In the course of my travels on Twitter, I got to know Niko. Niko would post about Mets stuff – uniforms, the stadium experience etc….the sort of thing that we’d talk about here on Mets Police. As I sometimes gets dark and adopt my Emperor Palpatine persona – which I break out when I see others finally seeing the light on things – I started to refer to Niko as my “young apprentice.’ (Read that in Palpatine head-voice, it works better.)
Well, Niko is here to bring Balance To The Force and is going to be doing pieces for Mets Police! What could go wrong? Will he find himself in his 40s disillusioned by the whole thing, wondering why the Mets never win anything, and can’t even wear proper uniforms? Only the future will tell. In the meantime, this force is strong with this one…..Niko takes it from here today.
Hello Mets Police readers – Shannon has graciously allowed someone else to drop in to his blog today.
For those who read Mets Police in 2018 and 2019, you might remember that I took over the blog for a couple of days while Shannon enjoyed some much deserved time away. For those who don’t remember that niche detail, which I would expect is many folks, my name is Niko Goutakolis, and while I might be in my 20s, I don’t own a Pete Alonso LFGM jersey and I also halted my Mets fandom in 2021 when Javier Baez and Francisco Lindor did their thumbs down antics (yes, other people that still see Lindor with the thumbs down engrained in their head do exist!)
Like most Mets fans, 2025 was disappointing; and as someone who walked out of Shea Stadium crying in 2007 and 2008, the writing was very much on the wall as we ended our season in Miami against the Marlins.
Unlike most Mets fans, however, while most of us think of ways in which we can rebuild the team and what roster pieces need to be re-organized, I’m equally concerned about the Mets uniform pieces.
While one can argue whether the Mets got better as a team since Uncle Steve took over in 2021, I would make the argument that the uniforms have regressed significantly, and it’s not just because of the black uniforms.
I remember reading this blog with excitement when the so-called “Treaty of Flushing” was signed in 2012, the year that the Mets uniforms returned to their former glory with three simple options: A cream pinstripe top, a road gray, and a Snow White alternate. Over the next decade, there were some slight alterations, including blue alternates, a couple different patches, a two year dabble with military camouflage jerseys, a few different alternate caps, but for the most part the uniform for that 10 year period starting in 2012 was rather excellent.
In 2021, in Steve Cohen’s first year, the Mets had four uniforms, a home pinstripe (that had lost it’s cream color in 2015), a road gray that was untouched from 2012, and two blue alternates, one at home and one on the road. The road and blue uniforms featured a color contrasted headspoon, and there were one pair of pants for the home jersey and the road jersey. A nice, simple, uniform set. Looking at the photo of the four side-by-side you can see that they are very much apart of the same uniform and from the same era.
Obviously the first strike happened late in 2021 and during that offseason when Steve realized that the black jersey sells amongst a certain crowd and he brought back the black uniform. In 2021, while not a part of the full fledged uniform set, but instead a limited-use throwback (limited to five games) the Mets featured a black jersey that was similar to their 1998 black jersey. At first, I didn’t hate it. I grew up with the 2006 Mets, and while I believe the Mets colors are orange and blue, I think the black jersey is certainly a part of the Mets history, like the racing stripes, ’93-’94 swoosh, etc. and deserve some recognition.
Had Uncle Steve brought back the black jersey for an occasional promotion, maybe twice or three times a year, I would’ve embraced it. I thought every Friday was a bit of overkill but oh well, it was fewer and further between than the use it got in its first iteration, so I went with it.
Unfortunately in 2022 when the uniform was formally introduced, the headspoon disappeared and they kind of left it up to the players to determine how often they wanted to wear them. It was also paired with pants that mirror the snow white uniform top, despite that uniform not existing anymore. In 2022, however, true to their word, they only wore their black tops on Fridays, and excluded them from key Fridays like Opening Day. Since then, however, they’ve slipped, wearing it three times in 2023 on non-Fridays, five times in 2024 on non-Fridays, and then during of game 1 of the NLCS, and another six times this year.
In 2024 they modified the jersey more with the white underline removed, creating this purple effect on the jersey that we used to see with the Mets hybrid caps.
The Blue jerseys went from “Good” to “just alright” in 2025, with stealth blue on blue lettering, a revival of the 1987 road script, and a pullover design with the collar design that Nike has used on other pullovers. The jerseys are not made for TV, and they were the least used jersey this year, so clearly they weren’t a hit with the players either. The road jersey took one big step backwards with a new 1970s inspired sleeve and pant stripe. Not a bad jersey by any standards, but the previous road jersey was the perfect classic Mets look, and there’s never a good reason to mess with perfection.
All of this, and I still haven’t mentioned the City Connects. Surprisingly, I don’t really blame the Mets for the City Connect they have; obviously MLB and Nike poured a lot into the program, and the design that they have is not necessarily a bad jersey at all, it’s just not a Mets jersey. Whatever pull MLB/Nike has is strong enough that the Mets took down the #5 David Wright from their Social Media to promote the City Connects within six hours of the Wright’s number retirement ceremonial game ending – with no City Connects on Saturday for David Wright day, they obviously have to wear them on Sunday. No way marketing will allow you to have a weekend that is city connect free. Alumni Classic day? That’s fine, but once the game is over it’s City Connect day! The ribbon boards changed from the alumni classic branding & the orange and blue to the purple and black before the Mets of yesteryear were even off the field.
So where does that leave the Mets uni-wise?
- A Home Pinstripe that is classic, reminiscent of the original 1960s jerseys and the 2015 era. Perfect with no complaints.
- A Road Jersey that is alright with collar and sleeve elements you don’t see on any other jersey… reminds me of the Joe Torre Mets in the late 1970s, in button down format.
- A Blue Jersey that has its own script, own collar (pullover) and unique stealth lettering. Tied to the 1980s due to the 1987 lettering but the comparison ends there.
- A hideous Black Jersey that has no color contrast in the collar but does at the sleeve. Perhaps the only redeeming feature of this uniform is the classic Mets skyline patch.
- A City Connect uniform that is, well, a City Connect uniform.
That’s what I call a uni-mess.
At no point in Mets history has the Mets uniform been this dis-jointed. It looks like five different uniforms from five different eras; for only one somewhat obvious reason – it sells. I’m sure someone thinks it’s a great idea that you have five distinct uniforms hanging up in the team store, but that’s not how you build a brand, and that’s the disconnect that this Mets team fails to understand.
Will Chad the intern convince Steve that the Mets should go back to two uniforms and one cap? Probably not anytime soon. The best we can hope for is to go back to something akin to 2021, where there is some degree of uniformity.
My advice? Since the City Connect cat is out of the bag league wide, give the next City Connect jersey all the tropes from the past. Give it the 1987 script, make it a black jersey, give it racing stripes, make it a pullover if you so choose. Make it however hideous you want, and hope that it convinces Pete Alonso to re-sign. Once that’s done, let the other 150 games be played with a set of classic jerseys that are, well, uniform. That way everyone can be happy.
