The Giants have revealed their updated City Connect uniform that has a direct connection to Bay Area music.
The San Francisco Giants have formally unveiled their new City Connects and it’s an extremely loud and incredibly musical departure from the previous look.
San Francisco Giants social media (X/Twitter)
From a strict marketing standpoint, I think it’s a little rough seeing the word GRADIENT twice in a single graphic. Unless… are the kids into gradients now? Somebody DM the Menswear Guy and let me know.
Maria Guardado relayed the team’s intentions behind the look in a post on sfgiants.com this morning:
The City Connect jerseys also include a glove patch on the sleeve, which is inspired by warped 1960s gig posters and “embodies San Francisco’s movement, creativity and rebellious spirit.” The Giants’ chest script is similarly influenced by psychedelic posters and is meant to flow like the rhythm and energy of the city.
Okay, here’s where I admit that one of my greatest flaws (a list that runs, I don’t know, 40,000 qualities deep) is dreadful taste in music. A near-total lack of interest in music history. Genetically incapable of musical intention or talent. I lived in a Top 40 household growing up and I mainly use music as background sound to write — so I don’t usually think about music with lyrics.
So I’ve never really felt as connected to the Bay Area music scene as these City Connects suggest I ought to be. I certainly know about Bay Area hip hop, which is partially reflected here, but efforts to harken back to the 1960s and “Summer of Love” energy, to me, dredges up thoughts of the Grateful Dead and other LSD bands that I’ve totally missed. The Summer of Love was 58 years ago! I don’t recognize the psychedelic music scene. Where’s Tupac? Where’s E-40? Mac Dre? MC Hammer? The Giants booted the A’s out of Oakland — coopt that music scene! Besides, this look is giving The 1990s more than anything else.
At the end of the day, I think these are… fine. They’re not on the same level as the Padres’ dynamic look, but they’re not bad. Far from it. So, let’s take a gander as the team panders to… people who’ve never forgotten the Summer of Love or San Francisco’s connection to countercultural music?
First things first: some people might have the idea that the darker colors and purple/orange streaks make anyone wearing this look cool automatically. That is simply not the case.
“How do you do, fellow kids?”
“Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins.”
“Matt Chapman, smiling politely.”
Maybe it’s the smiles. Smiles don’t scream countercultural or hip SF music scene.
No, the smiles aren’t the problem. In fact, let’s take a minute to appreciate these guys’ smiles — a photogenic lot. Good work, everybody. But the Webb shot makes the vague weirdness more concrete. There’s something uncanny about these. They’re like a memory of a hip look. Almost like an adult flipping their cap backwards and turning a chair around.
Or, like a well-funded softball team.
“I have an idea.”
Hmm, okay, Jung Hoo Lee knows how to wear clothes. The simple addition of a durag under his cap makes the City Connect drippy. It doesn’t look more musical, but he makes it look cooler.
“Hey man, you wanna get high?”
Okay! This is what I’m talking about! The white pants are killing the look and here’s Ramos with the workaround. Those aren’t high socks so much as long shorts, right?
No, those are definitely high socks.
Now this is a look. I don’t know what’s going on here, exactly, but I must have them. Then there are the hats, which look like something you’d see from a Division II college:
I’m not sure I need all that purple mixed in.
The purple is meant to evoke the Fillmore’s stage lights and Haight-Ashbury’s posters, though it also pays tribute to the franchise’s New York origins, as the Giants briefly wore violet from 1913-17 as a nod to New York University.
Sure, whatever. I’m not sure just how much that color connects it with The City of San Francisco. Only 50%, according to the description. When I think of San Francisco, I think of grays, blues, forest greens, whatever color we’re calling the Golden Gate Bridge these days, orange because of the Giants and red because of the 49ers (RIP). Purple is a choice!
The jersey photographs well, but the pants detract. Still, there’s not one thing you could point to and say that’s why it does or doesn’t work. It feels like a minor league jersey or, like, a WWE tag team group whose gimmick is that they’re professional baseball players. I suspect that seeing these in game action will quickly cement opinion either way.
To that point: when you look at these, what do you think? How do you feel? What songs do you hear? And what memories from the Summer of Love do the new City Connects evoke?