Good morning Uni Watchers! I hope everyone had a pleasant Monday. ICYMI, we had two uniform unveilings yesterday: TCU Football unveiled three new uniforms for the 2024 season, and the Los Angeles Dodgers became the ninth and final team to unveil their City Connect uniform.
Speaking of CC uniforms — take a look at today’s splash photo.
What the hell is that?
Uni Watch was recently contacted by reader Mike Sambuco, who shared several photos of what is, for all intents and purposes, a red version of the Phillies City Connect jersey.
Here are two additional front views.
Mike wrote a little about this in his e-mail:
Hello Uni Watch,
I write to you with a handful of images from a Facebook Marketplace posting of a red version of the Phillies City Connect jersey. Unfortunately, it had been sold by the time I reached out. The seller stated he purchased it at a Flea Market.
This jersey has all of the Nike tags and City Connect Easter Eggs, such as the Philly skyline neckline, bell logo above the Nike patch, etc. All other aspects of the jersey seem to match the blue version.
Let me know your thoughts on if this might have been a possible City Connect concept for the Phillies before landing on the blue.
Regards,
Mike Sambuco
Mike also sent along three photos of the jersey rear:
This is so bizarre! It doesn’t seem like a prototype (those generally wouldn’t have Nike price tagging), but seems destined for retail sale. Unfortunately, the sleeve patch isn’t completely readable — which would make it much easier to tell if the jersey was a fake. But even if it were a knock-off, why would it be in red? The knockoffs didn’t start to appear until the first Philly blue CC was leaked, so those were always all in blue.
Mike says the jersey contains all the telltale signs of a legit retail jersey. But again, what possible reason could there be for a retail jersey in red?
Too bad Mike wasn’t able to get more info from the seller, other than that he bought it “at a Flea Market.”
I want to go along with Mike’s thought that this was something the Phillies considered for the CC before ultimately deciding to use flag colors. But again, if it were a prototype, it wouldn’t have retail tagging. Also, what we can actually see of the sleeve patch is rendered in blue (like on their actual CC) — which wouldn’t seem to jibe with the red jersey.
Frankly, I’m at a loss as to why this exists.
What do you guys think? If anyone “in the business” is reading this and can possibly shed some light on how this jersey came about, please let us know.
The 1990s’ Rockets uniforms are a good example of an unhip uniform that I really like. The vertical stripes remind me of contrails.
I feel this way about a lot of the 90s NBA uniforms. They’re really dorky, but in a way I appreciate.
Enough time has passed that I think they’re retro-cool now. I love the maximalist court design of that era of Rockets basketball, too. link
Tom O’Grady’s designs were the best. I may be a bit biased being i was a kid in the 90s though
As a rule, I don’t think most people look good in tank tops. So I only own one NBA jersey, and it happens to be the late 1990s Rockets jersey (I guy from my high school and neighborhood made the team, and I saw one on sale late on night while in South Beach on Spring Break in college. Choices were made.)
This feels like a photoshop job. The logos all feature blues and yellow but no shades of red. Its either a very odd, super early knockoff from China (or some other unlicensed market) or its a fake. Either way, I don’t think its a legit prototype.
Even for a China knockoff it looks pretty close compared to some of the others that have been marketed.
As someone who has handled anti-counterfeiting matters, knock-offs are getting better and better in quality (and sometimes even come from the real factory, but are just not copies that are permitted to be made).
The colors of the Philadelphia jersey appear to fade from the fire-engine red of the current uniforms to the deep maroon of the Steve Carlton-era jerseys. Who knows? They may have envisioned a whole line of fashion uniforms in any color, fading from light to dark.
That is actually a great idea. Love the current color at top with a gradient into the Carlton/Schmidt era.
In that vein, this would have been a great idea. But:
1. Does that tie in too much to the actual team? It seems like one of the philosophies of CC is sporty fashion for people who don’t like sports. But I thought the same thing, this marries the 2 historical main colors of the team nicely.
2. It make the yellow look that much more out of place. Even if the shade of blue they are using for CC is not the city flag blue (see a Swedish flag), the storytelling has leaned into blue/yellow as representing the city, even if none of the teams (except the Union) would agree.
2a. That red/yellow combo is giving off a KC Chiefs vibe that would irritate most of Eagles Nation, which overlaps with Phillies Nation pretty thoroughly.
This is the point where you do some journalism and reach out to the Phillies and Nike and Fanatics for comment
I’m pretty sure I saw the red Phillies cc jersey on a fan at Camden Yards over the weekend. I didn’t get a close up look at it. It stood out to me because I thought that it looked a lot better than the blue jersey worn by a surprisingly large number of Philly fans at the game.
I’m going to second that notion that is a photoshop.
Especially because if there was going to be a red version, why would it be paired with yellow?
The coloration of the MLB logo feels really odd too, which makes it feel like it was photoshopped and they couldn’t quite make that part right.
I’m skeptical that this is even a real, physical item. I’d bet the pics are a photoshop and the sale post was a scam. The sellers lack of any detail makes me believe that even more.
They are knock offs. Do a little digging on Ebay and you’ll see them and green versions. I haven’t seen one in the wild yet but they are being sold.
