Earlier today, the Cleveland Guardians announced some changes — “refinements” is their term — for all four of their uniforms going forward into the 2025 season. None of the changes would qualify as major, but each uniform will have a different look heading into next year.
Look good, play good. ✨
Introducing our newly refined uniforms for 2025.#ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/CUGFFHmuL4
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) November 15, 2024
Let’s go over the changes.
White Home Uniform
Per the team, “Cleveland’s white home uniform will continue to carry on its primary historic look with script ‘Guardians’ across the chest. The logo will shift from being on a slant to horizontal. New piping will be on the jersey with a red-blue-red design on the neckline and arms.
“A new home hat will make its debut in 2025, solely with the white uniform set, as the main color of the hat will change to red with a blue bill. All hats will continue to feature the ‘Diamond C’, and the club’s blue cap with red bill will be worn with all other jerseys (home red, road blue, road gray).”
Here is a comparison of the previous uniform and the newly tweaked uniform:
Road Gray Uniform
“Cleveland’s gray road jersey will stay the same, featuring ‘Cleveland’ across the chest in Bridge Print font.
“Piping on the gray jersey will be the same red-blue-red color scheme that can be found on the white home uniform set.”
Here is a comparison of the old and new uniform:
Red Home Alternate
“The Guardians red home alternative uniform will feature a new look across the chest, as the script Guardians from 2024 will change to the club’s Bridge Print font with ‘Guardians’ across the chest. Piping on the red jersey will showcase a blue-white-blue look.
“The new look allows the club to continue to incorporate the Guardians brand into the jersey set, featuring the same font that can be seen in the number set on the back of all Cleveland jerseys.”
And the side by side:
Blue Road Alternate
“The biggest change for the 2025 season will be seen in Cleveland’s blue alternative uniform set. The jersey will continue to have a navy base but will move away from ‘Cleveland’ across the chest and instead feature the Guardians ‘Diamond C’ logo. The new look gives a nod to the franchise’s jerseys that also had a ‘C’ on the chest from 1901-1945, including the 1920 World Series team jersey, while elevating the Guardians primary logo.
“The piping on the blue jersey will differ from the other uniforms, as the jersey will have red-white-red piping to go with the navy base.”
And the old vs. new:
You can see additional photos and some close ups of the uniform details here.
Not mentioned by the team are any of the “changes” which were promised to the tailoring and appearance of the uniform templates. Some of the shots from the video appear to show the uniform’s narrower placket will remain narrow. You can see it pretty well in this photo:
One change that does appear to have happened going forward. MLB promised teams NOB would return to their “normal” size. Although there were no photos provided showing the backs of the jersey, the video did show a couple looks. I can’t 100% confirm the change, but the NOBs definitely look to be larger than last season. Here are a few screen grabs:
That last shot is probably the best look. Again, I can’t 100% guarantee the NOB is larger, but it sure looks like it.
Here’s a comparison between the 2024 uniform and the new one:
Looks like a bigger NOB to me!
As far as the changes to the uniforms for 2025, most of these are minor tweaks. I do like the new home cap, which will be worn exclusively with the white uniform. One change — seen on the red alternate jersey — is the fixing of the script. I never liked the “jagged” script the team previously used, so the switch to a capital letter wordmark strikes me as a net positive. And as far as the removal of the wordmark on the blue alternate, which is being replaced with a large capital “C” on the left chest, I’m ok with that. “CLEVELAND” was fine, but the new “C” logo matches that on the cap, and works just as well. The addition of the red/white trim will take a bit of getting used to, but overall I think it’s a net positive as well.
Of course, if the team (or rather MLB/Nike) have indeed fixed the NOB height, then I’m quite pleased with this development.
Your thoughts?
I like the new blue alt. The C logo looks good on that.
If I were a Guardian fan, that’s the one I’d buy, no doubt. Agree it’s the best of the bunch but none are bad.
Surpsied they wouldn’t keep at least one jersey with “Cleveland” branding.
The gray one still says “Cleveland,” so I don’t follow you
They did. The road gray ones.
Pros:
Love the blue/white/blue and red/white/red piping on the red and blue jerseys.
Love the psuedo-pullover look of the new alternate
The bridge print on the red jerseys is an upgrade over the script
Cons:
Don’t love the red/blue/red piping on the White and Gray jerseys
New home hat will take some getting used to, lukewarm at best on it for now
Why no update to the pants piping to match? And the whites with red ht and red-dominate piping really ought to be paired with a red belt and socks.
My thoughts as well.
Sleeve piping, indifferent.
The printed name on the front of the red, so much better but so close to perfect! Jettison the script, radially arch always to “match” the gray, that would be perfect. It would remind me of the Caveman era with Dennis Eckersley.
