Hey, You 'Sconnies, Come Get Your Wisco: Brewers' New City Connect Uniforms Do a Lot Right and One Thing Wrong

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of Milwaukee Brewers/MLB

The Brewers will open a homestand this weekend against the Nationals by donning their second edition of City Connect uniforms for the first time. In preparation for that, the team rolled out the new look in an elaborate multi-platform social media announcement.

The base color of the threads will be blue, though lighter than the team's standard navy and less bright than the blue that defined their glove-and-ball logo era. Although the comparison often feels trite, the choice of tone does genuinely evoke a lake or river. The accents (including nifty piping down the sleeves) are cream-colored, a well-measured nod to the Cream City. There will be a good amount of orange, too, bringing together a smart color scheme that doesn't bend so far from the tradition of the team, the city or the state as to feel jarring. It's new, but not alien. 

There's a new patch designed to look like a fishing bobber, but with baseball stitches. It's not prominently featured on the uniform, but it's nice. Even better is the redesigned Barrelman logo on the sleeve patch, which has the mascot superimposed on a many-colored outline of Wisconsin, pursuing a ground ball. The explanations and rollouts of these are always a bit overdone. Neither the league nor Nike does a very good job of making one forget that the point of having the new threads is to sell merchandise. On balance, though, this uniform does a lot of things right. It's almost really, really great.

But.

The team didn't just splash 'Wisco" across the front of the jersey, as became clear when the uniforms leaked last month. They leaned all the way into it. Their tagline for the unveiling is "If you're from Wisco, you know the way," and they're referring to the overall vibe as the "Wisco Way." 

There, of course, they have a problem, because no one is from Wisco. That diminutive reference is only used by people from elsewhere, and usually, it's not used flatteringly. At various points over the last quarter-century, people from the rest of the Midwest have tried on Wisco as a way to refer to the state (with its burdensome three-syllable name) and "Sconnies" as a demonym for people who live there, and some of that lingo has stuck, in Iowa and Minnesota and Illinois. But for Wisconsinites, it's simply not a thing. It will never be. 

It's always a downer when an advertising or marketing campaign hits a note this far from the proper key, but when it comes to the City Connect program, it cuts even deeper. Insofar as this program is anything real—any earnest effort to tie together team and community, be that by deepening the relationship between the team and a part of that community or by reaching out to a new segment of the community altogether—it has to be undertaken after serious research. It should be done by someone local. It should, in short, never come anywhere near calling the Brewers' home state "Wisco".

Instead, these very pretty uniforms will largely remind us all of how commercial, transactional and hollow a relationship teams want with their fans. They're well-executed, but you can't connect (or Connect) to a community that doesn't exist. By letting a consultant with insufficient real intimacy with the city or state create such an out-of-touch theme for the uniform, Nike and the Brewers forfeited their chance to deepen their connection with fans. This organization does so many things well that they should easily survive the error, but it was an unforced one, and a disappointing one.

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[Michael Trzinski]

MKE doesn't exist either, but there you have it...lol.

I was born here and have lived all 66 years in this state. Although I'm not a big fan of winter anymore since I gave up downhill skiing and snowmobiling, the summer and fall are the best. Spring? Ehh, not so much.

I think the unis look great and if they are not cost-prohibitive, I will definitely buy one.

[Michael Trzinski]

$200 for a jersey, $53 for a hat.

OUCH!

[Matthew Trueblood]

5 minutes ago, Michael Trzinski said:

$200 for a jersey, $53 for a hat.

OUCH!

Yep. That's the world, ever since Fanatics took control of the league's merch shops. I haven't bought any team-branded stuff since 2011; I just will not pay what they demand these days.

[Michael Trzinski]

29 minutes ago, Matthew Trueblood said:

Yep. That's the world, ever since Fanatics took control of the league's merch shops. I haven't bought any team-branded stuff since 2011; I just will not pay what they demand these days.

Sell 1000 of them at $200, make $200k.
Sell 5000 of them at $100, make $500k.

Of course those sales might not happen, but that is the 'bottom line theory' for sales. Lower the price, sell more. Raise the price, sell fewer. I'm sure they can do some sales projections and will probably come up with similar numbers.

[eklinka]

49 minutes ago, Michael Trzinski said:

$200 for a jersey, $53 for a hat.

OUCH!

what's worse is the poor quality. I miss being able to buy stitched jerseys. Now we got iron-ons that deteriorate after a couple wash cycles or peel. Gotta get knockoffs nowadays for a more authentic jersey feel.

The new era hats are pretty nice quality though. Still pricey imo.

[CheezWizHed]

You missed the big miss... Orange on blue.  That belongs to the FIBs. 

[CA John]

1 hour ago, Michael Trzinski said:

MKE doesn't exist either, but there you have it...lol.

I was born here and have lived all 66 years in this state. Although I'm not a big fan of winter anymore since I gave up downhill skiing and snowmobiling, the summer and fall are the best. Spring? Ehh, not so much.

I think the unis look great and if they are not cost-prohibitive, I will definitely buy one.

It’s Milwaukee’s airport code. Not an endorsement tho. Most of these are developed by Park Ave agencies who couldn’t ID a cheese curd in a police lineup.

[Turning2]

I'm not a sucker. Won't pay for merchandising and marketing garbage designed to fleece the fans in order to keep paying ridiculous salaries. At least they look a little more professional than the kindergarten cartoonish Brew Crew version last year.  

