Pittsburgh Pirates Unveil New City Connect Uniform: Bleeding Black and Gold

For Pittsburghers past and future, the Pirates today unveiled their new Nike MLB City Connect uniform — the twentieth of the league’s thirty franchises to do so since the program was launched two years ago and the last remaining on the schedule for 2023.

The uniform is a tribute to the City of Pittsburgh, its people, industries, architecture, and future. A yellow-gold jersey base of hundreds of small and subtle repeating symbols, all representing an element of the city, slowly fading away as we move down to the bold “PGH” across the chest in black. A single black stripe around the collar is duplicated at the end of each sleeve, and a black circle housing the Pirates iconic “P” crest in gold is worn on the left sleeve. At the jock tag, in black, is “We Bleed Black and Gold.” On the back, the player’s name is in the same black font as the “PGH” across the front, arched and centred over a sizeable black player’s number – again in this same font – now trimmed in grey.

The gold jersey is paired with a matching gold cap, again featuring this subtle pattern throughout the crown. The Pirates “P” logo is on the front of the hat in black with a black visor to complete the look. The black and dark grey MLB Batterman logo on the back of the cap creates almost a ghosted version of the familiar, ordinarily bright and colourful symbol – this same colourway is also used on the MLB logo at the back of the jersey and pants.

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“We believe this uniform collaboration with Nike represents what being from Pittsburgh is all about,” said Travis Williams, Pirates President, in the press release. “From a distance, a Pittsburgher is strong, sturdy, quiet, friendly and never showy or overstated. However, get to know someone from the city, and you learn that there’s more to them than meets the eye, but you would never guess until you get close to them.”

Pants, much like just about every City Connect set revealed this year, are black – though if any team can take a chance with black slacks, it’s the Pirates, who had worn them previously over several seasons in the 1970s and ’80s, and then again in the late 2010s. The belt loops include “PITTSBURGH” in gold on the left hip and “PIRATES” on the right. A single stripe is added down the outside of each pant leg, starting with Pittsburgh gold at the waist and slowly transitioning to black halfway down the calves.

“Pittsburghers are made in the detail, so is this jersey. It pays homage to the uniforms in the 70s, yet when you get close, there is more to it than meets the eye,” added Williams. “We are excited to share in this celebration of our great city with our fans beginning June 27.”

The details and symbols are crucial to this uniform, sublimated into the base of the jersey and crown of the cap, each representing an essential piece of the City of Pittsburgh.

“The symbols serve as the foundation of three core stories that we wanted to communicate through the uniform,” said Stephen Perkins, Pittsburgh Pirates Executive Vice President of Marketing and Fan Engagement, in a call with SportsLogos.Net. “First, the symbol that we call the astroid, a diamond shape harkening back to the old US Steel. The ‘Inverted Y’ symbol is an outline of the convergence of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers, a huge part of our city. Finally, the check is from the seal of Pittsburgh, a very community-based city, and we wanted to have something that was a nod to the city’s official seal. They’re presented through this custom print that we call ‘New Steel’ in a way that represents transformation and innovation.”

These three symbols, the “astroid,” the “Inverted Y,” and the “Check,” form almost a checkerboard-like pattern, alternating between gold and slightly darker gold, starting quite visible at the shoulders before disappearing entirely at the letters on the chest but continuing down the entirety of the sleeves. The lettering across the chest includes yet another symbol representing the circular grates built into the windows of the pillars on the Roberto Clemente Bridge, the “PGH” lettering itself is based on the arching of Pittsburgh’s numerous bridges.

“We went through several variations on the jersey wordmark,” said Perkins. “One of the keys was to have something short, punchy, and ownable. For us, ‘PGH’ is an authentic term that Pittsburghers use when they refer to the city. We felt that with a ‘City Connect’ uniform, we wanted to go with something that a Pittsburgher would say, it’s a part of nomenclature, a known way of referencing the city.”

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“We’re also focused on evolving from an industrial economy to one focused on technology, education, and healthcare; there’s a true evolution happening in the city. Google has an office here; robotics is a huge part of the innovation you’re seeing in the economy and how we’re evolving as a city. We wanted the uniform to be like a visual representation of that transformation.”

The new uniform was designed in collaboration between the club and Nike.

“Nike came to us in 2021 asking several key questions which helped ground their design and overall direction such as ‘What are some things that your city rallies around?’, ‘What makes your city unique?'”, Perkins recalled. “They were keen on understanding our fan base and the city of Pittsburgh. We had a working group internally involved in answering those questions, then gave them to Nike and worked through the designs from there. It took a while to land where we landed, but we’re excited about the finished product.”

The Pirates will debut their new City Connect uniform on Tuesday, June 27, against the San Diego Padres; from that date forward, they will be worn for every Pirates Friday home game except for the Roberto Clemente Day game on September 15th. In total, the Pirates will wear this set seven times in 2023.