Wednesday, November 10, 2010

New uniforms unveiled [updated]

Photo by Mark Zuckerman / NATS INSIDER
Desmond, Clippard, Storen, Zimmermann, Lannan and Zimmerman in the new jerseys.
Updated at 8:21 p.m.

The Nationals debuted their new look tonight, showing off four jerseys for the 2011 season that feature plenty of familiar styles but one big surprise: The word "Nationals" doesn't appear prominently anywhere.

The new home white jersey, which used to include a block "Nationals" across the front, now boasts a red curly W logo on the left breast, with red block numbers on the lower right and red and blue piping down the plackets around the buttons.

All gold has also been removed from the uniforms, leaving the colors simply as red, white and blue.

The road gray uniform is virtually unchanged, aside from a new logo on the left sleeve featuring the curly W inside a circle with the words "Washington Nationals" around it. That's the club's new primary logo, replacing the block "Nationals" atop a baseball that had served as the logo since the team arrived in town in 2005.

The road caps, though, have changed. The navy blue hats now include a red bill and button.

The red alternate home jerseys are virtually the same as well, except for the addition of blue and white piping and the new logo on the left sleeve.

The blue alternate home jerseys worn on holidays and military appreciation days now feature a curly W logo filled in with stars and stripes. Thus, the interlocking "DC" logo that had been incorporated in various uniforms the last six seasons is no more.
Photo by Mark Zuckerman / NATS INSIDER
Drew Storen and Ryan Zimmerman model the new home whites.
Photo by Mark Zuckerman / NATS INSIDER
The Nats' new primary logo. No more block "Nationals." No more "DC."

40 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love 'em!!! Exactly what I was hoping for. Only wish I could've been there for the unveiling.

Anonymous said...

This way they don't need to remove the big red Fuddrucker's "Nationals" over the scoreboard, which they would have had to do if they shifted to script "Nationals." Clearly a cost-saving move.

David Lint said...

Holy crap, they gave the Nationals Spring Training Jersey for the home uniform. What were they thinking?

Kevin Rusch, Section406 said...

Well, OK. I'd have preferred the nationals script, and the spring 2005 "DC" logo is still my favorite. The DC Logo they use for the July 4 uniform is too big, but that small one with the gold trim was really really nice.

Oh well. doesn't matter - i'm still not going until they're above .500 for more than a few days.

nick said...

no Nationals

Jim Webster said...

Hmmm... paving the way for dropping "Nationals" and becoming "Senators" again one day?

lesatcsc said...

Isn't it backwards? Shouldn't the curly W be on the other side? Not keen on the unbalanced look either and the curly W looks like its almost under the armpit. I like the old-fashioned stripe around the neck and down the front but all in all, yuck. Too bad, a missed opportunity.

Anonymous said...

Very nice. Classic look.
Lesatcsc, Uh No. Plesase refer to Yankees, Tigers, White Sox, A's etc.

SpotsyNats said...

I guess its an improvement. A bit more traditional but not very creative. Anything, in my opinion, is a much needed improvement over the league-worst NatinalS rush job from five years ago.

Road unis, though, are very nice and I'm glad they didn't screw up a good thing there.

Baby steps...

Anonymous said...

Well, at least this will cut down on embarrassing uniform gaffes. It's pretty hard to misspell "W."

greg said...

eh.

lesatcsc said...

Okay, but somehow it still looks backwards. Maybe its because of where on the breast they've put the logo. The numbers don't match the style of the logo either. Sorry, I would like to like it, but it just looks to me like someone put it together in the dark. On the up side, it's unlikely they'll make any spelling mistakes on this uni.

SpotsyNats said...

So Drew cashed in 58 for 25? I liked the high number on him but I am biased in favor of both Storen and the number "58" (for the famous FDNY Engine Company 58, the "Fire Factory" from my boyhood days in NYC)

Jenn Jenson said...

