Reaction to the official Blue Jays City Connect uniforms

They weren’t purple, they weren’t pink, they didn’t have any reference to the TTC, but the Toronto Blue Jays turned on “night mode” for their take on the City Connect uniforms.

After much hype and a few false alarms, it turns out the leaked cap and uniform were correct all along.

Some hints throughout the teaser video campaigns may have been a misdirect, but the Blue Jays settled on a Toronto skyline, the Toronto sign, along with the colours “pitch blue” (the main dark navy in the uniform), “speed red” (the red in the piping and the cap) and “hyper royal” (the lighter blue accent).

I’ll admit when the first jersey leak came out earlier this week, I was a bit underwhelmed, but this iteration seems to be growing on me. The complete fit with the pants and the high socks looks a lot better than the separate cap and jersey, and the red sleeves some players may choose to wear will make the uniform pop even more.

Just prior to the powder blue uniform reveal in 2020, the Blue Jays said one of the prototype designs which didn’t make the final cut was a navy blue-based uniform. It looks like they took that approach with the City Connects, going as dark blue as you can get.

I wondered how the cap and uniform would look as a pair, and they’re much better together as a set than apart. The cap on its own doesn’t scream Toronto Blue Jays, but would be a fine hat to wear separate of the uniform.

Part of me wonders whether they could’ve scrapped the red maple leaf on the cap altogether, since it’s nothing new on a Blue Jays uniform. It adds more complexity to the look, but I would’ve preferred the red and blue piping into a simple letter “T”.

One other interesting note about incorporating the letter “T” back into their cap; the Blue Jays are no longer the only team in MLB to not feature a letter on their cap logo. The Blue Jays won’t use this as their primary logo, but at least they have an iteration with a letter in it now, rather than just the bird logo.

In the leaked photos, the lighting wasn’t great, so it was hard to tell which hue of red and blue was on the jersey. It also looked like a black background, rather than dark blue or “pitch blue” as the Blue Jays call it.

Also, the addition of the jersey numbers on the front of the uniform fills out the front of the jersey a little more, and I love the way the back of the jerseys look with the red and blue. And another small touch that makes it look more modern is the diagonal cut of the belt loop.

If there’s one criticism of this kit (and this seems like the consensus with Jays fans), is the Toronto skyline part of the jersey. There isn’t a lot of detail there, the CN Tower looks clip-arty, and it gives off a “Tron” vibe.

Aside from Rogers Centre and CN Tower, there are no other discernable landmarks on the front of the jersey, which is a bit of a disappointment. Subtract those two elements and it looks like any other nondescript skyline from most metropolitan cities.

I was also hoping there would be some Easter eggs or minor features littered throughout the uniform set. The Blue Jays went the safe route here and not go too off the board, which is the best way to appeal to the widest demographic. But I think there was a subset of fans who were expecting a little more with the Toronto City Connects.

Having just witnessed the Detroit Tigers’ City Connect uniforms last weekend, we saw how lacklustre other team’s designs are. It was always going to be difficult to rival the Rays, Padres and White Sox, who all arguably have the best City Connect uniforms to date.

Given the benefit of time, I think a lot of people will come around on the Blue Jays City Connects. And once we have time to see them in their natural habitat during games at Rogers Centre, that may change people’s perceptions about these threads, too.