Blue Jays to change uniforms for next season

[The_Admiral]

his bird sorta looks like it just got done telling a really bad joke and is waiting for people to laugh.

Oh, the Toronto Blue Tanks.

[BBTV]

While I didn't have any real complaints with the real logo, I think that this one looks amazing^.

It staggers me that we, as fans, scream for a franchise to make a move to embrace its history and reverse a TERRIBLE marketing decision. Then when they finally do, some of the pedantic fans can only react by applying stylistic analysis better suited to a woman's haircut or wedding dress and deeming the logo "insufficient". For one thing, one of the appealing things about the logo is that it IS slightly off-center and off-balance, that captivates the eye and makes the logo more intriguing to look at. It's the idiosyncracies and anomalies of it that make it interesting.

Dude, stop it. That's what we do here, and it's what all artists do. It's your team, I get it, but jesus christ, no logo or work of art is perfect and it's totally reasonable to point out areas that one subjectively feels could be improved. The bandwagoning here with this logo is just as nauseating as all of the hate bandowagoning that goes on when something like the Slug comes out. It's a huge upgrade from their Black Jays mess - I don't think any rational person could argue that - but it's not perfect, and there's nothing wrong with anyone pointing out areas where they would have done something different.

his bird sorta looks like it just got done telling a really bad joke and is waiting for people to laugh.

Oh, the Toronto Blue Tanks.

POTD.

[steve61]

The thing with the logo that bugs me the most is how the "Toronto" appears to be smaller in size than the "Blue Jays". Maybe the split lettering decision too ... either should be on both or neither.

It was like that on the original too. Perhaps a bit less noticeable with both being a split letter font

[-kj]

I loved the new Jays logo when I first saw it and thought that it was perfect and couldn't look better, that everyone calling for changes was crazy.

Now, after seening those changes, I think it looks great tweaked.

What you said. I think he got the bird portions of the change spot on (the balance of the actual bird still bugs me, no matter how much I like the overall package), but I would have carried over the split font and the double outline on the roundel, because those really give it character.

[M4One]

While I think the Blue Jays did a good job with the retro update, I liked the angry bird logo they are switching from more. The previous road uniform was pretty good, too. The home definately needed to be changed and have blue as the dominate colour.

[Fox]

I must say that the AL East has become the best looking division in baseball PERIOD....I also must say that this off season has brought the most polarizing set of uni changes in a while. Baltimore made an upgrade, Miami has a really-love-it or really-hate-it change, San Diego just a boring change and the BLUE Jays finally have risen from the ashes.

I would have to agree with that. In my opinion, the Blue Jays and Orioles sets are perfect or near perfect, the Red Sox and Yankees both have really sharp home whites, and I'm not really a fan of the Rays set but I like their powder blues.

NL East might give them some competition (Mets, Braves, Phillies, Nationals all look good)

Even the NL Central has some strong sets (Reds, Cardinals, Pirates, Brewers, and Cubs all have good sets)

[Quillz]

Apparently this is supposed to be a better version that fixes up all the "errors"...just to create even more errors.

I actually really like this. But I'd give the font the split treatment and I'd have used the new official font, too.

[abluecarrot]

Apparently this is supposed to be a better version that fixes up all the "errors"...just to create even more errors.

I actually really like this. But I'd give the font the split treatment and I'd have used the new official font, too.

It looks too generic. The real one has some character to it. Imperfections are perfections.

[CubsFanBudMan]

Someone long ago in this thread (IceCap maybe?) said that all the Blue Jays had to do was go back to the World Series uniforms and they'd be perfect. My first instinct was to disagree, but when I looked at them I couldn't. Now, after letting these new ones soak in all weekend, I think it is an absolute upgrade, BUT...

1. I like that the original logo let the wordmarks be the circle. The double-lined circle is a nice touch, but unnecessary, IMO.

