If Nike and Fanatics were hoping the disastrous press they have received for their new uniform rollout would begin to blow over Thursday, well, they were sadly mistaken. In fact, things got worse.
For as much as fans have complained about the lowered MLB logo and smaller name font on the back of jerseys, life will go on in regards to those two issues, even if the game will be much less aesthetically pleasing.
But as teams have had their photo days this week, it’s become clear to anyone with eyes that the Nike Vapor Premier uniforms have a flaw that may need to be addressed prior to the season beginning — the white pants are see-through.
And those are the PG-rated photos. As you can imagine, well, these pants don’t leave much to imagine. And there have already been multiple pictures of players wearing the new uniform pants that represent clear violations of their privacy.
Fortunately for the Phillies, none of the borderline explicit photos that have surfaced so far include their players. But the pants with the home red pinstripes are indeed see-through.
Not only are the pants see-through, but Stephen J. Nesbitt, Patrick Mooney and C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic reported Thursday that there is a shortage of the uniform pants, which has led to some players being forced to wear either old Nike pants or Majestic ones in Spring Training.
This is the second hint that Fanatics — who produces the uniforms with Nike’s licensing — is struggling to keep up with the demands of all 30 teams. Last weekend, Derrick Gold of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that “as teams shift to the new Nike-designed, Fanatics-manufactured jerseys, they are not certain if alternate jerseys will be available on time for the start of the season.”
Back in 2022, the Phillies didn’t have their cream alternates and powder blue throwbacks at the beginning of the season because of supply-chain issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s unclear how or why Fanatics doesn’t have enough resources devoted to making sure teams have enough pants and all of their current uniforms. After all, the Phillies are among the teams who have given in to the “4+1” rule, which seemingly was put in place to limit the amount of different uniforms Fanatics had to produce per team.
But maybe the pant shortage is a blessing in disguise. There’s five weeks until Opening Day, and one way or another, Fanatics is going to have to produce a ton of pants. Maybe they can produce ones that players don’t hate, and that don’t force a TV-17 rating to go up on the telecast before every inning begins.