White, see above. Indifferent about changing the script angle because the new printed name rules.
Navy, so stupid, doesn’t have to exist and shouldn’t. Since it does, it looks like BP and ST
The new hats, yawn, all the red and/or navy teams have every permutation of red and/or navy hats now…there will be a switcheroo some time to bust a slump or to hang onto a good mojo, it’s all noise
Agree that the red could use some arching. I’m more positive on the piping and hats. I’m a Cleveland fan who believes the Ind/Guardians are best being a red-forward team.
Mostly an upgrade, but they missed one element. That single navy stripe on each pant leg looks off. Sure, they figure they can’t go red/navy/red on trousers they’ll wear with different stripe sets, and they don’t want to have three or four different trousers, but it looks bad. Maybe they’d be better off without a stripe on the trousers at all?
Beyond that, they’re fine. I wouldn’t mind seeing them switch to a lighter blue, considering like half the league wears navy and some other color.
These are almost certainly last year’s (this seasons’s) pants. I don’t think they’ve even started to make pants for next season yet and it’s unlikely they would have been included in one-offs for promotional purposes.
Love it! Very updated-90s vibe.
I hope they’re accidentally wearing last season’s pants because the piping not matching the jersey sleeves/collar bothers me so much
Let’s hope so because that’s so bad. That wouldn’t fly in a design class for middle schoolers.
That was the dullest hype video I’ve ever seen.
One man’s “dull” is another man’s “thank God it’s not another over-the-top posing, preening, flexing, badass overstated load of b.s.”
I would’ve preferred they just add piping to the existing jerseys ala the 1990’s uniforms, and call it a day.
Don’t much care for the big offset C, but I’m glad they didn’t do anything drastic with the rest of it.
I thought they might come up with a new logo, as some people think the “flying wheelchair” is kind of lame.
I didn’t like the font when they first introduced the name change, but it’s grown on me. I suppose there were some who didn’t like the Pirates unique typeface, but I think it looks really sharp.
Overall, I like.
“Flying wheelchair?” . . . Perhaps a striped winged sock would be better?
It seems like I’ve seen something like that somewhere . . . now where was that? . . .
Man that blue one screams spring training.
The blue alts look like batting practice jerseys.
Think the Guards uni tweaks are an upgrade but missed an opportunity to scrap the awful winged G/baseball secondary logo used as a sleeve patch. The City Connect Guardian is much more visually appealing & would have looked great on the sleeve & as a cap logo paired with the new navy jersey.
Love the new home cap. Love the red jersey. It Respects The Placket, unlike the white and gray ones. The blue jersey is an improvement as well.
And according to John Sabol of WJW, the City Connects will return next season.
link
Are they just using last year’s pants? Seems strange not to change the piping to match the jerseys
They may not have next year’s pants yet. It’s my understanding that the pants and jerseys are manufactured completely separately, so they may not even have that template ready yet.
A hat with the winged “G” baseball logo would be cool
Yeah, I’m surprised they haven’t done that with this uni upgrade, but it seems inevitable that they will before too long.
Strongly disagree.
The cap/jersey monogram represents the city, as it should. The monogr
…monogram should not represent the team nickname.
I can honestly say, this was a pretty good upgrade! Especially on the blue jersey. The piping really stands out. Thumbs up!!!!
If only the red alt was a pullover…
If only all baseball jerseys were pullovers…
Curious to know if Cleveland will add a red batting helmet with a blue visor to match the home cap.
“None of the changes would qualify as major”
Changing the cap kinda feels major to me.
I think the red bill capbwith in the road uniforms is an upgrade. The Navy jersey is much better, just wish they would have went to red script cleveland on the gray jerseys like they had in the 90s.
Don’t think you’ll see “Cleveland” in that script again, it got retired with the Indians name. It would make a nice throwback however, without reigniting the problematic nickname debate.
I like these changes, this team is starting to look like they are supposed to.
Hopefully the Commanders will adjust their band-aid uniforms soon.
Is that the Washington nationals?
Washington wishes they looked this good.
I’m glad the blue alt doesn’t have a number in the belly.
I wonder if they’ll wear a red helmet at home, considering they haven’t worn a red billed helmet a home for a while. I think the Red Jersey is a big downgrade. Really like the navy jersey though.
It always bugged me that they’ve worn the road helmet (without the red bill) at home.
Bad look. Lazy.
I was surprised at how many of the players have their number on their belts.
The C on the road alt. is too big.
Which two shades of gray are they using for the road uniforms? ;)
The changes are all fine but none of them are all that meaningful to me. The whole set just feels kind of generic, like it cares more about being inoffensive than being cool. The Guardians should do more to establish their unique identity. Their City Connects were a good start. Lean into the bridge and statues more. Lean into the art deco theme more.
