as an accent color, it adds some depth to the uniforms.

Black doesn't add depth to the uniforms, it muddles them. It makes the wordmark and numbers harder to read.

The Dolphins learned this when they added navy blue dropshadows, and eventually had to minimize them to restore some legibility to their jerseys.

[McCall]

Normally, I would agree with you because pullovers and the like look corny, but it's the Mets. Pretty much everything they do is corny, from the horrid rap anthem they used a few years back, to the "Mercury Mets" for the TATC promotion, to "Meet the Mets," Yogi Berra's "Yogiisms," etc. Corny works for them.

Not really. Ditch all the black and they look great, problem solved.

Agreed. Add blue alt. and blue and orange cap too.

Half right.

[cmm]

The fact that the Yankees wear pinstripes doesn't make a difference. The Mets have been around for 49 seasons, and the pinstriped uni's are part of their history too.

The Mets have an interlocking NY on their hats. Do they have to change those too? Of course not. Should Jose Reyes have to give up number 7 because Mickey Mantle wore it in the same city? No way. So why should they lose the pinstripes, especially when they look better than the plain white jerseys?

[The_Admiral]

Put the '87 New York script on the otherwise perfect set that keeps getting quoted and then it's perfect.

[Bouj]

I thought Lukas (noted Mets fan) discovered that the culprit behind the Mets actually wearing the black so much was the former equipment manager, who didn't want to send the team out in the normal home or road jerseys as much because the warm-up jackets were black and they didn't match as well.

Yes, I know. The correct solution to that is, "Get some GD blue jackets instead!" But it's the Mets. What can you do?

I think the one player who actually has input into the jersey selection is Johan Santana. He almost never pitches in the alt. I can count on one hand the number of times he hasn't worn the white or grey in his starts. Back before the Mets went 100% COOLBASE, they had to wear the doubleknit greys in Santana's starts in Miami. I'm sure that was unpleasant.

[NYYNYR]

I thought Lukas (noted Mets fan) discovered that the culprit behind the Mets actually wearing the black so much was the former equipment manager, who didn't want to send the team out in the normal home or road jerseys as much because the warm-up jackets were black and they didn't match as well.

Yes, I know. The correct solution to that is, "Get some GD blue jackets instead!" But it's the Mets. What can you do?

I think the one player who actually has input into the jersey selection is Johan Santana. He almost never pitches in the alt. I can count on one hand the number of times he hasn't worn the white or grey in his starts. Back before the Mets went 100% COOLBASE, they had to wear the doubleknit greys in Santana's starts in Miami. I'm sure that was unpleasant.

Ding ding ding !!! I was waiting for someone to bring up the story of the warm-up jackets. Then, apparently, the Mets got blue-based warm-up jackets, but the blue was too "powdery" and didn't match the royal blue that the Mets use...Always something.

It's interesting to note that , if memory serves me, Johan, Bay, etc. were all introduced to the public in pinstripe jerseys with solid-blue hats. So, I'm assuming that's your identity and what you feel best represents your club? Let's just see it more often. I don't agree with the snow-white one being better. I find it unusually clear and tasteless. I think when you're used to the stripes, and then you see none, it looks naked immediately. And also, if you're going to just use "Mets," it's a short title, and on a pure-white jersey, it makes your eye seem to zoom in on all the unused space. Four letters on a blank canvas just seems really minimal to the eye, and then you notice the blankness more, to me.

However, I'm totally with using the current aways and the blue hats. Just pop on blue undershirts, and you have an awesome look.

[Gothamite]

The fact that the Yankees wear pinstripes doesn't make a difference. The Mets have been around for 49 seasons, and the pinstriped uni's are part of their history too.

Yes, but even when the uniforms were unveiled everybody recognized that they were "borrowed" from the Yankees.

They have a choice. They can keep dressing up in their older, brother's clothes, or they can stake out their own identity. Do they want to be a scrappy local team (as opposed to the faceless corporate behemoth in the Bronx), or do they want to remain Yankees, Jr.?

[SteveR]

Weren't the Mets' uniform/colors/logo design a shared borrowing from all three NY teams -- the stripes from the Yankees, the blue from the Dodgers and the orange interlocking NY from the Giants?

[Gothamite]

In my opinion, black was added to the color scheme to sell merchandise to non-fans.

I fixed your comment since your statement is not a proven fact, unless you work for the Mets and can back it up.

