Latest / Your Dark Companion Podcast / Tejas Red Fridays & Rangers Vibe: City Connect Culture | Travis Dillon & Scott Biggers | Ep 223

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Tejas Red Fridays & Rangers Vibe: City Connect Culture | Travis Dillon & Scott Biggers | Ep 223 · Your Dark Companion Podcast

• Nobody would have thought that I would be the one. Ryder, sports talk. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Oh, with the big mic. Oh, okay. Alright. Yeah. Okay. Now I get it. We got a lightning strike, boys. What happened over there, Grego? We had a little lightning strike right outside the window. Alright. Alright. Here's a tip for all these Americano League teams. Don't do it. Wait. You said tip. Yeah. Tip. Okay. With a p. Keep jamming. The ticket colon. Nothing but a big Gen X jerk off set. Is this a cool night or what? I know somebody would hear that go bullshit. I'm back. I'll teach you soon. Like, go start the podcast. Is that what you're saying? Just go? Like, go. Okay. Alright. She says go. We go. Hello to one and all, and welcome to another episode of Your Dark Companion. We're glad to have you with us no matter where, when, or even how you may be receiving this podcast transmission. We're just glad you're watching it. I would be Mike Reiner. We are on the road today. As you can tell, we're not in our usual little tiny hovel, the nurturing biosphere of the mothership as we like to call it. Instead, we are out today. We are at Globe Life Field, And, we're going to talk a little bit today about baseball uniforms because City Connect Day is coming up around here. When the Rangers wear their city connect uniforms, they give us a program on that every year. The Rangers have never been too lackadaisical about getting with the whole throwback or city connect program or whatever baseball might be doing. They just jump right in there and give it the program. And today, with us on my immediate left, your immediate right, we got a couple of guys who have designed not only this year's City Connects, but as I understand it, quite several years past as well. Yeah. They are Travis Dillon and Scott Biggers. Now who's who here? Travis. I'm Travis. Travis over there. He's wearing the red Tejas. Tejas for Travis. And this is Scott. Yep. Alright. Good to have you guys with us. We appreciate you doing this. Pleasure. Of course. Tell us a little bit about who you are and what you guys do. Travis Dillon, senior vice president of marketing for the rangers. Grew up here in the DFW area, so it's been fun to kind of take this journey over the last this is my eighth season with the Rangers. Prior to that, spent, you know, two decades plus in the agency world. So working on brands like AT and T, Pepsi, Taco Bell, and that's how I know this guy. So we work together. We've been together for close to twenty years, including our time with the Rangers working together. So we both have that agency brand history together and and came over. I came over at the end of the eighteen season, and by 2019, I convinced him to to join me. So you guys are both Rangers employees. I I was thinking that maybe they contracted all that out to agency guys, but no. No. They bring it all in house, Yeah. We do it all. Excellent. And for how long now? This will be our eighth season together here at the Rangers. So we both 2019 was our first season together. Wow. Yeah. It's a pretty good, pretty good run there. It's been an extraordinary few years. Yeah. Lots happening. Very eventful. So tell us a little bit about how the whole City Connect thing got started. It me just add this first. It seems to me like it's kind of an offshoot and extension from the throwback thing. You know, teams started wearing throwback uniforms, and I can't remember which baseball throwback uniform I saw first, but I just loved it because I was watching a game some night, and some team was wearing a uniform from the sixties. I thought, man, this is cool. Mhmm. And it seems like it got started there, and where it is today is just kind of an extension of that. Is that anywhere near accurate? Yeah. I mean, you know, the we've chosen to go in a somewhat of a throwback direction. Some other teams have gone kind of more futuristic and I would say a little bit more left of center. Mhmm. The the whole idea of City Connect is connecting with that younger fan base that some of them appreciate that retro and throwback look. But it's really that that combination, that intersection of community, culture, and baseball. And so the idea is to tell these stories and create designs that may resonate with that that youth, the younger generation of baseball fans and future fans. The way that we and some other teams have approached it is kind of taking maybe a kind of a a spin forward of a retro look. Yeah. And so we've always loved that dating back to 2020 when we redesigned our core uniforms. We brought the powder blues back Mhmm. With the piping, but changed put rangers in a kind of a modernized script across the chest instead of the old block Texas. We put that same script on the whites, brought the piping back across all our jerseys. And so we kind of took that approach from one of the first projects we took on here was how do we, you know, give our respect to the past, tip our cap to the past, but, you know, move towards the future with the organization as we were heading towards our fiftieth anniversary and all these other things that were coming up. And so we've taken that same approach into City Connect as well. So while it's meant to connect with the youth, we've wanted to try find something that we thought all of our fans would identify with. Yeah. And it's a Nike partnership with MLB. -Yeah. -And started, what, in 'twenty one, So, I