The Tacoma Rainiers are a Minor League Baseball team in the Pacific Coast League (PCL), and the Triple-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. Located in Tacoma, Washington, they play their home games at Cheney Stadium, which opened in 1960.
You’re obviously familiar with the Seattle Mariners, who have called that city home since 1977, the second major league team to take up residence in the Emerald City. The first of course was the Seattle Pilots, a one-year 1969 expansion team that relocated to Milwaukee to become the Brewers after a single year in Seattle.
But baseball in the Pacific Northwest long predates the Major Leagues, with Tacoma having a minor league (PCL) squad as early as 1904-05. While that team was short-lived in Tacoma (and the PCL wouldn’t return there until 1960), Seattle has had a PCL/MiLB dating back to the 1920s.
But PCL/MiLB wasn’t the only game in town in the Seattle area. The Seattle Steelheads were a Negro League team with a brief history in Seattle. The team only played in Seattle from 1944-46, but they left an impression on the city. The Mariners have, in fact, worn Steelheads throwbacks (fauxbacks) several times in recent years.
The new Rainiers gray and navy blue alternate jerseys will harkback to the Steelheads’ days in the PNW.
The new jerseys for 2025 will “honor Tacoma’s legacy and the place (they) proudly call home.”
Gray Road
The new gray jersey is quite plain, featuring “TACOMA” in navy blue, in a slight radial arch. Sleeves will have blue piping just above the hem, and the right sleeve will feature a stylized “R,” which is the Rainiers primary logo.
Navy Alternate
The new navy alternate, which is a pullover jersey, has “TACOMA” in a similar font as the gray jersey, although the letters are slightly thicker. The pullover is also a “V-neck” cut, and features a thick navy/white outline around the neck, and thicker white piping near the sleeve ends. The team is also introducing a new alternate cap (seen above), with a gray crown and blue brim, and “TACOMA” in navy, with a slight radial arch.
The Rainiers sported a host of jerseys in 2024, including a navy blue henley and a road gray, both of which are being replaced with the new jerseys seen above.
Here are comparisons of the new and old gray and new and old navy jerseys:
As you can see, the jerseys being replaced were both fairly simple in design as well. The gray jersey replaces the thick “TACOMA” in blue letters with red outlines, and removes the blue piping around the collar. There are bigger changes to the blue jersey. It goes from a henley style to a full pullover, and replaces the “R” logo with “TACOMA” on the front. The color also changes from a more royal hue to a much darker navy. The red/white/blue striping on the sleeve ends is replaced with a white soutache just above the hem.
You can read more about the Seattle Steelheads short-lived history here.
Unlike many, I love simplistic jerseys — some of you find them “boring” and that’s OK — so I’m a big fan of the new navy and gray offerings. Because the Steelheads were unfortunately not just short-lived, very few photos of players (or they uniforms they wore) actually exist. The Mariners did their best with their throwbacks to encapsulate the spirit of the old Steelheads’ uniforms. The Rainiers are doing much the same with these. It should be obvious, but the NLB Steelheads didn’t have a navy alternate.
I’ll be looking forward to seeing how these look on the field.
Your thoughts?
I love the jerseys, but the grey hat is dreadful.
Hmm, the jerseys in the photos don’t really match the “New” mockups. The road jersey in the mockup has the the placket running through the C, and the jersey in the photo has it to the left of the O. The alternate appears to have a larger word mark in the photo, as well: see how the white piping in the v-neck points down towards the center of the O in the photo, while in the mockup it’s aimed between the C and the O.
Yeah, those images are from the team store — both are listed as “authentic” but definitely don’t match the actual on-field jerseys shown on the players.
link
So,
They are pairing the grey uniform, with the navy hat, and the navy uniform with the grey hat?
Shouldn’t they pair grey with grey?
I’m pretty sure they’ll mix and match multiple caps with the new gray and navy jersey. And like others have noted below, the new “TACOMA” hat (with Tacoma spelled out, ugh) is probably designed more for merch sales than good design.
Tahoma?
Any jersey without a makers mark logo on the front chest is a win in my book.
I love the simplicity. I think you have to look at the uniform in its full context — not just the jersey. When you have that bright red “R” on the hat, it kind of makes sense for the jersey to be muted.
By that same logic, the new “TACOMA” hat is *awful*. It’s redundant, and the jersey would look way better paired with the red “R.”
That said, I’m sure this was made for the merch stand more than anything. We’ll be seeing these Tacoma hats everywhere in the PNW soon.
Pullover and plain away…nice!
Gray caps…woof!
I’m a fan of “simple” too. Hopefully the lettering is tackle-twill, as that is becoming a lost art in the world of Minor League Baseball jerseys.
Recalling the new Salt Lake unis to drop a couple of weeks ago, I think I’ve seen some other good ones, and now these, it seems like 2025 is the year that MiLB uniforms actually get better, and more serious and mature looking. I really like these I hope more MiLB teams adopt a more professional look vs the more cartoonish uniforms we often see at this level.
Also Phil, I’m with you on simplicity. Less is more. Not a big football fan but my favorite NFL jersey’s are easily Giants blue, Raiders black. Simpler the better. Hate to say it because I passionately, passionately hate the team, but the Yankees uniforms, amazing, especially the road greys they brought back this past season. Simple, clean, classic.
I’m actually a regular Rainiers attendee. I don’t mind these new unis but I much prefer the old road uniform (so much so that I actually own one). All I get from the new road uni is Yankees. I don’t mind the new typeface they’re using for the new unis though because it’s already familiar (they use it on their fauxbacks). If I had my way they should just rebrand to
Whoops, I clicked on post mid-rant on my phone. If I had my way they should rebrand more toward the fauxback set because those are much more beloved among Rainiers fans in my opinion. But otherwise I like the new designs, especially the new navy pullover.
That TACOMA hat is so unnecessary. Just use the navy hat with the red R.
As a big fan of Rainier (beer) they need to bring back the R hat…
You’ll notice their original tweets/instagram says the “NEW THREADS” are the 2025 Road & Alternate jerseys. The post then says “complete the look with the matching hats.” The hat also isnt labelled as OFFICIAL in the Rainiers team store. To me that makes it sound like the gray TACOMA hat isn’t meant for on-field