Rakuten Shows Off New Uniforms

Those Rakuten uniforms are hideous, starting with the colors. The logo on the cap stinks, the two-tone, slow-pitch softball beer league road unis stink, and the round numbers stink.

Did Marty make an allusion to the Yankees? Come on, get real. If Marty thinks these Rakuten uniforms are "classic," it's time for an eye exam.

Why can't Japanese teams come up with nice uniforms!? The best uniforms in NPB are usually ripped off from MLB teams' designs, like the Swallows' decent road uniforms (although I hate the two-tone look).

Well, I quite like them - especially the colors. Can't please everybody I suppose.

In my view, two of the best uniforms in NPB are the current Nippon Ham home jersey and the Kintetsu Buffaloes away jersey. As far as I'm aware, they weren't "ripped off" from any MLB designs.

Oh c'mon, are they really that bad? They stink? They may not be the greatest looking uniforms, but they are OK. They are red, which I beleive is the only red uniform in the Pacific League, and they at least made a stronger attempt than Orix did this offseason with their uniforms.

All I can say is that they look ten times better than Softbank's new unis.

"- All I can say is that they look ten times better than Softbank's new unis."

I will have to agree with this. The Hawks' new uniforms are terrible! What were they thinking?

On Rakuten's web site there is a link with drawings of the uniforms in full detail. This is a link to the drawings. All text on the site and articles are in Japanese, however the drawings are worth the visit.

These uniforms look pretty new, and Kuehnert could be correct when he says the look won't change for a long time.

Yes, these uniforms are really bad. Not that anybody asked me, but I could've designed classier uniforms in about 10 minutes. The actual color is not red, but crimson. The only teams that can get away with crimson is Alabama and Southern Cal.

What ever happened to classic grey road unis? If Marty wanted his team's uniforms to stay classic like the Yankees' unis, then he should've gone with grey road unis.

The best uniforms in MLB are the ones that are "old-school." The Angels and the SF Giants have nice "retro" unis (Marty: takes notes - they both wear grey on the road). If you want pinstripes, then the Yankees, White Sox, and Marlins have good pinstriped uniforms (again, all three teams wear grey on the road, although their road ones aren't pinstriped). I don't like the sleeveless look, but I have to admit that the Reds and the Pirates' sleeveless look works.

The new poster does make a good point about Orix. Orix didn't even make an effort. The best uniforms in Japan are the Giants' uniforms (both home and away) and the Tigers (again both home and away, especially the road unis).

I've never been a fan of dull gray uniforms -- the nostalgia for them is a product of the generations who grew up in the 1930s to the 1960s. Before that, full-color road uniforms were commonplace.

How about a red-jersey, gray-pants combination?

Also, it would have been nice to see "Tohoku" or "Sendai" on the road jersey instead of the corporate name. Or should we be thankful that the whole uniform doesn't look like the Rakuten Ichiba logo used on Vissel Kobe's shirts?

I've got a suggestion for Rakuten. They should nickname themselves "Maroon 9" (Maroon 5 is the hottest selling rock/alternative rock band in the U.S. right now).

I like the Eagles' uniforms. Why does everyone think that uniforms should look like MLB uniforms? It's about time that a NPB team uses imagination instead of doing the same ideas as everyone else.

I agree that NPB teams should look original and not like MLB copycats, but Rakuten has gone too far. Those uniforms wouldn't even look good in a recreational slow-pitch softball league. Those colors are ugly as heck to begin with. USC uses those colors, but USC somehow pulls it off nicely. The lettering and the numbers on the unis on Rakuten's uniforms also look really hideous.

I'm not sure about the Giants' new road uniforms either. The interlocking "YG" on the right side of the uniforms look okay, but they looked the best when they had "TOKYO" written across their chest. When they switched to "YOMIURI," the lettering suddenly changed and the "YOMIURI" looked out of place.

I like the interlocking "YG" a lot more than that ugly "YOMIURI" that they had been using.

BTW, Nikkan Sports (Japanese) has a picture of the Hanshin Tigers' alternate uniforms, which look like those of the late 1970s when manager Okada was playing. They're only going to wear them in the home inter-league games, supposedly. I really like the numerals on the back; a little bit like the Cubs' style. Hopefully they'll sell them in the fan shops.

--Heian-794

Those alternate uniforms from Hanshin are really great. It's about time that Japanese teams followed the example set by teams in the NBA, NFL, and MLB by going retro. Retro uniforms are not only stylish (for the most part), but they're a great marketing idea.

Chunichi sort of went retro last season when they went back to the CD caps and got rid of their Dodgers rip-off jerseys, but for some reason they decided not to use any red in their uniforms this time around.

I'd like to see Yokohama bring back the blatant Oakland A's rip-off yellow and gold jerseys from the 1970s when they were the Taiyo Whales.

