Chicago White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson recently praised the authenticity of team’s Nike MLB City Connect Series uniform.
Center fielder Billy Hamilton added, “They’ve got a lot of swag to them.”
The Sox will wear the uniform — featuring “Southside” written across the chest of the dark jersey with white pinstripes — for the first time Saturday in a game against the Detroit Tigers at Guaranteed Rate Field.
“When MLB went to Nike and embraced the concept of City Connect, of course we raised our hands right away,” said Brooks Boyer, the team’s senior vice president, chief revenue and marketing officer, in a phone interview Friday morning. “We thought we had something, something that connected with the whole concept of City Connect.
“The rewarding part was hearing the reaction of our players, them being involved in the process and then ultimately when we did our launch video when you have the players say, ‘Yeah, these are really cool.’ That’s pretty rewarding.”
Anderson’s April 2019 bat flip after a home run against the Kansas City Royals was one of the sparks for the concept.
“The way he plays, the joy in which he plays, the fun in which he plays, is just different, unique, it rubs off on a lot of people,” Boyer said. “When we were sitting around talking about this window (for the team) is about to open, what are we? How do we want people to ultimately view us. The big thing was we don’t want it to be manufactured, we don’t want us to be defined by a marketing slogan or a slogan made up by people in suits. We wanted it to be real and authentic. That was the genesis of ‘Change the Game.’
“Obviously we have a lot of guys that are electrifying. That resonated with a lot of us, so we put this big deck together, probably 40 pages of what ‘Change the Game’ could look like. We put it together and the first person we showed it to, pre-COVID, in our board room was Tim Anderson. We said, ‘Look, is this us? We’re not in the clubhouse.’ We showed it to TA, and in that deck was the uniforms that these guys are wearing (Saturday).”
Boyer said Anderson reacted positively to the deck.
“This felt real to him, and then the next step was taking it to the Chairman (Jerry Reinsdorf) and making sure he was on board and our executive board,” Boyer said. “That’s when ‘Change the Game’ was born.”
When Boyer and senior director of marketing and advertising Gareth Breunlin went to Beaverton, Ore., to meet with representatives from Nike, they walked them through the ‘Change the Game’ deck.
“They said, ‘We get it,’ ” Boyer said. “They took the jersey we had in the deck, made some subtle changes to it and that’s what’s going on the field (Saturday). Pretty exciting stuff.”
Boyer said a text chain featuring Anderson, pitcher Lucas Giolito and Breunlin set the stage for the launch video including Polo G.
“That came from our players,” Boyer said. “They’re in their 20s, it’s nice to have that perspective. This jersey’s not for everybody, but it certainly represents the South Side, represents the White Sox and what we’re trying to do when we try to change the game.”
Jerseys sold quickly at the team’s store when they first were made available May 28. The team will hold a watch party from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday at Navy Pier, where more jerseys will be available.
Boyer recently saw the “South Side” product on display at the flagship MLB Store in New York, where he was told it was a big seller.
“It’s rewarding because I do feel like it’s us,” Boyer said. “When you talk about connecting with your city, feel like this, it doesn’t matter where you live, North Side, West Side, suburbs, enough people have what would be your stereotypical South Side mentality of a work ethic, of a pride in getting after it and working the right way.
“There’s an edge, a toughness to it, and we wanted to celebrate that and we feel like we have.”
Attendance update
The Sox plan to fully open Guaranteed Rate Field by June 25, with season ticket holders moving back to their assigned locations, the team said Friday as part of a statement .
The Sox said they might be able to sell additional tickets to games on June 14-16 against the Tampa Bay Rays. Details on ticket opportunities for that series will follow.
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