Good Monday morning, Uni Watchers. Hope you guys all had a great weekend.
First off, big thanks to our own Susan Freeman for creating the great splash graphic! Click to enlarge.
It’s that time again: time to rank the nine new City Connect (hereafter known as “CC”) uniforms unveiled for the 2025 season. As I did in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, I’m back today to bring you my rankings for the 2025 MLB CCs.
With the exception of the LA Dodgers, who received a second CC last year and are included in the 2024 list, all those rankings above are for the first version of the CC. For 2025, eight teams each received their second generation CC: Houston Astros, Washington Nationals, San Francisco Giants, Colorado Rockies, Chicago White Sox, Miami Marlins, Arizona Diamondbacks and finally the Boston Red Sox. All teams have now worn their new CCs in games.
While I think most of us can agree the CC program is all about moving merch, giving a team an additional uniform doesn’t always mean the uniform won’t look good; in fact, I’d say that 2025 has overall produced the best (a relative term) batch of CCs of the five years of the program. That doesn’t mean they’re all good — it’s just that there really aren’t any truly awful CCs (again, a relative term) this year, so that kinda brings the “average” up.
As in previous years, I’ve ranked them from first to worst, and tried as much as possible to divorce the uniforms from the team and Nike’s “storytelling,” and to judge them on how they look as uniforms alone. Obviously, some of the storytelling is key to certain uniform features, which explains why they were incorporated into the designs, but my rankings are almost entirely predicated on how the unis look on the field.
There’s a lot to get to, so let’s get started. Here are my 2025 CC rankings from first to worst. Please feel free to disagree with my opinions down in the comments below. If you click on the team name above the photo, you’ll see the UW review for each uniform.
The Boston Red Sox, despite being the last team to unveil and debut their CCs, ended up being worth the wait. These are easily the best CCs of 2025, and I think would easily stand on their own as an alternate. I’ve noted there is a very fine line between clever and stupid and the Sawx walked it perfectly. Sure, it’s an ode to the Monstah, but they absolutely nailed the shade of green, and there’s just enough visual cues to let you know this is based on the iconography of the Fenway wall without overdoing it. Like many, I’d have preferred the jersey to say “BOSTON” rather than “RED SOX” (which might have respected the placket too), but as Troup Parkinson told me, with the exception of the Boston Strong jersey, the home uniform for the team has always said “RED SOX” and they already went with “Boston” on their first CC, so they wanted to return to “RED SOX” for this iteration. Do they necessarily look like the Red Sox? No, but my rankings aren’t based on how closely a CC hues to traditional colors and fonts. It’s based on how the uni looks as a uniform. Hands down, this is the best one of 2025.
A full step below, but still with a good looking CC, the Rockies are basing a good bit of their look on a Colorado sunset, which explains the use of the pink, blue and purple. But even if that wasn’t the “inspiration,” it would still work as a uniform, and I absolutely love the colors. The little bit of added orange-gold for the numbers and on the trim/sleeve patch both contrasts and complements. This is the first (and so far only) pullover CC. I do hope it’s also the last.
I’ve never had a “tie” in my rankings, but that was almost the case with the Serpientes here. These are almost equal to the Rockies. And while both use purple, as you can see, the shade used by the D-backs is quite a bit darker than the pastel purple of Colorado. I liked the “Serpientes” logo the team created for version 1.0, and was surprised (pleasantly so) that they ran it back again. The gradient and sublimated snakeskin pattern (really only visible up close) are a bit of a reach, and while the intention was for the solid dark purple set-in sleeves to evoke the vest look of the World Champions’ uniforms, it didn’t really work for me. Still, it is otherwise a nice looking uni, and the teal and purple go very well together.
If the Red Sox are top tier, and the D-backs and Rockies are second tier, the Giants, Astros and Nationals are all one tier below that. Each of them have perfectly acceptable CC uniforms, but just aren’t that great solely as uniforms. Since the genesis of this is the “sound” of San Fran, I don’t terribly mind the gradient waves (initially I thought it might be typography), and they’re not visible from distance nor do they particularly affect the uni. But I’m not a big fan of the script wordmark nor number fonts — I think they’d have been better served by using a Haight-Ashbury look. And while both Denver and Arizona use purple as a primary color, the Giants work it in, along with orange, as an accent. I’m sure our founder is happy he’s retired when three of the eight teams with CCs have purple. Because of the gradient cap, the team tried to replicate it on the helmet, but failed miserably.
