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Toronto Blue Jays City Connect Jersey Apparently Leaks

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The Toronto Blue Jays are scheduled to unveil their new City Connect (CC) uniform this Thursday evening, but there has been an apparent leak of the jersey.

What you see above is a screenshot of an image recently uploaded to Instagram, and which purports to be the new jersey. While I can’t confirm or deny this is legitimate, all signs point to it being so.

Last week, we got a look at what appears to be the Blue Jays’ CC cap, and this jersey certainly appears to be designed to wear with said cap. In particular, the skyline depicted on the jersey looks to matchup with the design on the cap’s interior lining. The colors also look to matchup as well.

Unfortunately, we have only the one look (and it’s not even a full shot) of the jersey, but there’s still a lot we can glean: the base of the jersey appears to be a very dark blue (midnight blue) — which fits the recent CC trend. Each sleeve contains a red and royal blue stripe (which would line up with the colors on the cap). “TORONTO” is in the same (or similar) font, as that which appeared on early Blue Jays jerseys, although that wordmark was radially arched. This wordmark is straight/horizontal. Behind the TORONTO wordmark is a royal blue silhouette of the Toronto skyline (including the reflection of the skyline on Lake Ontario).

There is also an inscription on the inside of the collar. It’s hard to read, but it appears to say “Diversity Our Strength” which is the motto of the City.

So, if this is indeed a legitimate leak, we have several clues as to where the storytelling is going to take us.

The Jays are scheduled to officially unveil their CC uniform this Thursday, May 30. The on-field debut is slated for the following day, May 31.

The Jays are one of nine MLB teams getting new City Connect uniforms this season. Here’s the rundown on the other eight teams:

Big Thanks to Matthew Wilcott for sharing the Instagram post

UPDATE: Looks like the photo has also been tweeted, and it gives a slightly better look at the jersey:

 
  
 
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Comments (53)

    Best of luck to Captain Hecken, the new skipper of the S.S Uni Watch. Let’s go everybody, full steam ahead!

    Thanks, Jimmy!

    I was *supposed* to have today off ;). And tomorrow I’ll have my real Post-Paul debut, but I had to get this one up this afternoon!

    Definite Frasier vibe here.

    Also, a bunch of rectangles and one iconic tower. Kind of like the Nuggets’ skyline logo. the lazy artist’s way to draw any town (I do it all the time!)

    When I was 14 years old, I designed a similar jersey for the Mets…wish I kept a copy, but I actually sent it to the Mets. The skyline was from the Met logo and it was orange on top, not black. Fred Wilpon wrote me back…attaching link…hope it works

    link

    Your link works (awesome letter!), and this approach would have been so much better for the Mets than the Blue Jays.

    I am still waiting to hear back, but my 14 year old design sense is now in style so there is hope.

    Yeah got this vibe too, looks more Mets than their actual city connects do…

    Lazy. Another dark primary color design. They all look the same. Boring and garbage. Handful of good ones in the league like Angels, San Diego, Boston, Braves, maybe DBacks. The rest are dreadful.

    Toronto fanbase is not in a festive mood right now, I’m sure management is not happy to be unveiling something that’s supposed to be fun right now. The consensus on Jays Twitter seems to be “unless its an announcement that Shapiro, Atkins and Schneider are all fired, don’t talk to us right now”

    Welcome to the new gig Phil!

    Thanks Mike! As I told Jimmy, I was supposed to be “off” today. But I’ll have a “true” first post tomorrow morning.

    I’m from Toronto, and although it seems to be an unpopular opinion, I like these (from first glance)! The skyline looks great with the Lake Ontario reflection below, and the hat leak matches the Toronto flag, while also keeping the Jays’ relative color scheme.

    Navy/black pants will totally ruin it, though, so they best be white.

    Yes. I hesitate commenting until the full uniform is revealed. I’d like to see if Nike bothered to make the player numbers and names legible. Dark navy would at least have a tenuous link to Toronto (as opposed to BFBS).

    Oh yes, I never thought about how bad the name/numbers could look if they match the TORONTO on the front. Hopefully they stick with the traditional split font, which is iconic to the Jays.

    Never thought about how bad the name/numbers could look if they match the jersey script. Hopefully they stick with the classic split font on the back.

    Never thought about how bad the name/numbers could look if they match the jersey scriptT

    That’s the absolute first thing I thought about. PLEASE tell me I can read the numbers.
    NOB? Pffft.

    Actually, that’s the second thing. First was, a leak could have waited until Tuesday.

    Someone on Twitter put it best. This looks like something you’d see in a gift shop at the Toronto airport.

    And the Hecken regime is off and running! And, yes, I’m in the “These are terrible “ camp.