yeah, there was a bit of a throwback element to it. And, you know, we think fondly back to, you know, our fiftieth anniversary in 2022 where we wore the original 72s a few times during that season, which was glorious. Very cool. Yeah. Very cool. Yeah. I gotta tell you, I didn't like those uniforms back then, but I loved them, you know, at that time. Yeah. Yeah, they've aged well. Yeah. They have. So with the City Connect thing, you tried to design a uniform that connects with the city in some way, as it were. When you first sat down and started thinking about that, what was the first idea that that came to your minds? I mean, were you guys doing this together or was okay. Yeah. When you when you first started riffing on it, where'd you go? Well, it it starts with a you know, Nike starts with a questionnaire of, you know, key people at the organization, and they do this for every team. And so they ask about the relationship with the community and the city and, you know, how you define the brand, etcetera. Send the quest the answers back, and Nike's designers come back with some designs. So we answered the questions as a group, submitted them, and what we got back you know, and and in defense of the guys in Portland, Oregon, it's hard to design for a team in Texas. Yeah. Sure. And so we worked with them and just said, let us take a crack at the story. One of the challenges, as you well know, is we don't wear the name of a city on our chest. Right. Right. We wear the name of the biggest and the largest state in MLB. And, you know, there's 1,200 plus cities in the state, so how do we tackle that? So that ended up being just one of our big challenges. And it's how we got to our solution. We just flipped the nomenclature and looked at what we do. Like, if you think about how a ballpark attracts people from all over the place in, you know, in Texas, we connect cities. Yeah. So that became our story because the origin story, as you know, of the it's Dallas and Fort Worth coming together through baseball in Arlington. Mhmm. And so we loved that story. But, yeah, it took us a little bit to get there, in part because it's like, how do we tell the state story? You know, we wanna be faithful to the nomenclature and the spirit of City Connect, which is how do you connect with the city? Did you talk to anybody on the outside about this, or was this kept all inside and you guys just ripped on it until you came up with something? Or how what was the process like? There is a we refer to it as the burden of secrecy. So these, as you know, with a lot of uniform drops and reveals, it's a big event. And so the fewer people that know about it, the better just for the secrecy or the the reveal and the surprise and the moment. So it was a fairly small group internally that worked on it. And, you know, we we would talk in spirit with some of our colleagues across the league, you know, at the time. I think the Braves were go were designing theirs. And so we would talk to them just how the process is going without revealing, you know, this is what we're doing. So we found some, you know, support there. But internally, there were stakeholders that we would, you know, work with and that were super helpful in getting us to that first design. Yeah. An internal process. And it like, it's a two and a half year plus journey from when we start to when they reveal. So it's crazy to think that this December, January time frame, we'll start the process on the next one, which just I can't even get my head around, and I'm not going to get my head around it yet because I'm enjoying this one and it and and it's it's journey right now. But it is you have to start the process so early that keeping it tight is is critical. But as we've gone through the process, on both of these, as we got into the storytelling, we did expand that circle externally. On the first one, talking with Parker Vandergriff and the Vandergriff family family and and some other folks that, you know, were critical to that story, just making sure that we were being faithful to exactly how the events had played out. And then on the second one, you know, we had some internal and external folks within the community that we felt it was really important to get their input on telling the story appropriately. This is a pretty big thing all across baseball. Just about every team except one Yep. Does this. Right? Well, two. Two. Oh, there are two? Yeah. And, I mean, the As are just a matter of circumstance. Once they land in Vegas, they're going to do one. They just haven't had a city to connect with in a few years. Yeah. Guess to do city connects, you gotta have a city. You gotta have a city. So they've sat out just by circumstance. But they're gonna I think it may be their first year in Vegas, I would expect. But as soon as they land in Vegas, they will. Now, hate to ask you to get it in the mind of somebody else, but do you ever see a time where the Yankees might go along with something like this? It's an interesting question. Yeah. I I kinda do. Yeah. Do you? Yeah. I would've said no a few years ago. I think that think maybe they're warming up to the idea? I think it would be a massive opportunity for them. And I think what we've seen this year when you saw and you've read the articles and seen that the players have actually gone to the organization asking if they can wear the the navy blue Mhmm. Road jerseys during that they typically just wear during spring training. So I I feel like if it happens, it might come from the clubhouse. Mhmm. You know, that they wanna do some more dynamic things that but before that, I don't know if I would have Agreed. Given it much of a chance. Yeah. Now for the City Connect scene this year, you're telling a Texas