For the DodgerCity Connect 1.0 was a mess.
The Dodgers exchanged their “Los Dodgers” caps for more traditional ones and then discarded the all blue look in favor of a blue shirt and white pants. The splashes meant to evoke street art were practically invisible, with black on dark blue.
The “Los Dodgers” script on the jersey was supposed to be “Los Doyers” — a phrase the franchise trademarked — but staying true to the brand meant an unfortunate and unsatisfactory deal in Spanish.
“We were very sensitive to the fact that we didn’t really rock it,” said Allister Annear, the Dodgers’ vice president of merchandise.
City Connect 2.0 is here. It succeeds where the previous version failed, due to a well-intentioned but nevertheless fatal flaw.
A City Connect uniform should be a raucous, radical celebration. It is not possible to balance this with an unwavering respect for tradition. It’s one or the other, or it’s a confusing middle ground that satisfies no one. The New York Yankees, who do not include player names on their jerseys, did not participate in the City Connect program.
You might gasp at the sight of the Dodgers’ new City Connect uniform, decorated with dots of various colors, lines flying upwards all over the place, no writing on the front of the jersey, a player’s name below two-tone numbers on the back . But that’s the point: Does the world need another unimaginative alternate jersey?
There’s a story behind every City Connect outfit. To their credit, the Dodgers had no interest in connecting their team to Hollywood — as the world sees Los Angeles — by spelling out “Dodgers” or players’ names in Hollywood sign style.
“That was the first thing we all said we wanted to avoid,” Annear said. “That was shot down by everyone and their mothers.” (Including the Dodgers, who sell a Shohei Ohtani T-Shirt in Hollywood sign style.)
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The Dodgers and Nike championed the “moonshot” idea. That wouldn’t work, because it had a link with tradition: the “Photos of the moon” hit by slugger Wally Moon over the left field screen when the Dodgers played at the Coliseum.
Concepts floated to “take the photo” and “shooting stars,” and the design began to take shape.
On the front of the shirt, an ascending line through the name “Los Angeles” represents a shooting star. What appears to be confetti – or funfetti – spread across the jersey represents stars, in the colors of Dodger Stadium’s distinctive seating palette.
“The idea,” said Annear, “is to be a galaxy of stars.”
There’s an “ITFDB” tag, a reference to Vin Scully’s call of “It’s time for Dodger baseball,” and there are two other shooting stars: one flying out of the A in an interlocking “LA” sleeve logo, and an ascending one. of a cap logo that is a mix of a traditional intertwined “LA” and a “D” script. The not-quite-cream color of the shirt and pants, Annear said, was inspired by the surface of the moon.
In one sense, the “Galaxy of Stars” slogan is self-evident: With Mookie Betts, Ohtani and Freddie Freeman, the Dodgers lead their lineup with three Most Valuable Player Award winners. But it’s about representing the city, not just the Dodger Stadium crowd.
“You come to L.A. to hit your shot,” Annear said, “whether it’s Ohtani coming to L.A. this year, which is a big deal in all of baseball, or you’re coming to L.A. to be an actor in TV, film or music star.
“It’s a place where we feel like there’s an open mind, so we wanted to reflect that. If you are a baseball player, your dream is baseball. If you’re an engineer, maybe it’s SpaceX, going to the Moon or developing some new aircraft.”
This is where the connection between the team and the city is made, beyond the eternal saying of LA as a place where dreamers reinvent themselves and aim for the stars.
“Hollywood is just one component of how we view Los Angeles,” Annear said. “It is not O thing.”
Shooting stars indeed: Los Angeles County has a vibrant and vital history in the aviation and aerospace industries, from Lockheed and McDonnell Douglas to SpaceX and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. These industries – and the homes needed for their workers – drove the development of the San Fernando Valley.
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In 1910 – just seven years after the Wright brothers and their first flight – Los Angeles welcomed America’s First International Air Show. In 1947, Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier north of Los Angeles County at Edwards Air Force Base, where the space shuttles landed from 1981 to 2009.
GPS technology flourished from defense research in El Segundo; the internet evolved from defense research at UCLA.
Truth be told, the most glamorous way to mix the Dodgers, Hollywood and space dreamers would have been to outfit the team with the sequin uniform Elton “Rocket Man” John wore it at his legendary show at Dodger Stadium in 1975. Maybe it’s not practical. Sigh.
These City Connects are also practical and fun, with a little history for us locals. Like Elton John himself, they rock.
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This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.
