The Minnesota Twins unveiled their City Connect (CC) uniforms today, which the team has dubbed “The Ripple Effect.” The team will wear these 11 times, debuting them this Friday and Saturday.
Let’s get the hype video out of the way first:
The Ripple Effecthttps://t.co/bcodsrdnT5 pic.twitter.com/DkTugzDFeu
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) June 10, 2024
Unlike most CC uniforms, which attempt to take a few visual cues from the specific city a team represents, the Twins have gone a bit off script with theirs, making it more of a “State Connect” uniform.
Heather Hinkel, the Twins VP of Brand Marketing, explains: “We did this as a State Connect. We didn’t pick a city, we leaned into the whole state of Minnesota.”
In a way, this makes sense, as the Minnesota Twins were the first major league team to rebrand as a “state” team — calling themselves the “Minnesota” Twins upon their move from Washington, DC, rather than use “Minneapolis” or “St. Paul” or even “Twin Cities.”
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the uniforms.
CAP
The cap has a royal blue crown, with a yellow bill and squatchee. The front of the cap features an outline of the state of Minnesota with “ripples” of water depicted at the bottom. A four point “North Star” in yellow is located approximately where the Twins stadium is located. The top portion of the logo is supposed to evoke the backdrop of the Northern Lights reflected in the water line of a lake. The side of the cap has a “10,000 Lakes” patch, which is part of the State’s nickname.
The underbrim of the cap features the topography of Lake Minnetonka and is a “nod to Prince,” a Minnesota native.
JERSEY
The jersey is a mix of blue hues, with the goal of the design being to embrace Minnesota’s many lakes, and features several differing sublimated patterns. This is meant to imbue the viewer with the vision of ripples on a lake, and has several different light/dark shadings to give the viewer a sense of motion.
Unlike most sublimations, these will be visible at more than a few feet away, but will still probably appear as mostly solid blue from a distance.
Instead of an airport code or nickname splashed across the chest like most CC uniforms, the Twins CC jersey simply has the abbreviation “MN” in white, with a yellow north star tucked in between and above. The logo will be on the left side of the chest.
Sleeve hems feature a navy blue/light pink/yellow pattern.
The right sleeve of the jersey features a new custom patch, which is the representation of Minnesota’s state bird, the loon, flying across the water. The logo contains baseball stitching composing the eyes of the loon and the North Star making up its beak.
Here’s a look at the front and back of the jersey from a distance:
The jersey back features NOB in white block, radially arched letters, outlined in dark and light blue. Jersey numbers are also white with the same outline pattern.
Two additional features of the jersey won’t be seen: towards the bottom, just above the jock tag, is the “10,000 Lakes” logo seen on the cap, and on the inside of the neckline is a solid white depiction of the State of Minnesota.
PANTS
Unlike the jersey, the pants are a solid royal. They will have the same dark blue/light pink/yellow striping as is seen on the sleeve hems.
SOCKS
Players who choose to go high-cuffed will have dark blue socks, with subtle royal lines roughly depicting the ripples on a lake, and with the same “MN” logo as is seen on the chest of the jersey.
Let’s close this portion with a video that takes the storytelling aspect to the extreme (but does offer some excellent highlights of the features):
The Twins City Connect uniform is filled with a multitude of Minnesota details
Here’s an explainer video breaking down all of them ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/V5C6ExLYQ7
— MLB (@MLB) June 10, 2024
I also like how the team leaned into the “State Connect” angle — a departure from the usual CC angle. This is due in part to the fact that last season the team introduced new uniforms, one of which features Twin Cities across the chest. In essence, the Twins introduced their own “city connect” jersey with their redesign. That allowed them to go in a different direction for their CC.
The “MN” with the north star is a solid logo, and it doesn’t overwhelm the jersey the way many other CC jerseys do. NOB and rear number in white are easy to read, and while the font appears to be custom, it’s easily readable!
I’m also one of those that doesn’t mind dark pants, so I’m absolutely fine with the team having a royal blue set.
