On the same day as they unveiled their new City Connect uniforms, the San Francisco Giants wore them for last night’s game against the Cincinnati Reds.
Discounting the argument as to whether a CC uniform is even needed — storytelling and all — the next question we must ask is how did the CCs look, strictly as a uniform, on the field. In the initial unveiling, I was probably more positive in my overview of these uniforms than most, but I wanted to wait until we saw them in action in order to render a full assessment.
Let’s take a look at the uniforms on the field of play now.
So far, so good. Pretty much exactly as they looked in the unveiling. One of the few things I didn’t like about this uniform, and still don’t, is the wordmark. The font feels too cartoonish, almost Nickelodeon-esque. I’d have preferred they would have used the 1960s rock music poster font, which the team used on their sleeve patch.
Still, compared to their previous CC uniform, the jersey script and numbers were easy to read. We didn’t really get too many good looks at the rear of the jersey during the unveiling, but all players had orange NOB, with rear numbers in an almost Comic Sans font, in white outlined in a purple/orange gradient.
While I was skeptical about the use of purple (the team tried to justify it by saying the purple was tribute to the franchise’s New York origins, as the Giants briefly wore violet from 1913-17 as a nod to New York University), it nonetheless served as a nice accent color, pairing well with the Giants’ current shade of orange. Several players chose to wear long purple sleeves underneath their jerseys, further emphasizing the purple.
Another detail that wasn’t readily apparent during the unveiling was the pants stripe. I mentioned it would be an orange>purple gradient, but it turns out that each pants stripe featured a different pattern of the gradient. Some players appeared to have only an orange stripe, while on others the pattern featured much more purple.
Another thing we didn’t see during the unveiling was the batting helmets the team would wear. Since the CC cap featured a purple/orange gradient on the bill, this detail would prove impossible to replicate on a batting helmet. Instead, the team appeared to put all orange on the bill, with what looks like purple spray paint in order to try to mimic the cap.
I’m always in favor of players going high cuffed in order to show off their hosiery, and I still prefer any visible hosiery to the pajama look, but even I thought the CC socks were a bit busy. I think they would have been better served by making the socks solid black with a horizontal stripe mimicking that found on the sleeves.
The Giants went all in on this City Connect, using special markers on the bases in the CC theme.
Players even had special locker nameplates using the CC colors, but both the font and number styles didn’t match those of the uniforms.
Also, apparently creating CC batting practice caps is a thing now. Clearly MLB is also hoping to expand the merch dump to warmup gear as well.
That being said, I’d totally wear that CC t-shirt.
I thought the uniforms looked fine on the field, fulfilling the most basic requirements of identifying the team and player.
Last night’s game was a 1-0 win for the visiting Reds, so there weren’t too many videos from game action. But you can see the unis in motion in these two clips:
That's a heckuva play, Jake‼ pic.twitter.com/mQKPsnrsYu
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) April 9, 2025
🗣️ RELIEVER DOUG pic.twitter.com/wZPt7EL63K
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) April 9, 2025
Overall? I liked the uniforms, though I wish the team had gone a different route with the jersey script and number fonts. The CC is certainly better than what it replaced (though that’s an admittedly very low bar to clear). As expected, the “sound waves” pattern on the jerseys wasn’t discernable at distance.
This is now the third new CC to have been worn this season. And so far, I’ve thought the Nationals and Astros CCs looked pretty good. I’d place the Giants new CCs behind the other two if I were ranking them, but the Giants new CC is a lot better than most of the CC 1.0 versions.
Next up to unveil are the Rockies (whose jersey design has already leaked).
Your thoughts now after seeing the Giants CC on the field?
This is now the third *new* CC to have been worn this season.
Thought that was obvious, but added “new” to that sentence.
Agree on all points…the script and number font aren’t working for me. They should have leaned into the sleeve patch design, 60’s Summer of Love vibes. THAT would have been amazing. So many great graphic design elements / fonts Nike could have pulled from, instead of this 90’s looking cartoon script…a missed opportunity, for sure.
I watched the game last night (I’m a Reds fan), and I also want the Reds to drop the black drop shadow from their sets. It would look SO CLEAN if they did that.
Agreed, those drop shadows are the very definition of BFBS.
Oy.
