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Anthony Gharib, ESPN
The Minnesota Twins looked to capture a specific feeling in their City Connect uniforms, which were unveiled on Monday.
It’s a feeling one experiences while sitting by the shore of a lake — the water hitting against the rocks on the shore while hearing the waves ripple in and out as the sun sets.
With the state being covered with lakes, it’s a familiar moment for Minnesotans. Prince said it best in the 1984 film “Purple Rain”: “You have to purify yourself in Lake Minnetonka.”
The Twins’ City Connect uniform celebrates the 10,000-plus lakes for which the state is known.
The blue uniform will debut on Friday against the Oakland Athletics. Starting on August 9 against the Chicago White Sox, they will be worn exclusively on Fridays. Minnesota is the final MLB team to launch its initial City Connect uniform.
According to Heather Hinkel, vice president of brand marketing for the Twins, the club wanted to be bold by telling the story of the Minnesota lakes.
“We really wanted to talk about an experience everybody across our state has had,” Hinkel told ESPN. “And it’s truly that sitting by a water understanding, hearing it come and ripple in and seeing the sunset, that is an experience, no matter who you are, where you’re located, that is something that you can experience and find that sense of peace and serenity around the lake.”
The lakes have a deeper purpose for Minnesotans. They serve two roles through the seasons — bringing people together in the summer with warm water and “frozen sports” in the winter, Hinkel added.
The color of the uniform illustrates a “ripple effect” theme implemented by the Twins.
There’s a sublimation pattern across the jersey with subtle shifts from dark to light blue, similar to waves in a lake. It is also meant to represent how the water color gets darker the deeper one goes. The yellow accents in the design are a reference to the Minnesota sunlight.
Hinkel explained that color plays a role in explaining the story of the lakes. They focused on the subtleties of the design and how that could help support the storyline.
“If you think about it, we could have just done a plain blue jersey,” Hinkel said. “But making the sublimated pattern that really reflects those ripples in the waves, making the blues sort of multidimensional, adding movement to the jersey by depending on what angle it is, I think that’s what we wanted to make sure we captured.”
The North Star is a prominent element of the design. Hinkel said its use is intentional since the North Star is the only piece that links back to the Twins brand.
The chest marker contains the state abbreviation for Minnesota — MN — along with the North Star. The lettering flows wave-like to unite the letters “just as our lakes and rivers link communities across our state,” according to the Twins’ news release.
Minnesota’s state bird — the common loon — appears on the sleeve patch with the North Star appearing as the head and beak. Baseball stitching represents the loon’s eyes, while blue hues on the back form ripples of waves. There’s also a yellow and pink outline, representing the sunset.
Minnesota’s cap has an outline of the state. There are three parts to the design — the top which reflects the northern lights, the middle that refers to the sky and the bottom which represents the water. The North Star indicates where the Twins reside in the twin cities.
Under the hat’s brim is a design with the topography of Lake Minnetonka, the uniform’s only nod to Grammy Award-winning artist Prince.
It was widely speculated that the Twins would have a Prince-themed design. The franchise opted to go in a different direction, however, Hinkel did not rule out the opportunity of doing one in the future.
“People know Prince is from here, but it’s not the only thing our state’s known for,” Hinkel said. “We actually think our state’s more known for how many lakes that we have. And so we felt like if we were going to tell a first story in our City Connect uniform, that we better double down on the essence of our state. But that’s not to say Prince isn’t off the table for future years.”
Players were involved in the design process “as much as they [were] willing,” according to Hinkel. Minnesota used their input for the pants, colors and hat.
Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers said the uniform is “very Minnesota.”
“I think they did a really good job curating some unique logos and finding a unique color scheme that really stands out for the theme of the jerseys,” he said. “I’m really excited to wear them, and I think Twins Territory will really like them. We’re all excited.”