After Nike plans uniform changes, MLB players pleased, but wary

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Sliding into home plate in the ninth inning April 9, Tigers outfielder Riley Greene simultaneously set off a game-winning rally and another brouhaha about Nike's new MLB uniforms. Greene's slide had blown out the seam of his right pant leg, opening a gaping hole from hip to knee.

Greene's mother, Lisa, phoned after the game to tell him, "I've washed thousands of your pants, and I've never seen your pants rip that way."

But it could have been worse.

"Thank God I was wearing leggings," Greene said. "Some guys go commando."

the pants seam different this year pic.twitter.com/L1733yVAqd

— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) April 9, 2024

The potential for catastrophic failure of the pant seam is one of six issues Nike is expected to address prior to the 2025 season, according to an MLB Players Association memo obtained Sunday. Returning to Nike's previous standard for stitch count along the seam should prevent blowouts. Other changes include larger lettering, full tailoring, a higher-quality zipper and to-be-determined fabric fixes to minimize sweat stains and mismatched gray uniforms.

"We understand everything's not going to be perfect," said Phillies shortstop Trea Turner, who this spring told the AP "everyone hates" the uniforms. "But when an overwhelming majority of us and the fans would like a little bit of a change, I think it's nice that they listened and made the adjustment. … We're not necessarily against these uniforms. We just liked what we had. Some of these changes they're making now (are) getting a little bit closer, back to where we were."

"We appreciate the fact that they're listening, finally listening, to what the players think about the stuff that we have to go out there and wear and deal with," added Angels starter Patrick Sandoval.

In its memo to players, the MLBPA accused Nike of "innovating something that didn't need to be innovated." Which is to say the old uniforms — designed by Nike since 2020, yet using the previous Majestic Athletics template until this year — suited players just fine, even if the fabric wasn't as breathable, lightweight and high-performance as the Nike Vapor Premier is advertised to be.

"With the construction of the old uniforms, I don't think there was ever a player complaining about the size of the numbers or letters impacting performance," Cubs outfielder Ian Happ said. "The patches were more flexible. It felt like a higher-quality build. They had ventilation. I don't know that anybody was sweating through uniforms and unhappy with the actual performance.

"So, yeah, the old uniforms felt very much like major-league uniforms."

Tigers reliever Andrew Chafin recently bemoaned that the jerseys feel less special than the old ones: "You should feel like you're putting on a freaking crown and a big-ass fluffy cape, you know what I mean?" On Monday, he groused further, saying the new uniforms feel like high school jerseys. "Every time I go out to the field and I got my hoodie on for the game, it feels like I'm forgetting something. I think it's because it doesn't feel like it's a jersey."

Chafin had a question. The memo was buried in his inbox, unread.

"Are they just going back to the freakin' Majestic jerseys basically?" he asked.

The short answer: Probably not. Even if Nike, which declined comment Sunday, institutes all six changes outlined in the MLBPA memo, there has been no indication the company plans to ditch the entire Nike Vapor Premier template.

"I'll just wait and see what happens," Chafin said, "and bitch about it then."

Nike previously acknowledged that it's searching for solutions for two fabric issues: sweat stains showing through some jersey tops, and gray jerseys and pants being slightly different shades. It's unclear whether those concerns can be remedied without fully reengineering the fabric. It's much simpler to add larger lettering than it is to have a fabric designed to wick sweat do that job more subtly. ("And we haven't even hit the summer yet," Happ said.)

Nike said the new material was designed to "move moisture to the exterior of the jersey so they dry 28 percent faster." So far, the only part that's clear is that the moisture is indeed moving to the exterior.

Yankees starter Carlos Rodón is a sweaty dude. He typically doesn't wear an undershirt, either, so his jersey top is sopping during his starts. Rodón has developed a routine this season in which he changes jerseys two or three times per start, swapping out a sweat-soaked top for a dry one.

"It works out fine, for now," he said.

At points this season, Carlos Rodón has pitched with visible sweat stains on his uniform. (Tim Warner / Getty Images)

Rodón, like others, is pleased about the reported changes. He said the larger lettering, in particular, will contribute to a cleaner look. Mostly, he is ready to move on. A jersey is the last thing he wants to think about while pitching, he said, and these adjustments are a step in that direction. "It just is what it is. We got what we got. We play baseball for a living. Can't get mad about that."

The change that will impact players most is the return to full tailoring. That was the status quo prior to this spring, when Nike introduced four body-type "buckets" created by "body-scanning" more than 300 players. Evidently, a body scan does not reveal what a clubhouse poll would have. Players loudly protested the lack of customization. In the first week of spring training, Angels reliever Carlos Estévez delivered a diatribe that included this inspired line: "When I wear my pants, I feel like I'm wearing someone else's pants."

Nike loosened its guidelines after initial player complaints, allowing some players to switch "buckets," but, per sources, that option was not given to all players. Moving forward, according to the memo, customization will return.

"That was the biggest problem," Estévez said Monday. "One of the privileges of being in the big leagues is you can have your uniform customized, because you're in the best baseball (league) on the planet. Here we've got the best of the best, and they took that away. I'm like, c'mon."

Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson was one of the few Nike-endorsed players to publicly criticize the jerseys this spring, specifically pinpointing some design choices he felt were misses. On Monday, Swanson credited Nike for working with the players to improve the uniforms. He resists change as much as the next guy, he said, but he sees what Nike was going for in trying to upgrade the fabric.

"The intention was right," Swanson said. "At the end of the day, the execution was wrong — and they know that. They're obviously doing what they can to correct what they feel like needs to be corrected."

His teammate Happ, the Cubs' MLBPA player rep, has had an even closer view of the talks between the players union, the league, Nike and Fanatics, which manufactures the uniforms. Happ said there has been "some progress" but cautioned that nothing has been finalized, and given that the timeline currently extends as far as Opening Day 2025 "we'll see what ends up coming out of it."

Happ agreed with Swanson that Nike's intentions were in the right place, but drawing up a uniform designed to improve performance ultimately didn't have the intended effect. "I think the look, feel and quality meant more to fans and players than the changes they were trying to make," Happ said.

It may take months to achieve clarity or reach true resolution in the Nike uniform fiasco, and in the meantime Greene won't be sweating any rips or ruptured seams. Sweat would only make things worse.

"Yeah, they're different. Yeah, we've had some problems with them. Yeah, I have a couple more cherries on my legs than normal," Greene said. "But I'm not really worrying about it too much. Some guys are. It's a good thing (changes are coming), because obviously they're not made the right way."

The Athletic's Cody Stavenhagen, Sam Blum, Sahadev Sharma and Brendan Kuty contributed reporting.

(Top photo: Matt Thomas / San Diego Padres / Getty Images)