Positives:
-Legibility much improved over CC 1.0.
-Went with white pants.
-Counterculture inspired sleeve logo.
Negatives:
-The word mark is focus group tested graffiti, certainly not anti establishment.
-The purple brim strips look like a paint sprayer ran amok in the clubhouse.
-Oy vey those socks.
I’ll continue to say it: Purple and orange go well together.
Echoing my comment from yesterday….Ugly as shit. All around.
I just don’t get the psychedelic vibes from this. It looks more graffiti-ish than anything. If they upped the psychedelic-ness of it by like 20% they’d actually have something unique.
Pointless crap.
If they were going for a trippy 60’s San Francisco psychedelic concert poster vibe that word mark and number totally missed the mark. The word mark and cap font feel like something that comes pre-installed on a new computer. A few joints or tabs of acid could have really helped this design. That said, the sleeve patch is great, totally nailed it.
Everything about that looks awesome and fun. Bright colours (something that a lot of CC uniforms are lacking), gradients, fun variations on the logo. They understood the assignment and they nailed it. This is one I can see them keeping (like Boston) after its time is up.
I think it’s interesting that the numbers don’t appear to be kiss-cut and instead are the old method of one layer of twill on top of another on top of another. Maybe the bottom color gradient layer didn’t allow for that method
Those uniforms are a steaming pile.
A fitting tribute to modern San Francisco
“Instead, the team appeared to put all orange on the bill, with what looks like purple spray paint in order to try to mimic the cap.”
Yuck.
Having seen them in action, my opinion of them, which was already very low, has sunk a lot further. This doesn’t look like major league baseball. Leave this kind of stuff for low A ball.
Great point. All these CC alts scream minor league. Tacky and silly. I expect more from the majors.
The helmet screams laziness. Don’t tell me they couldn’t do a vinyl wrap on the brim or at least airbrush it so it looks like the hat – not that more things need to look like that souvenir shop hat. The giants have two eras of SF logos that are iconic amongst fans. If Nike is so dead set on ignoring teams’ current design language for these, at least do something interesting or well executed. This hat logo is boring and uninspired. Not only that but the sleeve patch is coming in for a lot of praise. Not from me. I am very familiar with what they were trying to do and it just wasn’t executed well. They could have made the whole jersey orange tie dye with San Francisco across the chest in the Grateful Dead font and been done faster than they came up with this dud, and it still would have been a better uni by a country mile.
@Phil Hecken Why do you and others say the Giants “tried to justify” the use of violet by tying it to the 1913 Giants? It’s a fact that NY club wore violet. What’s wrong with the SF club linking back to some NY history? I think it’s a nice touch that fits in with the hippie music scene of my native city. Overall, these CCs are a decent effort to really “connect.”
Those batting helmet visors with randomly airbrushed pirple stripes to mimic the horrible habit of tye die just made me smile. These uniforms do not look good in action, except for the great glove logo, so I do like that orange and purple batting hat. That team name and numbers font on the jersey and the monogram on the hat…so totally wrong.
Giants fan here – these are awful and I hate them.
The one saving grace is that if you squint a little, it is black cap with orange brim, black jersey with orange n.o.b. and flashes of orange and white pants, it looks like the Giants. That is a big win compared to most City Connects.
The purple is less noticeable on long shots (tends to fade into the black), so doesn’t stand out. But the fact they are trying to justify purple as a colour the Giants wore in the past is laughable as they wore it in NY, so are they saying they are using the City Connect to connect to a different city?
My overriding impression is that this looks like a Giants uniform designed for kids. The SF on the cap is bad but legible, the wordmark looks too big and kiddy and the purple splashes add a bit of fun. If it was a minor league type “you can’t come in unless you have an under 10 in tow” day and they wore these, I could get it – but 1 or 2 games max. However, this nonsense should be nowhere near regular MLB rotation.
My favorite thing about this uniform is the ball-glove logo. It reminds me of the National League’s 75th anniversary patch from 1951.
Everything else…it’s stupid that it exists, but get past that, it’s fine I guess.
Looks like something made by a Haight-Ashbury refugee from the 1970s while recovering from an acid trip.
If the Giants were wearing an accent color to honor a university who teams sport the nickname “Violets,” wouldn’t said color also be violet and not “purple?”
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