Astros: Nike City Connect Jersey Concept and Uniform History

Major League Baseball and Nike released seven City Connect Jerseys during the 2021 season, while the Houston Astros were left out, and it’s most likely that all of the league will get one in 2022.

Nike did the same thing with the National Basketball Association, as they released only a few the first year and then gave every team one the next season.

Another idea I have seen thrown around is that they will release six city connect jerseys a year for different teams, so that is also a possibly. Regardless, there is a high chance that the Astros will be sporting one next year.

Some of you already know this, but I do graphic design on the side while pursuing my degree. I recently made a concept of what I think an Astros’ City Connect Jersey would look like.

In order to understand where this concept comes from, we have to do an Astros uniform history deep dive.

From 1962 through 1964, the team sported the iconic “Colts” jersey when they were known as the Colt 45’s. It consisted of a cream colored jersey with  the word “Colts” emerging from a Colt .45, a gun the team was named after.

From 1965 until 1974, the Astros wore a similar cream colored jersey but now the logo was a shooting star with “Astros” under it. From 1965 to 1970 the logo had blue as the primary, and 1971 through 1974, they saw it flipped to orange. And Houston was space city at this point, so it made a lot of sense. This is also when the classic orange star with an ‘H’ made its debut.

From 1975 through 1986, the team wore what could be one of the most recognizable jerseys in sports history, the rainbow otherwise known as the “Tequila Sunrise.” The team wore this as its only jersey (both home and away) until 1980, when a new white jersey debuted as an alternate, the rainbow shoulders.

As this jersey was a fan favorite, it became the primary in 1986 with an alternate blue in the same style. In my opinion, the white version of this jersey is the best jersey in the history of sports.

In 1994, the Astros made a complete overhaul to their uniforms, going with a new blue and gold look that fits right into the ’90s. These were short lived though, as in 2000, the Astros moved into Minute Maid Park and brought a new red brick train station look with them.

Both of these looks in the ’90s and ’00s were nontraditional for the Astros, but still great looks nonetheless. The logo in both periods had an open star, and the 2000s’ jerseys wound up being the longest tenured in Astros history, as they lasted through 2012.

With a move to the American League in 2013, the Astros went back to a more traditional look, with a return to orange, blue and the classic star ‘H’ logo on their hats.

Concept Jersey

When thinking about what I wanted on this concept jersey, I wanted to include parts from all the eras that I think are most important to the city of Houston and the Astros. The shooting star jersey logo was the very first time “Astros” appeared across a uniform, so I felt it only right to use it here.

The rainbow era is classic and included players like Nolan Ryan and. Mike Scott, but stayed around long enough to see the beginning of Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell. I opted for the rainbow sleeves as I felt like the full rainbow would be a bit much on this jersey.

It was cool for the ’70s though. The third important era to me is the current era, as it’s the winningest time in the ball club’s history. Because of this, I opted to use the current number and name font. I tried to put together a jersey that would liked by fans of all eras of Astros baseball, past and present.

Let me know on Twitter if there’s another concept you’d like to see.