Every MLB team will have a noticeable uniform change this coming season, and it won’t be too difficult to miss.
Nike will be the official on-field uniform supplier for Major League Baseball, taking over a role that Majestic Athletic had held since 2004. And while Majestic was evidently content with a discreet company logo on the sleeve, Nike — as you should expect — is going a different direction.
GET READY FOR THE SWOOSH.
That’s right. Every MLB jersey will have the Nike logo on the front of the jersey. From the Miami Marlins to the New York Yankees, no team was able to avoid supplying Nike with premium real estate on the jersey.
And sure, it’s just a logo, and manufacturer logos get similar placement in the NBA, college sports and, oh, every major soccer league. Only the NFL relegated the swoosh to the sleeves.
But baseball is a game that clings irrationally to tradition. It managed to avoid a major corporate presence on uniforms for a century until the New Era logo’s addition to the caps sparked a mini-meltdown a couple years ago. So, it came as no surprise that MLB fans weren’t particularly pleased with the swoosh’s place on the front of the jersey.
Would the Nike logo look better on the sleeves? Yes. Will fans eventually get used to it? Also, yes.
