Originally published on www.detroitathletic.com/blog
By Sean Gagnier
Throwback fashions have become increasing popular in recent years, most notably the hideous snap-back hats from the 1990’s that looks terrible then and continue to do so now, but the throwback craze has also extended into the sports realm, and it’s about time it made its way to Detroit.
The Detroit Tigers have one of the most recognizable home uniforms in all of baseball, and one of the few that can never be changed, lest they incur the wrath of millions of Tigers fans. Both the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees are also included with the Tigers among those teams with classic home uniforms that can never be changed.
Notice the repeated use of the term, home.
The Yankees road uniform is the traditional gray with block navy lettering and white trim; it stands out against the gray and has been a staple for the Bronx Bombers for many years now. Until just a few years ago the Red Sox had sported a different look than usual on the road, their jerseys still had “Boston” spread across the chest in the traditional Red Sox font, but it was red and the sleeves were trimmed in red. It was a new look, but it wasn’t right.
Boston took a look at their uniforms and decided a storied franchise such as themselves needed to go back to a classic, throwback, look, something that fans could remember from their childhoods and something that others could build memories with.
Simple tweaks made the Red Sox road uniforms classic looking while being trendy. Boston changed the color of their word mark to black and removed the red trim on the sleeves. They also added a full color logo on the left sleeve that makes the uniform pop.
Detroit needs to take notice of the changes the Boston has made and make some of their own. Currently the Tigers are the only team in the entire league to have a color on their road uniform that does not appear on their home uniform; that being orange.
While the connection can be made, tigers are orange and so the color on the uniform makes sense that way, but why did they depart from the classic look of the 1968 jerseys? Those were gorgeous, they were a bit plain, but a move back to them would be similar to Boston changing their road uniforms.
The script Detroit logo, while nice, could use a change similar to that made in Boston. A change back to the simple block lettering of the ’68 jersey would be a throwback in one sense, but also a change for the better in another.
Much like the new Red Sox road jerseys, the ’68 Tigers uniforms are gray with simple black block letters. The one change that Detroit should make if they do go back to the ’68 look would be to add names to the back of the uniforms; the players are important and they deserve to have their names on their uniforms.
Instead of a color logo on the left sleeve the Tigers could go back and return the uniform number to the sleeve of each jersey, giving them a unique look that no other team in the league would have. In doing so, the Tigers could both update their lockers and return to a classic look while continuing to be unique.
What do you think? Do you like the current Tigers road uniform? Why do you like it or dislike it? If you don’t like them, what do you think Detroit should do to update their look? tell me in the comments below
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