Now that they’re going to wear them 100 times next season, the Mariners desperately need to fix the kerning on their navy jerseys. pic.twitter.com/rc5UoDniYL
— Mariner Muse (@MarinerMuse) January 28, 2023
The NOB font used on the Mariners’ blue jersey — a jersey that began as a softball-top alternate in 2012 and then became the team’s primary road jersey last season — has been a running MLB joke for several years now. I did a deep dive on it myself, including an analysis of why it’s such a tricky font to work with, in the summer of 2022.
The expectation for some time now has been that the team would finally fix the problem this season, which M’s marketing vice president Kevin Martinez recently confirmed (on Christmas Eve, appropriately):
Yes the issue with the lettering on the back of the navy jersey will be rectified this season. Happy Holidays!
— Kevin Martinez (@Kevin_Martinez) December 25, 2023
Thanks to a source who’s provided me with the appropriate page from the 2024 MLB Style Guide, I can now verify that this is indeed happening, and I can also show you the new NOB font:
Looks like it’s the same NOB font they’ve been using on their home jerseys (but a bit smaller, as is the case with all NOB lettering this season):
Wondering why such a simple change took so long? I’ve been told that this revision, like any other MLB jersey alteration, had to be in the pipeline for two years before it could hit the field. Crazy but true.
To see all my reports on the 2024 MLB Style Guide, look here.
Meanwhile: For all the Mariners blogs that will be tweeting about this, it would be nice if you could please link to this page instead of just lifting the graphics and saying “per @UniWatch.” Thanks!
Loving all the content from the style guide. Would love to know if it lists the black vests for the Rockies since they haven’t been seen for a few years now. Although they’re still sold in the pro shop.
Peak Uni Watch content this week! MLB unis will forever be my favorite, and you’ve got all the scoops!
While this is a welcome (and long overdue change), the M’s should have dumped this softball top and stuck with the road grays. How many teams have a navy blue softball top?
I’m not a fan of their green tops (link), but at least we instantly recognize that as a Mariners jersey.
But fixing the kerning issue will definitely help here.
When I select the link it says “access denied”.
For me too (and that happened to a link the *first* time I inserted it too). Grrr. It was simply a photo of a Mariner wearing the green top.
Trying a third link: link
Your third try also doesn’t work. Someone needs to teach Phil how to link to a photo before May rolls around. ; )
You gotta be effing kidding me with this.
All I’m trying to do is link to a photo of a Mariner wearing a Nike-era jersey
Fourth time’s a charm?
link
Nope.
On one side yeah this is better for sure. The kerning issue was uuugly, really the only thing i didnt like about the navys.
On the other side god i wish it was possible to get a serif NOB font to work. I do see *why* it isnt really doable, but still.
It could be doable if they did it without the outlines. Single-color letters could be kerned correctly and properly.
Okay true actually, brain fart on my part here. Especially considering that i forgot about Twins doing exactly that (which looks wonderful).
Even with the kerning issues I still liked that font as it matched that of the wordmark.
Yet another aesthetic downgrade for the M’s in my opinion. I never liked the changes made to their name and numbers adding that extra layer of silver.
First, the Mariners dumped the trident, then the royal/yellow.
Next they adopted the compass…and lost their way.
Yeah, I know – royal and black don’t pair well, but the City Connects are perhaps the best thing the M’s have done to improve their look.
I did like their city connect a lot more than I thought, the whole uniform looked really good and the colors complemented each other well, even with the all black pants.
I preferred the previous NOB and number colors of navy blue outlined in teal/northwest green, the teal popped just enough against the white or grey jerseys and their current navy/silver/teal makes the teal accents look too muted, just my opinion.
Agreed, I loved the font. Sadly, it was fine as a bespoke wordmark, where all the letters were outlined together and it was always the same letters, but it didn’t work as an NOB font. They could have made minor changes to the offending letters but it wasn’t meant to be.
The bigger issue is getting the M’s back to royal/athletic gold (yellow) on a full-time basis, those cream home alts are perfect.
Why not change the ugly numbers to match the home whites too?
That number font is still so dated….
A note that Cade Marlowe (shown above wearing #18 last season) has switched to #2, allowing new Mariner Mitch Garver to have #18. Additionally, Luke Raley will wear #20 after his recent trade to the Mariners (after wearing #37 and #62 with the Dodgers and #55 with the Rays).
link
Could this also be a byproduct of the new Nike template? Forcing everyone to a block font for their NOB? Mariners, Mets, and Giants all went to a more standard font (lost custom typeface/dropshadows).
As noted in the article: M’s were already planning this two years ago.
Was I dreaming, or was standardization of name lettering font part of this Nike program? Has anyone else heard that, or do I remember something that didn’t happen?
There was talk of it, but it doesn’t appear to have happened. I’m told that the Reds, for example, still have their custom font. And we’ve seen Rangers replica jerseys in the new template with their custom font. Etc.
The M’s really need to dump their color scheme and go back to royal blue and gold. They have the second worst uniforms in baseball, only slightly ahead of the D’Backs.
Sorry, the Padres camos have got to be the worst!
Good. I love the Mariners uniforms but this was so annoying
Any Mariners’ blogger who does the cut n’ paste trick will be punished by listening to Dave Sims and Mike Blowers for no fewer than five games.
They got it fixed but I still prefer the old grey uniforms for on the road.
Yes, the font is bad. But the outline treatment is worse. Better a single-layer treatment of the terrible old font than yet another three-layer treatment of a more legible font. Even a single outline on NOB lettering is self-indulgent, but usually doesn’t actively hurt legibility the way the Mariners’ double-outline treatment does.
As a long time Uni Watch reader, I’m glad that my favorite Mariner’s blog followed directions and linked Uni Watch. Good job Lookout Landing! Also thank goodness this change is finally happening.