Chicago Cubs Unveil New City Connect Uniform

Unveiled on Thursday night ahead of Cubs Convention, the Chicago Cubs have introduced their new City Connect uniform, which will debut in 2025.

Let’s start with the video:

Chicago born.
Cubs worn.⁰⁰The new Blues Alternate debuts this season. pic.twitter.com/SZ8OAqLA9O

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) January 17, 2025

As you can see, the jersey is powder blue (aka “light” or “baby” blue), and will be the first powder blue jersey for the Cubs since 1981 (although the Cubs did break out powder blue as a throwback during their epic 2014 yearlong celebration). And powder blue actually has a deep history with the Cubs: the first team to wear powder blue was the 1941 Cubs, who debuted a blue road vest that year. The design lasted only two seasons before the Cubbies reverted back to road grays. Powder blue returned periodically for the Cubs in the 1970s and 1980s, so there is ample precedent for the look on the North Side.

Dubbed the “Blues Alternate,” the new CC pays tribute to the team’s history and honors Chicago’s contribution to the electric blues music movement with multiple nods to the era. Yes, there is a lot of storytelling going on — this is a CC after all — but first the details.

Unfortunately, the Cubs didn’t release any still photos, nor were there any shots of the back of the jersey. The video briefly showed a look at the pants, which appear to be white.

The cap is two-tone — a royal blue brim and cap, with a white front panel. It features a modified wishbone “C” in red, with a six point star (from the flag of Chicago) inside the C, outlined in white and royal. “ubs” is contained inside the “C” (spelling out Cubs), in royal lowercase letters. That same logo will also appear on the jersey front.

The jersey is powder blue, with the new logo located on the left side of the chest. Player number is located on the opposite side of the placket from the logo, in red outlined in white.

On the left sleeve is a new patch, in the shape of a guitar pick, spelling out Chicago.

Here are some good closeups of the cap and sleeve patch.

I noted we didn’t see any views of the back of the jersey — however, based on this graphic, we can see NOB will be navy blue, outlined in white, in a radial arch. There’s also a “Sweet Home Chicago” slogan on what appears to be one of the socks to be worn with the CC, which themselves are powder blue to match the jersey. The socks have six vertical stripes at the top.

As mentioned above, because this is a City Connect uniform, there is storytelling involved. Here’s how the Cubs describe the features of the new uniform:

And here is how MLB describes the uniform:

The Cubs’ logo on the left chest of the jersey and hat — a red “C” with a star at its midpoint, plus blue lettering to complete the team name — is a nod to the franchise’s logos in the early-to-mid 1900s. The designers also took inspiration from brands that made electric guitars, amplifiers and microphones in the same era.

The Cubs wanted to pay tribute not only to the club’s history, but to the Chicago blues movement of the early 20th century. The sleeve patch on the jersey features the city’s name within the shape of a guitar pick, complete with an electric bolt to represent the electrification of the blues.

The designers also sought design input from players on the uniform, which will include on-field socks that have “Sweet Home Chicago” along with a six-string guitar stripe. The hat has a blue brim and back, but a white front and red button on the top. The players’ names and numbers feature a blues-era typography that serves as a nod to the music and baseball scene of yesteryear.

The new uniform will debut on April 5 against the Padres in the second home game of the season. After that, it will become a Friday day game feature “during the summer months.” Unlike the Red Sox, who are also getting a new CC for 2025, and keeping their 2021 “Boston Marathon” CCs and moving them to the “Core 4,” the Cubs will be replacing their old “Wrigleyville” CC with this new one.

__________Obviously, without seeing the full uniform (much less on a field and in action), I can’t give a complete opinion. However, from what I see so far, I like what I see — although I do wish the pants were also powder blue. But from a design perspective, this looks to be a solid new look for the team who first introduced powder blue to MLB way back in 1941. I like the split of the front number and logo directly across the placket — this provides for a nice balanced look, as opposed to teams who diagonally split logo/number, which looks unbalanced to my eye.

I can live with the “theme” and storytelling since this is a CC, but I’m still deciding if I love or hate the guitar pick logo. Most major cities can claim a connection to a musical history, so I expected the guitar pick to show up on Cleveland’s CC (as they are home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame). Fortunately, Cleveland eschewed playing to their RRHOF status when they introduced their CC last season, leaving that angle for another team. The Cubs have now seized upon that schtick. But since this is (apparently) the only direct musical reference on the jersey, I can probably live with the guitar pick patch just fine.

I absolutely love the new cap. The team has knocked it out of the park with those!

The Cubs will officially unveil the full uniform later this weekend at Cubs Fest, where hopefully we’ll see full views of the uniform. I’m not sure if new Weekend Editor Anthony Emerson (who officially takes over that position beginning with his first article tomorrow) will cover the full uniforms as he gets his feet wet, but if not, I’ll have more on them next week.

So far, I like what I see. What do you think?