2. The neck of the bird also catches my eye in the wrong way. Too pointy or too severe. On the BP where it stands alone from far away I get a weird Texas vibe from it. Maybe the shape of the state? No idea, but it makes me think Rangers for some reason. Maybe the distribution of colors is similar to the old T-flag they used.

3. The font is an upgrade I honestly didn't think they needed. Perfect modernization. If that was all they'd changed from the original it might have been enough to make it feel new to me.

Ultimately, I love this set for the recognition alone. I don't know if these would be as loved if they hadn't gone black first, though.

If I went to the future 15 years and a new Marlins owner had just introduced a modernized 2010 set, I think they'd be equally loved. The Jays didn't go powder, and the Marlins probably won't ever go full teal, but if you bring back a uni that hearkens back to a team's original and/or most successful look, it's hard to go wrong.

[BigBubba]

I think it's fitting that we start referring to the Black Jays unis as the "Halladay-Era Set" because 1. He was pretty much the only reason the Jays were relevant for the time they wore it (minus 2011 because of Bautista and Romero, but both will continue their success into the 2012 set)--> Like The "Clemens Era Set". 2. He was one of the longest serving players in this uniform (second to only Wells, I believe) 3. This ear was the good-but-not-good enough time which will eventually be forgotten. We never won Doc anything here, so to the media, his time in TO is somewhat lost.

[Quillz]

Looks like the Blue Jays' mascot, Ace, got a makeover:

Also, I found a decent pic showing off the actual NOB and numbers:

Definitely one of the best looking teams in baseball.

[Gothamite]

They sure are.

Bravo, Toronto.

[IceCap]

While I didn't have any real complaints with the real logo, I think that this one looks amazing^.

It staggers me that we, as fans, scream for a franchise to make a move to embrace its history and reverse a TERRIBLE marketing decision. Then when they finally do, some of the pedantic fans can only react by applying stylistic analysis better suited to a woman's haircut or wedding dress and deeming the logo "insufficient". For one thing, one of the appealing things about the logo is that it IS slightly off-center and off-balance, that captivates the eye and makes the logo more intriguing to look at. It's the idiosyncracies and anomalies of it that make it interesting.

Dude, stop it. That's what we do here, and it's what all artists do. It's your team, I get it, but jesus christ, no logo or work of art is perfect and it's totally reasonable to point out areas that one subjectively feels could be improved. The bandwagoning here with this logo is just as nauseating as all of the hate bandowagoning that goes on when something like the Slug comes out. It's a huge upgrade from their Black Jays mess - I don't think any rational person could argue that - but it's not perfect, and there's nothing wrong with anyone pointing out areas where they would have done something different.

He never said the new look was perfect. It isn't.

That being said, we're just happy to have the Blue Jays looking like the Blue Jays again. While the new look isn't perfect it's still very, very nice, and we're just enjoying that fact. Sort of like a "we're not letting you guys bring us down" kind of thing.

[Sport]

I know how you Blue Jays fans feel. When the Reds finally dropped the vests, black hats and sleeves on the road, and pinstripes, it felt like I had my team back. Everything about their current set isn't perfect (I'd like to see black completely eliminated from the set, and I don't like the drop shadowed numbers/NOB), but it's good enough for me.

The Reds looked like Cincinnati's baseball team again, and I'm sure you guys feel like you got Toronto's baseball team back. I wouldn't be surprised if the Jays attendance was better this season for this reason alone.

[TruColor]

I know how you Blue Jays fans feel. When the Reds finally dropped the vests, black hats and sleeves on the road, and pinstripes, it felt like I had my team back. Everything about their current set isn't perfect (I'd like to see black completely eliminated from the set, and I don't like the drop shadowed numbers/NOB), but it's good enough for me.

The Reds looked like Cincinnati's baseball team again, and I'm sure you guys feel like you got Toronto's baseball team back. I wouldn't be surprised if the Jays attendance was better this season for this reason alone.

Slightly OT: Am I the only here who absolutely LOVES the inclusion of Black for the Reds, and would be greatly disappointed if they got rid of it?

