The Powder Brew Crew: Milwaukee Brewers Unveil City Connect Uniforms

Barbeque. Beer. Baseball.

They’re the three B’s of Summer, and they’re all coming together to celebrate the good times of baseball season on the brand new Milwaukee Brewers City Connect uniform.

A powder blue base with navy blue and gold trim, “Brew Crew” scripted across the chest, and a grill patch on the sleeve. The Brewers’ new City Connect uniform was designed with “Summer in the Good Land” (thank you, Alice Cooper) as the dominant theme, proclaiming “you can’t understand it unless you’ve been here.”

SHOP: Milwaukee Brewers City Connect caps, jerseys, and more available now!

“The process of creating the Brewers City Connect jerseys took about two years,” recalled Brewers President of Business Operations Rick Schlesinger in an email to SportsLogos.Net. “Nike has an established process for the City Connect program which starts with a series of conversations with different stakeholders, including the Attanasio family [Brewers owners], who can speak to the culture of the city, team and fanbase. The discussions and ideation are focused on the community – in our case the city of Milwaukee – and capturing what makes the city unique and translating that into a jersey and merchandise line that fans can embrace.”

The powder blue base was chosen in tribute to the People’s Flag of Milwaukee, the city’s summer sky and the Brewers’ uniforms of the 1970s and 1980s. Gold and navy blue are invited along for this road trip, representing the summer sun and Lake Michigan, respectively — and of course, it doesn’t hurt that they just happen to also be the Brewers’ primary team colours.

Across the chest is “Brew Crew,” a popular fan-given nickname for the Brewers. It uses a custom golden typeface trimmed in navy blue, designed with both Milwaukee’s industrial past and its modern cultural renaissance in mind.

Along each sleeve of the jersey are two stripes — one gold, one white, designed to resemble a poured beer with a foam head. The left sleeve contains the team’s familiar “MB” baseball glove logo, the right a stylized barbeque grill patch, in reference to their fans’ love of grilling and tailgating before ballgames.

“The colours represent summer in Milwaukee and outdoor living, which is fully embraced in Wisconsin,” Schlesinger continued. “The moment it’s 50 and sunny, people are outside in full force, in the parks, grilling and engaging in the community. The Brewers City Connect jersey brings together the sun, sky and lake, complementing both the People’s Flag of Milwaukee and the Brewers brand colour traditions.”

Up top, the Brewers’ new City Connect cap matches the jersey’s powder blue base with a hybrid “MKE” (the local airport code) / “414” (the local area code) logo across the crown in gold and navy blue, again with industrial elements tied into it. The cap visor is navy blue. This same “MKE/414” logo is recycled on the jersey as the “jock tag,” a small logo in the lower-left corner that gets tucked into each player’s pants before they hit the field — basically, it’s only there to be seen when fans are out and about wearing it.

Players welcomed the new look when they were first presented with the uniform, though like other City Connect uniforms were not involved in the design process.

“The players loved the colours, the new ‘414 MKE’ lettermark was very popular and of course, many of the players commented on the uniquely designed grill,” said Schlesinger. “One of the most confirming comments, when the jersey was revealed, was, ‘This is us!'”

The Brewers will début their new powder blue Brew Crew set one week from today, Friday, June 24th, when they host the usually powder blue-clad Toronto Blue Jays. Milwaukee will immediately wear the new set for two more against these same Blue Jays (pack your greys, boys!) before saving them for each Friday home game (and themed “Community Nights”) the rest of the season.

SHOP: Milwaukee Brewers City Connect caps, jerseys, and more available now!

“Developed in partnership with MLB Clubs, the Nike MLB City Connect series celebrates the bond between each team and its city,” read the jointly-released statement which accompanied the announcement of the program in April 2021. “The uniform series explores the personality, values and customs that make each community and their residents unique. Building on the rich heritage of each Club, the City Connect series pushes the boundaries of baseball uniform design to create new traditions and help grow the game of baseball.”