Spring training is now in full swing, and the Cubs and Dodgers even played the first game of the preseason yesterday. We’re continuing to get more looks at 2025’s uniforms, and thus far we’ve seen some positive changes from Nike (though there are also a number of still-unresolved issues which we’ll discuss a bit further today).
Some of the biggest complaints — namely the return of larger NOB and adjustments to pre-2024 number sizes — seem to have been addressed for all teams. Nike has also apparently “fixed” the mismatched grays that plagued road uniforms last season, and as we also recently saw, with a change in fabric the pants appear to be thicker and of a higher quality. As noted earlier this week, the St. Louis Cardinals jerseys (and likely most other teams) have been slightly altered to what seems to be a 2023-2024 “hybrid,” rather than a return to the pre-2023 template.
But there are still issues that probably won’t be getting fixed this season. In the Cardinals article (linked above), Oliver Kodner notes the Cardinals’ glorious chain-stitched logo still isn’t directly sewn onto the jersey. The Phillies may never return to chain-stitching. And — as Nike has already warned us — they still haven’t fixed the material on the home pants.
Teams have been holding their annual Picture Days, (you can see thousands of photos here), and unfortunately it’s déjà vu all over again, as one Lawrence Peter Berra once reflected.
Triple threat. pic.twitter.com/JVSq3oNiqI
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) February 18, 2025
As you can see in the photo above of Roki Sasaki, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani, the pants are still paper thin.
It’s not just the Dodgers. It’s every team.
Picture day isn’t game day, and players typically will have at least a full baselayer underneath their pants, which fortunately makes the revealing pants less of an issue. But there will no doubt still be some issues, like last year when we had what seemed like more rips and tears, and even pants coming apart at the seams.
At least we can’t say Nike didn’t warn us. But the fact that we’ll (likely) still need to wait another season for them to fix what wasn’t broken is still pretty depressing.
2025 CINCINNATI REDS PICTURE DAY
The C-Reds logo is smaller on the current Nike shirt. Pre-changes, it was the same height as the numbers — the top and bottom of the C basically aligned horizontally with the top and bottom of the numbers. Not so with the changes — it’s a smaller logo. (I don’t like it that way.)
Compare the two 2025s with the pre-24 Hunter Greene and Joey Votto.
Bob Moon
Columbus, OH
New:
Pre-2024 Changes:
Side-by-side
And they should, since the new blue jersey is a road alternate. But since the Mets will wear only this jersey for spring training, that means it will also be paired with the team’s home pinstripe pants, and it’s just not a good look.
Softball tops can sometimes look good with white pants, but they don’t often pair as well with gray (since the Mets designed their new blue jersey specifically for use with their new gray pants, it seems to work pretty well). But solid color jerseys never look good over pinstripe pants. This is actually a lesson the Mets learned when they introduced their previous blue alternate (which was worn at home).
At first, the Mets only wore pinstriped pants, so their original pairing was similar to the 2025 ST look:
When the Mets brought their BFBS jersey back in 2021, they (re)introduced a pair of solid white pants with a thin royal blue stripe (basically a throwback to their original BFBS look from the late 1990s-2011). In 2022 through 2024, the Mets swapped the royal blue jersey over pins for a royal over solid white — a much more aesthetically pleasing look. (One looks designed to be worn together, while the other looks like the team forgot its jerseys and just grabbed a BP jersey at the last minute.)
Hopefully the sheer number of times the team will wear the new stealth blue alt will cause them to wear it very sparingly on the road throughout the season.
Readers — please contact me if you have any ST observations about any uniforms — something Nike has fixed (or not fixed) as we’re about to begin game play for the remaining 28 teams.
Recent comment (I think it was my ticker) has the Pirates front number on the other side (wear right) for bullpen catchers and coaches except the field manager, and the manager matches the players in the normal side (wear left)
Actually the Mets wore the blue alts with the plain white pants in 2013 and ’14, switching to the pinstriped pants in 2015 when the home white alts were discontinued.
I would be remiss If I didn’t share this video of Dodger’s prospect Griffin Lockwood-Powell and his epic NOB.
link
Wow, imagine if one of his last names was, for example, Blankenship, Alexander or Concepcion? Or if Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Nickeil Alexander-Walker (or similar hyphenated namesake) played baseball, a revert to the smaller font might be warranted.
The Reds’ number font is so tacky.
Please go back to normal block font
Gives off strong late-90s vibes.
The ’90s: “Wow, look at all these effects my design program has!”
[drop shadows everything]
[adds gradient]
“That looks great!”
The big issue for me is the drop shadow. You have an outline font with a drop shadow added in just so you can claim black as a team color. It looks like crap. Pick one or the other.
Man, the Reds really need to scrap that weird number font with drop shadow and get rid of the numbers on the right breast of the jersey. Such an odd look, especially now with the mis-matched sizes.
Reds should go back to a modernized version of the unis they wore in the very early Johnny Bench days like right before the Big Red Machine really took off in the pullovers. The last button up unis before the pullover era. Those were perfect. Essentially, normal font and ditch the black.
One thing I also noticed about the Cardinals is that the button placement on their uniforms changed in 2024 and is still in effect for 2025. Previously their buttons were all evenly spaced and the birds on bat was able to fit properly. But in 2024, with the new jersey chassis, the top two buttons are now closer together to accommodate scripts/word marks that go across the chest. I feel like Paul had a term for this but it escapes me.