I just pray that none of these teams bring back the ugly powder blue threads that were so prevalent in the late '70s and most of the '80s.

The ugliest uniforms ever were the Daiei Hawks' uniforms from the late 1980s and early '90s, that pinstripe mess of ugly orange and brown. The Lotte Marines' hot pink unis from the early '90s were pretty ugly also.

Powder blue would look nice if only one or two teams wore it. Better than that dull gray, which has character when made of flannel but is just plain boring when made of polyester.

What they should do is have uniforms with no player names on them, making the numbers larger. Modern computer graphics have made player names on uniforms unnecessary on television, and you can't really read them from seats in the ballpark. I liked the number-only Tiger road uniforms that they had the year before last.

- What they should do is have uniforms with no player names on them, making the numbers larger.

I don't agree at all. Player names add character to the uniforms. I hated the number-only Tiger road uniforms, and I was thankful that they brought back the names.

I agree. It's fine when the regular guys are out there: Tigers fans know that 53 is Akahoshi and 24 is Hiyama and 7 is Imaoka, etc. But when some farm hack gets a cup of coffee, nobody knows who it is. "Isn't it such-and-such?" "No, he's number somethingorother." "I thought that was so-and-so." "He retired!" Meanwhile, we miss out on a spectacular home run.

I agree also. Having names on the uniform are much better. The Yomiuri Giants went with the no-name look a few years back but ditched those uniforms after 1 season (or 2 seasons). The Giants had their regular uniforms and then they had their no-name unis. It was pretty pointless. Nagashima liked the Yankees' look so he wanted to do the same thing.

But Torakichi and Kenny, if you're at the stadium they'll be announcing the names of the players (and they'll be on the scoreboard), and on TV there are plenty of graphics telling you who is who.

Without names, the numbers are nice and large and you can read them even from the cheap seats in the outfield.

Maybe they could do what teams like the Cubs, Giants, and Red Sox do, which is to have just numbers at home, and numbers plus names on the road. The home fans know who their own players are better than they know the opponent.

I'm a big fan of sleeveless/vest style jerseys. Have any Japanese teams gone that route in the past?

The Chunichi Dragons had sleeveless alternate uniforms a few years ago, which they only wore on weekends (Sundays?) at home. They had pinstripes and no names on the back, and underneath them they had purplish-blue sleeves. I liked them but they weren't very popular with the fans.

Heian, that is a good point about the no-name look. And I think that you make a great point about teams like the Cubs and Red Sox who have their names on the back of their road unis but only have numbers on their home uni - I think that's OK.

However, I don't think teams should go with the no-name look on both the home and road uniforms - I hate watching Yankees games when there's some guy on the mound like Dan Naulty and he's wearing #31. You're thinking to yourself, "Now I know that's not Dave Winfield and that's not Tim Raines.... Who could it be?"

I remember when I was a kid and the Red Sox, who had no-names on their uniforms, came to town and my friend and I were getting autographs from the players and we had no idea who's autograph we just got. We had to ask Rich Gedman who the guy with the mustache was. Gedman told us it was Al Nipper, but until then we had no clue who it was.

About the sleeveless look, the Carp have pseudo sleeveless uniforms. The Carp always seem to copy the Reds and their unis.

There was a good article on Yahoo! Sports about uniforms in MLB. You can read it here.

A few MLB teams are going with the no-name on the back of the jersey look this season. The Dodgers are doing it and so are the Cubs. The Cubs didn't have names on their jerseys before so it looks OK, but the Dodgers have had names on the back of their jerseys for a long time so it looks funny. It looks like someone just forgot to stitch their names onto the jerseys.

BTW, I have yet to see Hanshin with their new alternate uniforms. I wonder when they're going to bust those out.

Also, I'm not a big fan of the Marines' new sunburst caps. I think the red (or is it lavender?) that they've incorporated into the uniforms this season works well, but I think they should get rid of those new caps.

The Tigers are going to wear their alternate uniforms in the inter-league home games, which don't start for a little while.

The new number-only Dodger and Cub uniforms look a little off-balance, like they removed the names from last year's jerseys but didn't reposition the number a little bit higher up. There's too much white space between the collar and the number - look at the Yankees, Giants, or Red Sox and you'll see a well-balanced uniform. Maybe next season they'll correct this.

Oh yeah, that's right, I forgot that Hanshin was only going to wear those alternate unis in inter-league games. Thanks for the info.

I agree with you that the Dodgers' and Cubs' uniforms look off-balance. The numbers are definitely too far down on the back. The Cubs' unis don't look quite so bad since they're pinstripes, but the Dodgers' unis are horrendous. The numbers still look like they're the same size and it seems like they haven't moved the numbers up higher.

I still think most uniforms look better with names on the back. Uniforms with no names on the back look like minor league uniforms to me.