The Negative Impact of MLB Uniforms on Social Media ⚾️📲

Edition #1: The Controversy of the MLB Uniforms and its Impact on Social Media ⚾️📲

Social Media can be a breeding ground of negative comments and trolls galore. The epitome of this was February’s debacle over the new MLB uniforms.

In case you live under a rock, the firestorm came to multiple people related to the issue. MLB got backlash, the Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin as well as Nike. All parties involved weren’t held back to criticism from the sports world, especially the trolls of the internet.

What is the controversy? 🤔

A fan went viral after tweeting the image below about the changes of the new uniforms. You can clearly see the difference from the past year to this coming season.

But, that wasn’t all. The big “fashion faux pas” was over the pants. The pants are see-through. I’m quite perplexed how MLB (who made over $11 billion in 2023), Fanatics (who hit a $31 billion valuation in 2022) and Nike (who made over $5 billion in 2023) messed this up! Shouldn’t there have been testing of some kind.

How did people react to the uniforms? 👀

Rubin received plenty of pissed off MLB fans going at him in the comments of his Instagram posts, even on posts that included his daughter.

While the fans are right about the MLB uniforms, are they justified to troll/spam Rubin in his comments?

The Fanatics CEO responded to the criticism:

So this brings up two good questions. Who is to blame for the controversy? Do they deserve the backlash?

First, there is time to fix the MLB uniforms, but will they get fixed? Second, I think they do deserve the backlash, but commenting on Rubin’s post that includes his daughter is trolling in my opinion.

But, the backlash has slowed down a bit. I’ve been seeing less troll-y comments on Rubin’s post.

Either way, social media can always be a space where people can express themselves, whether it’s positive or negative, the comments will come.

I don’t expect that this controversy will end anytime soon…