I actually like this one a lot, and it would be much higher in the rankings if they had just spelled “ASTROS” out. But putting “STROS” as the wordmark unfortunately lowers this more than it probably deserves. The rest of the uni is quite good, and it’s really the only true *uniform* (jersey and pants are the same color) of the CCs this year. Like the Giants, whose CC version 1.0 was dreadful, the Astros’ new CC had to be better as well. In time, and if these actually said “ASTROS,” they could have become as beloved as the original tequila sunrise unis. It seemed like MLB had gotten the nickname/area code/airport code/abbreviation out of its system. I suppose one could make the argument that the “A” on the cap, added to the “STROS” on the uniform actually spells out ASTROS on the uni. I won’t.
The Nats had a pretty darn good CC version 1.0, so following up on that proved to be a monumental task. In theory, the interlocking “DC” with the block shadow (combining elements from different eras and franchises) looked good — up close. Unfortunately when one views the logo from a distance, the shadow effect is muted. The sublimated street grid also wasn’t visible at distance (a good thing), and the shade of blue (I’d say it’s close to cobalt) is unique. But I didn’t love the gradient pants striping and three shades of blue (navy, “cobalt” and light blue) don’t look as good in practice as they probably did on-screen. It looks OK as a uniform, but a couple tweaks could improve it greatly.
The Bulls, er, White Sox had the unenviable task of repeating their No. 1 Best Overall Ranking for all the CC version 1.0. So, for an encore the team decided to cosplay as the Bulls. No…seriously! It was an interesting direction to go, for sure, and I bet those jerseys (and TWO CC caps, plus a CC BP cap) will do very well at retail. The White Sox haven’t been especially good of late, so maybe they feel the Bulls’ glory days are something folks will look back on fondly. But even discounting that, it just doesn’t look good as a uniform. The storytelling doesn’t help.
To show you how “good” (again, this is all relatively speaking) this year’s crop of CC are, even though the Marlins are bringing up the rear, they’d still have placed near the middle of the pack in any other year. The whole Miami Vice thing is pretty played out now, no? And actually, the jersey by itself isn’t too bad, but the “305” on the cap and helmet really bring this one down. Add to that the pink-to-blue gradient pants stripes and it’s almost overkill. And I like bright colors! The cap logo is so bad, I’d argue that pairing the Armed Forces weekend cap with the CC actually improves it. This is far from the worst CC. It’s just the worst of a relatively good bunch this season.
How would you rank this year’s crop of CCs? Which is the best? Which is the worst? Let’s have at it!
I think the Red Sox new Fenway Green as they are calling them nailed it except for one minor mistake. Instead of keeping with the style and theme of the CC Jersey they kept the traditional hat in the Fenway Green color. Instead of keeping the traditonal hat they should have gone with the hat in the Fenway Green and replaced the traditional B with the the B in the Circle that is on the arm of the jersey. This would have tied the entire set up well. I mean even the socks have nods to the themeing of the jersey concept.
The BP cap is perfect. Really nice. White with a green brim, and the green, circled B as the logo, then it has the balls/strikes dots along the side. I got that one along with the jersey. The Fenway Green game cap is a miss.
Sox fan here.
My tweaks would be:
1. The shade of green is not perfect, a little too minty vs. the monster shade, which is a little darker and almost has a little more brown/gray in it? Tough to describe but they don’t look quite right.
2. Replace the circle B logo and the cap logo with hanging Sox. It may be a minority opinion, but I’ve always loved the splash of red in the Red Sox logo (I think in the Red Sox Foundation logo?) against the monster green. The addition of Red just feels very “fenway” to me vs. just the green and yellow.
Weird that I agree with almost all the uniform assessments, but disagree with a lot of the rankings. I’d have the Astros and number one, despite using “Stros” for the name. And I can’t wrap my head around the love of the Red Sox CC. If you take away the tie in to the Green Monster, and just look at it as a uniform, it’s safe, but soooo dull. All they did was slap some white numbers/letters on a green jersey. Yeah, it represents the Green Monster almost perfectly, but it’s boring. Everyone else seems to love it. What am I missing?
As soon as I saw the Red Sox CC I thought it was dull, uninspired, looked like it could’ve been worn 60 years ago, and wasn’t barely in the spirit of the CC program. Therefore I instantly knew the commUNIty was going to love it.
Only thing that bothers me about the Red Sox is that they’re still wearing the yellows as an alternate. The greens really just reinforced how bad the yellows were. Should drop them and either bring back the navy road alts, or just keep it at 3+1 CC. The yellows are even more unnecessary now that we know what a near perfect Red Sox CC looks like.
I understand the Sox will occasionally wear the highlighter yellow. However looking at Fanatics as the caps and jerseys on clearance. Hopefully this is an indication they won’t wear them next year. Hopefully the blue will return, as it was my favorite other then the home white.
