Crane “leaning heavily” toward a uniform change and fans will have input

A month ago when the sky was falling and the planet ready to explode thanks to Jim Crane pulling a great marketing ploy by announcing he might change the Astros brand, another change was also being considered, uniforms. The obvious conclusion was that the Astros current uniform was associated to losing and disorganization even through only 6 years ago we were about to raise a pennant. The idea had always been possible and even probable and with new ownership ready to stir things up, a uniform change was strongly hinted at Sunday morning as Jim Crane spoke to reporters. So the sense was, it was coming and during the name-change mess it was all but confirmed. Today, Zachery Levine gave the fans some additional good news regarding it; a tweet noted below should have the Astros’ fan base very excited.

"Jim Crane added that he’ll get some fans involved in decision making on new Astros uniforms."

Now that Jim Crane added that he’ll get some fans involved in decision making on new Astros uniforms, the fans can shift their questions from whether it should happen to what input will they provide. It also must be noted that the tweet does state “some fans” which makes me believe there might either be a focus groups involved or contests. Crane has been incredibly receptive to the fans so he will listen, if the Stros’ fans want to make their point, this is the time to do it. Whoever gets to choose or at least have input into the decision making process with Crane, will almost assuredly want a retro feel to the new scheme. That is something the masses have been wanting for quite some time. The current setup is okay and now has some history behind them but might be the most disliked uniform the club has worn.  Ironically, my favorite version of the current uniform hasn’t been used for over half a decade. When the current design was being developed a black alternate was used, not the red Sunday and often used road jerseys we have today, and it looked fantastic. I understand players might have said black made for a warm uniform on a warm summer day but it looked great, better than the brick red we’ve used since.

Now, what will the fans choose? Like I mentioned before, the old era Astros jerseys were fantastic and are often still spotted being worn by Astros’ fans today. Problem is, whether it is the rainbow jerseys or the rainbow sleeve version, I just don’t think they’d mesh in today’s market. The problem with those is simply style, they are out of date. As a retro throwback once in a while sure, but on a regular basis it might require the Astros’ fans to go a little further back. The shooting star jersey seems like a clear front runner at this point, quite a few fans I’ve spoken too, love the idea of bringing back the original Astros’ uniform. The design makes sense and if Crane really wants to recapture the city, a return to the space theme would be a fantastic start. The colors might be the easiest to predict, most fans want the blue and orange to make a return, so whatever uniform style is chosen it will most likely have some a very similar color scheme to that of the 70s and 80s. The blue is important for me; I need the blue tone back in the color scheme. I actually like the 90s version uniforms with blue and gold and wouldn’t mind seeing that style return but it was the blue that I really enjoyed about all the style, not just the orange.

Whichever style the Astros choose, it will be different and in the same respect similar. Crane using the fans is once again a brilliant move, he knows he has a good pulse of the city and the city knows it. After years of honestly being ignored, Crane has included the fans in almost every major decision that he has taken as the Astros owner. That is a very big step to repair a damaged relationship, the fans see it and so does he. If he can cash in on the fans’ opinion of the new Astros uniforms, Mr. Crane might just make the Astros’ fan base fall in love in with his baseball team all over again.