Just saw a black one on Ebay. Looks like a Pirates jersey. I think someone thought what if Nike was smart and tried red instead.
The GTGFTU photo is Giants Stadium on 1/9/94
NFC wildcard game
Giants 17
Vikings 10
LT’s last game at Giants Stadium.
It reminds me of a piece of meat that has been out of the fridge for too long. But even then it looks better than the current version in blue. I think this is the depiction of a fake retail item. I own several fake Nike NBA shirts bought in a mediterranenan country (you can find them in any place there): look cheap, feel cheap, cost next to nothing. I adore them.
They definitely exist. Saw someone wearing one at Citizen’s Bank Park on 6/2. Assumed it was a knock-off, but looked of better than usual quality for those.
It’s definitely a knock-off (probably from DHGate or someplace similar). The Nike logo is embroidered like on the “Limited” jerseys, but the NOB is stitched, in which all limited jerseys have heat-pressed names and numbers. Plus, in the stitching on most knock-offs, the entire NOB is visible in the inside of the jersey while professional stitching shows just the outline.
I find it funny that the knock offs have stitching while the genuine merchandise has heat press, given how much more professional and substantial stitched-on feels as compared to heat press.
Here’s one for sale
link
Garbage copies are also for sale:
link
Guess the game: Aug. 1, 2015. Twins 3-2. Twins won with a walk-off single by Kurt Suzuki.
GTGFTS guess: August 1, 2015; Twins 3, Mariners 2 (the best clue being the “REMEMBERING 1965” on the scoreboard, marking 50 years since the 1965 Twins won the AL pennant).
FWIW, I stumbled across a “Mercury Mets” styled cap on DH Gate that really looks like it was meant for the City Connect program or maybe some kind of Turn The Clocks Ahead night kind of thing. No idea of something like this is based off of official designs, but seems way too developed to just be a random bootleg based on a Mets space theme.
link
re: red Phils City Connect:
I have seen an awful lot of salesman’s samples around the interwebs the last two decades. There was an interesting version of the Sabres’ crossed-sword jersey as well as the Big Head, but a silvery-gray body.
Samples also give us Uni-Watchers a sense of what teams were thinking of doing before they did the thing (whatever said thing was).
Re: Rockets uni.
for some reason in my head they were wearing those during the 94 Finals when OJ went on the run, but i just realized they switched to that version the year after
Those red knock off City Connect jerseys have been on eBay for a while.
I have to admit I like this one (real or not) better than the real Phillies CC.
Drip on the 90s Rockets. Soooo much better than what they are wearing now with the lopsided rocket that won’t fly (designed by a movie studio or something – so dumb).
I was in Baltimore this past weekend and I actually saw a fan wearing this uniform at Saturday’s game. I’m pretty sure it’s a fake, but I have no idea where they would have gotten it from.
Sleeve patch on the red phils jeresey is missing the E in BROTHERLY like the fake linked in the article.
The Phillies jersey is a knockoff or, a slim chance a prototype. Evidence is that the tags are actually in the wrong location. All of the photos (that I have seen) have the tags inside the collar with its own added loop.
RE: Phillies
A prototype of the NHL Reverse Retro version of the jersey from 2029? ;)
This is the correct answer =P
There are Padres City Connect knockoffs out there with black instead of white, and with the old cursive wordmark. Chinese wholesalers love making up weird variations sometimes
Red or blue, the Phillies CC’s are AWFUL.
Found it for sale. Looks to be a custom jersey from this website
link
One of the knockoff sites has the Phillies CC in a whole bunch of colorways. I saw the red one previously, along with a white/gold and black/gold base. Someone in the comments saw one in Eagles green apparently too.
Personally, in red, this could be a legit “modern” Phils jersey without the CC tie in (although the team seems to have fully embraced the Friday night setup and is doing quite well in them).
That Red Phillies City Connect Jersey is a knock off and not legit. I just bought one off eBay in a #10 Realmuto. I also own a Blue Phillies City Connect #3 Harper knock off. I agree with buying non-authentic replicas. The price of jerseys from fanatics or “MLB” is far too overpriced. I buy all my knock offs off eBay for roughly $30-$60 all stitched and same material as the fantatics “replicas”. Only difference is the City Connect knock offs are off color the slightest hue. Legit City Connect Uniforms for the Phillies are a deeper blue and Black. While my knock off is a slightly lighter blue with black that seems slightly faded. Still love my knock off. Stitched is the biggest deal for me. I even added sleeve numbers from a gentleman off Etsy who makes smaller numbers for the sleeves. Again this Red City Connect isn’t real. However I still bought one for $30 lol. Also all knock offs will have a Nike tag and genuine MLB Tag. They are still knock offs. You can also tell because the stitched numbers and letters will have extra fabric behind them you need to remove. It’s a grey color fabric.
These are dhgate knockoffs. You can tell by the thick stitching around the name on the back. Not sure why they exist but they’ve been on dhgate, marketplace and facebook for a while now. There was a similar weird fake alternate circulating for the Flyers stadium series jerseys recently (in 2017?).