In today’s ticker, we’ve got more patch tea leaves in MLB, a somewhat crazy mid-season kit provider switch in England’s second tier, and more!
Uni Watch News Ticker for Feb. 25, 2023
Posted in:
Baseball
MLB
- The Mariners also seem to be in the market for a uni advertiser, as the team’s All-Star Game patch is on different sleeves for different players. (From David Hein)
- The Rockies have completely nixed their logo patch, likely ahead of a uni advertising deal. (From @MomoNaryan)
- Due to Nike’s asinine “four-plus-one” uni rule, it appears the Phillies will not wear green jerseys on St. Patrick’s Day. (From Kurt Esposito)
- Some really nice color Spring Training footage at the 2:05 mark of this 1950s St. Petersburg, Fl., tourism video. (From Jeff Wilk)
- Fenway isn’t the only AL East ballpark with an iconic sign coming down this offseason: Camden Yards is removing the Baltimore Sun sign above the scoreboard. (From Marcus Hall)
Hockey
NHL
- The Hurricanes wore helmet decals with the logos of various North Carolina HBCUs, which I think is a really cool gesture for Black History Month.
- The Capitals are wearing these Black History Month warm-ups today. (From multiple readers)
- The Athletic has a good piece on what happens to all of the branded non-uniform gear NHL players collect but can’t take with them when they’re traded. (From Bob Hille)
Minors/Juniors
- The Milwaukee Admirals, AHL affiliates of the Predators, will wear one-off sweaters designed to resemble Milwaukee’s unofficial flag. Thank god they didn’t try to design a sweater based on the official flag of the city.
- Last night, the OHL’s Oshawa Generals celebrated Pride Night with rainbow uniforms. (From Wade Heidt)
Soccer
International
- England: All Premier League captains will wear Ukrainian flag armbands this weekend to mark the one year anniversary of Russia’s invasion. (Thanks, Jamie)
- England: Second-tier side Bristol City announced that they were dropping their kit manufacturing deal with Hummel and replacing them with O’Neills. Oddly, they’ve also launched next season’s kit, which they’ll wear this weekend, and for the remainder of this season. According to an FAQ sheet released by the club, the reason for the mid-season switch is due to Hummel’s British licensee going into administration, and the supply chain issues that are arising from that, though the club is still wearing Hummel training gear on non-matchdays. Hummel also provides the kits for 19 other British clubs, including Everton, so one has to wonder if those issues Bristol City are concerned about come to fruition for the other Hummel clubs. (Thanks, Jamie)
Grab Bag
- Here’s a really cool piece on the company that’s been designing NASA’s mission patches for over 50 years. (From @zubazforever)
Comments (17)
1. I’ll miss the Baltimore Sun sign at Camden Yards. It was a neat quirk and a handy way to notify if the ball was a hit or an error.
2. So if the Phillies are throwing 40+ years of tradition in the trash to worship at the altar of Nike, what does it mean for one-offs in MLB? If teams are limited to 4+1, and they’re going to be compelled, urged or strongarmed into a heavy dose of alternates and City Connects into the primary home and road sets, what happens to throwbacks, TATC, Negro League tributes and the like? Seems like they wouldn’t be able to work it in and they wouldn’t devote one of the 4 to a one-off. In short, Nike is going to running MLB uniforms and a century and a half of tradition the way they ruined the NBA.
“Nike is going to (ruin) MLB uniforms and a century and a half of tradition the way they ruined the NBA.”
– For a large portion of that 150 years, most teams had a home white uniform and a road gray uniform. Nike is hardly ruining tradition by “only” allowing teams five (!) different uniform sets.
As far as I’m concerned exactly one of the major league teams has a “tradition” of multiple uniforms, and that would be the Athletics: a white one, a green one, and a yellow (gold) one.
While the A’s did that for longer(an for better!), the Pirates deserve a mention.
Deeply irritating to see teams throw their sleeve patches away in service to fitting ads there instead. Probably the only thing stopping the Rays from doing the same (for now) is that their sleeve patch is wide and short, so they probably think they can just slap the ad above it. (sigh)
Al Lang stadium really was a gem for spring training. Shame no MLB team took up residence full time and it turned into a soccer stadium.
On the Phillies wearin green, St. Paddy’s green jerseys are one of my favorite quirks. Loved seeing how teams incorporated green throughout the years.
I don’t buy Philly’s argument for not wearing green. The Cardinals have been wearing red this spring and I don’t think they’ll be dropping any of the white, grey, cream, or blue uniforms. Or they just told Nike no and Nike listened.
I think teams have too many jerseys as is, but it is completely insane that the hired supplier for uniforms tells teams what they can and cannot do, and not the other way around. I am sure it is all about retail. If a team has too many jerseys, Nike will not be able to sell enough of any of them.
Since Phillies are wearing red jerseys this spring does that mean they are keeping red for road? Mariners rolled over and dropped powder blue for their NW green in Cactus League.
Cubs photos show their walking bear logo on left sleeve, blank on right sleeve, regardless of player handedness.
No great loss that the Rockies are deleting their sleeve patch. It was superfluous, just like those of any of baseball’s six most recent expansion teams. Toronto doesn’t have one, and the Nationals should probably drop theirs.
The Jets and Moose are having a WASAC week-end (Winnipeg Aboriginal Sport Achievement Centre). Details here : link
Real cool Jets fashion jersey : link
The Moose’s 2023 version of the jersey : link
Jerseys from a similar event in 2020 :
link
link
As far as these go, I think this is amongst the best!
Sorry to see the Baltimore Sun sign go, but pleased the O’s didn’t use the chance to remove and update the 1989-1997 Birds adorning the scoreboard.
Watching the Guardians/Reds game today and some , not all , of the Guardians had an “R” patch on the left sleeve. Ad?
I think it was a Rawlings logo, so a maker’s mark. Guessing it was only on minor league players.
Speaking of which, what if Rawlings became a teams sponsor, say the Cardinals, would they have a big Rawlings ad on a Nike jersey?
That would be delicious.
Hilarious that Bostson was #6th team mentioned that would play the Yanks in spring training. That is a rivalry that feels like it grew in stature dramatically over the years.