It’s a new era (no pun intended) in the MLB. Majestic’s deal with the majors is up as of the end of the 2019 season, which means Nike is now the MLB’s official uniform provider.
While Nike will maintain Majestic’s flex base jersey, first introduced in 2016, they will now feature the swoosh on the front right chest rather than the left sleeve. Nike plans to introduce their own uniform template to the MLB in time for the 2022 season.
The Cincinnati Reds have been the first team so far to fully embrace the change. They unveiled new alternate uniforms via twitter that feature the Nike logo prominently on the front.
Authentic 2020 red alternate jerseys are available now in the Reds Team Shop at GABP! #RedsThreads pic.twitter.com/pAFQJAGudo
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) November 1, 2019
The reaction was mixed, with some fans claiming that the swoosh is too close to the lettering on the jersey, making it look like an accent. Others didn’t see the logo placement as that big of a deal, and reacted accordingly.
Get that God-Damn nike logo off of the front. This isnt NASCAR
— LTFrankDrebin (@LTFrankDrebin3) November 1, 2019
https://twitter.com/kylenyy/status/1190606850741456898?s=21
No problem with a makers mark, just is placed terribly
— Andrew (@DarkRoseWRLD) November 2, 2019
I think it would be cool if it said Cincinnati like how the away jersey are
— The Real Benjamin Smith (@benjsmith1989) November 3, 2019
Images were also leaked by Uni Watch back in June of the Yankees uniforms, which are obviously unchanged except for the Nike logo. This came as a surprise to some fans, as the Yankees were the only team to not have the Majestic logo on their sleeve, successfully arguing that their uniforms were too iconic to have a sponsorship logo on them.
Nike and the MLB first announced their deal in January, a year after negotiations with Under Armour fell through.