[IceCap]

Someone long ago in this thread (IceCap maybe?) said that all the Blue Jays had to do was go back to the World Series uniforms and they'd be perfect.

I did say that, because I saw what happened when the team tried to "update" the World Series uniforms in 1997. I figured that any attempt to upgrade the World Series set again would result in something like that, where they tried to hard to make the World Series uniforms seem "cool." I'm very happy to have been proven wrong. This is a fantastic (not perfect) attempt at an upgrade. All in all I'm glad this is the direction they went in.

I know how you Blue Jays fans feel. When the Reds finally dropped the vests, black hats and sleeves on the road, and pinstripes, it felt like I had my team back. Everything about their current set isn't perfect (I'd like to see black completely eliminated from the set, and I don't like the drop shadowed numbers/NOB), but it's good enough for me.

The Reds looked like Cincinnati's baseball team again, and I'm sure you guys feel like you got Toronto's baseball team back. I wouldn't be surprised if the Jays attendance was better this season for this reason alone.

Well said. I'd like to see the Jays ditch the navy outline on the road wordmark, and I'd like to see the "TORONTO" get the split letter treatment on the logo, but I'm very, very happy with how this turned out. They did almost everything right. My biggest fear was that the red would be included in the uniform beyond the maple leaf in the logo. I'm glad to see they didn't go overboard with it.

Yeah, it's weird seeing your team look so drastically different. The first year of the 2004 change, with the graphite hats, were the worst.

[Jungle Jim]

I know how you Blue Jays fans feel. When the Reds finally dropped the vests, black hats and sleeves on the road, and pinstripes, it felt like I had my team back. Everything about their current set isn't perfect (I'd like to see black completely eliminated from the set, and I don't like the drop shadowed numbers/NOB), but it's good enough for me.

The Reds looked like Cincinnati's baseball team again, and I'm sure you guys feel like you got Toronto's baseball team back. I wouldn't be surprised if the Jays attendance was better this season for this reason alone.

Slightly OT: Am I the only here who absolutely LOVES the inclusion of Black for the Reds, and would be greatly disappointed if they got rid of it?

I was very disappointed to learn that some black would be remaining in the Reds uniforms in 2007. After the ugly vests, black caps, and black undershirts of the 2000s, I just wanted the black gone...all of it. I grew on the Big Red Machine of the 1970s and while I didn't like the double knits with stripes and waistbands, I wanted the simple red and white to return, hopefully in the form of the 1968-71 version. I still think that look would be awesome, but I have certainly made peace with the inclusion of the black and wonder if they might now be too "plain" without it. The one change I (and a lot of others) would like to see would be the elimination of the black bill on the road caps in favor of solid red all the time, and also the double red stripes on the arms and pants of the roads looks pink from a distance, so they should go with one solid red stripe or something along those lines.

I've always thought the Reds could've/should've stuck with their 1968-71 version straight through the past four decades, and if they had, they'd be mentioned with the Yankees, Cardinals, Dodgers, and Tigers as all-time classics.

[CC97]

I know how you Blue Jays fans feel. When the Reds finally dropped the vests, black hats and sleeves on the road, and pinstripes, it felt like I had my team back. Everything about their current set isn't perfect (I'd like to see black completely eliminated from the set, and I don't like the drop shadowed numbers/NOB), but it's good enough for me.

The Reds looked like Cincinnati's baseball team again, and I'm sure you guys feel like you got Toronto's baseball team back. I wouldn't be surprised if the Jays attendance was better this season for this reason alone.

Slightly OT: Am I the only here who absolutely LOVES the inclusion of Black for the Reds, and would be greatly disappointed if they got rid of it?

I like black as a trim colour for the Reds, works very well with a predominantly red and white colour scheme

[Gothamite]

Didn't see this here, from the National Post (and via Uni Watch):

[OnWis97]

Font snobs? Well, I never...