The Astros unveiled their Nike City Connect uniforms on Sunday and it's full of details linking the team with the city's rich space travel history from the "Space City" across the chest to the words stitched inside the collar of the jerseys.
The all-navy uniforms will be worn for the first time April 20 against the Angels at Minute Maid Park, then for every Monday home game after that. Major League Baseball and Nike started the City Connect program last season to celebrate the bond between its teams and their city. Seven teams received City Connect uniforms last season with the Chicago White Sox's "Southside" duds being by far the most popular. Seven more teams - including the Astros, Nationals, Royals, Rockies, Angels, Brewers and Padres - will have their alternate uniforms debut this season.
“Our City Connect uniform links the past and the present, making the old new, with a nod to our city’s great history of space travel," Astros senior vice president of communications and marketing Anita Sehgal said in a statement released by the team. "The Astros' retro elements with a forward-thinking approach matches the constant pursuit of new opportunities and extraordinary wins that represent the great city of Houston. This uniform is a thank you to our fans for their relentless support to the Astros and to growing our great community - we don’t see this as just a uniform, but as a movement for our city and we are excited to share it today.”
With this jersey, we remind the world... This is Mission Control. This is Houston. This is #SpaceCity. pic.twitter.com/J8ijYCWJJj
Here are all the Space City details of the Astros' City Connect uniforms ...
"Space City" is displayed boldly in orange across the front of the navy jersey in the worm font popularized by NASA.
The City Connect cap logo features the Astros' traditional Star H logo launching the planetary tracks and rainbow gradient from the teams' 1960s and 70s logos.
The navy hat retains the Astros' iconic Star H logo but makes the star a rainbow gradient and adds planetary tracks around the logo.
The side of the cap has the word "Astros" spelled out in the NASA-themed worm font.
It's can't be a Nike City Connect uniform without the swoosh near the right shoulder. The swoosh is embroidered in gold thread, which represents the gold multi-layer insulation protecting much of the mission equipment in space.
Much like the star on the caps, rainbow gradient is used on the piping that runs down the front of the jerseys.
The sleeves feature a grid pattern that are supposed to resemble the star charts used by astronomers to identify and locate stars, constellations and galaxies.
Everyone remembers the Astros' rainbow jerseys, but old-school fans will remember that time in the 1970s when players' uniform numbers also were featured on the thigh of their pants. That feature was brought back for these uniforms with the numbers in orange and outlined in yellow.
The left sleeve of the jersey features a mission patch inspired by patches worn by space crews. This patch says "Space City" and contains Houston's four area codes - 713, 281, 832, 346 - surrounding the Astros' take on the Texas state flag, which is orange, blue and white and has the H Star logo in place of the Texas star.
It won't be visible to fans during games, but inside the collar of the jerseys is the phrase "Go for Launch."
Perhaps the most eye-catching feature of the uniforms are the rainbow gradient socks that are a bright orange and yellow and serve as a contrast to the all-navy uniform. The Astros say those fiery socks "represent the rocket thrusters that blast each shuttle into space."
City Connect merchandise, including hats and jerseys, are available at the Astros team store at Minute Maid Park.
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