Just as I was leaving for Hawaii last week, I wrote about how the Angels had made an unanncouned uni change by removing the grey shadow from the back number of their red jersey (as shown above). It turns out that they’ve made some similar changes to their home and road jerseys, which we all missed because (a) they didn’t wear those jerseys during spring training and (b) these changes, like the one to the red jersey, were not announced.
Let’s start with the front of the home jersey, where the grey/silver shadow on the chest lettering has now been added to the uni number:
Similarly, the white outlining on the chest lettering of the road jersey has now been added to the number:
No change has been made to the front of the red jersey (only to the back), because the chest lettering and front number formats already matched on that design:
So now each jersey’s front number format is consistent with the chest lettering, which appears to be what they were going for with these changes. But the front numbers are no longer consistent with the back numbers (which lack the shadowing/outlining).
There’s nothing necessarily wrong with any of these changes. They used to have one consistent approach (front numbers and back numbers match), and now they have a different consistent approach (front numbers and chest lettering match). The weird thing, as with so many of the 2024 MLB uni changes, is that the team hasn’t announced anything about these design adjustments. And that’s not an Angels thing — the lack of communication regarding this season’s uniform changes is confounding. Consider:
- Although the Nationals formally unveiled their new road and alternate jerseys, to my knowledge they’ve never mentioned that they also eliminated the front numbers and adjusted the script angle on their home and alternate jerseys.
- Atlanta never mentioned that they changed the headspoon and sleeve-trim color on their navy jersey.
- As far as I know, the Yankees never even announced anything about their new road jersey!
And that’s just a small sampling of the 2024 uni changes that have been enacted without so much as a whisper from the respective teams. Very, very strange.
(Big thanks to Twitter-er Keyvon P for spotting these changes.)
The Yankees posted a video of their new road uniforms, but only on Opening Day link
The Angels also still have never announced their throwback uniform, at least as far as I’ve heard
IDK if this is considered to be a hot take, but the Yankees new road uniforms are actually an improvement IMO.
No, I like them too. The level of detail between the home and road uniforms balance out better, and a less-is-more paradigm has overtaken baseball. It seems the Yanks were inspired by the Dodgers and Royals when designing the new grey suits.
Unfortunately, the “less is more” also applies to what you get for the price…
In theory the design yes, In reality the execution, materials, quality nope
Agreed. Like an unintentional throwback.
I have no love for the Yankees but those road unis are a big improvement for them.
Chris Creamer also pointed out that the Angels have reversed the colors on their batterman logo on both the jersey and hat (and presumably wherever else it gets used) – it was previously blue on the left and red on the right, and now those are flipped.
Yes, that was also included in my MLB Season Preview: link
I’d be willing to guess that the teams had no idea about these changes and Nike either A) screwed up replicating the jerseys with the new template or B) made the changes without asking because the changes made them easier to produce
I would tend to agree with this theory. Not necessarily that Nike screwed up or were doing something nefarious, but rather that these were Nike driven changes for one reason or another.
I don’t really have a problem with that either when it comes to small stuff like the Angels’ drop shadow (or lack there off), and the white outline on Yankees’ road uniforms. It almost feels like a very old-fashioned thing, the manufacturer for one reason or another altered details on a uniform, but not the design. Amid all the hype videos and announcements for uniforms now, I sort of enjoy small changes not requiring any sort of announcement. Would be nice if we could get a reasoning for it when Paul investigates, even if it is just “it was a small change we thought looked a little better”. The lack of that sort of answer encourages speculation that it was a Nike driven move, and for reasons that probably just benefitted Nike.
all of this cloak and dagger just lends credence to the notion that everyone is quite aware, teams included, that Nike has no idea WTF they’re doing with these new changes.
I’m getting the impression that Nike is making these subtle changes WITHOUT consulting with the team, and the teams probably don’t even notice.
Can’t say that’s the case with the Yankees — that’s a pretty major change and I don’t think Nike did that without team involvement, so I’m surprised they didn’t trumpet it. So instead of saying “this is the road jersey Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio wore” all folks concentrate on is how sweat-stained they become. And we get articles from non-uni websites calling them “boring” when this is about the best change to come about this season.
link
One good thing I noticed while the Reds are in town is that the smaller NOB lettering looks normal after the oversized ones previously.
Not communicating about changes sounds like not caring at all about it to me. That goes for MLB, the teams and Nike.
I hate that the Nats removed the front numbers from their home whites and blue alts. Looks unfished. Like they’re all wearing cheap MLB replicas. Maybe that’s just the new fabric.
BTW, we were told at a hot stove event when the new unis came out that the red curly W had would now be paired with the home whites. Apparently that is not the case. Really have come to dislike that white panel cap. Their branding is a mess. Matches the play on the field I guess.
And, while I don’t mind them foregoing some huge new scoreboard for a new board with the same footprint (resolution is miles better), sure wish they would have updated the wordmark at the top. Still that clunky block from the inaugural season. I know it’s not in their nature to spend their own cash on stadium upgrades but, every once in a while, how about taking one for the team.
“sure wish they would have updated the wordmark at the top”
That’s their perma-tribute to Todd Radom!
Never a fan of that font or the gold beveling.
Let’s be honest. Team not announcing is the last thing they need to worry about. Top concern and issue is how bad the jersey is after the changes they did with Nike.