Yesterday, the Chicago Cubs’ new Blues Alternate Uniforms (do not call them City Connects) made their on-field debut at Wrigley against the San Diego Padres. The Cubs won, 7-1.
Yesterday marked the first time we saw the batting helmets to go along with the jerseys (see header image). To no one’s surprise, the helmets match the cap design.
As you can see, the caps and helmets have a shade of blue closer to what I would consider Cubs blue than the powder blue of the alternate jersey. I think it looks fine, but others may disagree.
One cool element about the helmets is that the Cubs used the jerseys’ number font for the helmets’ uni number decals, a nice touch. However, it doesn’t appear that the Cubs used an embroidered helmet logo, like on their primary batting helmets.
Overall, I thought the unis looked sharp and clean, though I prefer the Cubs’ usual home pinstripes and their royal blue softball tops over them. These just feel a little too whimsical for a team as storied as the Cubs.
Phil did a great job covering these back when they were revealed. He had called them City Connects back then, because that’s what everyone assumed they were. It was only later that the Cubs had to clarify that these uniforms were not part of the City Connect program, despite replacing their Wrigleyville City Connects in their uniform rotation.
We are now in the era of City Connect 2.0 — the Nationals have launched their new City Connect, the Giants’ new CC was leaked over a week ago, and the past few days saw the (alleged) leak of the new CCs for the Red Sox, Marlins, White Sox, and Rockies.
Looking at all of the City Connect 2.0s next to each other, I can’t help but come to the conclusion that they all feel less inspired than their City Connect 1.0 counterparts.
The Cubs’ new blue alternate carries all the hallmarks of a City Connect uni, it replaced the team’s official City Connect uni, there are no rumors about the Cubs getting another City Connect uni, but it also feels more detailed and better-designed than the City Connect 2.0 unis.
Maybe I’m being conspiratorial, but perhaps this is why the Cubs didn’t want this blue alternate to be called a City Connect. Maybe they didn’t want it associated with these disappointments. Obviously, I don’t have any inside information from Nike or the Chicago Cubs to confirm or deny this, but I’ve been unable to shake this thought ever since I saw the most recent City Connect leaks.
It is an extremely difficult task to come up with new uniforms for 28 teams (the New York Yankees and West Sacramento Athletics passed on participating in City Connect, and it does not seem like they’ll participate in City Connect 2.0). It took Nike four years to get it done the first time. Now Nike is asking its designers to do it all over again.
Whether or not the Cubs’ new blue alternates were designed to be part of the City Connect program is ultimately beside the point. I think Nike is running into the issue we’ve all seen with NBA City Editions over the past few years. I’ve long complained that Nike was out of ideas for NBA City Editions — and it looks like they’re already out of ideas for MLB’s City Connects.
You guys tell me. Am I totally off base here? Let me know your thoughts — on City Connect 2.0, on my conspiracy theory, on the Cubs’ new alternate, on whatever — in the comments.
More pics of the Cubs’ new City Connect blue alternate are below.
Honestly I’m over the city connect in both baseball and basketball.i think we need to stick to white grey and one colored alt for every team for baseball and then white and two colored jerseys for basketball.
Amen.
Home Whites and Road Grays. NO SOFTBALL TOPS.
Yep.
I am fine with teams having a home alt, but it should still be white or cream.
It doesn’t matter what the “program “ or whatever you want to call it is. It’s an avenue to sell more crap, that’s all it is.
They look like the Montreal Expos
Except for the darker blue NOB, they are virtually identical.
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Define “virtually identical”.
No racing stripes on the shoulders.
Different font.
Different NOB.
It is honestly a well inspired city-connect uniform that tributes the city’s “blues” heritage. Many of the Blue’s clubs are not too far from the ballpark.
I like everything about it except it just doesn’t flow well with the pants. It feels like an alternate top over the pants, a mismatch. I think if the pants stripe was powder blue it would sync up much better.
Crain Kenney the Cubs VP of operations was in the booth during the game and made two points I found interesting. #1 – Cubs sold more of these jersey’s in one month than the CC1 did in three years. #2 He basically admitted that Nike runs a program the “requires” teams to change uniforms every 4 years. They may not be calling this CC2, but it sounds more and more like it is?
I do really like the pseudo-connects. Based on the amount of (really good) fan-made concept art I’ve seen, it feels ridiculous to say that they’re “running out of ideas”. Nike has shown time and again that ideas aren’t the problem; it’s execution they struggle with.
I have never been a Cubs fan! I have never really liked the uniforms and thought they would look better without the use of red. As for these uniforms, I don’t dislike them. I would actually like to see them with powder blue pants. Do they remind me of the Expos? Yes, but the Expos uniform was beautiful. There have been many uniforms throughout the history of MLB, so replicating a good uniform from the past is much better than some what we have seen in recent years.