Sometimes, forcing the design elements (storytelling) onto a CC drives the design. In this case, it seems the Twins decided on the “ripple effect” which they used for the base, and then let the elements flow more naturally. While the entire CC program feels like a merch dump, with a fashion jersey simply to be worn on a diamond, I don’t get that feeling with this one. This one actually feels like a uniform.
I had hope with the Twins City Connects. They are my favorite team in the state (recency bias of the Wolves conference final run notwithstanding). The team did a good (not great) job with its uniform overhaul heading into last season, especially the cream Twin Cities jersey. I had hoped, probably unfounded, that they’d bring back a version of the powder blue look that fans across the state and I love.
Instead, they adopted the classic colors of our foes across the border in Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Brewers. Royal blue is one of my favorite colors, but it doesn’t work for a Twins jersey. Add in the lake ripple sublimation and we have a great uniform for a touring home run derby squad, not the major leagues.
I’m wondering if when the design process started on this uniform, they wanted to match the colors of the old Minnesota state flag, which was officially replaced last month. And also to incorporate the state flower, the pink lady slipper, featured six times on the old flag. Then with the replacement in place and the old flag becoming a rallying symbol for the right side of the political spectrum, the Twins had to shift part of their storytelling.
The sublimated jersey and plain blue pants looks like a rushed project for art class. White pants with blue and yellow stripes would help this set out. Hopefully the Twins follow what other City Connects that featured dark pants did and replace them at some point. The sooner the better.
I appreciate the new angle of a loon for the sleeve patch; most of the time a profile is used. Though in the end, it looks too much like a snitch from the game of Quidditch in the Harry Potter universe.
Other things I like are how the north star nests into the MN on the jersey logo, and the look of the NOB and number font, an upgrade from the bespoke number font on the Twins normal set. The hat is nice, too detailed, but I like the use of the northern lights on top and the water on the bottom. A great way to illustrate the Dakota name for the state “Miní Sóta,” meaning “land where the water is so clear it reflects the sky.”
In the end, this City Connect will blend in with so many of the other teams’ uniforms, especially Seattle and Philadelphia. It makes me glad the Twins were one of the last teams to unveil their set and gives me so much more appreciation for the Twin Cities cream alternates.
Thanks, Cole.
I’d also like to express my thanks to Twins beat writer Phil Miller, who had early access to the uniforms, and who interviewed me last Friday about the City Connect program in general (I’m quoted a few times in that article). Thanks, Phil!
Here are the dates the Twins will wear the CCs:
• June 14 vs. Oakland
• June 15 vs. Oakland
• July 5 vs. Houston
• July 6 vs. Houston
• July 20 vs. Milwaukee
• August 2 vs. Chicago White Sox
• August 9 vs. Cleveland
• August 23 vs. St. Louis
• August 30 vs. Toronto
• September 13 vs. Cincinnati
• September 27 vs. Baltimore
Finally, you can read more from the Twins here.
Readers?
What say you?
Better than most just from the standpoint of readability, and the logos are cool! But the pants not matching the jerseys is pretty awful. As Phil mentions with other teams, wouldn’t be surprised they go white pants in the future which would make it look better.
Very nice hat ruined by “10000 Lakes” patch on the side. Kinda like Denver Nuggets with the 5280 put on a uniform and the court, WE GET IT. There’s room for “subtlety” which I put in quotes because even without the numbers written, we get it.
from the standpoint of readability
First thing I think of when Nike makes a custom font is, I wonder what the twos and fives look like? I’ve done this ever since the disaster that was Belloti Bold, where they were way too similar. This time they did a great job with the font.
Dan Hayes (Twins beat writer) said Twins have already submitted a waiver to wear white pants for the City Connect uniforms starting in 2025.
Ooph, the water pattern is an interesting idea but in execution these look like an ugly crazy quilt design. And the cap, which is usually the saving grace of the CC unis, is ruined by the garish “10,000 Lakes” patch on the side.
Can we give the Twins massive props for not a single leak getting out on these jersey! RESPECT
I like it, I don’t love it…
The M*N logo reminds me of the “I don’t know, shrug” emoji, the colors even match, or a freshwater Loch Ness Monster.
