Uniform (noun): dress of a distinctive design or fashion worn by members of a particular group and serving as a means of identification.
Uniforms are what makes a team, a team. They can give a team swagger, grit, and their overall identity. The Chicago White Sox and their uniforms have always represented those words perfectly. The 1917 White Sox switched to a patriotic look for that year’s Fall Classic to pay homage to the United States of America’s involvement in World War I, and went on to take home the championship. The 1970’s brought us the baby blue era that took over the MLB, and the Sox joined in, along with plenty of other teams that wanted to make the change. The 70’s also gave us the experimental “Shorts” from Bill Veeck. Also, how can we not mention the “Winning Ugly” 1983 uniforms, a staple with the White Sox and their fans. Fast forward to September 30, 1990 where the final game at Comiskey Park gifted us with our first glimpse of what uniforms the team would be wearing for the next 30 years. Black and white pinstripes, topped with the iconic black and white “Sox” cap, that has been sported by celebrities, athletes, and fans, across three decades now. We now come to the year 2020, a special time to be a White Sox fan.
The Majestic days are over and a new uniform provider with arguably the most culture impacting company of all time is taking over: Nike. In greek mythology, Nike is the greek goddess of victory, and it shows with the athletes sponsored by the brand. The list includes Michael Jordan, Derek Jeter, Lebron James, and Tiger Woods to name just a few. All of these are truly remarkable athletes that have changed the world in all sorts of ways forever. What Nike has done for athletes and teams the last fifty plus years is mindblowing.
The NBA uniforms designed by Nike in just the last three years have given us some of the greatest uniforms of all time. During the first year of the deal, they broke it down to four different sets for each team, and since then, have modified or added another jersey to select teams. Nike has a unique opportunity to make their mark with a team known for their classic uniforms. The company also has a chance to completely rebrand this team. Years and years of mediocrity and depressing seasons, the company can reshape the national media of what the White Sox really are. With a young and dangerous team itching for the playoffs, this could really benefit the White Sox. Nike creates winners and competitors, sounds pretty familiar right? This rebuild was based off of building a winning ball club that competes every game, inning, and pitch.
Before we continue to the actual concepts, The whole point of this article is to show conceptual graphics of what I believe (and hope) the company will do with our precious uniforms.
Now, let’s break down the categories for each uniform. I created five different uniforms, all based off of the various names given to the NBA jerseys.
- The Association Edition – Pays homage to the league, a collection of the most exclusive baseball clubs in the world.
- The Icon Edition – Represents the rich heritage and iconic identity of each MLB franchise.
- The Classic Edition – Serves as a celebration of some of the most memorable jerseys in MLB history.
- The City Edition – Represents the history, culture, and identity of the city that the team plays for.
- The Community Edition – Inspired by the community, inspired by the fans, inspired by the people who never miss a game.
Lastly, I’ll preface this part of the article with the changes I’ve made to all jerseys so that I don’t get repetitive. I’ve changed the font on all jerseys to a more varsity type font. And of course added a nike logo on the right chest to all jerseys.
The Association Edition
Classic pinstripes. There’s no way you can take this jersey away from the White Sox. Once it was created, we will never go back. Only a few minor changes to this jersey could freshen things up a bit.
Changes:
- Two sleek sleeve stripes – Adding a subtle 2 or 3 inch stripe of black, followed by an inch of White Sox grey could do a lot, by not doing a lot.
- Patches – Adding the diamond sock logo to the right sleeve to fill the jersey up a bit more. Then to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the 2005 World Series Champions, add the ’05 World Series patch. Because, #2005Forever.
The Icon Edition
This is the uniform that is commonly used for road or away games, as well as a home alternative (pictured above). I would like to personally shout out fellow Sox On 35th contributor and tailgate legend, Jonnie Nonnie for our love of the road grey uniforms. But buddy, the time has come for a change. Sadly, I think we should ditch them. I’m no Christopher Kamka, but based on #BsonMetrics, the Sox have won more games in the alternate black jerseys.
Changes : This uniform is basically unchanged because it is so perfect.
- I made a slight change to the sleeve stripes to keep all the uniform sleeves the same, making the white strip slightly bigger than the grey stripe.
- The lettering and numbers were slightly modified to go back in time to when these uniforms were first introduced in 1997.
- Instead of having a black and grey outline on numbers and letters, I eliminated the black. Solid white numbers and letters with a grey outline.
Overall, these uniforms represent the rich heritage of the “Good Guys Wear Black” campaign, and keep our identity of being a gritty, hard-nosed ballclub.
The Classic Edition
This is going to be a really hot take on my part, but it’s time to change what we wear on Sundays. Don’t get me wrong, I love the 83’s. Absolutely love them, and wouldn’t even be mad if we didn’t get a change. But I think we should give the 1990’s, final year at Comiskey uniforms a chance. Inspired by the 1940’s style logo, mixed with the 1983 color scheme, it’s a perfect blend of historic and iconic, giving us memories of a young Frank Thomas.
Changes :
- Keeping the sleeve stripe philosophy, with navy blue and red.
- Added the commemorative Comiskey Park patch.
- Used a vintage 90’s Nike swoosh instead of the traditional swoosh.
- American League patch to pay homage to the league.
The City Edition
The city of Chicago is one of the greatest cities on the damn planet. There’s a rich history, culture, and attitude. Every franchise in the city knows how special it is to play for a team with “Chicago” in the name. These were inspired from the Chicago Bulls 2017 City uniforms.
Changes: These are just concepts, not an official jersey.
- Chicago flag color scheme
- Kept the black and white cap for a contrast from the blue, white, and red.
- Chicago flag patch on the right sleeve
- 312 area code patch on the left sleeve
- Chicago flag star number patch on the lower left side
- Chicago flag design in the side of the pants.
