Nike is the sole reason for the MLB’s infamous uniforms — at least that’s what the league’s players are saying.
An internal memo sent by the Major League Player’s Association that was first reported by ESPN put the blame on Nike for the poor designs that included designs that exposed player’s body parts below the belt and grey jerseys that had poor sweat exposure.
“This has been entirely a Nike issue,” the memo read. “At its core, what has happened here is that Nike was innovating something that didn’t need to be innovated.’
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The MLB Player’s Association also added that they originally warned Nike about making any changes, but the company still went ahead with it.
“We cautioned Nike against various changes when they previewed them in 2022, particularly regarding pants,” the memo read. “MLB had been, and has been, aware of our concerns as well. Unfortunately, until recently Nike’s position has essentially boiled down to — ‘nothing to see here, Players will need to adjust.'”
ESPN also reported that Nike would be making changes to its jersey design for 2025, which would include larger lettering on the back of jerseys, fixing the sweat issues, and the pants to fix the see-through issue.
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The report also absolves Fanatics of blame. When the uniform issues first came to light prior to the start of the MLB season, Fanatics received a ton of flack from social media. The company has been criticized in the past for poor quality or manufacturing mistakes, so the public was quick to point a finger at Fanatics for this issue.
But for this issue, Fanatics simply took the designs from Nike and made the products. This sentiment was also mentioned by MLB in a statement to The Athletic earlier this month.
“Fanatics has done a great job manufacturing everything to the exact specifications provided by Nike,” the MLB spokesperson said.
Nike took over as the official supplier for the MLB jerseys in 2019 in a deal worth $1 billion over 10 years.
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