Last week I wrote about how Atlanta’s belt loop piping — one of MLB’s coolest little uniform details — was being eliminated under Nike’s new pants template. It now appears that I may have spoken too soon.
Up until now, Atlanta players have been wearing the team’s new road grey pants, which definitely don’t have the belt loop piping. But The Atlanta Journal-Constitution just shared a bunch of photos from Atlanta’s Photo Day shoot, and it appears that the piping — or at least a modified version of it — is being retained on the home pants.
The belt tunnels on the new pants aren’t positioned in the same spots as on the old pants, so the visual effect is a bit different:
Because the piping-clad side loops are now rotated a bit toward the back of the pants, you can’t see the piping at all when looking at a player from the front. This was mostly true of the old pants as well, but you at least got a hint of the piping from a front view:
Overall, this move is better than nothing, but it’s definitely not as satisfying as the old belt tunnels. It feels like they’re retrofitting a square peg into a round hole.
It’s not clear why they aren’t adding the piping to the new front tunnels, which I think would look pretty cool. It’s also not clear whether the piping will now be added to the grey road pants. In the end, this may all be moot, because the new pants are such a fiasco that they may be scrapped altogether. And on top of everything else, there aren’t enough new pants to go around, which might end up being a good thing.
(Huge thanks to pseudonymous reader Boxcarvibe for bringing the new photos to my attention.)
As Butthead would say, “Beavis, you can’t polish a turd.”
Is it better than nothing? Yes. But that’s like saying the *new* Mets ad (link) is better than the *old* Mets ad. (link)
Still an ad. Do these pants suck as much? No, but they still suck.
Everything about these new uniforms suck. Letter breaks and size, thinness. Who wants to wear this Opening Day in Minneapolis? Watch someone rip this cheap fabric on a head first slide. I will never buy this jersey. I’ll wait for the Fan Appreciation giveaway jerseys, where I can get cheap for free.
Is this a modification the team is doing themselves?
The Red Sox have just kicked off their first game of Spring Training, and appear to be wearing the old template home white pants. Nothing to learn from their opponents, though; this is their annual opener against a college team, and Northeastern is looking sharp in Under Armor road grays.
(Well, reasonably sharp. No NOB arching of any kind. Oh well.)
Oh, hang on… there is a mixture! The pitcher in the top of the 2nd is wearing the new pants, and there is some transparency visible from some camera angles, in some lighting. The only thing which really stuck out like a sore thumb to me was the back pockets, which are much whiter than everything else, due to the extra layers of fabric.
Bless you, Uni Watch, for still calling them “pants.” According to CBSSports.com today, MLBPA head Tony Clark referred to them as “the pant.” I’ve heard and read others in the fashion industry use the same singular term. It’s stupid.
Marty,
Having worked for a very, very, very large retail sporting goods company as a copywriter and proofreader not long ago, rest assured that I continually had to fight the good fight for the plural, and that I share your annoyance with a scorching passion.
As I used to try and explain to the dolts in the athleisure department of our company: No one wakes up in the morning and says, “I have to put on my pair of pant.”
Ugh.
-C.
They’re answering questions that nobody asked.
“on top of everything else, there aren’t enough new pants to go around” – The uniform version of “this food tastes terrible, and the portions are too small.”
I was thinking that exact thing!!
In the days when the Braves’ uniforms had a number under the tomahawk, there were pocket flaps which also had the piping. Despite an opportunity to trim the belt loops, the piping was confined to the sides and back of the pants. Now that the loops have been omitted, trimming the front tunnels would probably look good.
I hope they can recycle all these soon to be discarded pants.
Into something useful I mean, not into new baseball pants of poor quality.