Also, that’s not the topographic of Lake Minnetonka, but the hydrographic. You’d better purify yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka after that typo.
Uh, Lake Minnetonka’s waters haven’t been pure since Fred Smoot & Bryant McKinnie’s bye week cruise.
New colors and 4 new logos. This is like a full team brand all going into a CC jersey. Not a single element connects them back to the Twins branding, it’s like they created a new team. Probably while you will hear a lot of similar comments like Cole’s because Minnesota created a separate brand just for the set.
Was just gonna say the same thing – this feels like branding for a completely different team.
And why not green, instead of yellow? At least match the T-Wolves and Minnesota tourism
“Not a single element connects them back to the Twins branding, it’s like they created a new team.”
The North Star logo is from the current branding…
Sorry, these are horrible. The storytelling is laughable, the design elements do not look good together (jersey and pants are mismatched blues). They look very much like Seattle’s CC unis.
We’ve had FIOB (first initial on back), TNOP (team name on pants), but now the uni-verse has SPAOF (state postal abbreviation on front), an extension of ACOF (airport code on front).
Like most CC, they’re… whatever. Specifically, the sublimation is lost from more than a few feet away, the stitching on the loon is barely visible up close, gradients are never good on sports uniforms (original Devil Rays are an exception), the color scheme screams Brewers, and I don’t understand Nike’s love of navy and royal blue together.
I’m going to guess that someone on the design team wanted the front of the jersey to say 10,000 LAKES in big script, so I’m feeling pretty good about this SPAOF.
I got to say I think they saved the best for last. This is a really nice set with clean design, clear and readable fonts and numbers, and a color combination that works really well together. It definitely speaks to the state of Minnesota and I think it’s going to look pretty darn good on the field. I haven’t liked any of the other sublimations but this one actually makes sense if you look at the water on top of a lake and it seems like it’ll be much more visible in person. Not to mention, it exactly matches the brand colors of Minnesota’s most famous export: SPAM! So there’s something in it even for those folks in Southern Minnesota!! Well done here, Twins.
I wish I would have thought about SPAM for the colors!
I’m with Cole, I get Milwaukee vibes from this. I think one of the biggest failures of the CC program is that the teams are often unidentifiable because they don’t use team colors.
I am anti-dark pants, so that is always going to be a negative for me. The sublimation is not awful on this one, but still gimmicky. The new logos are decent enough, though the state outline logo on the cap feels very minor league.
Like just about all of the CC designs my first reaction is essentially these are all fashion cap/jersey merch designs they are forcing onto the field, as merch they are what they are and have some pluses, but as actual major league uniforms they are a failure.
Yeah I don’t understand Nike’s lack of good sense to not understand where teams are located. You get Mets jerseys that look like they could be part of the Yankees set, and now Twins ones that look like Brewers. What’s next an all red Yankee’s City Connect?
The swirling patterns of lines on the jerseys are evocative of soccer kits, and I like them very much. The northern lights detail is a nice touch. I wish they would have carried the curvy lines over to the pants, but what are you gonna do?
Noteworthy to me is that the cap features old-fashioned Swiss, or flat, embroidery instead of the overdone bubble embroidery that’s been the norm for a while now.
Were most teams just told to use Blue and Black. This is laughable. The unoriginality with the color palettes…..
Nike probably got a ton of blue and black fabric that fell off the back of a boat and they’re trying to use up as much of it as they can…
i mean the majority of the league wears red and blue already so its not like there are that many unique pallets out there to begin with
I also wonder if early on in the design process the color selection was supposed to be based on the state flag and when it changed they had to augment the storytelling? i think the new state flag colors would have been way way better for this theme and not reminded anyone of the Brewers (but is probably untouchable due to how politicized it’s gotten). Mostly it just seems like they took an airport gift shop hat and designed a whole uniform around it…Which if you are a tourist and had the trip of your lifetime to MN go right ahead, but don’t make my Twins wear that garbage. In the end it doesnt look like a big league uniform, it looks like something you’d wear to the boneyard blast link
It is funny you mention the politics of their new state flag. I was talking to someone about it when they released it, and mentioned how as far as flag design principles go, it was vastly superior to their pervious flag with state seal on it. Pointed out the basic flag design tenants and how the new one hit them, and the old one didn’t. The response I got back pretty much dismissed all of those points saying the new flag was awful. After I few minutes I was able to infer it had something to do with politics, and then read about all of that background. Still astounded me that a person with zero connection to Minnesota got so passionate against the new flag design.
