The Cincinnati Reds unveiled their City Connect uniforms, meant to mark a new era in franchise history and celebrate the growth of the city in recent years.
The new look features an all-black look with red accents, subverting the classic white and red Cincinnati has sported throughout its history as one of baseball's oldest franchises. The Reds hope the new look and revamped C-logo marks a new era for the franchise's history featuring young faces of the club, like flame-throwing pitcher Hunter Greene and 2021 National League Rookie of the Year Jonathan India.
"We drew parallels between this city and this team," said Reds vice president Ralph Mitchell. "Cincinnati is an up-and-coming city. It was important to us to be able to represent the fan base and the organization in a unique and modern way."
Among the most notable changes is the revamped "C" logo. The Reds have featured the "C" wordmark dating back as far as 1913 featuring moderate updates to size and thickness. The Reds and Nike hoped to modernize the logo with wavelength lines. The width and height of the modernized design matches the current "C" logo marking, hoping to provide symmetry between uniforms.
"We wanted to make this about the future," Mitchell said. "This is the Reds' uniform for today, in today's city. It's not the sleepy Midwest."
Cincy is written across the chest in black with red and white outlines. Additionally, the uniform features a patch with the city's motto "Juncta Juvant," which is Latin for "Strength in Unity," and includes a buckeye leaf as a reference to the state of Ohio.
The Reds will debut the uniforms against the New York Yankees on May 19 and will wear them every Friday.