Breaking Down the New Atlanta Braves Uniforms

There’s nothing like the fresh start of spring thanks to longer days, sunshine and the start of America’s past time, baseball. The reining National League East Champion Atlanta Braves kicked off their 2019 season on March 28 against their longtime rivals, the Philadelphia Phillies. 

The Braves have not just made upgrades to their lineup with new faces like third basemen Josh Donaldson, and a new more prominent pitching rotation, they have also added new uniforms for the 2019 season. They revealed their new look in January at their annual Chop Fest, hosted at SunTrust Park and the Atlanta Battery. The new jerseys are alternate uniforms and they will still wear their original white home and grey away jerseys.  

The Braves’ former fire-red jerseys were worn on Sunday home games when they were introduced in 2005, but vanished before the 2014 season. Whether you were a fan of the alternate red jerseys or hated them, they are back. At Chop Fest the Braves informed the public that the new look will be worn for every Friday game. Yes, that means Fridays are now red-out games for SunTrust Park. The new red jerseys are very similar to the old red, but with blue piping down the chest. Player Freddie Freeman modeled the new look at the event.   

The other new uniform is a blue jersey for away games. These new uniforms are to replace the old blue jerseys that say “Atlanta” in blue across the chest. The old blue-on-blue look was introduced in 2008 as the alternate jersey for the road. The new blue uniforms have an eye-catching look with the “Atlanta” letters on the front and numbers on the back that are changed to a red font for more color contrast. Also, the team added gray piping on the chest and sleeves. The grey piping is definitely different but serves to bring more color to the road uniforms. Three-time Gold Glove winner Ender Inciarte modeled the new look at the Chop Fest event.  

Writer for Forbes.com Demetrius Bell reported that the Braves have basically had the same look for their home-and-away uniforms since the 1987 season and their 14-season dominance of their division from 1991 onward has somewhat guaranteed that their primary uniforms will remain the same for the foreseeable future. Sports teams (and baseball teams in particular) do not like to mess with a good thing and if certain uniforms are associated with success, then they will keep them around for as long as possible.