Part II of having too many thoughts and feelings about City Connect Uniforms: AL Central edition.
(Part I: AL East)
Detroit 'Motor City' City Connects. There's so much wrong with these, but the worst offense is the fact that they're lazy. Detroit = car. Revolutionary. And they didn't even do anything interesting with that! It's literally just the words MOTOR CITY, a crappy printed tire pattern on the jerseys, and a sleeve patch that has reflective numbers on it so it either looks like 1 (M1, another name for Woodward Ave, the road the stadium is on) or 313 (Detroit area code). Allegedly the striped sleeve trim is 'racing stripes' and there's a fake VIN on the hats.
The jersey gradient looks like shit, especially from a distance where it resolves into chunky vertical stripes. I hate spelling out 'DETROIT' on the hats because it's like dumbing down the olde English D and it's redundant with 'MOTOR CITY' both visually and semantically.
I love that during the official launch photoshoot they had Riley wearing jeans. They were like look, we know this is dogshit with the uniform pants. Just bring some jeans from home and we'll pretend we are not going to put you in a black over black nighty time cozy PJ set on the field.
VERDICT: The only thing we know about Detroit is CAR.
Kansas City City Connects. These are fine. They aren't embarrassing and could be a normal baseball uniform. So far as I can tell the whole concept behind these is: FOUNTAIN. Yes, they do have that at the stadium. That's the primary explanation for the blues and the logos.
I don't love the exact same logo on the chest and hat for a supposedly fun alternate uniform. Is it fun to just do the same thing over and over again because you only have one singular idea? Here's a close-up on the logo:
The K is 'dripping' through the C. Like a fountain. FOUNTAIN. I actually don't hate the logo, it's clean and fairly attractive and not completely boring by itself. It's just that when it's combined with the rest of this uniform, it's a little underwhelming.
Verdict: It's fountain, it's fine. Nothing was gained and nothing was lost but it is pretty damp.
Minnesota 'Ripple Effect' City Connects. The concept behind these: MINNESOTA HAS LAKES. I am starting to get the sense that Nike's designers do not spend a lot of time in the midwest.
The jerseys have a sublimated 'ripple effect' pattern because: lakes. They are blue because: lakes. The logo on the hat is the state of Minnesota with the northern lights reflecting on, you guessed it, a lake.
Come on man. These are way too close to Seattle's current City Connects, since they use essentially the exact same jersey base blue with yellow accents, but I like Seattle's better because they are not color-over-same-color PAJAMAS.
Verdict: Did you know? That water is blue??
These are safe and not particularly exciting. Some of the details are nice. The raised textures in the CLE and numbers reference patterns on the statues that the team is named after. I like the striping across the shoulders and under the arms and on the pants, and allegedly there is a braid pattern in there that's also on the statues.
The issue is that the coolest parts of this uniform are details that you absolutely cannot see unless you're right on top of it. Like, the CLE is pretty nice:
but you can't see that texture in the stadium unless you've rushed the field and are about to hug a Guardian right before you get tackled by security.
The other problem is that their primary sleeve patch-- this is part of their regular jersey, not the City Connect design-- is way cooler than anything on the special alternate uniform.
Verdict: Fine but not at all interesting unless you really dig into it. Not unlike Cleveland itself so in that sense I guess it is perfect.
The 2021 White Sox 'Southside' City Connects. You know, I didn't hate these. They're like a reverse of the White Sox's usual black-on-white pinstripe uniforms and the Gothic font is fun and at least semi-plausibly Chicago-y. At least, unlike literally every other team in the AL Central, they weren't blue.
I LOVE the black belt with white backing or edging that Anderson is wearing in this shot, but I actually think that was something that Anderson might have brought in himself, not part of the actual uniform, because no one else seemed to have it. Applause for Tim Anderson's fashion sense I guess.
Verdict: Not flashy but pretty cool. Competent. A solid win if not the most exciting thing you could do out there.
The 2025 White Sox 'Crossover' City Connects. Please gaze upon this and then come to the realization of what they mean by 'crossover' here.
THEY ARE CROSS-PROMOTING WITH THE CHICAGO BULLS OF THE NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION.
The contrast sleeves make the jersey look like a basketball vest. It's Bulls colors. The CHICAGO font is the Bulls font. The Bulls even wore pinstripes at one point in the late 90s, although that was black with red stripes.
There are some other cool details, like the fact that the sleeve and pant stripes are red with the word 'SOUTHSIDE' repeating inside them (large enough that it's not completely invisible) and the insane fact that they actually designed and included a special 'crossover' patch that combines the White Sox and Bulls logos.
They are also using the tagline BRED IN CHICAGO for this look which is... well... it's very... uh. Ahem. Good for them. Have fun kids. Make sure you get tested.
Verdict: Legible, interesting, hella fun. This is what City Connect should be. I can't believe they're doing a crossover episode with BASKETBALL, what the hell, this is so wild. A+.
