The Boston Red Sox, known for their traditional white uniforms, with red letters and the iconic “B”, reveal their first shirt without any red.
As part of Major League Baseball’s first major jersey collaboration with Nike – which became the sports uniform supplier in 2019 – the Red Sox unveiled yellow and powder-blue uniforms on Tuesday.
Inspired by Patriots’ Day and the Boston Marathon, the T-shirts feature a 617 marathon jumpsuit, Fenway Park Area Code, on the left sleeve.
The radical design for MLB is part of Nike’s first adventure in designing baseball alternatives, known as the City Connect series, designed to push the boundaries of uniform design.
“It was front and center and that’s why we did this business. Take two iconic brands and put them together and you have one and one makes three,” said MLB revenue manager Noah Garden. “That’s what we expected and that’s what we wanted. This is the plan we’ve always set ourselves.”
The City Connect series will begin with seven teams with scattered disclosures: Red Sox, Miami Marlins (May 21), Chicago White Sox (June 5), Chicago Cubs (June 12), Arizona Diamondbacks (June 18), San Francisco Giants ( July 9) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (late August).
Each MLB team expects to have a City Connect series jersey by the end of the 2023 season, with teams working individually with Nike to create a uniform connected to each city’s personality and community.
Since taking over as NFL and NBA uniform supplier, Nike has been pushing for similar design changes in baseball, with City Edition NFL and NBA uniforms creating a wide variety of looks. Nike introduced 10 different concepts to Boston in early 2019, and Red Sox marketing director Adam Grossman and executive vice president Troup Parkinson landed on the Patriots’ Day concept.
Grossman said that when the Red Sox found out about the sport’s partnership with Nike two years ago, they came to tell them that they wanted to push the boundaries in terms of their uniform design.
“We wanted to be at the top of the line. We told them we would love to work together in whatever way we thought was right,” Grossman said. “That was two years ago, and at this point, they said they would do the City Connect program that if we do that, we’re all-in, and even if we’re a traditional historical franchise, we want to do something completely different.
“We want to push the envelope and be bold in this regard.”
While Grossman initially felt hesitant about revealing a colorless Red Sox jersey on behalf of the team, he felt connected to Patriots Day and the marathon featured a unique narrative that justified the decision to go further with a bold design. The Red Sox will wear yellow-and-blue uniforms for the first time on April 17 and 18 against the White Sox, before wearing the traditional Patriots’ Day uniform, with the Boston Strong patch unveiled for the first time after the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013.
“This was the one where we felt right from the start that this is the one, but it was also like, ‘This is a Red Sox shirt that doesn’t have red or anything on it,'” Grossman said. “We wondered if we could do this and we felt it was time to do it. There is never a better time than now. It pushes us as an organization, it pushes baseball, and I think the way we launch it, I thought, would allow us to get into different neighborhoods in Boston that push culture into Boston, because that’s part of what that reflects. “
Nike senior designer Wil Green said Nike found inspiration in the marathon finish line while designing uniforms that have a pattern-like font over the front of the jersey.
Grossman acknowledged that many baseball traditionalists may not like the vast departure from the team’s traditional jerseys, but that they are not for the “traditionalist” either.
“We understand that for traditionalists, this may not work for them, and we’re fine with that,” Grossman said. “We understand. This is not meant to replace our clear whites. It’s not about that, it’s about connecting and getting other people to look at us differently, especially younger and more diverse crowds. We accept it and it is important to recognize and celebrate that, and that is what it is. “
The presentation of the City Connect series is part of MLB’s strategy in recent years to expand baseball logos into fashionable clothing. Garden said the City Connect series is an attempt by MLB and Nike to push baseball uniforms into the fashion world.
Grossman said the City Connect series offers baseball an opportunity to develop its audience among casual fans and become part of the daily lifestyle culture.
“When you see this convergence for us and for sports, we want to be part of the lifestyle,” Grossman said. “We do it as a game, but to get out of the white lines of the diamond, that merch and hats are part of everyday culture is essential for the growth of the game as well as the game itself.”
With the entry into baseball of the third season of a 10-year deal with Nike as a supplier of uniforms, Grossman expects the City Connect series to be the beginning of a series of baseball uniform design changes.
“We will see more experiments not only with colorful colors, but I think as we enter this relationship as an industry, the creativity around the design itself will be something that will be interesting to see,” Grossman said.