Quickly: I love both the greens and yellows in a vacuum.
However, the yellows should be worn for the weekend or day of the marathon, and call it good.
Nike/MLB’s uni rules bum me out. Particularly because so many teams feel the need to have a white, a grey, and then a uniform in every other team color, and now a powder blue for many of them, plus a CC. There is no longer any room for throwback games, negro league tributes, special occasion unis (the giants “gigantes” unis are now outside the rules, and people loved those almost more than their regular set). It just bugs me that there would be some bureaucratic issue with the Sox using the yellows as a one-off for a marathon day celebration unless they gave it an official slot in their 4+1.
The thing is, the Sox are 37-16 in the yellows. Baseball being a superstitious sport, they aren’t going anywhere.
I actually really like them. Both aesthetically and the meaning behind them.
As for the new greens, I like the look. I wish there was some nod to the citgo sign on the hat. Maybe not the logo, but maybe a little white blue red logo or something…
I agree Boston’s uniform is by far the best. To me the White Sox is by far the worst as black pants are nothing a professional team such wear. The red and black is a color many like but I think clashes too much. The Astros uniform looks like what a professional baseball player should wear; but needs an A. Minus the sleeves and gradient, the Dbacks have a nice look. Miami (excluding the cap and especially the helmet) looks decent and like a baseball uniform. The Rockies and Giants look like something Shaggy and Freddie may have worn in Scooby Doo. Washington has a decent baseball uniform but doesn’t remind me of Nationals much less Washington.
Other than the Red Sox uniform, which I don’t care for, you’ve summarized my thoughts nicely. The White Sox CC is awful. I don’t want them to look like the Bulls. Why let the NBA’s awful product seep into MLB?
I don’t understand your take on black pants at all, but if I was on the White Sox, I would refuse to play on CC nights. The unis are crummy, for one thing, but they also take the corporate merch dump one step further, because now it’s an ego driven cross-promotion.
Watch out for next year’s Bulls city edition to be white with black pinstripes and “bulls” in old English calligraphy diagonally on the left chest.
GTGFTU: 1971 Pro Bowl, LA Coliseum, Jan 24, 1971. NFC 27, AFC 6. The first Pro Bowl where it was AFC v. NFC post merger.
You’re close. But Fred Cox was the NFC kicker in the game you mentioned. Try again.
Pro Bowl was for the 1971 Season, and held on Jan 23, 1972.
Keys are the NFC Holder, Bill Bradley (Eagles FS, not the Knicks Player/Senator) and the NFC Kicker Curt Knight who played for the Washington Redacteds.
I attended a Pro Bowl at the Coliseum in the 70’s. Not sure if this was the one or not.
Correct!
And I would have loved to been in one of those empty seats at the Coliseum. Great unis, and the game still meant something to the players.
Always liked those heavy weight Rawlings jerseys the teams wore, as a kid I had a hard time identifying the players when they wore the painted helmets, some players had to change their numbers since someone else already had theirs, it was a lot easier when the players started wearing their own game helmets.
I loved it when the players wore their team helmets with the AFC/NFC uniforms. It was interesting how some of the helmets looked really good with a different uniform.
The Red Sox uniforms are fine in a vacuum, but they weaken their brand as a whole. a Team called the Red Sox, now has two uniforms without a drop of red anywhere.
Agree with your ranking. Boston is the best one, but still: we are ranking subpar uniforms and deep down we all know it. It is the elephant in the room (and unfortunately it is no longer on the sleeve of the A’s): for every team on this list the regular home and away uniforms are much better than any CC.
I think the Giants entry should say “topography,” not “typography.”
The top three on this list all serve as proof-of-concept for changes to each team’s color scheme, and all succeed.
The comments are definitely fair but I would disagree with the Rankings. I would knock the Red Sox down a few pegs for essentially the same reason you knocked the Astros down. They are the “Red” Sox and there is barely a speck of red on this set. Add some red, even with the undershirt, and I agree.
My top would be
1. Astros- Yes I dock points that the A missing but it’s still really good and really Astros. I add points as this, like Atlanta and Cleveland’s last year is a template for updating the teams identity. CC that provide a good enough template for a future set deserve extra points.
2. Red Sox- Lack of Red drops them down a peg otherwise this is great. As mentioned this is fixable
3. Marlins- Cap is lousy but the rest is quite good. As a Met fan who had the sunburst helmets for several the batting helmet doesn’t bother me as it’s clever enough. The cap, like Bostons, should be swapped for the BP cap. While their are flaws this feels more like where the Marlins should be going so it gets points for future look potential which is why I move it up.
