It has been an almost uninterrupted tradition for two decades, beginning with the Boston Red Sox in 2005, the defending World Series champion has opened the season wearing special gold-accented jerseys (and oftentimes caps as well). The only exceptions have been the 2006 White Sox, the 2008 Red Sox, and the 2010 Yankees. So it should come as no surprise that the Los Angeles Dodgers will be celebrating their 2024 World Series victory with a gold-themed top.
The following two images began circulating on social media late yesterday, and apparently were leaked from a Nike store. I can’t confirm 100% these are what the Dodgers will be sporting when they open the season in LA and have their ring ceremony, but all signs point to it.
Note in the second photo there is a World Series Champions patch.
The “Dodgers” script is solid gold, outlined in blue, while the jersey front number is gold outlined in red.
You may recall the Dodgers won the 2020 (pandemic) World Series, and following that championship, in 2021 the team also wore gold accented jerseys, but in the “opposite” style of the purported 2025 jersey:
In 2021, “Dodgers” was solid blue and the front number was red, both of which were outlined in gold. 2025 flips this.
While no cap has yet been unveiled (or leaked), in 2021 the Dodgers outlined their white interlocking “LA” logo in gold.
If they were to follow the pattern they seem to have established for this year, we might expect the cap to have “LA” in solid gold, with a white outline. (I’m not sure how good that will look. The gold outline on the white LA didn’t have enough color separation in 2021, so I’m not sure a gold LA outlined in white would be any better. Perhaps the cap will simply have a gold “LA” — which I think would look best.)
The jersey has already been photoshopped on the Interwebs. If the leak is indeed correct, the new jerseys should pretty closely resemble this mockup:
Last year the defending champion Texas Rangers officially unveiled their special WS jerseys on March 7th, the earliest a team had unveiled since at least 2016. If we go back to 2016, most have either been right around today’s date, or very close to it. Here’s when the defending World Series champs unveiled their gold designs for 2023-2016:
- 2023 (Astros): March 19
- 2022 (Atlanta): April 7
- 2021 (Dodgers): April 5
- 2020 (Nats): July 9
- 2019 (Red Sox): April 8
- 2018 (Astros): March 19
- 2017 (Cubs): March 24
- 2016 (Royals): March 18
Obviously, some of those dates were affected by the pandemic and the lockout.
But we can probably expect the Dodgers to officially unveil their 2025 World Series cap and jersey pretty soon.
There is of course ample precedent for changing up one’s Ring Ceremony jersey — following their 2010, 2012 and 2014 World Series victories, the Giants wore three different style jerseys.
The Astros also changed up their jerseys — in 2018 they wore all gold letters and numbers outlined in navy but in 2023 they wore a blue wordmark with gold outline. You can see the difference here.
So, if this is indeed the Dodgers World Series/Ring Ceremony jersey for 2025, what do you think?
I don’t really ever have strong feelings about these (other than wishing it was my Yankees). But I don’t like that the wordmark AND number are gold. It just looks really weird when the two elements on the front of a Dodgers jersey are the same color. I would have preferred either a rerun of the 2020 jersey, or making the front number red outlined in gold if it needed to be different.
If they made them like the 2020 version, people likely wouldn’t buy as many since they were similar. It’s all a marketing thing instead of what probably looks the best.
I agree. I like to see the tradition continue.
I agree. I like to see the tradition continue.
It’s a one off deal. You don’t have to like it.
The hat would be great without that monstrosity of a patch on the side (this applies to 99% of hats with patches).
The gold outline looks so much better than the gold lettering.
Yes. Fantastic look
Gotta ask.
Just what is the photo you used in the lede of?
I was searching for a Dodgers cap with a “gold” LA — the splash is of some kind of fashion cap.
Looked brown, gold and orange to me, I thought, are they going to mock the Padres with their ceremonial uni?
I was wondering the same thing, I kept thinking “are the Dodgers going to wear black, gold, and orange, the color of their rivals, to celebrate a championship?”
The one weird thing about wearing jerseys or uniforms adorned with championship patches the following season is that you’ll likely have players who didn’t win the championship wearing it, as well as players who did win it not there.
Seems unnecessary to me, as a double dipping merch opportunity, because really if you are a fan and want a jersey with the championship patch, you just buy the jersey from when they were in the game/series. And if you really want a championship hat, they have plenty of options already.
In baseball you don’t need the special uniforms to celebrate the championship at the start of the following season, you already have the championship pennant to hoist for the first time at the home opener.
I like the splash photo with the bronze/copper lining, it would be interesting to see if a team do a WS champion jersey with only Gold, Silver, and Bronze or at least all metallic.
Waiting for an all gold uniform: hat, jersey, pants, socks and shoes. If one team should apply for such a gaudy outfit it should be Hollywood’s team, the Dodgers. They can even name it the Oscar Uniform.
Seconded. Bonus points if they give it a satin finish to match their crazy-ass 1944 jerseys.
….and another photo of an athlete with his mouth open.
It gets exhausting.
…what?
The image from the Nike store respects the placket. The mockup of Ohtani does not. As Paul would say, “hmmmmm.”