The royal blue and yellow makes total sense when tied back to the old state flag as a “state connect” but when they changed to the new flag (which i agree just from a design perspective is so much better) it would have been pretty obvious that you are picking a side by using those new colors. so just make up some storytelling around what you already have in the works?
Still astounded me that a person with zero connection to Minnesota got so passionate against the new flag design.
Unfortunately, a lot of people on either side get politically passionate about a lot of things they have zero connection to, so I’m un-astounded.
Just for fun – I have no idea about the political bs regarding the flag. So I am definitely not dismissing your points due to that. But I enjoy flag design – even submitted some for Orlando a while back. But when I looked at both flags (not knowing any meaning at all), I thought wow, the old one is way too busy. And then clicked on the new one and thought it was a big miss (all form a graphic design standpoint). It looks like a boat flag – maybe that was the point… Again, I have yet to research anything about the flags or the intent/meaning. So I apologize if it will become super clear once I do. I just feel it is too simple. Aside from New Mexico and South Carolina which I feel are indeed iconic.
I think they did a good job.
Really like the “MN” insignia on the jersey chest, wish they had used that on the cap.
The loon patch looks like we are approaching the loon from behind for a proctology exam.
God AWFUL!!!!
I think these are the worst yet
Pants don’t match and the whole thing looks out of some A or AA team
10,000 Lakes on the hat is awful! Gives airport gift shop/ gas station vibes.
I was actually thinking the same thing, which led me to this perspective. The CC shouldn’t stand for City Connect, it should stand for Chamber of Commerce. Most of these sets are taking huge departures from the baseball teams wearing them. The Cardinals, Diamondbacks, Pirates, Guardians, White Sox, Giants, Dodgers (v1.0) and Angels more or less kept to the team colors, where you could see some connection to what is normally on the field. And the Marlins are a special case, since they threw back to an old baseball team from Havana. But that’s about it. The other teams put the city first, or in Chicago’s cases, certain neighborhoods within a city.
Nike is trying to rep local pride for place for people who don’t follow sports. The Rockies and Padres did great jobs with going way outside the box. I don’t like the uniforms for the teams wearing them but they are eye-catching and look fashionable. The Twins hat is out of the same playbook as the Phillies, almost down to the color schemes. The Phillies hat – skyline inside the Liberty Bell, playing off the colors of the city flag – is a billboard for Philadelphia. The Twins did the same thing, playing up the water, the lakes and nothing about the baseball team.
So, what galls me when you get down to it, is that Nike, a lifestyle brand masquerading as the sporting goods behemoth they used to be, is co-opting a $10B industry to use as a runway for a fashion show to promote baseball “gear” for people who don’t like baseball but are proud of where they’re from. Baseball is whoring out to be Nike’s willing shills.
Yes, agreed. It’s a really, really sharp hat with out that on the side. Makes it look like a free ballpark giveaway sponsored by 10,000 Lakes Insurance or something.
The loon patch looks like the logo for a state owned Middle Eastern airline.
I dig the caps, jerseys, and belts. The trousers are awful, matching neither the jerseys nor the hose (which are also awful). Let’s get some white trousers with a blue/yellow/blue stripe and some hose in royal blue instead of navy and I’d even like to see these instead of their normal unis.
Not the worst but jersey looks like they’re on pro fishing tour. And colors are too similar to Seattle.
Twins fan and proud Minnesotan here:
I dont have an issue with the color choices nor the funky soccer jersey material/pattern, colored pants, etc.
