Footwear and apparel company, Nike announced it will become the exclusive provider of Major League Baseball’s (MLB) on-field uniforms to kick off the 2020 season. The online sports-merchandise supplier Fanatics will manufacture and distribute the Nike MLB Authentic collection, including jerseys and postseason apparel as well as other Nike and Fanatics fan gear.
On Monday, ahead of the confirmed 10-year partnership, Nike gave baseball fans a first look at all 30 MLB teams’ home uniforms for next year. While the designs will remain the same, the jerseys will now feature Nike’s signature Swoosh logo on the right side of the chest.
“Each franchise has a deeply personal history, with a visual identity that continues in this update. In the future, we look forward to preserving this integrity while still bringing more of Nike’s creativity to uniform designs,” said Hal Melhart, Sr. Product Line Manager for Nike Diamond.
Unfortunately, you can’t make everyone happy, and to no surprise, not everyone is a fan of the Nike logo that is being added to the front of the jerseys. You have the people who are unhappy with the logo, the people who are making fun of those who are upset, and then the people who simply do not care.
Many of those who are complaining about the Nike logo take issue with the fact that the logo is on the chest and not on the sleeve of the jersey. For example, the Nike logo is on both sleeves of The National Footbal League’s (NFL) jerseys. Majestic, the previous official in-game uniform supplier of MLB, also featured its logo on the sleeve of the jerseys.
Baseball is a game that is deeply rooted in tradition and fans are not always up to embracing change. It will be interesting to see if people change their mind as the season gets closer and if/how this will effect the sales of the new Nike-supplied jerseys.
One thing is for sure – once Gerrit Cole announces which number he will wear with the Yankees, that will definitely be the first MLB Nike jersey I own.