Good Monday morning, Uni Watchers. I hope everyone had a great weekend — the first full weekend of MLB and the NCAA tourneys hopefully resulted in success for your rooting interests.
***SIGNAL FLARE*** Are you a San Francisco Giants fan living in (or near) the SF area? I’d love to have your thoughts on the Giants new CC, once they are unveiled officially). Shoot me an e-mail (phil.hecken@gmail.com) if you’re interested. I am hoping to always include the thoughts of a local fan once a CC is unveiled.
About a week ago, the Nationals unveiled their new 2025 City Connect uniforms — the second team to unveil this season (the Astros were the first), but the Nats were the first team to debut their CCs (the Astros will do so tonight).
The Nats squared off against division rival Philadelphia, and the team sported their CC’s both on Saturday and yesterday. I had been waiting to see them on the field before I rendered a full opinion. My hopes were high on these initially, but did they look as good on the field as they did during the unveiling?
As I reported after the uniforms were unveiled, there isn’t a tremendous amount of storytelling, but with each CC there will always be some. But how do those little details translate to seeing a game on TV or from the seats?
One of my first concerns was the fact that the Nationals introduced both a new cap and a new helmet …
… which are distinctly different from one another. The helmet is a solid blue — a blue which is a shade somewhere between “powder blue” and navy blue (the team refers to it as having “tones of American denim”). The cap, on the other hand, has a lighter color crown (we’ll call it powder blue), while the brim is a dark navy. Each have different “W” logos. I wondered whether the cap, with two different shades of blue from the jersey, would look “off.”
I thought the helmets matched the jerseys well, and looked good.
The cap didn’t seem to match as well (although I have no problem with three different shades of blue). I wonder whether the team originally had plans to make the helmet coloring match that of the cap, or if they were deliberately designed to be different. But it’s absolutely clear in the video below that there is a color “mis”match between jersey and cap.
D 🔒 C pic.twitter.com/n1IMhbWdF2
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) March 29, 2025
It’s not a terrible mismatch by any means, but it was definitely something I noticed right off the bat (if you’ll pardon the pun).
TRY AGAIN
🔥 @__dc4__ 🔥 pic.twitter.com/KlBi3DGJMx
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) March 29, 2025
As you saw in the above videos, most of the Nationals wore their pants pajama style. I’m definitely not a fan of that look, but for those who went high-cuffed to show off the socks, it looked really good.
I wasn’t entirely sold on the sleeve and pants striping, but I guess they’re both fine. Something always seems off when teams wear gradient striping.
I’d honestly have preferred the sleeve stripes to be solid cherry blossom pink, and the pants stripe would probably look better if it were just one shade of blue (preferably the blue of the jersey and helmet).
With most teams having at least a sleeve logo (and ad), it actually now looks a bit odd to see a sleeve that’s blank (but fear not, Washingtonians, you’ll probably have a sleeve ad soon enough).
Another concern I had was how well the 3-D block shadow effect, which was rendered in the same shade of blue as the jersey, would show up. Would it be visible at any distance, or would it blend right into the jersey? Unfortunately, the shadow blends, mitigating the entire 3-D effect.
It was barely noticeable on the interlocking “DC” on the front of the jersey, even in tight shots.
And the same held true for the effect on the jersey’s rear numbers as well.
As you can see from this video, it looks like both the DC and the rear number are white with a dark navy outline, rather than looking 3-D.
GO BERTS 🦅 pic.twitter.com/tl79E0nY61
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) March 29, 2025
But…that’s OK. Because the logo on which this is based also used logo shading in the same color as the jersey. So in that respect, the team actually did a good job. But that doesn’t make it good design back in 1958 or 2025. They could just as easily have scrapped the 3-D effect.
And as expected, the “city grid” which was sublimated onto the jersey didn’t really show up at any distance (which is a good thing).
The final arbiter of whether or not the uniform looks good is — ignoring the storytelling and its details — does it look good as a uniform. I’d have to answer in the affirmative. And while you guys know I’m generally not a fan of powder blue over white, this “denim” is darker than powder blue, so I’m glad the team didn’t wear “matching” denim pants (maybe the Blue Jays should have gone for the Canadian Tuxedo look).
