New Nike Jersey Issues on Full Display at Twins Photo Day

[Cody Christie]

Nike and Fanatics’ jersey collaboration has been the talk of spring training for all the wrong reasons. Those flaws were on full display during the Twins’ annual photo day.

Image courtesy of William Parmeter

A team’s photo day can be a fun experience for fans to follow. It gives a candid look into player’s personalities and a behind the scenes view into the clubhouse dynamics. The Twins’ social media team posted videos of the team telling jokes, attempting to hula hoop, and competing with a Kendama. While that is all positive, photo day also gave fans an up-close and much too personal view of the team’s newly redesigned Nike jerseys. 

These newly redesigned jerseys have been garnering complaints from players and fans since the start of spring training. The main critiques include reduced lettering size on the back of jerseys, as well as the poor fit and the "cheap" look. Players across camps, like the Twins, are being photographed for future promotional material, and the new pants are transparent. Players have asked the union to get involved, and the MLB Players Union head Tony Clark, commented on the matter on Thursday.

"A lot of the rhetoric is confirmation that the pants are see through," Clark told reporters, "It's been an ongoing conversation where each day has yielded something new that doesn't seem to make as much as sense as you would like it."

Nike responded to the criticism in a statement to The Athletic. “We always put the athlete at the center of everything we do,” the Nike statement read. “We worked closely with MLB players, teams and the league to create the most advanced uniforms in the history of MLB which are lighter and more flexible.”

“The quality and the performance of our product is of the utmost importance to us. We will continue to work with MLB, the players and our manufacturing partner to address player uniforms.”

Major League Baseball also issued a statement on Thursday. “Like every Spring Training, Fanatics team services, Nike and MLB representatives are visiting camps to meet with all players, conduct uniform fitting sessions with them, and get their feedback on how their uniforms fits,” 

MLB’s statement said, “Based on player requests, adjustments are being made to jersey size, waist, in-seam, length, thigh fit and the bottom of their pants. The goal of these meetings is to provide players with the most comfortable uniforms available for Opening Day. We are in close contact with our Clubs and uniform partners to ensure Clubs have what they need for Opening Day.”

The entire situation is eerily similar to a Seinfeld episode (The Chaperone) where George Costanza responds to a complaint from Yankee manager Buck Showalter. Players complain that the jerseys are too hot, and Costanza suggests they make the uniform out of cotton instead of polyester. The lighter material helps the player's performance until the jerseys shrink in the wash. The moral of the story is that lighter isn’t always better. 

Some photos have also emerged from other camps with very unflattering views that bring a new meaning to the term balls in play. In some games this spring, teams have been wearing the old pants or a combination of the new and old pants. Players are going to have to wear other layers under their pants to avoid exposing themselves to a national audience. Hopefully, a solution will be in place before Opening Day, but that might be a challenging deadline for Nike to meet. 

What are your thoughts on the jersey issues so far this spring? Will the clubs have a solution before Opening Day? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion.

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[theBOMisthebomb]

This entire episode is embarrassing on multiple levels. 

[CRF]

Apparently, the new uni's didn't pass the "Jacques Strappe" QC test. 

[nicksaviking]

Nothing wrong with see through pants unless you have something to hide. TSA should give them less hassle at least.

[FLYBOY1979]

Ya the players are in the middle of the uniform mess. What is at the top of the list, money, just like always. Nothing new here.

[Teflon]

These 2024 Nike MLB uniforms can proudly take their place next to Zion Williamson's Nike PG 2.5 shoes in the Nike Shoddiest Products Hall of Fame. 

[Lasorda_This_Out]

First World problem...

[Parfigliano]

MLB and Nike are multi-billion dollar corporations and they team up to mess up making a pair of pants.  Its hilarious.

[Doctor Gast]

They at least partially brought back the winning tradition pinstripes with partial success. Why not bring back the pinstripe fully & experience full success? We haven´t experienced any real success w/o them. We had them thru the 60s & early 70s with a World Series appearance & brought them back in late ´80s & won 2 World series & beat the Wonder As in early 2000´s.

[LewFordLives]

I stopped buying Nike products years ago.  I had purchased a Twins long-sleeve T and it ended up being cheap crap at an inflated price.  After one wash the material started to fray and bunch up and the logo started to chip.

[Otaknam]

A uniform malfunction . What’s next? Spikes modeled after the golden trump sneaker? 

[Blyleven2011]

Stop having them made in China,  even my socks are see through  and at the end of a busy day ,  my feet are dirty from dirt filtering through them from being outside all day   , scrub a dub dub ...

[Schmoeman5]

Sounds like the old washboards will make a comeback with the new unis. Sweet. Maybe that's part of the reason for shedding payroll. They have to employ more locker room help.

[the_brute_squad]

The chinsiest softball team would scoff at wearing this hideousness.

I suppose Nike had to keep the kids busy in the sweatshop.