Actually, it's not my opinion. The record is quite clear - starting in the early 1990s, baseball realized that it could market nationwide. And in 1993, the New York Times reported that 60% of the sales at the Yankees Clubhouse Stores in the city were to "tourists, mostly European".

Around the same time, the Licensing Letter (a marketing industry journal) reported that "baseball has finally realized that 'people buy merchandise not for team loyalty but because they like the logo'." With all of this in mind, baseball changed its approach and started designing team logos and uniforms with a large eye towards how they would sell in the stadium stores and across the country.

By 1998, the Mets had enough. They had slipped from the top of baseball's sales charts in the 1980s to ninth, while watching their place taken by the White Sox, Rockies and Marlins.

With all that in mind, the Mets introduced an alternate black cap. And while they made noise about honoring the New York Giants, some members of the organization were a bit more candid:

"We want to be relevant," said Mark Bingham, the (Mets') vice president for marketing and broadcasting. "We want people to walk down the street with a Mets cap on, and felt that the black-based hat was a great look. We hear that it's moving, that people are asking about it."

And we won't even get in to the explosion in online shopping and what it did to facilitate a non-fan-based marketing structure, making it easier for anyone anywhere to buy any team's merchandise. Because that actually would just be my opinion. I don't have anything to back that up. Yet.

[IceCap]

Put the '87 New York script on the otherwise perfect set that keeps getting quoted and then it's perfect.

I like the '87 New York script, but I like the current New York wordmark more. I don't know why, I just like the way the words "New York" look in that font.

Weren't the Mets' uniform/colors/logo design a shared borrowing from all three NY teams -- the stripes from the Yankees, the blue from the Dodgers and the orange interlocking NY from the Giants?

Indeed they were. I contend, however, that adopting the pinstripes from the Yankees was a mistake from day one. The Giants and Dodgers, though still around, were quickly becoming a distant memory in New York. Thus it was appropriate for the Mets, the new New York NL team, to honour them. They weren't infringing on any other New York-based team's looks when they adopted the Dodgers's blue and the Giants' orange. The Yankees were very much alive and active, however.

And no, the NY cap is not the same thing. The Mets' NY is inspired by the Giants' NY (I'm not sure if it's the same exact design), and thus played into the theme of honouring past New York teams. The Yankees and their pinstripes were, on the other hand, well entrenched.

[IceCap]

dp

[oz615]

However, I'm totally with using the current aways and the blue hats. Just pop on blue undershirts, and you have an awesome look.

better photo with the black accents!

[xTr1pleXx]

I thought Lukas (noted Mets fan) discovered that the culprit behind the Mets actually wearing the black so much was the former equipment manager, who didn't want to send the team out in the normal home or road jerseys as much because the warm-up jackets were black and they didn't match as well.

Yes, I know. The correct solution to that is, "Get some GD blue jackets instead!" But it's the Mets. What can you do?

I think the one player who actually has input into the jersey selection is Johan Santana. He almost never pitches in the alt. I can count on one hand the number of times he hasn't worn the white or grey in his starts. Back before the Mets went 100% COOLBASE, they had to wear the doubleknit greys in Santana's starts in Miami. I'm sure that was unpleasant.

Ding ding ding !!! I was waiting for someone to bring up the story of the warm-up jackets. Then, apparently, the Mets got blue-based warm-up jackets, but the blue was too "powdery" and didn't match the royal blue that the Mets use...Always something.

It's interesting to note that , if memory serves me, Johan, Bay, etc. were all introduced to the public in pinstripe jerseys with solid-blue hats. So, I'm assuming that's your identity and what you feel best represents your club? Let's just see it more often. I don't agree with the snow-white one being better. I find it unusually clear and tasteless. I think when you're used to the stripes, and then you see none, it looks naked immediately. And also, if you're going to just use "Mets," it's a short title, and on a pure-white jersey, it makes your eye seem to zoom in on all the unused space. Four letters on a blank canvas just seems really minimal to the eye, and then you notice the blankness more, to me.

However, I'm totally with using the current aways and the blue hats. Just pop on blue undershirts, and you have an awesome look.

That's EXACTLY how the Mets should look on the road today. No black anywhere - just blue and orange, their traditional colors. And I've always loved that "New York" script.

Bring back the pinstripes at home full-time, dump the black, and have that picture be the away look, and the Mets would be back to looking exactly as they should. It's a recognizable look with a lot of history behind it, and it looks considerably better than the muddled identity they have today.