As for the CC program. I have never cared for it and find a vast majority of the uniforms very tacky. With that said; when the program started the uniforms mostly connected to the city or region of the team. In the past 2-3 years it seems too many have connected to the history of the team. So yes the program has ran it’s course. I would prefer white and gray uniforms with a home and road alternate in current team colors. No more CCs or throwbacks for me!
I rarely comment, but read the site daily. The ads have gotten out of control, at least on mobile, which is the only way I view the site. Sometimes it makes the site unreadable and most days it’s 2/3 of the screen. I understand the need for revenue, but when it overtakes the product, you have a problem. I won’t be returning.
I’ve been using the DuckDuckGo browser app and have not had the ad concerns that are described in the comments from time to time. An idea to try anyway.
Duck Duck Go is amazing. I love these uniforms, no weird sublimations, they stuck to a classic approach on the foundations of baseball uniform design. Fly that W!
Add free experience if you become a Uni Watch Plus member. That is a solution.
This is the place to be if you have interest in reading about sports uniforms. With the contributors and the community we have, nobody does it better.
The Cubs ones look great and really feel like thought and brand concern went into these.
The city connects do feel very much like Nike influenced and mandated. I’ll hear from people who say that oh well the team approved and designed it and that it was in house.
But what that doesn’t take into account is Nike acting in an agency role. Agencies, especially if they are big and have reps, can be highly influential. I can think of my wife who has worked in marketing for several major brand tell of how agencies can be bullies if they don’t get their visions. She had stories of certain agencies end running the creative staff to their superiors and trying to make life miserable for those who disagree with their “expertise” even when it’s clearly a bad fit. Unless you were willing to dig in and fight the agencies would get at least some of their way.
I feel like this is what’s happening here. Nike is just pushing their agenda on the clubs creative teams. How else do we explain the similar bizarre choices across a number of teams. I mean simply the basic functionality of a multitude of teams with illegible numbers. Like how in the heck does this happen without a through line?
This can be a lot bette. I think 3-4 years is a fair number to change but they need a lot more input for from the team and the fans.
This sounds like the beginning of a good guest article. I’d like to hear more!
Thanks Jim, I’d like to and there’s something there but I don’t think if it I could do it proper justice. I’m the husband listening not necessarily the one in the trenches. It’s not my story (and while this might be surprising lol my wife finds the my passion for this a little odd).
But I think Phil or someone else could put something together. Just see if you have a connection with a creative position in marketing for a large company and ask them about their agency relationships. You’ll get some stories and I would build off Paul’s interviews with the Nike chief (who’s name slips my mind) you’ll see some parallels.
The whole city alternate program has one major flaw – the frequency of new designs. I think MLB has a better approach than the NBA. 3-4 years is enough time to not run out of ideas within the first couple incarnations. The NBA doing new designs every year leads to bad designs, which on the one hand it’s gone after one year, but on the other hand you lose a potential good design after one year. Plus, there’s the fact that no one can seem to figure out who’s playing when they wear the city alts- a byproduct of constant change. I appreciate the city alts programs in theory, but I think they should follow the NFL’s 5-year guideline with uni changes.
(Note: I’m fully aware they’re just a merch dump)
I totally agree, they should not already be on 2.0, given the relative infrequency theyre worn each season.
“If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.”
― W.C. Fields
As a lifelong Cubs fan, these looked even better on the field than in the original pictures. The Hemet was really cool. Good riddance to city connect!
As a Cleveland fan, I like elements of their CC uniform (the color scheme mostly) but despise the “CLE” on the front. I’d prefer MLB celebrate its rich, uniform history with throwbacks or Negro League tribute unis instead of the CC sets.
This has been a feature of the CCs for the most part at least one “feature” that looks just odd/dumb/out of place.
!
It is the same with caps. There are only a finite number of good designs. All of this New Jersey and new cap stuff is the tail wagging the dog. Nike should NOT be able to FORCE teams to have new uniforms every four years. They are the supplier, they don’t own the league. They have absolutely RUINED NBA team identities and will do the same to MLB is allowed to. I also HATE that most teams wear the city connects on weekends when more people get to go to games. Instead of seeing your team’s usual look, you have the Nike CRAP forced on you.
I can’t help but wonder why the White Sox would go with a jersey that looks like a Bulls shooting shirt! Absolutely ridiculous. I maintain my long held position that the only truly good city connect has been the Miami Sugar Kings set and they are so much better than the Marlins regular uniforms that they should have kept them as primaries.
Doesn’t the fact that the Yankees said no, shoot a hole in the argument that Nike forces teams into these uniforms? Other teams could say no, too.
See Patrick Manion’s comment from 9:06 am.
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The Yankees were willing to dig in. Other teams, not so much.
Kudos to the Yanks, but I wish they would have dug in equally against Players Weekend unis and jersey ads.
