After Major League Baseball and Nike announced their partnership to provide on-field uniforms in 2020, the relationship would help guide one of the most historic visual connections in sports: the bond between baseball club identities and their fans. Balancing that sanctity and ingenuity in a club’s identity through creative partnership is what energizes the 2021 Nike MLB City Connect Series. The designs continue to explore a franchise’s connection to its city and its fanbase, each with distinct personalities, values, customs and traditions.
Developed in collaboration with seven inaugural clubs (Arizona Diamondbacks, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, Miami Marlins, San Francisco Giants), Nike MLB City Connect Series honors the history that binds club, fan, city and culture. In later seasons, the City Connect Series will appear league-wide.
“Nike is uniquely suited for our relationship with MLB because we like pushing the edges of creativity across the board, but it’s always done out of a place of supporting the players and advancing the sport,” says Sonja Henning, Nike VP, North America League Partnerships. “We take that same attentive energy in hearing insight from athletes and apply that to visualizing new and familiar relationships between clubs, cities and fans.”