Overall? It’s a completely unnecessary uniform, but we’re well past that. As an actual uniform, I thought it looked pretty good on the field. Any time we can introduce more light colors into sports (I’ve never liked dark colors anyway), that’s a good thing. It’s far from perfect (or even great), but as far as CCs go, this one is probably top 10. Let’s hope the new CCs all look as good as this one.
What did/do you guys think? Casting aside the fact that it’s a CC — what do you think of it as an actual uniform? And do you think it’s as good or better than their City Connect 1.0?
The floor is yours…
The one thing I noticed, and maybe so did others, was that the perispiration of the pitcher’s heads showed in a big way in these new CC caps! At first I thought it was part of the design but then I realized that there are no mountain ranges within the DC city limits. Never seen these stains before in such a big way. Otherwise the uniform looked OK and I saw many fans in the stands wear the jersey and/or the hat.
90s closer John Wetteland was notorious for running out all year with a gross, sweaty/salt-stained cap during his time with the Expos, Yankees and Rangers.
On TV, I didn’t think the socks quite matched the jersey. They looked like the shade of grey from the previous CC.
Since this was the free MLB game of the day, I got to watch in all of its glory. As a uniform, it looked like a just another powder blue top over white pants, so meh. As a Nats uniform, it didn’t look like a Nats uniform at all.
GTGFTS
27 June 2014
Final score as pictured as Ryan Zimmerman lines out for the penultimate out of the game.
GTGFTU
18 September 1994
Saints 9, Bucs 7 at the Big Sombrero (RIP)
You got it Marc, 1994 had great throwbacks!
Re that Ram’s helmet, no idea how to “fix” it, but my vote is, DON’T. It’s awesome the way it is. If for no other reason, anyone who sees it will be confused. As in, they’ll be puzzled by the question of what team that is. Love that. It’s almost like those nutty “switch the colors” exercises we see sometimes. Like, hey, what if the Rams and Seahawks swapped colors?
It’s got some low-key Loki vibes now.
I agree. I wouldn’t fix it if there is a way to fix it. It gives it character and is just a cool oddity.
I love powder blue and white, so that’s nice. But the sublimated pattern just looks like wrinkles from a distance, the 3-D effect on the DC logo was entirely invisible, and the caps don’t match the jerseys. I give them a C+.
That’s fair. I see a lot of people saying they love them and they’re an improvement over the previous ones but to me they just look like fast food employee uniforms. Or maybe something a guy who comes to your house to steam your carpet wears.
On the Nationals City Connects, I agree that there’s a color mismatch on the caps and jerseys. I’m NOT a designer, but there’s a design principle that says if you’re going to make something different, make it REALLY different. These colors are different but too close together to be pleasing to the eye. Major gaffe.
It’s definitely noticeable both in photos and video. And as you say, if it had been slightly more mismatched it would somehow be less glaring.
It’s not just the helmet and hat, it’s the helmet and the jersey, the hat and the jersey, the sleeves and the body panels and the undershirts. It’s all SLIGHTLY off. The hat logo and helmet logo are also different which is annoying because they’re not THAT different… just definitely different. That aside, this uni is pretty balls. The DC logo is so inferior to their previous DC logo that it’s just a wasted effort. And Nike needs to stop doing mismatched sleeves and body panels like this and Miami. It looks like a mistake.
Seeing them on the field, the City Connects look fine, but not “Nationals”
In retrospect, if the cap said DC instead of W, it would go over better.
I’m sorry but I’m calling baby blue for baby blue’s sake. I know some teams have a history of powder blues but most of them were BBFBBS back then, too. It’s time for a fresh idea. I don’t mind a few teams doing it, and some teams look great in it, as with WFWS, GFGS, and BFBS, but let’s not flood the market.
Looking sharp Phil
Phillies fan here, so got plenty of exposure to the new Nats uniforms over the weekend (and also an overdose of the term City Connect, as the Phils announcers must get paid to use marketing speak).