4. Arizona- I generally hate nicknames but the text works better than the blockier Arizona. (It was actually nice to see the prototypes as I wouldn’t have felt that way otherwise). This is a very solid look and again is a potential way forward for the Dbacks strange uni sets of the last few years.
5. Giants- While gimmicky it looks like a Giants Uni. It’s not great but also not that offensive really. Things work, save the helmet, they make sense and purple is okay here.
6, Nationals- Like the White Sox this gets heat because they nailed the original. This isn’t terrible. It feels DCish, it makes sense. The grid pattern doesn’t really work but nothing here is horrible.
7. Rockies- This is a swing and a miss. This doesn’t feel that much like a Rockies uni. It’s definitely better and nowhere near as tone deaf as some of the CC 1.0s. While I get the theming I still feel like this belongs with a Southwestern team. Also the pullover is a problem as well.
8. White Sox- The jersey itself isn’t awful but the pants absolutely kill this for me. They are too much and look like track pants. This would move up 3 slots if they change to white pants to provide contrast.
Purple unis coming in at #2 and #3 in UniWatch rankings is a travesty
They are both really good uniforms, both have some good ideas and nice use of colour and nothing wrong with having them 2 and 3 on the list, though I would have swapped them round.
I also wouldn’t call the purple that the Rockies use pastel, as it looks far too saturated to actually be a pastel, and the purple the team uses ( PANTONE 2685 C) on it’s regular uniforms is 100 percent saturated, it literally cannot be a pastel.
You forgot the Cubbies CC. It’s not called a City Connect officially, but it pretty much is one in all but name.
Honestly all of the CC uniforms look pretty good.
I don’t think the Armed Forces hats looked good with any jerseys, especially colored jerseys.
I was excited to see the matchups for “Rivalry Week” or whatever it’s called, but the camouflage hats really damaged the look.
8/10/18 for the scoreboard gtg. This held up as the final score as the Mariners win at Houston.
The Marlins CC would be so much better if the cap used the logo that’s on the sleeve. There needs to be a moratorium on area code themes.
Or keep the area codes, but put them on the jock tag or in the collar. They have enough hidden elements as it is.
I was waiting on the Cubs review. But, then I realized, they haven’t designated their new set as a C.C. uni.
Moving away from dark colored pants (which i thought i wanted all these years), the stripes on these new whites are pretty strong across the board.
I think the Athletics have the best city connect… Because not having a cartoonish uniform that we have to look at every week is far preferable than many of these designs. I largely agree with the rankings, but the Nationals is 10 times worse than the previous and while the Giants previous one was awful the new one is a cartoon. MLB has found ways to move merch with a celebration weekend almost every other weekend so most of these should just be put to bed.
I think the Red Sox CC would be infinitely better if they simply put a HINT of red somewhere on the uni. Red on the socks would be too obvious (!), but a partial red line in the pant stripes, or worked in subtlety on the sleeve ends would satisfy our need to see the uni as a “Red Sox” uniform rather than a classic scoreboard tribute.
The only reason the Rockies are so high is because the bar is so low.
Even though it’s the stated conceit of Phil’s rankings here, it’s hard for me to disconnect the uniform from the team, its city, and the context. I think all of these things matter when evaluating a sports uniform. Otherwise, it really is just laundry.
(Top Tier: pretty good)
1. Stros. Although I’d dock points for the missing “A”, I’d otherwise accept these as pretty good home uniforms. The sublimated pattern on the blue stripe doesn’t really add anything, and the gradient on the orange still feels like it’s checking off an arbitrary requirement, but it makes more sense than some of the other examples we’ve been seeing. Overall, the colors are used well and the fonts, numbers, and other details make sense. Upgrade over their previous CC (which I didn’t mind).
2. Red Sox. This could be a 1(b). Without knowledge of the context and storytelling (Green Monster, etc) these would perhaps be a too little bland, but they would work for a green-and-white team. I think red hose and the socks logo would be an improvement. Omitting red was clearly a design choice, but I disagree with it. The circle-B is a little too much. As with all of these, the swoosh draws far too much attention. The shade of green is great, though, and the double stripe looks great. These CC unveilings feel like Russian Roulette, and if I were a Boston fan I’d be relieved to have dodged a bullet. Upgrade over their previous CC.
(Middle Tier: not great, but not bad)
3. Snakes. Overall a good design, and an improvement over the previous version (which itself wasn’t bad). The colors look good, but I would have liked to see the addition of red to match the players gear (gloves, ankle guards, etc) and to distinguish them from their divisional rivals in Denver. The faux vest could have been ugly, but they pulled it off by not using too much contrast. I like the diamond stripes, and I’d like to see them use that idea in the future.