And I’m sure this is unpopular with Cleveland fans, but I wish the Guardians would change their color scheme. There are too many teams in MLB using red and blue, and the name/uniform change provides a good opportunity for more aesthetic changes.
The Guardians should try to look like the *Guardians*. For now they just look like the Cleveland Baseball Team.
But yellow and green automatically makes ppl think of the Athletics. Purple? The Rockies. Orange? Giants and Orioles. Teal? Marlins. (?) Red alone? Reds. Blue alone? Too many to mention. Orange and blue or orange and green, then, but the latter might look too much like Miami University. There are only so many colors; the NBA has the same problem with red/black teams.
If you can have two orange and black teams, you can have two yellow and green teams. No one owns a color scheme. I know Cleveland wouldn’t do it, but if the A’s wanted to switch to black and gold, they could. Pittsburgh might complain but so what.
The Indians/Guardians have been wearing red, white, and blue since at least 1904. If there are too many teams with those colors, then those other teams should change. The Rangers, Twins, Braves, Nats, and Cards all showed up to the party late.
link
This actually skews them as more of a red > blue team, where most navy/red teams emphasize navy (except STL). This has been their color scheme for 120 years, they can keep it. Plus, the blood clots of the 1970s… so there is history.
One of those “niggling little things that drive me absolutely batshit,” as Paul used to say, is when people, including apparently people employed by major sports teams writing press releases, fail to grasp the difference between the words “alternate” and “alternative”
Haha, that jumped out at me too. You sometimes hear fans/commenters/message board people refer to “alternative” jerseys, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in an official capacity. And using it that way is incorrect in the sense that “alternate” is the longstanding term used in this context and most people saying “alternative” are probably getting the two words confused.
I looked it up, and in the UK they use “alternative” in the way we use “alternate.” So there is some international basis for it.
Would have liked them to have their stylized numbers on the front for at least one of these designs.
The Flying G logo is soooooo goofy that it’s starting to grow on me.
The diamond C is a bit too large for the front, IMHO.
White caps instead of red for the white home unis would have been nice. Or if you go with a red cap, a white diamond C with a blue outline would have been worth a try.
I agree that matching piping on the pants would be the right thing to do.
As long as they win games, I can live with all of this.
They look like the spring training unis from Major League. Bring back Wahoo!!!
I’m not a particularly sensitive person but looking back on it, Wahoo was racist AF. The name Indians was not great, but certainly not as bad as Redskins, but man, that logo was really not cool.
Chief Knocka Homa
All minor changes, but huge improvement overall!!!
Is there some reason why they can’t use the faces of the Guardian statues (copyright?) that the team is named for, perhaps as a secondary logo to replace to lame “Flying G Baseball”?
The Cleveland Nationals
Yes, Phil, the NOBs are bigger and bolder!
My first reaction to the red cap was ugh! The more I thought about it, the more it reminded me of the Red Sox’ mid-’70s caps (My first exposure to the Saux was the 1975 World Series.) And the Guardians do need to be more unique in themselves, and the home cap is a start. Glad that they are using the red-billed navy caps with their road sets. Like many have said, the big C navy jersey looks more like a BP/spring model. I have long liked their red jerseys, with the change to horizontal all-caps different but promising; the name looks like it might arch some when worn. And the added stripes help immensely.
Love the refresh! I am in the minority here, but I love the winged G logo.
Thoughts:
– I like the new stripes, especially on the colored alts
– Red cap will take some getting used to, and I wouldn’t be surprised if its usage changes
– Big fan of the red brim caps for the road jerseys
– Love the new red and navy jerseys, they feel delightfully eighties, which is how the Guards should be
– I hope those are last season’s pants and they will get new ones to match the stripes
– Big NOBs! Welcome back!
– It seems this is a bit of a shift towards being a more red-focused team (or a Rangers-style existential crisis)
– This feels like the completion of the Guardians brand identity; the previous set was just the Indians with a different font, so this feels like they have finally established something semi-unique for themselves as a step forward, which I’m in favor of.
Some of these changes are pretty good. However, you would think given the opportunity they would have finally corrected the spelling of “Gourdians” on all of these sets. But, Gourds gonna Gourd I guess.
Jersey quality still seems cheap. It feels like the same lettering just in bigger
How can a uniform be “uniform” when the team-related sleeve patch and the sponsor’s patch keep swapping from Left sleeve to Right sleeve? It’s long past time that Manfred the Wonder Dog grew a pair and mandated that ALL teams which had a standard placement for their team’s sleeve patch in the pre-ad patch era return to that standard, with the ad patch on the other sleeve
I wouldn’t call it “piping,” just more elaborate golf shirt sleeves.