    Much nicer than those one color unis. Thumbs down on DET, CLE, PHI, CIN, where white pants maybe would have made a difference, like on the Mets(gray pants would have been awful). That fella that sent in a Toronto CC look alike Mets idea back in his teens had something there. Thanks to the Mets for the Queensboro Bridge. You somehow outshined the use of the Golden Gate by SF. Basically the only two cities whose bridges can be identified by any American(okay, maybe the Brooklyn Bridge. Heaven knows how many people own ‘shares’ of that bridge )

    I guarantee you I could pick 5 UW membership card holders at random, give them a classic 8 pack of Crayola markers, a single sheet of white paper, and 45 minutes, and they would produce 5 better jerseys than this.

    Was anyone else expecting “GTA” instead of the city name?

    This is not good. I think the cap is pretty OK so I was expecting better.

    The airport gift shop analogy is spot-on.

    GTA would have been a massive fail.

    This is redeemable so far, as long as I’ll be able to read the numbers.

    I wasn’t implying that “GTA” would have been a good thing,

    I mean, it would have been better than “The Lou” but to say that’s a low bar is an insult to low bars.

    GTA would be awful. We already pander enough to the rest of Canada as is.

    Blecgh! This is maybe my least favorite of all the CC and personally ive been kind to most of them, but this one is so boring and cheesy looking. Looks like a billboard for a radio station on the side of a bus.

    It reminds me of the bat signal over a Gotham City night. Not sure who in Toronto is signaling for a Nike rescue, however.

    If there is one constant when Nike designs new uniforms it is that their swoosh should always stand out and be one of the most prominently visible elements of the uniform. It is mind boggling that the teams sign off on that crap. Unless they think the Nike branding is what makes it sell instead of their actual team brand.

    I appreciate your dedication to getting this immediately posted! As for the actual jersey, I could have waited. Wow, a skyline. How imaginative. This seems especially lazy. I’m holding out hope that the Twins’ loon-inspired unis will end this string of disappointments.

    Rather than deep navy or black, these appear dark gray or anthracite. Although I don’t care for any CCs, some are less awful than others. With white or road gray pants this would be so-so! The solid color or dark pants are awful and look like a high school uniform

    The CN Tower — the only recognizable element of the skyline, and the only part of of this design that makes this even recognizable as a skyline — isn’t even silhouetted or proportioned correctly.

    Woof, this is bad.
    Even as a fashion concept, it fails. All of the design elements are similar dark colors. But when key identifiers like city name are illegible from close range, there is a problem.
    If you’re keeping score, this is the 4th split font the Jays have used (original was generally rounded, v2.0 less squat (Delgado/Clemens years), a pause for the Black Jays years, the present set with angles and subtle serifs, now this.
    This is going to be one of the worst. I can feel it.

    Seems like there are a handful of not awful CC uniforms ruined by using a stupid nickname or three letter abbreviation on the jersey, meanwhile you have just no effort attempts like this Toronto design that actually use the city name. This one looks like the sort of unlicensed stuff you see a bootleg street vendor selling outside the stadium.
    Phil, it feels like what should be great welcome for you at the helm is going to be a slog of continued drivel from Nike. Let’s hope you and the uni watch community can see it through this nonsense to the days when these eyesores are behind us. I know you’ll steer the ship in the right direction.

    Is there another example of a single company doing so much to anger the most people in so short a time?

    So…we have yet another dark CC uni with little contrast, so you won’t be able to read it from more than six feet away. And once again the brightest thing on the jersey is the damn swoosh. This time it’s not even part of the jersey’s color palette, I think that’s a first.

    I didn’t mention the swoosh in my (admittedly quick) rundown, but I have a feeling that it won’t be gold (or however it appears in the phone photo) — I think it’s just a poor reflection from the flash. My guess is the MOTD will be red. Nike likes its advertising/logo to stand out, but they don’t usually introduce a color that isn’t found somewhere on the jersey. I could be wrong though. Guess we’ll find out for sure Thursday evening when the team officially unveils.

    Seems to be a consensus building that all CCs should have white pants. Like, just make it half a uniform and it won’t be as god-awful, lol.

    The wordmark isn’t so bad but the generic skyscrapers (minus the CN Tower) look stupid. Any native Torontonians care to tell us if the skyline is correct?

    If the design reflected the actual Toronto skyline, then there should be a dense cluster of tall office towers to the right of the CN Tower. Those office towers make up Toronto’s central business district and the hub of Canada’s finance sector. Geographically, they are north east of the CN Tower; on the shirt, they should be in the armpit. A commentary, perhaps?

    Also, the Rogers Centre is barely visible on design. The CN Tower doesn’t look right. Last I checked, there isn’t a yellow Nike swoosh floating above the city’s west harbourfront but it’s been a while since I’ve been back home.

    Swing and a miss.

Comments are closed.