MLB cash grabs. Every single one is horrible.
>I’ve long complained that Nike was out of ideas for NBA City Editions —
>and it looks like they’re already out of ideas for MLB’s City Connects.
One thing has become painfully apparent, running out of ideas does not stop Nike from churning out garbage.
I like the idea of the Cubs going with a powder blue look. Just thinking they should have made some adjustments…to have it look more like a Cubs uniform.
There are a number of aspects here that are going to make baseball fans feel like this looks like the Expos. The placement of the logo and number on the front. The number font. The white front panel hat. These combined with the powder blue jersey. Not just one aspect but all these details together. Officials must have been aware baseball fans would think this when they approved this uniform.
Just to be devils advocate here. Most of gens in their mid 20s and 30s that are buying hats and replicas probably have never heard of the Expos who last played 21 years ago
Agreed, I think this is a nice enough set but it would look more like a Cubs uniform if they just used the existing (well known, much loved) Cubs logos, with the existing NOB and number font. It’s another case of Nike just doing too much. A little restraint would have made a more effective, less cartoonish design. I give them a B.
Fanatics plays a role in the CCs They are the primary sellers and produce all but hats.
The Cubs look ok but seem to be a mash up of the 70s Expos and Braves.
As a White Sox fan, I felt lucky that the all black city connects looked amazing. Unfortunately it’s literally the only thing the organization has done right in 15 years. Now, unsatisfied with the lack of consistency, they are out to eliminate that one good feeling their fans have left. The reds make no sense and look awful. So, in a sense, they do match the organization now.
I’m waiting to see the cap, the number/letter fonts, pants and helmet. The fonts, I can see as a straight ripoff of the Bulls — black trimmed in white. The cap could be interesting. If it’s that modified Old English logo in red on a black cap, you could see people buying it as a fashion cap. Perhaps even if it’s that winged sock logo on a black cap (with or without a red front panel). If it’s as uninspired as the jersey, just start the countdown clock until CC 3.0
Seems like the “powder” blue jerseys are in style now with multiple teams adopting it as part of their color schemes. For some clubs it works, for the Cubs, no. The numbers and font on the back of the jersey look like the old Montreal Expos.
Powder blue works for the Cubs when you add white pinstripes.
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Best Cubs Uni Ever!
The “ubs” logo on the cap looks terrible. (Side note, sure why they seemingly use the jersey logo instead of the cap logo for everything, such as the “teams” section on MLB.com and last season’s ASG caps link )
If they had powder blue pants and a simple C on the cap, they’d be one of the better City Connect uniforms if they were considered one.
**not** sure why they use the jersey logo everywhere
I like the Cubs new set. It has a nostalgic style that as others have said prior would be better than some the CC attempts.
I’ll just add the team I hope NEVER changes their uniforms. The Florida Panthers. I love the shades of blue, red and gold they use. I like the Florida State Flag on the sleeve and I like the logo and the thick stripe on the sweater front and sleeves.
These are better than the regular cubs uniforms, and so are the marlins lol
I don’t think these look bad at all. The various light blues are very nostalgic to me having grown up and first paying attention to baseball in the 80s when several team wore road blues, including my hometown Braves. The Cub batting helmet makes me think of the Braves lower-case “a” helmet from the 70s. While I normally don’t like to see deviations from tradition except on occasion, the nice that is that they can wear alternate even numerous time and it doesn’t win up being a large chunk of the season like 2/17 in the NFL or 2/12 in college.
If I saw these in a vacuum, without the context of the City Connect program and the other offerings, I’d say they were barely passable. In context of the other CC’s, they look pretty good.
Every time I see the headline about one of the teams I like unveiling or leaking a new CC design, I almost hold my breath a bit. Although I’m not a Cubs fan, this design seems relatively merciful. Some of the other teams’ designs are downright embarrassing.
Cubs’ new design looks like an actual baseball uniform. That is the problem with 99% of the city connects (and the supposed leaked ones pictured here) they don’t look like baseball uniforms. Not that I am a fan of teams have new rotating alternate uniforms every couple of years (since it is just a merch thing), but it is not difficult to come up with a design that pulls from team history and various civic elements that still looks like a baseball uniform. It is really just that Nike is not good at it, they view designing on field uniforms the same way as they view designing trendy fashion athletic / team branded gear. Those two things are not close to being the same.
The Chicago Expos
I haven’t read the entire thread, so perhaps someone has already mentioned this, but the first thing that struck me about theses Cubby unis is that the pants should be light blue to match the jersey. But perhaps that would be TOO much like the ‘Spos?
I like the uniform, even the Exposesque details. The “pick” sleeve patch is inspired. But I really do NOT like the logo–too much serif, and it looks like it spells “ubs” with a little flair piece to the left. They should have used more of a block lettering logo IMHO.