story as it's as it's being labeled and being branded. Yeah. How did you guys arrive about that? And what is this going to mean exactly? Because when you start talking about Texas, there are a ton of stories out there. Yeah. You know, you you there's no shortage. So what's this gonna look like, you know, in this situation? You want to take on it? Sure. The There were a couple of things. One, we know We knew we wanted to bring back red as a uniform color, which, you know, the first City Connect nudged that out of our uniform lineup. So we wanted to bring red back. And then two, we wanted to tell that story about Tejas. And, you know, the the approach we took, our brief, if you will, was to reimagine tradition. And so we looked at past tradition or the kind of the elements from past rangers uniforms to find that as our uniform tradition. So it's the hat front, you know, the block t from the seventies and the lettering from the, you know, the eighties, the, you know, reds from the nineties. And that's you know? And then also recognizing the influence of Mexican culture on the state whose name we proudly wear. So it it was really those elements coming together. And then, you know, at that point, it's like, great. How do we tell that story? And I think that's what we really enjoy about this whole process is thinking of the uniform as a whole as a storytelling device. Yeah. And to us, it's it's it's just a really fun and interesting opportunity to do that. So anyway, we'll wear these for three years. And as Travis said, you know, before the year's out, we'll start scheming on what City Connect 2029 looks like. But yeah. So So you're working that far in advance now, Yeah. It is. I mean, it the the first one was the same way, and a lot of it comes into supply chain and samples and getting things ready in production. It's it's mainly, that timeline is driven from the production side of things, from Fanatics to Nike and MLB. But, yeah, it is it is a long journey. So this April, when we finally get to show the world, it you'd feel like you've been sitting on a present you've been ready to give somebody for so long that you're just so eager to do it. It kind of feels like Christmas Eve for about a month when you're just ready and trying to hope it doesn't leak out. How far back did was is it when you guys started working on these? Yeah, it was so we debuted in 'twenty three, the first one. So it was like late twenty three, early twenty four that we had our first call with Nike about these. So, yeah, it was wild. Yeah. We met with them at spring training in 2024 just to kind of go through the idea. And it was approved by I think September 2024. Yeah. And ever since then, you guys have been sitting on this. It's like, don't tell anybody or Can't tell anybody. That's when, you know, you That's exciting because I was involved in something like that once, too. I know. And it, that's the, you know, you have the story and you have enough of the story to design the uniform. But what's nice about the the rest of that time, especially on the two that we've done where the story you know, the first one was kind of a complex story and and so many elements and pieces to it. And then this one had its own complexity just because it's so culturally important that we wanted to make sure that that we did justice in how we told the story. And so it gave us the time. That's we brought in some artists and and content creators and community leaders and, you know, folks within the the community, the Mexican and Hispanic community in in DFW Mhmm. And internally, of the of the peers that we have as well, and sat down and and worked with them on what is the right way to tell the story. This is a celebration. It's not an appropriation. It is a celebration of the this massively important and big chunk of our community. Right? You know, it's close to 40% of our community is Hispanic, and the majority of those are Mexican descent. Right? And our fan base mirrors that. And we've been on this journey for over fifty years with that community. And over the last several, since we've been here, we've been very intentional as a brand to continue to really lean in. And we felt like this was the right time. The next step for that journey was to celebrate on the uniform. And so that's where when we were meeting with this external, this council that we were calling it, that's where the Texas story came. It wasn't one of us. It was in that group. And one of the folks on the council said, Guys, this is not a Mexico story or a Mexican culture story. This is a Texas story. And I get chills even remembering that moment where we're like, Oh my gosh, yeah, you're right. And then in that same conversation is where, you know, another person in that council said, You know, it doesn't matter if you say it with an X or a J, it's the same place. And we all call it home. Like Texas, Tejas, it's all the same. And we're sitting here in this moment, and it validated the entire reason that we got a diverse group, diverse meaning internal and external group, to talk through this because I don't know if we ever would have gotten there, just our group sitting around trying to work through a story, we would have gotten to a great story. Yeah. But those moments that came out of expanding our circle is something that I'm I'm like I can't even put into words how grateful I am. And these these folks giving up their time to make sure that this story was as authentic as possible was was really special. So they're really getting with the program quickly. Yeah. Yeah. It was really it just it just I don't know. The way it came about was just so organic and authentic, and I feel like that's come through in the jerseys and the story we were able to tell. You