19-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Love or hate the Astros' newest City Connect uniforms? Our panel weighs in
On Wednesday, The Houston Astros revealed the latest edition of uniforms in the somewhat-maligned City Connect collaboration between Nike and Major League Baseball. The Bat Signal of a new uniform has been projected into the sky, and so The Athletic's Sartorial Superfriends once again convene at the virtual Hall of Justice to render their judgment.
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It can be hard to get baseball writers to agree on much, but in this case, they did. These uniforms are good.
Going against what has been common practice around the internet for the last 30 years or so, you will find only praise and consensus from our Mr. Blackwellian roundtable — made up of Stephen J. Nesbitt, C. Trent Rosecrans, Tyler Kepner and Jason Jones — which just last year picked the Colorado Rockies' City Connect as the best of the bunch.
C. Trent Rosecrans: I went from thinking these weren't too bad, to thinking maybe they're good, to talking myself into these being the best of the cursed bunch. Could these perhaps start a trend of good City Connects? Am I giving Nike and MLB too much credit based on one example of a job well done? Maybe. Heck, I even saw a new Dodgers City Connect cap in the wild the other day and thought it looked good. Maybe in my old age, I'm turning into an optimist? Get on my lawn?
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Back to the topic at hand, these could low-key be a great regular design, not just a City Connect. This design has elements of former Astros uniforms — the clean simplicity of their original 1960s uniforms, the color and spirit of the '70s and '80s classics, the look and feel of the '90s uniforms that were a product of their time — without beating you over the head.
Too often nostalgia is used like a blunt instrument — see Atlanta's attempt at the City Connect — but here it's used well.
Stephen Nesbitt: I was way higher on the Astros' 'Space City' City Connect unis than the rest of this panel, but even I had to admit then: 'The dark blue background steals from all that goodness. If Nike reprints this as a white jersey, it would soar up these rankings.'
Well, well, what have we here! A smashing white jersey. The futuristic logo makes the cap a great standalone item, and it pairs well with the dark blue and orange uniform accents.
I liked the old City Connect set. I love the new one. It's exactly what you want from an alternate jersey.
Tyler Kepner: The first of the 2025 City Connects is easily the best version yet. A sure way to win me over is to modernize a look from the past, and the Astros do it twice with this sleek outfit, blending their shooting-star uniform of the 1960s with the open-sided star of the 1990s. (As a bonus, the star features orange gradients, a nice callback to the 'Tequila Sunrise' uniforms of the 1980s.)
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The cap logo is a sharp update on an unused prototype. The space-age font works. The stripes, the sleeve patch, the HTX on the belt — I love it all.
And the best part? Even Nike, it seems, is finally tiring of its dark-jersey-over-dark-pants style, which always looks wrong on a baseball field.
Jason Jones: The 2025 version of the Astros' City Connect uniform is a win from head to toe. At first glance, the cap reminds me of the Arizona Diamondbacks' A, but it's still a good look. It's even better when you see the jersey goes with 'Stros' instead of Astros. If you're looking for the 'A,' go to the cap. The HTX detail on the belt loop is unique and the socks are a winner. A much-needed upgrade for the 'Space City' jerseys. The color scheme is the right mix of nostalgia and a modern look, too.
(Photos of Jeremy Peña, Jose Altuve, and uniform details courtesy of the Houston Astros)