If I had to hypothesize, it seemed like this was a manufacturing decision where any team with a wordmark will have the buttons in this manner regardless.
Thought to include some image links.
Jordan Walker, photo day 2025 (note the top two buttons): link
Compare that to 2024: link
And 2023: link
Also you can see the changes in the front number’s appearance across the years, and the lack of a number during Photo Day 2023.
it’s hard for me to not think “Creds” when I see the Reds’ logo
Always been funny to me with the Reds and Cubs logos. Same design, so it should either be “Creds” and “Cubs” or “C-Reds” and “C-Ubs”!
Looks like Yankees have an updated sponsor patch on their sleeves. The previous ones read “Starr Insurance.” The new ones just read “Starr.” Not sure if it’s only a change for Spring Training.
The Reds logo is supposed to be BIG. This is outrageous. The new homes look like knockoffs now.
Something has to go on that Reds’ jersey: the headspoon, the drop shadow, or the Victorian font. Maybe all three.
Paul stated in the pants seam article that the pants fabric was not changed in 2024. Does this imply the new road pants fabric is an upgrade to what they used in 2023 and perhaps earlier than that?
Nuh-uh. Half light half dark uniforms require a Sansabelt. If you wear a belt, you are a monochrome team. It says so in Leviticus.
This is old news but gosh, the narrow placket looks bad on teams with headspoon piping. And how the Reds used to have that single sleeve stripe, which now has to be rendered as part of the “sleeve end cuff” which they stripe white-red-white in and effort to mimic the old look… gosh there are no redeemable aspects of the new template, even if they fixed one or two issues.
I’m not a fan of the forced cuffs either. Feels like a solution to a non-existent problem.
So I guess the Dodgers haven’t fixed the awkward break at the second “d” on the “Dodgers”jersey.
It’s very strange to me, there was a photo from a few weeks ago with Blake Snell and a couple other players visiting some store or something as part of a charity event and the D was split the old way, between the letters. I wonder if they had some old stock jerseys and just used those as one-offs.
I think colored alternates look fine with pinstriped pants. I would go so far as to say I like the look. I think it’s dumb that the Mets and Rockies (and maybe others I’m not remembering?) introduced solid white pants solely to avoid it.
Totally fair, but if I may… why do you like the look?
I equate wearing pinstripes to wearing a pinstriped men’s suit. The jacket and pants are designed to be worn together. You wouldn’t pair a tan (or pick any color) blazer with navy blue pintriped pants, as the pins are designed to be worn only with the pinstriped jacket. So why would you purposely wear pants designed solely to be worn with a specific jersey with a different jersey, especially if other pants (which can be worn with multiple jerseys) are available?
That’s my rationale for disliking the solid dark over white pins.
Just curious why you like the look.
Certainly agree that in the context of businesswear, mismatching a suit jacket and pants like that would be bad. But while pinstripes as a general design element might be more strongly associated with suits than some others, it still doesn’t mean a pinstriped baseball uniform is the same thing.
Wearing a color baseball jersey top with pinstriped baseball pants reminds me more of wearing a solid t-shirt with patterned casual pants (checks, patches, something like that). And I guess I enjoy the pinstriped element as a callout to classic baseball aesthetics while having the visual interest that comes with the color jersey at the same time.
I tend to share this point of view, but it doesn’t at all persuade me when I try to think it through and develop an actual generally applicable principle. 1) Baseball uniforms are not, in fact, business suits. 2) Business suits use many, varied patterns, yet among them only pinstripes are regularly – really, ever – used on baseball uniforms, so the baseball case is quite distinct in practice from the men’s formalwear case. 3) Pairing patterned suit jackets with non-matching pants has been fashionable and common since at least the late 1980s. True, the opposite – pinstriped suit pants with a non-matching jacket – remains almost unheard of, but the basic concept of breaking up the suit and treating its components as separates is exceedingly common and has been for two generations now.
I generally do not like softball tops with pinstripe pants, but I cannot justify that opinion by reference to any generally applicable principle borne of men’s formalwear fashion. It just doesn’t look pretty to me as a matter of subjective taste. Though the Mets are close to an exception – if the jersey here was any good, I think I’d like the look in this one instance.
All of these look fine together:
link
or
link
or
link
If you wear wear a pinstripe suit – do you only wear it with a pinstripe shirt as well? Most wouldn’t.
You wear a plain shirt, which looks fine when you take off the jacket:
link
or
link
All of which look good together.
Team ownership owns the continuing fiasco with Nike uniforms. Final approval of any uniform changes related to design issues lies with the folks that actually own the franchise., so let’s call them out on these issues
Came here expecting a screed on the Mets uniforms. Was not disappointed.
This may have been stated but the Braves uniforms have been awfully botched by this Nike process. The new sleeve cuffs are very bad, replacing the piping. However the most egregious mistake is the shrinking of Braves and Atlanta on each jersey front. It looks pathetic.
I like the pre 2024 Reds unis, but the smaller logo and the horrendous “head spoon” pipping makes these look like kids jerseys you buy in the gift shop. If the Reds can’t or are unwilling to fix these problems it’s time to get new uniforms. The red “Reds” script jersey was supposed to be an alternate Sunday jersey but has turned into practically their primaries. I like them in moderation but getting sick of seeing them every day with Elly’s clashing pink accessories.
Those Mets blue henley pullovers are not attractive at all, it does not matter which pants they wear.