My initial reaction ... whatever. I hope I like them better in-person, but the patch right next to the W looks odd to me. I'm not thrilled with the jammies piping on every home style, and as a DC resident, I'd really like to see either Washington or DC somewhere.

Anonymous said...

I like 'em. Like the simplicity. Kind of clasic looking.

James Hoy said...

I'm sort of disappointed. Was looking forward to a script "Nationals." But anything is an improvement on the previous home whites. But, at the very least, this has a chance to grow on me. Definitely does not look "designed by committee" like the old ones.

Anonymous said...

Wish I could type--"classic." What a time to misspell something related to Nats' uniforms. Good grief.

SonnyG10 said...

I'm not sure how I like them yet. Maybe they'll grow on me. Anyway, they are probably just building up their repertoire of throw-back uniforms.

JaneB said...

Is this to get us to buy all new Strasburg jerseys?

Anonymous said...

Constant Reader here. Some guy made this comment on an earlier post back in October. I agreed with him then. I agree with him now.

"I'll reserve final judgment until I actually see the new look, though I have to say my preference would have been to remove the word "Nationals" from the home jersey altogether and simply go with a red curly W logo on the left breast and some red piping around the collar and down the sides of the front of the jersey. Kind of like the Detroit Tigers' home uniform. I think that's a simple, classic look. I love the script "Washington" on the gray road jerseys, but the word "Nationals" just doesn't look good to me in script. Plus, so many teams have script lettering on their home jerseys, with the traditional underline. Why not do something a little less standard while still maintaining a classic (and uniform) look?"

NatBiscuit said...

Of course now that they have real major league uniforms, they're going to need to get a few more real major leaguers to wear them ....

Andrew said...

I thought the whole show was really well done. The blue patriotic with the new cap looked great together.

They are also changing the road batting helmets I was told.

It was cool as I won the first raffle prize which was 2 golf shirts.

Anonymous said...

This was a wonderful evening. I love the new home whites. Really a classic look. The big news here is that the Nationals-badge look is gone, and the Curly-W look is established for decades to come.

Mark Zuckerman said...

Constant Reader here. Some guy made this comment on an earlier post back in October. I agreed with him then. I agree with him now.

"I'll reserve final judgment until I actually see the new look, though I have to say my preference would have been to remove the word "Nationals" from the home jersey altogether and simply go with a red curly W logo on the left breast and some red piping around the collar and down the sides of the front of the jersey. Kind of like the Detroit Tigers' home uniform. I think that's a simple, classic look. I love the script "Washington" on the gray road jerseys, but the word "Nationals" just doesn't look good to me in script. Plus, so many teams have script lettering on their home jerseys, with the traditional underline. Why not do something a little less standard while still maintaining a classic (and uniform) look?"


Wow, someone with the Nats must have been listening to that guy. He was spot-on! (Though his perfect home jersey wouldn't have a number on the front.)

Anonymous said...

Somehow I think you've known all along this was going to be the new home unis, Mark.

Anonymous said...

Abandoning the traditional home white uniforms is a serious mistake. They've represented the Nationals since the team arrived in DC. Many fans have rooted for those uniforms for a while now, and surely have begun to develop an emotional attachment to them.

I could deal with a few tweaks, if necessary. But it would be much better if the team followed in the footsteps of the Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, Tigers and other classy teams that have, more or less, left their uniforms unchanged.

Sadly, the Nationals seem uninterested in being a classy team. In fact, their hokey "entertainment," from Clint on down, makes National Park seem more like a cheesy minor league site than a serious, major league ballpark. I think it's short sighted -- sort of like the boring Astroturf ballparks from the 70's that seemed "modern" and "practical," but that in retrospect undermined a classic aesthetic that we now appreciate to be central to the game, and that has been resurrected in Camden Yards and all its clones.

Tradition is fundamental to baseball. It may be hard to quantify. But that doesn't make it any less important.

JayB said...