[McCall]

I say if you're gonna use pinstripes as the full-time home, then leave them as the cream they have. It'll at least help distinguish them a bit from the Yankees. But I too prefer the current roadmark and one of the reasons I would prefer they go with the snow whites at home is because it matches the road designs. Also, compare the "New York" on Beltran with the black drop shadow to the one on the pic from 1997. Just see how much better and more legible the lettering is minus the black.

[NYYNYR]

However, I'm totally with using the current aways and the blue hats. Just pop on blue undershirts, and you have an awesome look.

better photo with the black accents!

As an athlete, I would love to rock that ensemble. It looks great. There's no need for a half-black hat.

[NYYNYR]

I thought Lukas (noted Mets fan) discovered that the culprit behind the Mets actually wearing the black so much was the former equipment manager, who didn't want to send the team out in the normal home or road jerseys as much because the warm-up jackets were black and they didn't match as well.

Yes, I know. The correct solution to that is, "Get some GD blue jackets instead!" But it's the Mets. What can you do?

I think the one player who actually has input into the jersey selection is Johan Santana. He almost never pitches in the alt. I can count on one hand the number of times he hasn't worn the white or grey in his starts. Back before the Mets went 100% COOLBASE, they had to wear the doubleknit greys in Santana's starts in Miami. I'm sure that was unpleasant.

Ding ding ding !!! I was waiting for someone to bring up the story of the warm-up jackets. Then, apparently, the Mets got blue-based warm-up jackets, but the blue was too "powdery" and didn't match the royal blue that the Mets use...Always something.

It's interesting to note that , if memory serves me, Johan, Bay, etc. were all introduced to the public in pinstripe jerseys with solid-blue hats. So, I'm assuming that's your identity and what you feel best represents your club? Let's just see it more often. I don't agree with the snow-white one being better. I find it unusually clear and tasteless. I think when you're used to the stripes, and then you see none, it looks naked immediately. And also, if you're going to just use "Mets," it's a short title, and on a pure-white jersey, it makes your eye seem to zoom in on all the unused space. Four letters on a blank canvas just seems really minimal to the eye, and then you notice the blankness more, to me.

However, I'm totally with using the current aways and the blue hats. Just pop on blue undershirts, and you have an awesome look.

That's EXACTLY how the Mets should look on the road today. No black anywhere - just blue and orange, their traditional colors. And I've always loved that "New York" script.

Bring back the pinstripes at home full-time, dump the black, and have that picture be the away look, and the Mets would be back to looking exactly as they should. It's a recognizable look with a lot of history behind it, and it looks considerably better than the muddled identity they have today.

Abso - freakin' - lutely. It's so sharp-looking. A no-brainer. And I'm a Yanks fan. I'd have no shame wearing any of that. It looks crisp and modern. It's got some brightness to it while still being classic. A total win. That's way better than the Yanks' away ensemble. It's tough to beat the classic Yanks home, but the Mets would have a case...

[cmm]

The fact that the Yankees wear pinstripes doesn't make a difference. The Mets have been around for 49 seasons, and the pinstriped uni's are part of their history too.

Yes, but even when the uniforms were unveiled everybody recognized that they were "borrowed" from the Yankees.

They have a choice. They can keep dressing up in their older, brother's clothes, or they can stake out their own identity. Do they want to be a scrappy local team (as opposed to the faceless corporate behemoth in the Bronx), or do they want to remain Yankees, Jr.?

Even with the pinstripes, the Mets jerseys are different enough that they don't look like the Yankees at all. They use royal blue; the Yankees use navy (midnight?) blue. The Mets have orange accents (and annoying black drop shadows); the Yankees have none. The Mets use a script instead of a chest logo. The Mets have the player numbers on the front and the player names on the back. No one is going to get the Mets' pinstriped jerseys confused with the Yankees.

I don't agree with the snow-white one being better. I find it unusually clear and tasteless.

Agreed. I remember when they first came out, Keith Olbermann said that someone stole the Mets' pinstripes. I always thought that was a great way to describe the "snow whites."

[Gothamite]

Mo one is going to get the Mets' pinstriped jerseys confused with the Yankees.

Of course not.

But nobody's going to forget that the pinstripes are a Yankee homage, either.

As I said, they can have their own identity or they can be the Yankees Jr.

[Eye]

Mo one is going to get the Mets' pinstriped jerseys confused with the Yankees.

Of course not.

But nobody's going to forget that the pinstripes are a Yankee homage, either.

As I said, they can have their own identity or they can be the Yankees Jr.

Who thinks that? I have never heard anyone say that the Mets are paying homage to the Yankees with their pinstripes.