If Nike continues to insist on sleeve cuffs instead of piping, this change is a good enough change. I get why teams tried to mimic the previous sleeve piping via sleeve cuffs but it never really worked in my opinion. Adding more pops of red helps.
I’m most satisfied with the NOB being larger.
I like the changes overall but was more interested in what it meant for MLB uniforms on the whole with the changes. A few items were cleared up.
1. The NOB absolutely looks bigger. I have little doubt there.
2. Obviously it’s extremely tough to tell, but it was hard to see if the difference in fabric between the greys and the other uniforms. I was trying to see if the dimples were different but you really can’t tell from stills.
3. One big question I had that was answered, on all the uniforms, even with the larger NOB, the MLB Batter Man logo remained in it’s lower position. Commenters I’ve seen on Xitter and Reddit seem really annoyed by this and I don’t understand why. I’m totally agnostic on where the Batter Man ends up.
I heard one source, specifically, SportsLogos.net, say the Batter Man would return to it’s previous position in 2026 but that’s the only place I’ve seen this and don’t see why it would if clearly, they could change the road fabric and the NOB size and leave Batter Man as is? Any word on if the logo will move in 2026?
I’ve not heard that as definite, but it is something MLB “is seriously considering.”
Like you, I honestly don’t care where the Jerry Dior logo sits, so long as larger NOB are returned. I’ve never believed MLB that it won’t “fit” within the smaller placket (it would be tight, to be sure, but it would still fit); I do know MLB pretty much refused to make the logo smaller so it could fit comfortably within the smaller placket, but even if it were kept at the current dimensions, it could be moved. Of course, there was also talk that the uniforms would revert to the larger placket (as it was in 2023 and earlier) but if the Guardians new jerseys will be the same template as the other 29 teams in 2025 — and there’s no reason to believe they won’t be — it would have to be in 2026 or later that the logo returns to its previous position.
Yeah on SportsLogos it said the repositioning of the logo would come in 2026, only changes for 2025 are supposed to be the larger NOB and the 2023 fabric for the greys. Just half expected to see the logo moved up on the grey, since I was under the impression that whatever template the greys used would be the overall template from 2026 onward. We shall see I guess.
I guess I’m the rare individual who wasn’t bothered by the smaller NOB, but I’m also a Red Sox fan and the two jerseys I own are the Red Sox home alt-red and home white, neither of which have a name.
Quite frankly, I’m old school about baseball uniforms, I’d be happy as a clam if there wasn’t a single team with NOB on any of their jerseys. Only thing I like about the Yankees.
I have no problem with smaller NOBs but hate the lower positioning that the lowered batterman logo causes. The NNOB teams look OK with the lower batterman because it didn’t shove the numbers downward.
And I too would love to see every team go NNOB. Particularly teams with a long NNOB history like the Cubs; go back to tradition!
The blue jersey looks like the “Vogt coat” that the manager wore this past season. I know it was a popular look with the Cleveland fans.
I think I like everything about these updates, save for the flying G logo. That looks like clip art from some 1980s software. Should have replaced it with an art deco guardian logo. And of course the return of the properly sized NOB! This bodes well for the rest of the league next year.
I think the changes will be an adjustment to many fans, myself included
One thing that I would have sort of liked to see would be a switch to the navy/maroon (or dark red)/sandstone color scheme from the City Connects and incorporate those into the entire uniform set.
* I like the new red/blue home cap.
* I like the big “diamond C” on the blue alt jersey. Neither the home cursive nor the all caps look right with that font.
* I’m a traditionalist for the most part, but the unis just aren’t ambitious enough. I’d like to see designers really lean into the Art Deco aesthetic of the team’s new namesake and use in on the uniform in some creative ways. Maybe do something decorative & geometric with the piping, or something REALLY bold with the jersey’s composition?
Would it kill them to vertically arch the chest lettering?
On balance, some improvements.
1. Being more red-forward at home is a pleasant break from most red/navy teams going navy > red.
2. I like the navy alt with the monogram.
3. I like the collar/sleeve trim.
However,
4. I am still not crazy about the bespoke print wordmark. It’s not great, like plain block letters wasn’t good enough but this isn’t better.
5. The “winged G” is definitely trying too hard. The “C” monogram (for Cleveland) is fine and historically consistent and accurate. Having a second monogram centered around a team name not even a decade old after almost a century of the previous name is unnecessary and does not make sense from a branding standpoint. I get that the team wants to leave Chief Wahoo in the past but forcing this gimmicky logo isn’t the answer.
this is going to give PL a headache – are they a blue or red team?
I’d like the pants piping to match the jersey. But that could mess with the alternate jerseys (red and blue top)
Solid changes but I wish they went back to the standard number font. The current font is too minor leagues for my liking.