My only main issue is THE HAT. I hate this hat. It looks like one of a million generic Minnesota hats you can find at a gift shop or gas station across the state. The asymmetrical outline of the state always looks awkward when presented on a hat (as it has been done 2,000,000 times) and then they just way overstuffed it with details where it becomes a heap of embroidery. It just doesnt look like a pro all club hat at all. The huge “10,000 LAKES” on the side just adds to the overkill and looks like Pool Cleaners logo. Would have been better for something more subtle or use “10K” or something.
New M*N logo screams “you’ll never see this again” but its harmless, and the Baseball + Water Droplet + Loon megamash shoulder patch that feels like 30 graphic designers each got to edit it. Too much. I feel like maybe the same staff members did that as the Manta Ray + A Bridge logo that Tampa Bay has.
Overall I feel if they had made the hat simpler, ditched the shoulder patch, they could have a nice fun futuristic look, but they just threw too much into the soup.
Futuristic. That’s the word I was trying to come up with. These unis look like they could be included in a Turn Ahead The Clock Pt. 2 promotion. And nothing about my comment is meant as a compliment.
“The sweat stain on the under brim is a nod to Prince” Ha. Hilarious.
Agree with Mr. Cole on the white pants, and the similarity to the Philly CC. That said, this uni is beautiful, the logos on point. I do like the teams including the fabric itself, this ripple effect being one of the best. My addition would have an Aurora from the shoulders to just above the logo. The hat is fire. Most teams really hit a home run with the caps, the unis not so much. If you really feel that the colors are similar to Milwaukee’s, I complain that as much as I hate black unis(except the Chisox), I’m hating blue, too. Please leave the goddam powder blue in the ’70s. I will say that the Minnesota Wild logo is the best I ever saw.
Honestly, probably the best CC released this year, and in the upper tier of the set overall. Really strong design.
BTW, teams really should have the players use the debut game to wear the pants up to show the socks. Rest of the time, whatever.
I like the cap logo. I would 100% wear that cap if not for the “10,000 LAKES!!!!!” on the side.
I like the M*N logo. To me the north star in between gives it a negative space “I,” so it says MIN. That’s not mentioned anywhere in the promo, so maybe I made it up. But I think they should claim it.
I am okay with the swirly jersey. The pants, however, look horribly mismatched. Where else does that particular color even show up in this uniform? White or maybe even yellow (maybe) would be a lot better here.
The socks could be better, but are okay. If nothing else, they limit the damage caused by the pants for players going high cuff.
To me, grading on a scale, it’s a C that could have been a B with a couple different choices.
I don’t understand yellow here. When I think of ripply water patterns and yellow, yeah, not good. Also, when I think of yellow, I would never think of the Twins.
This is maybe a little too “noisey” of a design. I agree white pants will make this a much better set. Overall pretty decent though im getting mighty disappointed with nike design team. Eventually all teams will have a blue and yellow city connect. I think its just the Rockies, Angels, and White Sox who have received ant other coloring.
The logo on the hat is the only good thing,but the hat as a whole looks like a hat you’d buy at a gas station. Maybe if the rest was team colors, but they look like the Brewers. This doesn’t pass the eye test. It’s not good.
The Minneapolis Baseball Lakers.
These would be good beer league softball jerseys.
the cap looks good when it’s viewed straight-on.
One thing to use non-brand colors for a one off jersey set (i.e. blacks or powder blues etc.). It’s entirely different to disregard ALL our brand colors and use a rival’s color COMBINATION. Strange and can’t get past it.
Great cap.
But overall, yet another high-school football uniform.
“I’m not sure how well the “ripple effect” will come across on TV “. The sound you hear is 150,000+ Minnesota Comcast subscribers pulling your knife out of their backs.
Why not a sleeve patch with two loons; you know…twins?
YES!
Phil wanted my input, but since I just got up, I’ll reserve my lengthier review for when I cover the on-field debut. In the meantime, here’s a quick reaction:
* I can see the numbers!! And they’re not weird looking!
* I was hoping the loon would be featured more prominently. There’s room on the front for him.
