ST. LOUIS – The St. Louis Cardinals will formally introduce their City Connect uniforms on Monday. FOX 2’s morning crew enjoyed a sneak peek, courtesy of the Cardinals.
The City Connect uniform features a dominant red jersey. The fresh look includes many tributes to the Cardinals franchise and the City of St. Louis.
Like every other active Cardinals jersey, you’ll notice the modern birds on the bat logo. However, instead of reading some version of “Cardinals” or “St. Louis” wrapped around the bat, you’ll notice the phrase “The Lou.”
The change to include “The Lou” is rather significant. It’s only the second time in franchise history that the Cardinals will use text in front of a jersey that doesn’t read “Cardinals” or “St. Louis.” According to CardinalsUniformsAndLogos.com, the only other time that happened was in 1927, when the team wore “World Champions” around a Cardinal bird logo to celebrate their 1926 World Series.
“The Lou” is a colloquial way to refer to St. Louis. Its exact origins aren’t quite clear, but St. Louis-made rapper Nelly has perhaps made it more popular, once saying, “I’m from the Lou and I’m proud.” The Cardinals have also used the slogan “For The Lou” in their marketing this season.
Beyond that, you’ll notice several odes to the history of the Cardinals and St. Louis on the jersey. Those include…
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A patch on the right side of the jersey that includes a yellow Fleur De Lis symbol used in St. Louis’ City flag. The Fleur De Lis reads “STL” with red letters in front and also stands in front of a backdrop of the Gateway Arch.
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River pinstripes to represent St. Louis’ role as a major river city, honoring the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.
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Old-school lettering of “St. Louis Cardinals” on the bottom right of the jersey, using a font that resembles the franchise’s earliest days.
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A marking of “1882” on the inside back collar. According to MLB.com’s history timeline of the Cardinals franchise, this year was the birth of a St. Louis major-league team known as the Brown Stockings. Through a series of historical events, that franchise officially became the Cardinals in 1900.
The Cardinals are expected to reveal details about the City Connect baseball hat and pants during an introductory news conference later Monday.
An online leak that first surfaced on Reddit over the weekend suggested that the Cardinals would use red baseball hats to complement the new jerseys.
These hats presumably include the letters “STL” in a similar font to the old-school lettering of “St. Louis Cardinals” on the bottom of the jerseys. According to CardinalsUniformsAndLogos.com, these hats resemble ones used in the 1940s that showed “STL” in a red color on a two-tone cap.
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The Cardinals will officially debut the City Connect jerseys in Saturday’s home game against the division-rival Chicago Cubs. It’s unclear how many additional games they will wear the City Connect jerseys this season.
Nike sponsors the City Connect brands across Major League Baseball. The City Connect brands consist of alternate uniforms with different color schemes, fonts and graphic elements than traditional uniforms. More than 20 teams have debuted a City Connect jersey as of 2024.
The Cardinals are following a relatively new MLB rule dubbed as “four plus one,” which allows for two home and road jerseys, in addition to an alternative concept. The Cardinals ditched the pure red spring training uniforms they have used for several years in order to pave the way for this year’s City Connect uniforms.
In addition to the City Connect uniforms, the active Cardinals wardrobe consists of their traditional home whites and traditional road grays, along with a cream jersey for Saturday home games and a light blue jersey for Saturday road games.
City Connect merchandise will be available at select Cardinals memorabilia stores this week.
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