Mark did Ian D really say the following...per ladson....It has a classic look to it. It's not so expansion teamish like the block lettering was," Desmond said. "We have a little identity at home now. It will get the fans out there. Hopefully it will inspire more people to come out." ....TRY WINNING IAN>>>>>>that is what will get more fans out to the games....not uniform design....what a DOPE!

DCDingo said...

Like the away gray the best but this is all a distraction..... play better baseball!

Avar said...

I hate uniform changes. And I hate alternate uniforms. I saw nothing wrong with the old uniforms. Make up your mind already and just leave them alone.

Anonymous said...

I hope they don't get sued by Walgreens.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/06/AR2010110602486.html

Anonymous said...

From 1907 through 1958 the Nationals/Senators did not display their nickname on their jerseys. For a lot of those years they had a simple block W on the left side of the home jersey. Seems to me that the new unis are a link to a very long tradition of baseball uniforms in Washington, tying in the old Nationals uniforms with the expansion Senators curly W of the '60's. I like that. That's real tradition.

Anonymous said...

Uggh . . . red reminds me of the Phillies. Gack.

Mr Baseball said...

Great!! Now we can really look like and be The Phillies AAA farm team. I know now why Stan Kasten invited the Major League fans down to Washington, so they could see their top farm team. I just haven't figured out why the Phillies have not brought up Ryan Zimmerman and a couple others to their Major League team.

Philadelphia is the closest team, in our division, to Washington and now we have to dress and look like their team. Even our new caps resemble one of their caps. Stan was smart when he invited the Philly fans here, you couldn't tell who were Philly or Nationals fans. It just made our stadium look fuller.

I still say we should be BLUE trimmed in red! We say we were organized in 1905, but we wore BLUE and not red!

Great job Mark Lerner, you really made us proud to be Philly fans. Oh! Thats right Philadelphia was our Nations Capitol before Washington.

Steve M. said...

We no longer have to worry about spell check for NATI-NALS.

Anonymous said...

Was looking forward to a script "Nationals" like classic old-school uni's like Dodgers, Cardinals. Oh, well. I'll settle for this and a .500 record.

natsfan1a said...

Play to better than .500 and they can wear burlap sacks, for all I care. Although, it might be a bit difficult to run and field in those...

I'm still gonna wear my old gear, though. That's how we'll know each other after they're contending and all the front-runners jump on board. (What? It *could* happen.)

Anonymous said...

• The BLUE uniform is a frickin' mess again. Wish they would've put a white curly-W in the center of a "double-circle" containing stars (think 2006 sleeve patch). In the background of the inner circle, add red & while stripes. The point is, make the curly-W STAND OUT against all the stars and stripes background!

• The WHITE looks like children's pajamas. (Should've been script "Nationals.")

• The RED is great!

• Unimpressed with new sleeve patch logo...zzzzzzzzz.

• They should've updated the interlocking "D.C."!

Anonymous said...

I think it would have been nice to pay some tribute to the Expos with a similar design to this one:
http://exhibits.baseballhalloffame.org/dressed_to_the_nines/detail_page.asp?fileName=nl_1991_montreal.gif&Entryid=1697

I'm not advocating for pale blue on the road or those weird stripes, but I do like the "curly M" with the number on the upper right front.

VP81955 said...

Generally approve the new look, but...

1. I would remove the piping from the white jersey and replace it with blue pinstripes (especially since we know Bryce Harper loves pinstripes!).

2. I would move the number higher, making it level with the script "W" (e.g. White Sox, Reds, Schmidt-era Phillies).

3. I would keep the blue bill on the road cap, making the front panel red with a white script "W" trimmed in blue. (Think of the early Expos caps, or the Orioles caps circa 1980.)

Golfersal said...

There was a reason that Nats were selling merchandise for 35% off during the last homestand, going to 50% the last game. Of course it wasn't out of the generosity of the heart, it was getting rid of the merchandise.
Wish that they would of at least told people that they were changing uniforms so that we wouldn't be wearing yesterdays stuff.

Lesson learned in these times of screwing others, buyer beware.

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