With spring training well underway, the attention of the sports world is making its way back to baseball. Upon the arrival of pitchers and catchers to their respective camps, one thing was made clear: the uniforms looked horrible. Lettering was off center, numbers appeared crooked and the material looked all around cheaper. Fans quickly noticed the drop off in quality and searched for a cause. Nike, who owns the naming rights to MLB uniforms, and the manufacturer, Fanatics, quickly pointed the finger at the other and continue to do so. Lesser quality can be expected for products made for fans as it’s more mass produced—meaning there’s less attention to detail. However, when the players’ uniforms have issues, it’s another deal entirely.
The uniform issue first became clear when pitchers and catchers reported to spring training in mid February. It had been announced previously that there would be some minor changes to the uniforms, specifically the printing. The lettering was now much larger, causing even relatively shorter last names to curve around the numbers on the jersey.
Another smaller scale issue involved jersey patches. Under the previous system, patches were sewn on and more intricate on player jerseys, with more expensive options available to fans. With the new uniforms, all levels now have iron on patches that look cheap enough to come from an unlicensed stand outside the ballpark. This is a smaller part of the major issues with the uniforms materials. Looking at a side by side of a new uniform versus an old one there is a visible cheapness to the new uniforms even on the player worn models.
One extremely concerning side effect of the new materials was found with the pants. As teams began to release photos from their media days fans and players were quick to point out that the pants were semi transparent. This is a disaster waiting to happen, especially after several media day photos came close to exposing the genitalia of several players.
But quite possibly the biggest mistake made by Nike and fanatics is that all of these quality downgrades have been paired with a price increase. The price of the highest quality level of jersey, known as an authentic jersey, has risen from $199–which is already a very steep price to pay—to $325, a borderline robbery. This is taking advantage of the fans and nothing else. Baseball has gained some goodwill through recent rule changes that have increased the pace of play, but this massive mistake will likely cost them a lot of that. The best course of action to save face is to go back to the old design and further test whatever changes are going to be made. This wouldn’t be as profitable for the league or the manufacturers, but when the league has been struggling for viewership in recent years, the last thing they should want to do is anger loyal fans.
