The Sox weren’t the only thing left red in Boston after a three-part saga over a jersey design mishap.
The team acknowledged issues with its 2026 home jerseys on Wednesday, with some of the front of the D in Red and S in Sox stitched directly over the red piping coming down the center of the top. Normally, there is a little separation between the two areas, and the mistake has been less noticeable on the all-red spring training uniform top.
Nike’s iconic swoosh on the right shoulder was much closer to red piping compared to last season, and the piping itself was much higher around the neck.
Boston only added to the woes by addressing the mistakes and concerns about the uniform in a statement, then in an amended statement and then an additional clarification on where the blame lies for the snafu.
“As part of Major League Baseball’s return to the 2023 jersey template, we approved a design for our home white jerseys that, once produced and seen in person, we felt there should be more spacing between the lettering and piping,” the Red Sox said in their first statement. “In collaboration with MLB and Fanatics, we’re adjusting the home whites to achieve this separation. The updated jerseys will be ready for Opening Day.”
The since-deleted post was replaced with a new statement — and an additional classification — that seems to be an attempt to take Fanatics, which produces MLB’s on-field jerseys, off the hook for the error.
The phrases “which Fanatics produced exactly to our specs” and “We are grateful to our partners for their ongoing support” were added to the second official statement.
The Red Sox’s official X account later replied to its own post to further back Fanatics.
“To be clear, the original design was selected by the Red Sox. Fanatics executed to our specifications and has been an outstanding partner throughout,” the team wrote. “They deserve no blame and we are grateful to them for making the new jerseys in time for Opening Day.”
The changes and additions brought plenty of backlash from fans and the team’s handling of it, including Barstool Sports founder and avid Boston sports fan Dave Portnoy.
“Did the Red Sox just post and delete a tweet saying their Fanatics jerseys sucked?” he wrote in a quote post with three laughing emojis.
Portnoy also added a meme of John Krasinski from “The Office” with the caption: “Okay…Yeah Sure.”
The Red Sox are trying to improve on an 89-73 campaign that saw them get bounced from the playoffs in the wild-card round by the rival Yankees.
