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Joon Lee, ESPN
The Pittsburgh Pirates unveiled their City Connect uniforms Thursday, a yellow and black look that pays homage to the city’s bridges and exemplifies the city’s shifting from the steel industry toward medicine and technology.
“We anchored in this idea, this transition this city is going through, an evolution,” Pirates executive vice president of marketing and fan engagement Stephen Perkins said. “While the steel industry is here, this city is becoming a technology center.”
On the front of the uniform is a PGH graphic featuring a structural font meant as a nod to the city’s bridges. Each letter contains a texture also found on the Roberto Clemente Bridge, which connects downtown Pittsburgh to PNC Park, home of the Pirates.
“We wanted this to be a forward looking view of what Pittsburgh is,” Perkins said. “We didn’t want to do the obvious thing and make it look like steel or like the bridge.”
Across the uniform is a subtle pattern that features an astroid design, an iconic shape for the Pittsburgh steel industry, a three rivers shape nodding to the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers meeting and a checkered look, which is a reference to the seal of the city. On the sleeve is a patch of the Pirates “P.”
“Pittsburgh has a blue-collar, heads-down mentality,” Perkins said. “We aren’t boisterous, so the design inspiration was subtlety and trying to tell the story that the beauty is in the details, there’s more than meets the eye.”
Above the jersey’s jock tag is the phrase, “We bleed black and gold.” The uniform also features black pants, a growing trend among baseball uniforms since the start of the City Connect series in 2021. While the Pirates did look at other colors and nicknames for the city used by other teams and schools, the team landed on this design.
“We’re the only city where all teams wear the same colors. Black and gold is the city,” Perkins said. “You don’t make design decisions for design’s sake.”
The Pirates will wear the uniform Friday nights at home, debuting the look on June 27 against the San Diego Padres.