mentioned Red a minute ago. The Rangers seemingly in recent years have been a little bit reluctant or not real open to emphasizing red. I mean, they did they did go with red a few years ago. Yeah. Mhmm. With almost no blue whatsoever. And to this day, those are my favorite Rangers uniforms ever. But they went by back to working in blues. And now here we are. So be it. When you guys said you wanted to emphasize red a little bit more, were they cool with that? Very. Yeah. Yeah. It was you know, we heard from fans from, you know, even Players. Yeah. And there was just a desire to go back to red. It's interesting. In 'eighty four and 'eighty five, we had the red with the Rangers script, which is beautiful. Then we brought the reds back in 'ninety four. Yeah. One of the things we talked about was, particularly given this is the thirtieth anniversary this year of our first postseason win in 1996, were wearing the reds. And then right after we relaunched the reds in 2009, we went to the World Series for a couple of years, 2010, 2011. So there was, you know, part of the storyline was, man, red's the color of winning. And so we were excited about, you know, about that. But just broadly, the idea of bringing red back was embraced internally. Yeah. And, you know, to be very transparent, there was never a movement to get rid of the reds. So part of the City Connect program with MLB is that every team had to go to what they call a four plus one. So you had to narrow down to four jersey four core jerseys and one city connect. So when we added the city connect, red was kinda just the odd one out. And some of that comes down to, obviously, we're gonna wear white at home. The powder blues was gonna be something we wear at home. And so when you think about going on the road, we had the the royal blues, which everyone loves, and the grays. And at the time, getting rid of a gray was not an option. Like, MLB required everyone to have a gray road uniform. Right. And so it was really a tough decision of, like, red or the powder blues and what are we do or the the royal blues. And some of it came down to talking with our clubhouse crew. And if we bring reds on the road, then that's a whole nother, however many sets of boxes and crates they have to bring. And does the plane fit it? And so it got into all of these things where we said, okay, well, red seems like the odd one out for now. And we looked at each other and said, look, if there's a lot of love and a lot of, you know, if we're all missing the reds in three years, we have the option through our next City Connect to fix that. And I think we got, we didn't get far into the '23 season. We were all looking at each other. We were missing the reds and kind of Red Fridays and just kind of that communal feeling in the ballpark that in the front office, everyone would come in on Fridays wearing red before '23. And so I think we knew, to Scott's point, that whatever we did in '26, it was gonna be red. Yeah. I know I'm probably speaking just from the standpoint of a fan, but those were good days. Those were really good days. In fact, those were the first best days Yeah. That we had with the red. And so I don't know. I'm probably just being a fanboy there. So don't mind me. We felt the same thing. I mean, I grew up in DFW rooting for this team. Scott's been here in Texas since college. You've officially spent more time in Texas than California now. It's true. So you're a Texan. Legit. So we did the same thing. And it was a it was a really tough decision. We pushed back on the league trying to keep five plus one. And it was just a hard line they were taking with just they had to narrow things in and, you know, it's just the way they chose to do business. But we knew we wanted to bring that red back. And we love that we brought it back, but we brought it back reimagined it, and we brought it back in a different way with the Coach Neil red, which has a very significant role in the history of this state and Mexico. And just how regal and royal and important that color is. The fact that we could bring the red back, but have the red actually be a part of the cultural story as well and not just bringing red back. So that part for us was special that we were able to find that angle to what red we chose that that served that that that cultural story as well. And for those who are fans of the Block T, the Block T will be a part of this too, right? Yeah. Yep. Yeah, it's there. It's on the hat. All right. There it is right there. Can't get more Block T than that. Yeah. And this too is an example of you know, it's kind of like the Coach O'Neil red. We wanted to bring back the Block T as a band then to think about how we reimagine that. We look at it through the significance of the Mexican textiles and the craftsmanship associated with that and just the long history of, the use of textiles and natural fibers, you know, dating back thousands of years. And so, like, that's why this is in the form of the raised weave. So it's a bit of a nod to, you know, that craftsmanship and artisanship. Yeah, and the cream, right? That natural color, you know, honors that same time period before there were bleaches and dyes, that that was white, you know, before we had bleach dyes. And so when and that led to the natural color pants, which, again, became part of the story and and honored the coach Neil in that era. But also, know cream pants and baseball are great. And so, like, bringing those cream pants into the mix from a baseball perspective was just felt really good. And the fact that we also had a story that tied back into our, the the color that tied back into our story was just the icing on on top. Now you mentioned a little while ago that bringing the Mexican culture and some