The Community Edition
Last but certainly not least, we have jerseys to represent the community surrounding the White Sox. This uniform is based off of the hardworking, blue collar mentality of Sox fans. This is for the people in Bridgeport, and anyone who calls 35th and Shields home.
Changes : Also not an official jersey, just a concept of what I would like to see.
- We saw a resurgence of the cursive “White Sox” logo during the 2019 season so I used it as the main logo on the jersey.
- No pinstriped pants, just one solid black stripe to go for a clean and simple look.
- Batterman logo on the right sleeve
- Modified the jersey logo to recreate the current “Sox” cap logo.
- White bill on the hat for more contrast.
- Simple grey piping from the collar to the waist.
We’re reaching the end of this article, and this is where I would like to express my only concern with Nike taking over. Jersey prices will most likely go up due to the name of the brand alone, which sucks because I want a Nike Luis Robert jersey.
The 2020 season is going to be here before we know it, and I’m beyond excited to see this team play no matter what our uniforms look like. The White Sox will be playing with a swoosh on their jersey, which is very special. Again, winners and competitors wear the swoosh. I’ll close with my message to the 2020 Chicago White Sox and whoever is on the team. Just Do It.
Personally, I think the Sox need to embrace their roots, their DEEP roots. There are many reasons why teams like the Dodgers, Yankees, Cubs, Giants, Red Sox, etc are insanely popular, one reason is cause they embody baseball from it’s antiquity. Other than the Cubs the other teams have rarely if ever changed their uniforms. The Cubs still have Wrigley Field in a yuppie neighborhood otherwise they’d be just another team. Those “old timey” teams are unique because they have changed little when the rest have changed so much. The Sox are a charter member of the AL and in fact without them or Comiskey, there wouldn’t even be an AL. We need to let teams know how deep we go and who was the original “boss”. Heck, the Giants and Sox did a world tour together in 1913.
I think the Sox should remove last names from their jerseys and have just the numbers on both road and home Jersey’s. They should also wear some form of WHITE SOCKS with some black trim (such as stirrups or black horizontal lines at the top of the sock) like they did in 1959. And if I dare go all out, the Sox logo should go back to the big S with o and x between the loops of the S. But I’m ok with their current gothic logo.
I would love to see the original SOX logo for the weekend uniforms.
Some good things about all of these but what about road uniforms? I would really like to see a return to the powder blue as the base color for road games instead of grey ala 1971. Also maybe occasional use of the 1917 logo for Sunday games, would be nice.
Let’s go back to the 1917 logo! Ditch the silver, and bring back the winged sock! And please, please wear WHITE SOCKS!!
This guy has the right idea for a bunch of different styles (but check out his 1917-inspired duds):
https://clumsytuba.wordpress.com/2015/04/22/white-sox-uniform-concept-updates/
you have got to have actual WHITE SOX
Agree – let’s go with the 1972 uniforms. Imagine Jose in one of the red stripe unis like Dick Allen. Also would like to see the 1959 jerseys used.
Great work, graphic design is hard and you made it look easy.
City edition….. don’t want to look like the Cubs, and this one does! Yuk
No love for the early 50s winged sock? Maybe the one with the gold wing and gold ‘Chicago’ script as accents with the black and white…could be sweet for the weekend.
Every. Single. Concept. is missing one very important item: WHITE SOCKS. Fix that and I’ll pay attention to the rest of the uniforms.
So, NONE of these concepts include, you know, WHITE socks? Not that you would be able to see them anyway, as nearly all players go for the pajama-pants look.
Do NOT like the Classic Edition. Way too much Northside team look in those Uni’s!
Sorry
I personally think the black on black and white on white uniforms from this year’s players’ weekend would be cool White Sox uniforms
White socks. For starters.
Your three other uniforms dilute the brand. Wear a throwback uniform for an anniversary year, but otherwise stick to pinstripes, the Old English SOX, and black, white, and silver.
Outside of the Association and Icon editions, I’m not a fan of these uniforms. The Sox should deep six the 1983 uniforms and bring back the 1972 edition instead for Sundays. Also the 1917 uniforms should be brought back as an alternate.
I like the association, the Icon, and the classic edition. The City addition would look good with a hat with a red bill, light blue body, Chicago flag on the side and the white sox batsman icon with a blue inside and red trim (see bulls hat version). The pants with the stars, personally I would make it an Astros type stripe down the leg with the Chicago colors that blend with the red, white, and blue and put the four stars across the top of the shirt like the sox logo of the 83 season. Other than that they all look cool. Also, I personally would love to see a play on the actual sock designs. They are after all called the white sox. The socks would look cool if they came in different options depending on the uniform colors that would add some options with one or two white stripes or one white strip horizontally in black, white, and Navy blue versions with alternating white, blue, or black stripes (see white tube socks with two stripes for ex.) Also, I hope to see at least one throw back day where the field of dreams uniform in a modern version came in black piping or dark navy piping options. Hell bring back a six panel hat for fun too.
Association and Icon look great! Not a fan of the others. The small tweaks in Icon and Association make the uniforms look great. Chicago edition looks like the minor league hot dog team. Also 83 should stay.
I like th uniforms for the 2020 season.
I like the pinstripes or the solid black jerseys. “Good Guys Wear Black.”
Sorry, but despite your hard work, I dislike all but the Association and Icon styles. Too many logos!!! Too many colors!!! Sometimes, simple is better. I like the point of the others who cite the Dodgers and Yankees, who have found their groove and stayed true. White pinstripes top and bottom for home, gray tops with black pants and also black tops with gray pants for road games. As for patches and logos, the Nike logo will be a given, but please don’t have enough patches to make it look like NASCAR. Black, white and silver is our identity.