Little by little, we’re seeing more MLB teams’ jerseys rendered in Nike’s new template, which all 30 teams will be wearing next season. Last month we saw the new template used for the Diamondbacks’ new uni set, and earlier this week we saw a Tigers player wearing the new-template jersey during a community appearance. Yesterday’s press conference to introduce two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani to the L.A. media gave us our first look at how a Dodgers jersey will look in the new template.
Let’s start with the front number. It is much smaller than in the past:
You have to look closely to see it, but the front number’s fabric is perforated, as is the case for all numerals in the new template:
Also, the script now crosses the placket at a different point. It used to break at the connector between the “o” and the “d,” but now the “d” is broken into separate pieces:
I hadn’t seen that one coming, and it’s a big downgrade. Ugh.
Now let’s turn our attention to the back of the jersey. As we’ve seen with other teams, the MLB logo is lower, the typography is smaller, and the NOB has a tighter arch:
And again, if you look closely, you can see that the numbers are perforated:
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Those are the things I noticed. I’ll keep doing these as other teams’ jerseys cross my radar.
Are the numbers smaller or is Ohtani bigger than I think?
He’s not THAT much bigger; forget about Ohtani, compare the number to the Dodgers script across the chest. Nike being Nike; having ruined a few other sports, turning to MLB to destroy it as well.
It appears the new Nike jersey template has both smaller front and back numbers, at least based on the side-by-side pics Paul has shown.
Massive, massive downgrades across the board. Ugh.
I swear, Nike hates baseball even more than Manfred does.
Respect The Placket and stop shrinking the numbers!
Think they hate the NBA just as much.
On a scale from 1-10, how possible is it that this jersey is not actually one they’d use on-field? I’m hoping its something the stadium team store made and thats why the front “Dodgers” script looks like that, because yuck.
0.
Old: Dodgers New: Docdgers
Quality explanation. When they mess up the letters, it’s a typo/spelling/ugh.
That seam through the middle of the ‘d’ looks horrible.
Breaking the script at the d rather than keeping the break at the connector is such a downgrade–for seemingly no good reason. I think I would have preferred that Nike shift the script to keep the old break, even if it meant shrinking the script to make it work.
Especially when they had no problem shrinking everything else.
An absolute disaster all across the board. Congrats, Nike/MLB.
Dislike. Especially the more severe arch to the NOB. But, not as jarring a change as for the Tigers…yuck.
That new Tigers’ jersey looks like something you’d buy for a toddler. The placket is too narrow, and the piping is at least twice as wide as before – which hadn’t changed for nearly 100 years. Coupled with the WRONG Old English D (the deleted logo predated the cap logo by over thirty years), and you’ve got an absolute shitshow.
It going to be a sad day if this template causes the Cardinals (and maybe still Phillies) to have to ditch the chain stitched wordmarks on their jerseys.
Lose the redundant LA on the sleeve and all will be forgiven. In such cases, an ad patch would be an improvement.
Amen to that!
As unimpressed as we all are, let’s give it up for the most unimpressed person on the page: Shohei himself. Look at that face! He’s all, “What did they make me wear?”
That placket disaster seems typical of the lack of attention Nike seems to give their baseball designs. I’m sure it looked fine on a computer screen, but there is no way an actual designer saw a prototype with that seam running through the d and said “yeah, that looks good”.
With Nike, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if the designer never even noticed it.
Paul, what would you say their justification is for splitting the D up compared to previously?
To me, it seems pretty cut-and-dry that it’d be super easy to just lift the previous script up from last year’s jersey and place it on the new one, at least in terms of size and shape. All other tweaks that they’d do to it in terms of fabric type or how it’s sewn to the jersey wouldn’t affect it in terms of NEEDING to re-think where to split it, but maybe I’m wrong.
At the same time, if they’re looking to make the script smaller in order to make the jersey x% lighter or whatever like they do with football jerseys, why wouldn’t A) the Dodgers have a say in terms of how big they want the script to be and B) taking in the size of the script from all sides result in the split being in the same place anyway?
Something to do with the new “chassis,” I imagine.
Splitting the D on the placket is inexcusable. I mean, Nike is guilty of a lot of questionable design ideas, but screwing up one of the most iconic uniforms in all professional sports is just shameful.
Time to go back to sansabelt and pullovers!
Looks like somebody took a Dodgers jersey to a local shirt shop and asked if they could make a replica, and this is the best that shop could do.
Agree 100%
Correct me if I’m wrong maybe cuz I don’t know currently, doesn’t majestic still make the jerseys technically????
Nike makes them, but they’ve been using Majestic’s old factory and old fabric/specs.
Yeah that’s what I thought, majestic should’ve stepped in on this and be like hey; this isn’t going to be great craftsmanship or optics for what it should be. Idk that’s just me.
And decrepit old Phil Knight would have thanked them for their input…. and promptly moved the factory to some third world country.
Paul have you heard any rumblings about the Cardinals and Phillies chainstitching? I imagine Nike would want it replaced with their smaller/thinner twill.
Haven’t heard anything yet. It’s worth noting that when adidas took over the NHL and went to more lightweight crest fabric, Chicago kept its chainstitching.
In every example, it also looks like they now go with a lighter shade of blue.
I considered the lighting, but in every picture, the blue on the old jersey is darker.
Better by the old flex base and old Nike ones. And that want my more money. I bought the acuna authentic all star to compare to the authentic Nike one I like old Nike if trying to new template
The new template makes it look like a counterfeit jersey from one of those sketchy websites in China. Massive downgrade.
Nothing to say, except Jackie Robinson and Sandy Koufax wore the bigger thicker front red numbers. Just trash all that history.
I mostly listen to games on the radio rather than watch them on TV, mostly so I don’t have to look at all the various City Connect/camo/holiday junk. I never thought the everyday Dodgers uniform would become another reason I couldn’t stand to watch a ballgame, but that split D will drive me crazy.
Hoping the seamstress didn’t have the correct sized numbers because that looks awful.
And I agree with the comments above… Please stop making numbers smaller!
Look at the Carolina Panthers TV numbers… what a joke.
The numbers look fucking terrible
It looks like Nike wants a standard size number for all sports that they outfit, small on the front and medium size on the back. Baseball, football, soccer, basketball: all the same size numbers. With size extra small for football TV numbers. That split D is a slap in the face of every Dodgers player and fan, present and in the past. What will Nike do to the Mets? Shrink the script and split the M?