* Similar colors to other teams’ CCs, but done better.
* In short, I’d wear that.
I don’t think the Athletics or the Yankees will ever have a City Connect uniform because the A’s are obviously moving out of Oakland next year and are moving to Las Vegas soon. (unless they are planning to make a Vegas CC uni in the far future.) and the Yankees most likely want to keep their traditional home and away unis the same.
I really like the cap logo. Blue and gold go great together. Not a huge fan of the MN chest logo – on it’s own it’s fine, but it doesn’t feel quite right as a chest logo. The “ripple effect” is fine, but the blue pants don’t really match the blues in the jersey. The flat blue feels out of place here. This set would work great with white pants.
Overall, far from the worst CC uni, but also far from the best. C+
I thought is was the Brewers at first glance. Oh well just another costume to look at and guess what team is that while wathcing baseball highlights on ESPN.
Again, like most CC designs, this one looks like the type of crap you would find at a tourist trap shop for a solid $20. Here today, gone tomorrow.
My random thoughts, in no particular order:
I don’t like it when the color scheme of a CC uni bears no resemblance to that of the team’s normal unis. Get off my lawn and all that, but it just bugs me. If a team wants to do a full rebrand and change their color scheme (e.g., Vancouver Canucks in 1978 and 1997), fine. That’s a new identity. But an extra identity on the side that we’ve never seen before just feels forced and unnatural. So I’ll get that out of the way up front.
The ripple graphics look really cool up close. I love the detail! But from any kind of reasonable distance, they just kinda look like a mess. I have to say I’m not really a fan.
So we’re calling that thing on the sleeve a loon? OK, sure. Haha. But whatever it is, it’s still a sharp-looking logo, and I like the cap and chest logos too. The “10000 LAKES” wordmark on the hat is unnecessary, boring, and way too big. So they get 3/4 on logos from me, which is acceptable.
The Pants look like they should have a Mariner inside them, but they’re good in a vacuum. Good color scheme, classic design. I don’t understand the complaint I’ve seen in the comments that they don’t match the jersey. They match just fine to my eyes.
Question, since I do not pay attention to the Twins that much.
Is the numbers on the belt (which they all seem to be in the same place, font, color, background color) a normal part of their look, or is that just for this uniform?
Belts are considered “accessories” and as such are not team issued (although I believe most get their belts from the same manufacturer). If you watch any MLB game, there will be always be several players who wear this brand (the name escapes me now, but Paul has featured a whole column on belts), which feature the player number on the front loop.
I believe it’s Nokona who has been making the customized belts
Not to nitpick but in the release from the Twins they mentioned that off-white color is actually pink, which took a couple close looks to finally discern (can totally understand how it could be mistaken for white from a distance).
I keep thinking of the Brewers and Seattle Mariners with this color scheme but casting that aside, I like the uniform and find the sublimation effect done well here. Also, legible names and numbers! (Thank you, Nike, for setting the bar so low)
That’s not a nitpick. I totally glossed over that in my haste, and … while it doesn’t *look* pink to me … I guess it is. I’ll adjust the text.
It’s perhaps too subtle for me to register it as “pink” but it’s slightly more obvious on the logo with the loon.
The cynic in me also wonders if they lightened the pink to look very close to white just so it looks better to a potential consumer seeing it in a store
I’m glad Cole mentioned it, because my first thought was that this is the 5th CC set to use some combination of blue and yellow, with three of those (MIN, PHI, BOS) having nothing to do with the team’s current or historic colors. By contrast, green has only been a major color in the Rockies CC uni.
I don’t hate them aside from the fact that it seems like Nike isn’t even trying anymore. How many of these teams have some variation of blue/yellow. Boston, Minnesota, Seattle, Philadelphia, Milwaukee. Detroit missing the yellow but not far off. Some of them are just all starting to look too similar. Some of them (Seattle, Milwaukee) make sense since blue/yellow is part of either their current or historical color scheme. But given you already have several with that mix, maybe don’t use it for teams that don’t normally or historically use blue/yellow (Boston, Philly, Minnesota).