of the the things that embody the Mexican culture is very important to you. Yeah. Let's and there are several ways in which you're doing this. Right? Yeah. Yep. Let's talk about a few of those. Yeah. I mean, it goes back really 2022 when we made the commitment to forming the Mariachi De Los Texas Rangers. So we were the first team in baseball to have our dedicated I think in pro sports, but I know baseball, to have a dedicated team mariachi band. So we decided to make we made that decision in 2022. That same season, we started a postgame concert series that's one Saturday a month called Viva Tejas. Mhmm. That's over at Texas Live and and has become, you know, just a staple of our post game celebrations, whether you're of of Hispanic or Mexican descent or if you just like great music. We've had just incredible turnouts there. And then, you know, in '23, when the All Star Game was here, we were very intentional that the All Star logo, and we were we really pushed this with MLB, represented not only Texas, but Mexican artistry influences. So there were paisleys and the paisley patterns and the colors and the All Star logo really honored both Texas and and and Mexican artistry. And then in that same year, in '24, we relaunched our Los Rangers social platform. And it went from the league was running it for years, and it was basically a Spanish translation of what our English social channels are. And we relaunched it and rebranded it into something that is really a celebration of that intersection of culture and sports. And so all of these things that we've been doing are just kind of steps in this journey together. And we felt like when we got to the point of really deciding what we were gonna do with this jersey, that we felt like this was just the next natural step in that journey together. And as you know, I mean, the uniform is a sacred place. And what you decide to a story you decide to tell on a uniform is gotta be significant and important. And we felt like this was the time to do that, that together, with the community that we had created this really reciprocal and authentic relationship together, and that this just felt like the right time to to bring that to life through the jersey. As you look at uniforms around baseball, who's getting it right these days? Oh, that's a great question. I mean, I I love what we're we're big fans of the guys in Atlanta and the Braves and and what they've done just in general. Their marketing team are some of our closest friends. I I think they're two, City Connects, two of my favorite over the time that MLB has done it because they've taken a similar path as we have. It's kind of a retro, modernized kind of retro spin on there. So I've I've I've really appreciated what they've done in that space. I don't know. We've talked about this. Were the ones that stand out for you. Yeah. There's and, of course, every time and this year was different where all teams rolled out their City Connect on the same day. And so we had all was it seven? We had all seven spread out, we're just like, oh, well, you know, which ones do we gravitate towards or, you know, not? Would say the brewers have done a really nice job of selling fun. And so both of their city connects, their one point o and two point o, do a nice job of just kind of celebrating the region and a a kind of a playfulness. You know, the first one, I think, had a barbecue grill on the So it just recognized kind of this this culture in Wisconsin. I haven't spent much time there at all, but I'll take their word for it. But it's a really fun celebration of the region. And then broadly, the other I mean, I'm a sucker for kind of the old classics of the, you know, uniforms, like Cubs and original Red Sox. But I love what the Cubs did, you know, with their their launch last year, kind of celebrating the blues, you know, Chicago Blues, and they want kind of a powder blue look. And I'll tell you that, to me, the best kind of across the board refresh that I've seen since I've been in baseball is what the Twins did a few years ago. Like, their jerseys, what they did, it felt like every one of them could have been a City Connect. And then they still, on top of that, have done a City Connect that that worked for them. I don't know because it I just felt like the the twins' uniforms were all had kind of a retro they were anchored in something Yeah. Kind of, you know, retro. So that I was not that I had low expectations when I heard they were, you know, kinda rebranding their uniforms, but I was so pleasantly surprised that they got it so right. Yeah. They just really hit on all of them. Now, isn't that what you guys are trying to do, though? Anchor this in in the Mexican culture and and Rangers history and and, know, those other things that come together like that? That's sounds like exactly what you guys are about. It is. And I think that's maybe why I like it because it's rooted in a lot of the the philosophies that we have. But And that's the thing when this first came out and there were leaked photos, which just always sucks because you're not getting to tell your story yet. You're not getting a good photo. It's of a jersey hanging in a back store room that someone took on their phone and you know, just doesn't like it. Just for the record, I'm not seeing any of these. Yeah. This is when it yeah. When it you know, this is close to three weeks before we debuted when that came out. But, you know, some of non Rangers fans, some of the conversation around it was like, oh, they just it just looks basic. Like they didn't like they didn't really get it creative. Our fans, when we rolled it out, recognized this was rooted in that block lettering of the eighties, that Nolan and Pudge era that every time we've