[BarremlensTSSC]

Just my opinion (everyone's got one) but I think these are pretty awful.  We'll see how the blue jersey looks under the lights.  Maybe it will grow on me but I don't care for them right now.  "Wisco" is something I've never heard someone from Wisconsin ever say, so if the "connect" (and isn't it supposed to be City Connect?) is there it appears to fall mainly with recent transplants to Wisconsin from Minnesota, Illinois, etc. who use "Wisco" far more than any native Wisconsinite that I've ever met while living in 3 different parts of the state for 50+ years..  It's not a bad thing to connect to recent arrivals to Wisconsin I guess, but I feel far more of a connection to the ball and glove logo than anything else.  And I've always been annoyed by Barrel Man in any form.

Not that any of that matters.  I just thought the powder blue city connect and particularly the MKE hat were much, much better.  I didn't buy any of that stuff either so it's pretty clear that I'm not in the target market for these alternate unis anyway.

[BarremlensTSSC]

2 hours ago, Matthew Trueblood said:

Yep. That's the world, ever since Fanatics took control of the league's merch shops. I haven't bought any team-branded stuff since 2011; I just will not pay what they demand these days.

I'm getting there.  I love my ball and glove golf shirt and I sprung for a Brewers ball and glove logo blanket just to get through a cold, damp Timber Rattlers double header without freezing to death last Saturday.

[wiguy94]

As much as I dislike trying to make the whole lake blue thing (like the Bucks) and orange a thing and also dislike the Wisco thing. I don’t know anyone personally who calls Wisconsin Wisco, I thought the jerseys looked quite good in that video which I wasn’t expecting.

[Matthew Trueblood]

1 hour ago, CheezWizHed said:

You missed the big miss... Orange on blue.  That belongs to the FIBs. 

Ehh. I mean I see what you mean but it's a distinct blue-and-orange that has its own feel. And they're right that it hearkens a little to the American Assoc. Brewers and the Braves. I actually really like the shades of each that they picked; it feels right to me in that sense.

[MilwaukeeBeers]

What Fanatics and Michael Rubin has done to sports merchandise is criminal and he shall pay for it one day. That hat just PMO to look at. 

[maxximus]

i don't mind them, but the idea any of us should be SO disappointed because these are supposed to "connect the community" like stated in article, when i feel confident everyone understands that special uniform releases are solely to drum up extra business seems a little over the top in its response.

Do people refer to it as Wisco very much? no. Do you recognize what state is being conveyed by it? yea.

If we ARE trying to take this too seriously as the article implies, then the team and its fan taking what some think as a derogatory/unflattering (in my experience, i've never heard it used in a mean way) term back and owning it is a good thing, no? Words are what we make them after all.

 

Also, while I understand some of what Matt's saying here that Wisco isn't popular or 'a thing' (and it doesn't have to be!), it also feels odd to be told by someone from out of state about what offends or is right or wrong way to represent the state.

[BarremlensTSSC]

5 hours ago, eklinka said:

what's worse is the poor quality. I miss being able to buy stitched jerseys. Now we got iron-ons that deteriorate after a couple wash cycles or peel. Gotta get knockoffs nowadays for a more authentic jersey feel.

The new era hats are pretty nice quality though. Still pricey imo.

Have to confess that for shirts I mostly just go to the free jersey give away days at the TRats stadium and wear those.  You end up with a player name on the back (Chourio, Frelick), the colors so far end up the same as the big league team and I figure that's close enough.  Heck of a lot cheaper.  

[Snoebird]

If you would like to demonstrate your disappointment with "Wisco," do a quick search for Wisco 99 retro T-shirts, buy one and wear it to the ballpark on Fridays. The gas station chain was very popular in the '50s, as were the Braves, and Wisco became a Braves sponsor before being bought out by the Pure Oil Co. in '58. Coincidentally, Wisco 99's logo background is orange.

[Brian]

On 4/9/2026 at 12:51 PM, Turning2 said:

I'm not a sucker. Won't pay for merchandising and marketing garbage designed to fleece the fans in order to keep paying ridiculous salaries. At least they look a little more professional than the kindergarten cartoonish Brew Crew version last year.  

The whole new WISCO jersey looks completely for the timid soul.  The only thing it's missing is glitter and a cartoon character, so I blame the uniforms for our "Milquetoast" loss yesterday. 

[Turning2]

2 hours ago, Brian said:

The whole new WISCO jersey looks completely for the timid soul.  The only thing it's missing is glitter and a cartoon character, so I blame the uniforms for our "Milquetoast" loss yesterday. 

LOL.. I won’t connect W’s or L’s to the connects, I’m just a traditionalist who doesn’t appreciate tampering with the uniforms. Seems unprofessional, Leave the silly gags to the Savanah Bananas. I’ll add, I don’t blame the Brewers. It’s the league pushing this from what I can tell.

[eklinka]

On 4/9/2026 at 5:15 PM, BarremlensTSSC said:

Have to confess that for shirts I mostly just go to the free jersey give away days at the TRats stadium and wear those.  You end up with a player name on the back (Chourio, Frelick), the colors so far end up the same as the big league team and I figure that's close enough.  Heck of a lot cheaper.  

I honestly like the T-Rats free jerseys (I went to the frelick giveaway earlier this month), the text is actually printed on as opposed to pressed on. Lasts a lot longer.

[BarremlensTSSC]

7 hours ago, eklinka said:

I honestly like the T-Rats free jerseys (I went to the frelick giveaway earlier this month), the text is actually printed on as opposed to pressed on. Lasts a lot longer.

I was at that one too.  I prefer the Chourio from last year a little bit but the Frelick jersey this yea was pretty good for a freebie.  On par quality wise with the Yelich freebie I got at AMFAM a couple of Memorial Days ago.