To this lifelong Twins fan, this CC uniform is in the Phantom Menace level of greatness: Close to great, but the miss is just far enough to make the result terrible. Almost every detail is close to good, but just off far enough in the wrong direction to be bad. I give bonus points to the limnological detailing of the underbrim, but as an on-field uniform I see almost nothing praiseworthy, and almost everything being just a tweak away from excellence.
The loon logo is the exception for me: It’s not bad but almost, coulda-been good. It’s just bad. There are no tweaks that could move it from a failing to a passing grade.
I didn’t realize that Magic Eye was designing jerseys.
Haha I didn’t think of that! What a call back!
This is just another not very attractive and unnecessary uniform in the city connect series. I continue to maintain that the only one that is actually a nice jersey/uniform, and better than the team’s regular uniform is Miami’s. Theirs are very nice and attractive. All of the others are a fail, in my opinion, for one reason or another.
You wear a uniform like this, I bet you get a free bowl of soup.
Love the hat, love the primary and secondary logos, love the pants. Not fond of the jersey.
UPDATE: To anyone trying to “reply” to another poster comment, that function has now been restored.
Apologies for the glitch!
Though a few teams have decent CC sets I can’t for the life of me understand why they don’t more closely align these weird ones to the team’s traditional colors. Twins don’t need to look exactly like an old AL rival..
If they were really try to give a nod to Prince, why not just make the under brim of the hat paisley? The explanation about the lake really seems like an afterthought.
Purple paisley. I like your thinking.
Why not just wear raspberry berets?
Perfect!
Meh. Why, why why (but then again I’m north of 60…)
Logos/fonts ok. Nice try on the swishy-water base …
Pants are silly. Navy or white woulda worked better (and I bet we do see white at some point after much abuse on the socials …)
Colors make little sense, but at least they do pop (unlike the Mets’ CC prison garb.)
Can’t wait for the Brewers to come to town.
I feel sorry for the guys that have to wear these in 90 degree heat this summer.
Pair these jerseys with white pants, as Colorado finally with their City Connect Jersey.
These remind me of the awful City Connect getups the Red Sox are forced to wear; The UCLA Twins.
They went too hard with the graphic on the jersey. It makes the solid blue pants look totally out of place. I think darker blue pants might have worked better, or just toning down the graphic.
The front M*N logo reminds me of this, and I will never not see it:
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Haha same! Looks like a nicely pressed shirt with the star as its head. Also I used to really like watching Hrbek play as a White Sox fan, great player!
Even though the rippling water gimmick is dumb, I’d be okay with the new Twins City Connect Uniforms if not for the color scheme.
Blue and gold are the Brewers’ colors. The rivalry between the teams has admittedly declined due to the Brew Crew switching to the NL. However, it still exists and can get heated occasionally. I always associate blue and gold in a baseball context with the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Twins organization has a tendency towards group think and the echo chamber when it comes to mistaking internal enthusiasm about its decisions as equating to that of public opinion. That must have been the case with these uniforms because it’s hard to believe a majority of Twins fans will like these uniforms due to the colors alone.
Sounds like the way I feel about the Mets City Connect.
I grew up a Twins fan – still am, but at a distance – and a decade ago moved to Wisconsin and adopted the Brewers as my home team. Easy to do now that they compete for different divisional pennants! And the “looks like the Brewers” critique doesn’t hold water for me. Royal and yellow are not, in fact, Brewers colors, and haven’t been since last century. I have a lot of gripes with the CC uniform color scheme in general and with the use of yellow in particular, but “looks too much like another team that was never actually all that big a rival used to look in the 1990s” isn’t on my complaint list. YMMV of course, and I’m not saying anyone is wrong if they do look at this CC uni and think Milwaukee, just explaining why this particular critique doesn’t hit home for me.
Love the lake bathymetry on the cap under visor. I’d like to see use of bathymetric/topographic lines on a larger scale, like a jersey – would be perfect for the Rockies.
This CC uni reminds me of the Yokohama DeNA Baystars’ away uniforms, especially of last year’s away uni.