talked to fans on social or through different brand health studies, and we've talked about past uniforms or past styles, that gray eighties gray with the blue Texas is always near or at the top of people's rankings. Really? And so I think just the nostalgia and the connection to Nolan and that era and Pudge and kind of everything that a lot of the, you know, OGs grew up with that. And then there's the new generation that kind of likes that retro feel that like our fans completely understand why we went with that lettering versus doing something a little bit. And we looked at, we looked at scripts and all sorts of different ways to say Tejas. Mean, we explored a lot of different things and just kept getting drawn back to like anchoring this into something that felt like it was honoring a part of our history as well. So as you look to work in Mexican culture and everything like that, how did you arrive at some of the things that you were some of the places you wound up? Did you consult with anybody or how did that come together? Yeah. Like Travis said, we had a council that was super helpful to us. You know, when if we go back to, you know, when we decided we want to do red, we want to tell a Tejas story. There's a finite number of elements on the uniform that you can use. And so it's the sleeve patch and the piping and the jock tag and, you know, all these different things. And so then it just becomes, alright, what's the, again, the story we want to tell? And we leaned into, again, the Block T and some of the design from our mariachi uniforms, the trajas. Mhmm. And, you know, we that comes from the charro, so the Mexican horseman. And so to look at those uniforms, you see sort of this interlocking tee, which we used on our sleeve. So we loved kind of how that felt cultural. But in reality, it's it's the block tee Yeah. You know, interlocking. And so we loved how that looked both on the pipe, like on the sleeve and the leg piping. You know? So it just it it becomes a way. And like Travis said, the story of the cochineal, we knew who wanted to read. Well, how do we make that relevant through a like, how how is it relevant to the Mexican culture? And, you know, we've learned about the cochineal red and the importance there. And again, going back to, you know, second century, BC, where this tiny cactus dwelling insect yielded this rich, vibrant red dye. And that went into the textile making, ended up being a huge export in Mexico of Mexico's. And so the the red coats in, you know, in British, the, you know, the capes of the, the clergy, in Rome, Like, it's that royal red. So we were really intrigued just from, again, the joy of telling a story and, like, realizing the significance of, cool. This red isn't just any red. Like, there's a significance to it. So really, it's like looking at all the elements through that lens. And so the papel picado, for example, like on the sleeve is a just a symbol of, you know, it's it's it's tissue paper that's cut artistically. It's a long standing tradition. It's celebration and joy. And and a lot of it is like, man, celebration and joy. That's kind of what we're we're about. Viva Right? Yes. Yeah. So Viva Texas is on the is on the jock tag. And that paired really well with, you know, as Travis said, this event that we've had for for years. So and and plus just the sentiment of it, this rally cry of, you know, Viva Tejas. So it it was just Texas. Yeah. Yeah. And and to Travis' point also with the leak, you know, we were robbed of telling that story. And so you get a lot of just and you get it, like, knee jerk reactions of a poor photo, and you can't see some of the detail. And and in this uniform, like, there's a ton of detail on the the fill that's inspired that's Charro inspired. And one of the elements too is the belt, which is this embossed leather. And it's a beautiful belt that actually is inspired by the Vaquero, which Oh, here it is. Yeah. Which is significant in, you know, both Texas and Mexico ranching. So, yeah, these are different than the ones I wore when I was 11 in Little League. I should say so. But anyway Wow, that's nice. So there's just a ton of detail, fit and finish, if you will, into the uniform that, like, helps to tell that story. Yeah. And that, you know, the that really honors not only the the Charro culture, but the Vaquero culture, you know, the Mexican cowboy and the impact that they've had on, you know, ranching and horsemanship and just kind of overall cowboy culture in Texas and in Mexico. And it's it's I always love hearing anybody, especially Scott, talk through the uniform because it it literally is this roadmap of our journey with this community over the last several years, you know, with Viva Tejas and and the the patterns that, you know, live in the trajas of our mariachis. You know, you've got some of the secondary marks that we had also were originally designed as part of those trajes as well. And you just you you see all of these they're like breadcrumbs of these different stops on this journey together that we're able to come together in this uniform in just such a special way. Pretty amazing stuff you guys have done here. I appreciate that. It's fun. It's a really fun opportunity just to be able to again, to tell a story with a uniform. Do you think these uniforms are going to be worked into any kind of rotation? Or is this just gonna be a one time thing? Or how's this gonna play out? Wear them Friday home games from, you know, consider probably, I don't know, 'twenty seven, 'twenty eight, but certainly this year, where I'm on Fridays. And then there's a couple of special wears, Mexican heritage. Yeah. Yeah, I think So a couple of Saturday wears as well. But they are designed just This year, we're