4. DC. The interlocking monogram is great. Good shades of blue are very easy on the eyes, but they could have used a little more of the pink. The sublimated map is a little too cute (and not as original as the designers seem to think it is), but it doesn’t look all that bad. The two different “W” designs for the cap and helmet should have just been one. The gradient stripe doesn’t add anything, and it feels too copycat since almost every team seems to be doing this. I recognize this phenomenon from when I found out how to make gradients on design software as an undergraduate, and then used them everywhere. Side-grade from the previous CC.
(Bottom Tier: hard to rank these because I dislike them all)
5. Bull Sox. I think this design could have been salvaged with different pants (probably plain white or red with pinstripes). The flying sock design (pace Uni-Watch) is great, but they needed to have a forward-facing right sleeve version. You don’t notice the writing inside the stripes at a distance, but it’s awful once you see it. Just pick one hat design (I say black). Obvious downgrade from their previous CC.
6. Rockies (my team IRL). Huge downgrade from their previous CC. All the more embarrassing to be a historically inept team while wearing clown suits. I don’t mind the use of the mountain-ball logo, and the colors work fine together. I do think the Rocks should add another color to their main scheme. I would vote for green, but sky blue works too. The cap is fine, but I hate the pullover. It all looks like it would be fine as fan merch in the ladies’ section, but it doesn’t work for me as a uniform. Yes, Colorado does have beautiful sunsets, but so does almost everywhere else on the planet’s surface.
7. Miami. The Vice theme is pretty played-out, but I don’t mind if they keep using it. Just don’t act like its a novel idea. This one could be salvageable if they dropped some of the superfluous elements. The area code cap is stupid. It’s fine as a fan cap, but looks silly as part of a players’ uniform. The pink and blue look good with the black and white, but the gradients everywhere are too much. The cap bill really doesn’t work for me, but I don’t mind the pant stripe. This all goes in the category of “looks good on the design software, but not in real life”. I don’t mind the chest wordmark, and I actually don’t mind the horizontal half-stripes either, although they’re a little too boxy on the lower end. Big downgrade from the previous sugarcane CC.
8. Giants. This could have been a cool uniform based on the subject, but they missed the mark bigtime. Probably they were too afraid of the psychedelic connotations, but that’s not something you can really go half-way with. The basic color scheme isn’t bad, and I’m fine with adding some purple, but the hats are some of the worst I’ve ever seen, and the orange-to-purple gradient looks awful. The chest font doesn’t seem to know what it is supposed to be, and “sound waves, because music” doesn’t really work. I can’t decide if this is a downgrade or side-grade from their previous foggy CC, which I also thought was an interesting idea executed poorly.
Agree on the Giants, hard to see how this isn’t at the bottom of anyone’s rankings. It’s a complete clown job.
Choking in as an SF local and giants fan. They are turds. This looks like a generic promotional design that would be sold in the souvenir shop at a corporate owned amusement park and could have the wordmark changed out for whatever location they were being sold at.
They pulled their punches BIG TIME on the hippie music scene. IMO the uni should have been orange and white tie dye. Use either the Grateful Dead font, or the psychedelic font for the wordmark not Bradley hand or Marker Felt or whatever this generic crap is.
Most of them could use some editing. That’s why Boston’s works so well. They used quirks throughout but they are mostly subtle and they are all properly on theme. Colorado’s could be better BUT it is a great design. It’s let down by a middling effort on the hat and poor quality of the build. Sublimation and a crummy wishbone collar are only hurting. Arizona took a great concept and went to the other end of the spectrum. I don’t blame them. Keep something that works but change up the presentation. The problem is that these would have been great as a solid purple uni or purple with the diamond pinstripes. The gradient and contrast sleeves hurt the overall look tremendously. For one thing, contrast sleeves do not equal a vest. A vest uni looks great when it’s actually a vest with a standard shirt under. If it’s going to be a fake vest, at least sew the sleeves in under the torso fabric so it gives the impression of a real vest, but still, that ends up looking like a sleeveless shirt, not a proper vest jersey. It could have been great, but it’s just not. Miami’s is essentially a version of their black uni that has been stripped of all personality. Perhaps that’s what those motion lines represent: the appeal of their current look being yanked away and replaced by bland. Houston just doesn’t quite do it for me but I can admit that it’s a great uni as soon as they put the A on the chest. I get that they probably want the word and the star to appear to be moving to the right because that feels like “forward”, but just soup the star around to the front of the “stros” and problem f—king solved. SF, Chicago, and DC are dogs. The less said about them the better. Nothing worth keeping there.
Sand Serpientes was one of sport’s best unis. It’s a shame it’s gone