New threads all around

It’s a warehouse day. As you read this our creators, crew, and commentators will be just moments from filming the latest tournament in the JM warehouse. We’ve got something very special cooked up for this one, but you’re not getting spoilers from The Show Notes. In the meantime check out the YouTube channel to get hyped up..

Scroll for a new Tigers jersey, maybe a new official Tigers shirt from Slash Line, and Joey Bats gets into it with Adam Jones.

Don’t be shy about mashing that reply button.

— Team TSN

Yesterday the Tigers dropped a brand new alternate jersey set, bringing orange and navy to the forefront, after nearly two years

Orange you glad they did: The new home alternate is a bright orange, and the road navy features orange script. While today orange is more closely associated with teams like the Astros, Orioles, Giants, and Mets, it’s been a part of the Tigers’ identity since the early 20th century. (In our research the first pro baseball team to use orange was the 1890s Cleveland Spiders, but reach out if you’ve heard different.) With the new alternate the Tigers are jumping from austere white and navy and leaning all the way into orange.

Nods to 1984: The 1984 team—wire-to-wire World Series champs led by stars like Alan Trammel, Sweet Lou Whitaker, and Kirk Gibson—looms large in Detroit history, and this jersey pays homage by bringing back the triple stripe on the sleeves and neck as well as a Tigers logo sleeve patch modeled on the 1984 version.

Just one team left: Before yesterday there were just two teams without an official alternate jersey: the Tigers and the Yankees. The Tigers dropped their Motor City City Connect jersey two years ago, but the Yankees don’t have a City Connect jersey, either. Their most notable jersey update in the past decade has been a slight change to the lettering on their road jersey, which actually undid a change they made in 1973. They like things the way they are.

If it seems like things have been quiet over in our merch store, it’s not because we’ve been slacking. Quite the contrary, we’ve been hard at work on the biggest level-up since we started selling merch: official MLB-licensed designs.

Going official: As you might have heard, last spring we entered a strategic partnership with MLB, which marked an major validation of the baseball-loving community we’ve been building for years and years. This has unlocked so much for us, from a new level of access to MLB players and events to the keys to the MLB footage vault (where Jimmy has been having a blast doing Breakdowns of moments from prior decades). And there is so much more to come.

The merch unlock: Our merch operation has been growing at an impressive rate, with our top-flight team of designers cranking out new shirts the second something happens in baseball or when a player breaks out, from Big Dumper to Cam Schlittler. But to this point, without an MLB license, we’ve had to design around the missing team logos. No more.

Joining the big boys: We’re joining some elite company in making MLB apparel. Companies—New Era, Fanatics, Homage, ‘47, Mitchell & Ness, and more—that we admire and whose products you’ll find proudly worn in our office every day. We’re committed to bringing something new to licensed apparel, and we’ll do it the JM way. Stay locked on our merch store, Slash Line, for the first release very soon.