wearing them just at home. You know? And we'll, you know, ideally be bringing back Red Friday. So we have red outs in the park. And to Travis' point, kind of the You know, get that fun, vibrant energy in the building. To I mean, to answer your question from a long term perspective, it's a great question. And I think we went into the first one with the same perspective that we're gonna see how our fans embrace how, you know, like, what the sentiment is around these uniforms. You know, we're not required to change them out after three years. We could run these back. We could make slight alterations if we wanted to, or we could go with something completely different. So I think while we'll start working on designs later this year, early next year, you know, that'll be kind of exploring what our other options are. But I don't know if these if our fans, if this becomes, you know, something that they love, then we have to consider how they become a permanent part. And that'd be a great problem to have, to be honest. That would be a great problem to have. Yeah. Yeah. And you know how, like, when we, with the first City Connect, when we released them, because it was really a kind of a shock to the system. Yeah. Like really different. Yeah. It was. It was a look that we'd never seen the Rangers have before. Right. Yeah. And by the end of the three year cycle so while the first, you know, few weeks were, you know, the people had opinions. But by the end of the third year, you know, we saw all kinds of messages on social media of, like, you can't take these away. Yeah. And so But get used to it. Right. Yeah. Exactly. And and embrace it and understand kind kind of of why why we we made the choices we did in terms of, yeah, we chose that typeface for that reason and that symbol. And so it's just part of, like, once fans understand the kind of the story behind it, like, they will embrace it. Well, here's one fan you never have to worry about. I always like it when teams roll out new uniforms, no matter what the circumstance is. Know, something like this or just something they bring back or maybe something they wanna debut and look forward to. Yeah. And that's been for me, if I could go back and my son's 10. I think about if I went back to my 10 year old self and and told him that he was gonna be designing uniforms for his, you know, local baseball team when he's older, I I would've said I was crazy. Right? And that's been one of the beautiful things about, you know, this job that we've been able to do together is, you know, bringing some of those elements back, designing uniforms. You know, when we built this ballpark, the storytelling in this ballpark, I remember when we were going through the ballpark process, literally said to Scott, I said, this is the ballpark my kids are gonna grow up knowing. Like, it's my responsibility for that generation for them to know our history through this ballpark and how we do it. And these city connects become this additional canvas, if you will, for us to continue to tell our story and bring that to life. And so I mean, I don't know. It's a every one of these is a pinch me moment because it is it is fun. And you get to color outside the lines a little bit. Yeah. You know? Because you know it's a three year run, and then you can choose to re rack it or whatever you're gonna do, but it allows you to take some chances and and and see what resonates. So it's that part's the most fun is because, you you know, you're able to kinda do some things maybe you wouldn't typically get to. Yeah. And the whole City Connect initiative is focused on getting a younger fan into baseball. Yeah. And so to see young kids wearing, you know, the old Peaglen TX or the current, you know, City Connect T is awesome. And it brings both of us great joy just because that becomes, you know, this isn't my dad's uniform. This is my uniform. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So who do you think is getting the uniform thing right in the game right now? I mean, there's know, what's interesting is, especially when you look at City Connect, is so much of the City Connect, and I appreciate this from our perspective, is I don't necessarily expect people outside of Texas to understand our uniform choice or choices when we're telling our story. And I look at that from the outside too, because there's been some that you see and you may not really get it. And then you look at the fan base and how excited they are about it. Right? And then you say, well, this wasn't for me. I'm I'm a Texas Rangers fan in Texas. I don't live in whatever other city. Right? So I I don't know. I think that I I think that so much of that, I think, is so unique to that fan base and what resonates with them. I'll tell you, you know, out of the first City Connects, you know, one one that I love just because of how bold they were. One was Boston with the yellows. I never thought in a million years that I would see them do that. And so I respected that, that they did that. But I, you know, what San Diego did, and I just, again, having a 10 year old son who, like, absolutely loves that mint green hat. And luckily, we live in South Lake. So the SD, it looks like a South Lake Dragons logo. And so he's got one of those and he's like, no, dad, this is Southlake. You know, that's why I got it. I'm like, it's okay, buddy. They're National League. We can can we can let that go. But seeing how what they did and you go to San Diego, I've been there a couple times, you know, since they launched City Connect. I mean, those hats are everywhere and those jerseys are everywhere. So they did a really great job of hitting on both style and culture that their entire community embraced. Might you say that they've gotten it