Everyone Has an Opinion on the New Blue Jays Uniforms

Image courtesy of CTV.ca

Even though the majority of folks would say the new Blue Jays logo and uniform is a universal success, not everyone is a fan of the brand new design. There’s always one in every group, isn’t there?

I’m sure by now you’ve seen the post criticizing the new primary Blue Jays logo. There are some fair points in this post, but then BlogTO went one step further and offered an alternate design.

Image courtesy of BlogTO

Admittedly, most of what I’ve said on the blog and Twitter this past week has extremely positive (borderlining on homerish), but that’s not to say the new logo isn’t without its faults.

I think most of the criticisms people have with the new logo are associated with the version wrapped in text and circled with the double lines. To be honest, I’m not too crazy about it either.

The combination of the regular font along with the split-letter font doesn’t look consistent, and the maple leaf stem not lining up with the baseball is a minor issue. But luckily, the primary logo being used on the cap and uniform is just the basic bird, sans the font wrap and baseball.

This proposed design change by Rob in the above image frankly looks too similar to the old logo, in my opinion. The thickness of all the lines is much more consistent than what the Blue Jays presented on Friday, but it’s just too close to the original for my liking.

Side by side, you can really see the differences between the old and new Blue Jays logo. They are all very subtle, and I’ve already had trouble convincing some people I know that these two aren’t exactly the same logo.

I don’t believe the Blue Jays are going to be using the font-wrapped logo with double lines very much anyway, so there isn’t really all that much to worry about. I’ll be the first to admit it isn’t perfect, but isn’t that what gives a team logo character?

It’s hard to appease every single fan, but if you’ve seen the polls on the National Post and Toronto Star’s website, nearly 8 out of 10 people love the new Blue Jays uniforms. I’d say that qualifies the new uniforms as a resounding success.

Now on to some more positive feedback, reactions from around the blogosphere on the brand new Blue Jays logos and uniforms:

The authoritative opinion on sports logos, none other than Chris Creamer of SportsLogos.net also has a few small qualms with the new set, but other than that he says the uniforms are a home run.

Of all the new uniforms unveiled by teams this past week (Miami, San Diego, Baltimore and Toronto), Uni Watch gives the Blue Jays top marks in what they say was the “perfect week in uniform unveilings”. It must’ve been the equivalent of a uniformed solar eclipse for them.

Rob Neyer of SB Nation is a fan of the new livery (livery?), but he said the previous installment of the Blue Jays uniforms were panned as the worst in baseball. Rob, be careful … you don’t want to make the angry bird any more upset than he already is. The poor angry bird just lost his job!

Infield Fly has fashion writer Emma Yardley weigh in on the new uniforms, and she definitely likes what she sees with the Blue Jays going back to their roots.

500 Level Fan knows what he wants for Christmas this year … a blue alternate Blue Jays jersey. I hope Santopoulos brings one to each and every good little boy and girl Blue Jays fan this year.