Just call ’em “State Connect” and be done with it.
I think MN should have been on the hat. The State Logo would be the sleeve patch. And “two loons” on the jersey.
I like the cap but agree the 10,000 Lakes is a little too big. Otherwise, it’s a beauty!
It took me a little bit to figure out the loon patch.
But overall, I put these in the top third of CC uniforms.
The hat looks like something you’d buy at a bait shop in Baudette. And the North Star on the loon patch doesn’t look like a loon’s beak, it looks like a loon’s butthole.
I like it.
I don’t love the loon logo. I’ve been around loons all my life (I can hear a pair at night) and I’ve never, ever seen them fly. They arrive in the spring and don’t take off again until fall. They have a very distinctive floating profile and red eyes and that’s the iconic image of the loon I’m surprised they didn’t use.
Phil, you have to be kidding me. These are awful. That it is a uniform, technically, does not make it a good one (or even close). The jersey has a ridiculous number and name font and the lake wave effect just makes them look cheap. Compounding the problem, the MN logo looks like it belongs on a gas station. With only a few exceptions — WSH, MIA, CLE this year — Nike’s designers have failed miserably. We have to have higher standards if we expect higher results.
Twins VP of brand marketing on Creamer’s site: “Our ‘Twin Cities’ cream uniform was our club taking the City Connect idea into our own hands and saying, ‘Okay, this is the story we want to own.’ We didn’t want Nike to have a say in it — respectfully, we really wanted to be sure that we could control that narrative. We truly feel our ‘Twin Cities’ uniform is a City Connect uniform.”
As a 35-year MN resident, I like it for the most part. The concept is very strong, and hype video spells it out really well with local musician Slug of the group Atmosphere. I think that the Boston CC set shows that you can break from traditional team colors and Cleveland’s shows that you can embrace them fully.
The biggest swing and miss was the cap’s 10,000 lakes. Cartoonish and unnnecessary. I think the numbers and letters on the back of the jersey are very well done AND readable! The cap logo is good, and the loon one okay. If the hat didn’t have the silly 10k, to quote Jim V, I’d wear that. Given what all the merch costs, though, I won’t be wearing that.
Their original CC uni’s were tolerable. Now, they look like a Mariners knock-off.
For most of the CC program, I have come away from the unveilings saying, well, at least the hat is okay.
Without going back and reviewing all of them, this might be the worst hat of the bunch, mostly because of that visible-from-space “10,000 LAKES” on the side … although I’m not that big on the state logo, either.
Barf.
Knockoff Phillies smh
It’s decent, but the color scheme reminds me of a Vault Suit from Fallout.
I can’t get my brain to see a loon in that secondary logo. I don’t understand. I was hoping that the explanation would help me see it, like the classic rabbit/duck image. But after reading the explanation, I’m more confused and my head hurts.
Good news….if you don’t like it….there will be a new one in a few years…
I beleive the Vikings picked Minnesota for their name before the Twins. The Twins often get credit because their season started before the expansion Vikings took the field.
Why are they ALL. SO. BAD?
The state logo on the hat is good, the MN logo is cool, the loon…well, I am not sure about that one. The ripples on the jersey is a cute idea but it is no good from a distance. The pants are not OK, the socks are gaudy, the 10.000 lakes on the side of the hat spoils the hat. For once, listen to the Yankees, MLB and Nike, and call it a day with the CC program. Waste of materials and production time.
Really like the color combo. Not fond of the “ripple” effect but I’m sure I’ll get over it like most otehr CC BS sublimations. Brewers are the only other team with blue and yellow, albeit navy not royal, and it gets lost in the main home/away unis. These CC unis would probably turn out better if they weren’t so charged up on including everything possible about the city into them, a lot of them seem like cluster F’s.
They had a layup to just reintroduce the powder blue uniforms with a new logo. They managed to mess that up and use completely new stuff. Nike just wanted to be new and different when there is a straightforward way to do it. Otherwise it’s not an awful design, but in no way is it in anyway Minnesota or Twins