The 2021 MLB All-Star Jerseys Are Laughable

Okay, I don’t claim to have any fashion sense or know the first thing about graphic design. What I do know is what a nice baseball uniform looks like. It should be clean with the teams logo/city clearly visible and no weird, obscure fonts. That’s it. Baseball uniforms have changed in style throughout history but those attributes I mentioned are always looked for on a jersey with most fans understanding that and protest most attempts at trying to ‘shake it up’. Just last year, Nike debuted as the main jersey designer/manufacturer for MLB which resulted in the famous Nike swoosh to appear on the right breast of the jersey. A lot people had an issue with that especially when it came to the more traditional uniforms that teams like the Yankees, Cubs, and Dodgers have used for decades upon decades.

So, when MLB revealed the 2021 All-Star jerseys, fans (including me) were in shock with how incredibly off-brand these jerseys really are. Before I give my opinion on them, take a look for yourself:

This is not a drill. These have to be one of the ugliest jerseys I’ve seen at any level of baseball. I’m talking about from little league to travel ball to high school to college to the pros. I’m willing to bet my MLB.tv subscription that whoever the schmuck was that designed these has never seen a baseball game in his/her life. The All-Star game takes place in Colorado but you wouldn’t know that by looking at these jerseys. For as long as I can remember, the jersey was always designed to reflect the city the the event took place in. This doesn’t even come close. The Colorado Rockies colors are purple, silver, and black so why all the red? And what’s up with the bubble-style sleeves and collar that is blue for the NL and gold/light brown for the AL? Why the big, red, vertical abbreviations just for them to be covered up by the team’s logo and rendered illegible?

The hats are also questionable at best. I get that the design is focused on the All-STAR aspect but it’s just the Astros logo with a different logo in the center? Is this a cruel joke by Manfred who refused to punish any of the Astros players? And again, why are all of the logos red? With the hats being black, they don’t match the AL jerseys that are navy blue for whatever reason. I’m just so confused.

The worst thing about all of this is that, for the first time ever, these jerseys will be worn on the field during the actual All-Star game. Previously, the All-Star uniforms were only worn during the Homerun Derby and batting practice prior to the game. Then, they would wear their team’s jersey during the game that usually just had an All-Star game patch on the sleeve. It was a sense of pride for the players to be out there representing their respective teams but now they have to go out there in mismatching uniforms looking like a men’s softball team.

For comparison, take a look at All-Star jerseys from recent years: