Rangers unveil new City Connect uniforms with focus on connecting Dallas, Fort Worth
City Connect #CityConnect
The Nike City Connect uniform project presented the Rangers with a set of significant challenges starting with the most obvious: How do you connect to a city when wearing a state on your jersey?
Second: In a market with two distinct metropolitan areas, which have had a long-standing rivalry, how do you pick one?
The Rangers’ design team took a literal approach.
Arlington, the Rangers’ real home, and baseball connecting cities.
“We wanted to have respect for the past and eye to the future,” said creative director Scott Biggers, who headed the project.
The jerseys replace the red uniform top that was discontinued for this year. As part of the City Connect reveal weekend – and maybe to drum up merchandise sales, which started Monday at 9 a.m. at the team store and online – the Rangers will also wear the uniforms Saturday. The 9 a.m. reveal included a hype video set to “Texas,” by Dallas rapper BigXthaPlug.
The uniforms are a mélange of old-school lettering and colors that give them something of a timeless element: cream jerseys, red numbering (no names), deep blue hats and blue pants. The “pitch blue” cap features a modern gothic “TX” logo with a spur connecting them. It is also the main logo on the jersey.
The inspiration for the theme: Vandergriff’s dream of attracting major league baseball to the area and the ability to get Dallas and Fort Worth to work together on something for once.
Vandergriff and Arlington helped connect the cities with the attraction of the Dallas-Fort Worth Spurs, the minor league team that landed at then newly constructed Turnpike Stadium, which opened to record crowds years before Dallas and Fort Worth could come together on a regional airport project. Later, he was key in helping to lure the Washington Senators to Arlington to play in what had originally been Turnpike Stadium.
The front shirttails feature a quote from Vandergriff to “Dream the big dream,” which also works for a team still seeking its first world championship in the 52 years since it arrived.
The uniforms also nod to the cities’ baseball rivalry with callouts to the Dallas Eagles, the first team in the Texas League to integrate, and the Fort Worth Cats. The TX logo was inspired by lettering on the Eagles’ caps. The font for the numbers was inspired by a coin commemorating a Cats’ season.
The Rangers and Nike merged vintage logos of the two teams to create a new mythical creature, the very Griffin-like “Peagle.” It’s a winged version of the panther that will be featured on a sleeve patch, but also more prominently on merchandise.
But, given that the Rangers do claim Texas in their team name, the project wouldn’t be complete without an element of history.
“We wanted to also display the spirit of Texas,” Biggers said. “One of resilience, pride, optimism and fearlessness.”
It turns out April 21 is key in bringing the story together. It is the annual San Jacinto Day commemoration of the final battle in 1836 for Texas’ independence. It is also the anniversary of the Rangers’ first game in Arlington, delayed by a players’ strike, in 1972.
And, according to research from the Texas Historical Commission, it is also the anniversary of the first championship baseball game played in Texas, which was held in 1868 as part of the San Jacinto Day celebration. The date is embroidered on the inside collar of the jersey.
The story is compelling, well-told and well-researched, but the key to selling uniforms is how they are received visually. Although the vibe of the City Connect program is to reach a younger, hipper audience, the Rangers — the 16th team to unveil a design — are not the first to incorporate baseball history or gothic imagery.
The Miami Marlins’ uniform is based on the Havana Sugar Kings minor league team, a nod to the city’s Cuban community. The Chicago White Sox “Southside” jerseys are a twist on a Gothic font.
But the Rangers are not taking a full-scale dive into a bold color scheme, like the Marlins with red/turquoise or San Diego with two-toned neon pink and blue lettering.
To fully appreciate the Rangers’ uniforms will require some appreciation of the history and the details, many of which won’t be visibly obvious to fans in the stands or watching on TV.
The pants – and we should add that colored pants are going to be polarizing for a number of fans – feature braided piping reminiscent of rope. They also feature a small Texas outline and spur logo on the front right hip. The socks feature the same logo in red against a deep blue backdrop.
And in case you aren’t a fan, just wait. The next round of Rangers’ City Connects are due to be released in 2026, so the three-year creative process starts immediately.
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