Throughout the spring, the new Major League Baseball uniforms have received a lot of criticism from fans due to concerns about the quality, the fit, and the see-through nature of the pants. And in a pretty horrible twist for Nike, it sounds like MLB is placing all of the blame on them.
In a memo sent to the MLB Players Association that has been obtained by Jeff Passan of ESPN, Major League Baseball singled out Nike for causing the issue with the uniforms.
“This has been entirely a Nike issue,” the memo to players read according to ESPN. “At its core, what has happened here is that Nike was innovating something that didn’t need to be innovated.”
According to the memo, Major League Baseball even cautioned Nike against making several of the changes to the uniforms, but Nike seemingly ignored these concerns and did it anyway.
“We cautioned Nike against various changes when they previewed them in 2022, particularly regarding pants,” the union 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.'”
All in all, this is pretty horrible news about Nike, and it led to a lot of reactions on social media.
Never absolve Nike for trying to cheap out on the aesthetics of the sport and also sell it to you for $400 https://t.co/PshYcRId30
— NBCs The Slap (@NBCsTheSlap) April 28, 2024
Fanatics getting absolved, and in fact credited for limiting Nike's damage by failing to deliver uniforms as obligated https://t.co/MwzInSxpv6
— Crank Mountain (@cdgoldstein) April 28, 2024
"innovating something that doesn't need to be innovated" is unorinically the definition of innovation in the 2020s https://t.co/CJr71UKriI
— Loaf Management (@demeatloaf) April 29, 2024
“Innovating something that didn’t need to be innovated.” Says anyone who’s ever worked in corporate America ever. https://t.co/zYJTupVoDf
— Casey (@caseybnew) April 29, 2024
Baseball finally throws Nike under the bus. https://t.co/unCMCiYGPJ
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) April 29, 2024
What they need to do is revert back to 2023 Nike jerseys, not altering or "fixing" the 2024 jerseys. It's a start, but what is listed here will not fix the off-white appearance of Dodgers home uniforms using recycled material nor the absolutely hideous perforations. https://t.co/5g93olT4d0
— James¹⁷¹⁸🎌 (@ShotimeLAD) April 29, 2024
It isn’t great news for Nike, but it sounds like everything is going to be fixed.
[ESPN]
