The uniforms won’t be too much different from their regular look but the details are where it’s at.
We’re not too far away from Major League Baseball’s latest attempt to play a regular season baseball game in a non-traditional venue for MLB: The inaugural MLB Speedway Classic at Bristol Motor Speedway on August 3. The Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds are set to converge at the short track for a regular season game and because Nike is involved, there will be special uniforms for the big event.
The good news is that the uniforms themselves won’t be a major deviation from what the Braves usually wear. If you’re a cynic, it would’ve been easy to assume that Nike would’ve done something wacky like design uniforms that would look more like racing coveralls than actual baseball uniforms. Fortunately, the designers have decided to use the two teams’ usual uniforms as a base — the Reds will be wearing a slightly modified version of their home whites while the Braves will be wearing a slightly altered version of their navy blue road alternates.
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First of all, the hats are navy with a navy brim and red flames coming from the outside edge of the brim. It honestly reminds me of when Jeff Gordon’s paint schemes went from the “Rainbow Warrior” look to the flames look, so that’s definitely an interesting choice to make. Comparatively, the Reds will be wearing a red hat with a black brim that has a checkered flag pattern on it, so the design inspiration is pretty clear.
Unfortunately, they didn’t add the flames to the helmets — in my opinion, a decal could’ve done the trick but that’s neither here or there. The helmets definitely give off racing helmet vibes based on the look of them. Here’s Austin Riley showing off the helmet:
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The large numbers on the helmets are definitely unique, as are the numbers that will be on the back of the jersey as well. If you’ve ever watched NASCAR then you know that the numbers on the sides and roof of the car are extremely big, bright and bold. That’s the case for the numbers on the back of the jerseys. Just take a look at ‘em:
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The only real complaint I personally have is that they didn’t use this as an opportunity to put the stripes back on the belt loops of the road uniforms. If you’re a uniform nerd like I am, then you’ve noticed that the belt loop stripes that is unique and bespoke to the Atlanta Braves uniform has been missing from the road uniforms for both this season and this past season as well. Unfortunately, the piping is still missing so if you were like me and looking for that to return, you’re going to continue to be disappointed. If you don’t care, that’s totally understandable — I’m talking to fellow sickos here.
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As far as the rest of the uniform goes, it’s fine for a one-off game like the Speedway Classic. I’m just glad that they didn’t go with anything extremely crazy with the uniforms for either team. However, they did make enough changes to where it’ll make it feel like a special event that’s relevant to what usually goes on at Bristol Motor Speedway during race weeks.
What do y’all think? Are any of y’all going to the game and if so, will you pick up a jersey or a hat based on what you’ve seen? Let us know!