The different color of the hat compared to the jersey definitely bothered me. It felt like when teams would wear the baby blue father’s day hats that didn’t match the uniforms. The sleeves also not really matching the rest of the jersey was another problem. In game reaction confirmed my initial reveal reaction; there are some nice design features (cap logo, use of pink) but overall just throwing a bunch of uncoordinated stuff into one design and the final product suffers.
The gold to green Rams horn makes for a very cool hard to find collectable. Is it possible that there was actually some sort of metallic substance in the decal coloring (ink or paint) which was there to create the metallic color, and there was oxidation like a penny?
I originally preferred the hats to the helmets, but seeing them in action, I like the blue on the helmets better than the light blue on the hats- it works better with the jersey. Speaking of the jersey, I don’t mind a pattern in the striping on jerseys or pants, but the flat blue sleeves with the graphic on the front and back of the jersey make it look cheap and not suitable for a major league team imo. And those socks… I can’t stand the stance socks. They’re over designed and logos generally don’t look good on socks. Just make a striped sock that matches the rest of the uniform and call it a day.
Overall, from a distance, it’s a decent enough looking uniform. The colors are great and it’s all legible.
Mismatched the cap logo is kind of a Nationals signature, and since we all know that the Yankees, who also mismatch the cap logo, have the Greatest Uniforms in Sports, we know that mismatching the cap logo is an Excellent Design Choice(tm). Slight sarcasm aside, I don’t mind the helmet/cap mismatch. Took me a while, but I finally came around to the Twins’ whole catcher helmet mismatch thing, so I can’t complain about it here, and the big block white W looks terrific, while the cap logo is one of my couple-three favorite DC sports logos of all time. So I don’t mind seeing them both on the field. Otherwise, seeing the Nats CC in action made me think that this uniform set is closer than any previous CC uniform set to prefiguring elements that will likely be common in standard home/road uniforms across baseball by the end of the decade. Lots of details could be marginally better, but it’s almost all basically fine. My biggest complaint surprised me: The sleeves are just too different from the sublimated body panels. The sublimation works as well in action as I expected, and if there’s going to be a sublimated jersey, this is about as good an execution as is possible. But the sleeves needed to match the color tone of the body panels better.
One possible way to make the Rams helmet look as it did originally would be to have some removable vinyl decals made that could be placed on top of the original decals. They wouldn’t ruin the original decals and could be pulled back to reveal the original decals if you wanted to show them off.
Re: Rams Helmet. Just a guess, but maybe the decals contained copper to give them that metallic look, and that copper has oxidized over the years.
I have received several favorable comments from wearing the new Nats CC cap.
I always prefer teams in any sport to wear their current colors. However, these aren’t bad for a CC uniform. As for a baseball uniform, I like it however, it needs some tweaks. The helmet should look like the hat. I would use navy on the sleeve ends as do the striping on the pants. The grid pattern is visible and should go. I really like the numbers and how they contrast with the uniform. Although the 3D isn’t visible it does give the numbers contrast from the uniform top.
I really thought the Marlins looked good yesterday in their blue top. I don’t remember seeing it much last year.
These blues may not match perfectly, but I’m a Giants fan. I’ll take these in a heartbeat over what it looks like we’ll be wearing as a CC!
I hate Hate HATE the sleeve panels. It looks like they are wearing bibs.
I like the street motif, but the panels look too shiny and wash out.
Love the interlocking DC. I’d like to see that used more often.
On the headgear, I strongly prefer the cap logo to the helmet logo.
The colors are okay, no real problems there.
The sublimated roadmap is maybe a little too cute, and I think it looks bad against the blank sleeves.
The chopped-up pant and sleeve stripes are too much, and I wish teams would stop trying to do this.
Stance socks look so bad that they make me embrace the pajama pants, although these aren’t as bad as some of the others. They should stop putting logos on the socks, but moreover they should stop with the contrasting ankle zones. I guess we’re supposed to be impressed by the high-tech features, but it just looks distracting and tacky.
Obviously the Rams used that kind of fake gold used in cheap jewelry that stains your skin green…
These are a downgrade from previous set in my opinion