The Madison Mallards — a team in the collegiate summer Northwoods League — announced a few days ago that they’d do a one-day rebrand as the Saturday Night Live-inspired Motivational Speakers for their game on July 6. Now they’ve topped that with another one-day makeover: They’ll honor their home state’s deep bratwurst culture by playing as the Wisconsin Wurst on July 27.
The major design elements are shown above. Here are some additional pics and graphics, along with a pretty funny promo video:
This is so much better than all the City Connect nonsense. It’s genuinely connected to local culture, and fun to boot. Nice job, Mallards!
With apologies to Jim Vilk, I’d eat – err, wear – that!
If they acknowledge that it’s a sandwich, I’d eat…er, wear that as well.
That’s exactly it! Minor League Baseball is doing fun City Connects and killing it. While the Major League Baseball serious(ly bad) City Connects just need to be killed.
I think the thing is Minor League Baseball is willing to be fun and goofy. They aren’t worrying about trying to look cool or fashionable. So much of what Nike does with either City Connect or the City Edition (and now NFL?) is attempting to have a cool factor, like what would you see some sort of celebrity wear that the younger demographic would want to copy. They are pretending to be of the moment fashion. The minors leagues have no such pretension, it is ugly but it is fun and draws on something local.
100% right. These minor league teams have no interest in trying to be hip or trendy. It’s about having some goofy fun. Meanwhile, Nike is producing CC uniforms with the hope that some NBA star may wear it on the locker room runway.
That’s pretty fun. I’m wondering why they took a picture of a guy eating a Chicken Bake at Costco though…
There’s a Costco not too far from the Mallards’ ballpark, the Duck Pond at Warner Park. Just on the other side of the airport. Convenient spot to take photos of the merch being worn out in the world, plus cheap eats for players who are basically volunteers.
Madison has Brat Fest, so I wondered if that was connected to the jersey, but it seems that is in May, not July.
Also, nice work by whoever did the slide labeled “hat and jersey” instead of uniform
It’s definitely worth clicking through from the Wurst video to the Matt Foley video: link
This is excellent. Pretty obvious that Nike wasn’t involved. Northwoods League has a bunch of solid team identities, even the full time ones like Pit Spitters and Dock Spiders. Fun baseball too if you’re in the upper Midwest.
They should be on the lookout for a cease and desist from the Univerity of Tennessee
The jersey is over the top but this could legitimately just be a full time brand. I love how “Wisconsin Wurst” rolls off the tongue, no different than “Macon Bacon.”
Props to them for using the great Cleveland Stadium Mustard! Target Field sells the wonderful Kramarczuk’s sausages but doesn’t offer a French’s alternative. Have to smuggle in my own Stadium Mustard!
Ballpark Mustard > Stadium Mustard.
But I also like yellow mustard, so what do I know?
Jim, my beef (haha) with Ballpark Mustard is that it (A) has sugar in it, and (B) has a metallic aftertaste. Otherwise they’re both fine brown mustards. Who would guess that a city has crosstown mustard rivals!
The Mallards are great at these! This fills me with joy! The jersey are my least favorite part. Mostly because I don’t like the sight of sauerkraut.
When I lived in Wisconsin, I knew a guy who started a bratwurst company, called Wisconsin’s Wurst Company. This is another great play on the word and the local culture.
They are also doing a Motivation Speakers rebrand, based on Chris Farley’s Matt Foley from SNL. In case, you didn’t know Farley was a Madison native.
Yes, I mentioned that in the post.
Interesting that they have two different caps, one with the primary logo and another with the secondary. But only one night to wear them…hmm.
I’m in Madison, maybe I’ll go! Not the wurst idea.
The “flying W” hat might end up in my collection…
Wonderful. I was fed up with the local food theme in minor league baseball (as every team seems to have such an identity. Indigestion inflation). But this one has made me hungry again. Go Wurst! And as mentioned by many above: the minors are all about goofy fun. MLB is so afraid of goofy fun, except for the Brewers and their sausage race (yes, once again food is involved) and Bernie sliding down into a barrel of beer.
To be honest, Bernie hasn’t slid into a barrel of beer since County Stadium closed. Sadly, it’s been nothing more than a generic slide ever since they moved into Miller Park / AmFam Field.
Just to clarify, the Madison Mallards are a collegiate summer league team made up of amateur college ballplayers, not a minor league team.
A genuine question! Baltimore is known for seafood – specifically crabs and crabcakes. Are you saying you would want to see a crab themed City Connect uni for Baltimore?? HAHA
Tongue firmly planted in cheek :-)