Nike upset about Yankees' turtleneck trend: Report
Ever since the New York Yankees' players began wearing turtlenecks underneath their jerseys, fans have warmed up to the piece of vintage apparel.
It's a throwback to an earlier era — specifically, a five-year run from 1996 to 2000 that saw the Yankees reach the World Series four times — and not just on a superficial level. The Yankees quite literally reached into their own archives to find the clothes the players are wearing this postseason.
This postseason, multiple Yankees have opted for the “old school” turtlenecks that conjure up great memories from the past. Turns out, those turtlenecks ARE from the past. I’m told they were in storage for years, and the players chose them b/c they prefer the cotton material.
— Justin Shackil (@JustinShackil) October 19, 2024
YES Network's Justin Shackil recently reported that the turtlenecks the players currently wear were in storage for years. That helps explain why they have not been made available to fans online, in Yankee Stadium, or seemingly anywhere licensed Yankees apparel is sold.
The turtlenecks were licensed apparel when Majestic was the official uniform supplier to MLB. That job now falls to Fanatics (which bought Majestic Athletic in 2017) and Nike.
And one can imagine exactly how Nike feels about the Yankees' players wearing non-Nike gear in games. According to Brendan Kuty of The Athletic, the turtleneck trend isn't going over as well in Beaverton as it is in The Bronx.
"Nike hasn’t been thrilled about the Yankees’ use of clothing from a different brand, multiple team sources told The Athletic," Kuty wrote. "In 2019, Nike and Fanatics made a 10-year agreement with MLB to ensure that Nike would be the sole provider of on-field uniforms. Earlier this season, Nike and Fanatics came under fire when players ripped their newly designed jerseys for everything from their look to their feel."
Kuty reports that MLB OK'd the turtlenecks because they were previously issued to the Yankees and kept in stock.
This year, Fanatics took heat for several changes to the standard MLB uniforms — everything from the material to the pant size to the font size on the name plates — but Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin placed the blame on Nike for those changes.
"Normally when I get beat up, it’s because I actually did something wrong," Rubin said at the Sloan MIT Conference in March. "Here, I’m actually getting beat up and I actually didn’t do something wrong, we did exactly what we were instructed to do."
Next year, MLB has announced it will reverse several of the uniform changes Nike implemented. Perhaps it can incorporate turtlenecks as part of the Yankees' official look, too.
The game-time temperatures for Games 1 and 2 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium were in the 70s. Monday's Game 3 in The Bronx is expected to be in the low 50s, so expect to see the turtlenecks back in action.
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