Presenting ‘Los Dodgers,’ dressed in blue from head to toe
With nods to a heavily Latino fan base and to the murals that grace the streets of Los Angeles, the Dodgers will take the field this weekend with “Los Dodgers” across their chests.
The Dodgers will be dressed almost entirely in blue: blue pants, blue jerseys and blue caps, with “Los Dodgers” in place of the interlocking LA logo on the caps.
The combination of blue jerseys and blue pants is a first in the 138-year history of the franchise, the team said.
The jerseys include a splash at the end of each sleeve, intended to represent the spray paint used for street art.
The Dodgers said they would debut the new look Friday and Saturday, when they host the New York Mets. The Dodgers also said they had commissioned six local artists to “bring the city’s street art culture to Dodger Stadium,” with murals to be unveiled Thursday on the loge terraces in left field and right field.
The uniforms are part of the Nike “City Connect” initiative, designed to reflect a team’s link to its home city. The San Francisco Giants featured the Golden Gate Bridge and the city’s famous fog on their City Connect uniforms; the Boston Red Sox dressed in blue and yellow in honor of the Boston Marathon.
“The Dodgers sought to celebrate their culture of baseball, which is heavily connected and influenced by Los Angeles’ Latino community,” Nike senior creative director Wil Green said.
In a design process that lasted nearly a year, Green said the Dodgers and Nike considered “a dozen or more ways” to incorporate Latino influence into the uniforms, beyond adding the word “Los” in front of “Dodgers.”
Latino fans commonly refer to the team as “Los Doyers” and have created unlicensed merchandise featuring the phrase. The Dodgers hold the trademark to “Los Doyers,” according to U.S. Trademark and Patent Office records. Nike officials declined to say why “Los Doyers” was not used on the “City Connect” jersey.
Green said murals around town that celebrate the Dodgers “feature styles borne of the city and its Latino fans.”
Said Green: “Street art is a prominent element of Los Angeles, and it’s a powerful storytelling medium for the community. The Dodgers elevated this medium in the jersey design.
“Street art has been a part of Los Angeles for many years, and the city has become a U.S. mural destination. The emergence of street art led to decades of tension between the city, outdoor advertising agencies and street artists. Once banned by the city, the art form reemerged and L.A. street artists once again returned to public spaces for expression.”
Nike said the Dodgers and other teams would “keep and wear their City Connect design for several seasons.”
L.A. County’s new mask order would also affect the Rose Bowl, L.A. Coliseum and other venues, and reflects the higher COVID risk of the Delta variant.
Are you a true-blue fan?
Get our Dodgers Dugout newsletter for insights, news and much more.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