more right than anybody else? They've done a really good job. I mean, their sales, I mean, they've done From a retail perspective, they've done extremely well. Yeah. It's a smart group over there. So, yeah, they've done a really nice job. Who else is good? Well, I'll give a shout out to the First City Connect of the Marlins, which Sugar Kings. Yeah, which tied again, it was sort of an approach we took where it dug deep into regional baseball to tell the story. And with their, you know, vibrant Cuban community, you know, was a story of the, you know, Cuban baseball, the sugar kinks. And, like, fascinating. And from a throwback standpoint, beautiful. Like, loved everything about both the uniform and the way they rolled it out and told the story. Yeah. Yeah. They did. And I one of our favorites of of the first round was the Southside, the the White Sox, what they did just with Southside just because it was so on brand for them. I was we had heard some teams were either going to or considering strongly considering not changing and just rolling forward. And that was my top that was that was my prediction is that they weren't gonna change that because they were just such a hit, they were so on point. And, you know, what they did with the second ones made sense with kind of the tie in to the Bulls and their ownership group and everything else. And then the Bulls, in their city editions, kind of did a same similar nod. And so you could see this was kind of a bit of a choreographed effort. But yeah, their first one, I I just loved because it was just they didn't over design it, and it just felt like it was just so dead on to what their their brand and, you know, kind of that South Side Of Chicago represents. All right. So the plan is to roll out these when? Well, we're playing in them currently. So we wore them last Friday. That was our second wear. So I don't know. Eight more wears, nine more wears this season. Yeah. Yeah. They debuted on the the April 9. We wore them the first time on the twenty fourth, and then it'll be every Friday this season. And then we'll have two Saturdays. So we've got our Mexican heritage weekend in June when we play the Padres. So we'll wear them that Friday and Saturday. And then Mexican heritage weekend in the September, where we'll we'll wear them both Friday and Saturday. But other than that, it's it's Friday nights. We're bringing red Fridays back. And it's just been really cool seeing the front office. And then the ballpark each of these Fridays, you've seen more and more red, whether it's people bringing the old, like if you want to come out and wear the old Texas reds that we wore from 2009 through 'nineteen, man, just rock it. Whatever red, we just love seeing that ballpark in all red. And to see how much our fans have already adopted this one, to me, is special. But yeah, just having that communal feeling of Red Friday's back for us has been really fun to see. Boy, I can't tell you how on board with that I would be. If they were to bring back the red, that is okay with me, man. Who do you think's doing the uniform game, right? Brewers. I think the Brewers do a pretty nice job with it. Yeah. I don't like the Padres colors, but as far as getting doing the best they possibly can with what they have to work with, I think they do a pretty nice job. I did like when they brought the brown and yellow back as much as, as you know, from a color palette perspective. But it's who they are. And so I love that they went back to that because and their fans have absolutely loved it. The San Francisco Giants, a few years ago, started going back to the way to one of their old looks. And that's a really classic look. Yeah. I really like it. Yeah. As much as I hate them, I gotta give it to the Dodgers. Yeah. That's another classic look. And again, as much as I hate them, you gotta give it to the Yankees because they know what they are. They stay with what they are. Yeah. And what they are is what they are, and that's it. Yeah. You know, that's all that they are. It's all they've ever been. Yeah. That's all they wanna be. So I respect that. The Tigers as well with the old English d. Yeah. It's another one. Yep. I love that they brought the orange back this year. Yeah. Yeah. They did. Know, that was I've I've forgot to mention them earlier. Just the decisions they made with their, you know, the the two kind of refreshes they did this year, I thought were spot on. Well, Travis Dillon and Scott Biggers, I cannot thank you boys enough for joining us here on Little YDC today. Well, this has been an honor for us, man. We've been fans of yours for decades. So this the fact that that what we're doing is on your radar for me, and I know you personally is is extremely flattering. So I appreciate you having us on. Appreciate the heck out of that and appreciate the heck out of you guys, man. Keep doing what you're doing because you're doing it right. In fact, this whole organization is doing a lot of things right these days. Thank you. Appreciate that. Great to see. All right. Thank you for watching Little YDC today. Now don't forget, we would love it if you'd put us out there on your social media because that is what gets us around. That's what enables us to make this thing grow. You do that for us. We'll do it for you. What am I reminding them about tomorrow? What are we doing? Grant Halliburton, Eric Nadel. Oh, yes. Tomorrow, Eric Nadel's birthday, benefiting the Grant Halliburton Foundation. That'll be at the Longhorn Ballroom. I'm sure tickets are still available. It's going to be a heck of a fun night. What? And we are giving away three tickets. Oh, we're giving away three tickets? Yeah. Go to our social media and comment happy birthday, and we'll maybe throw you some tickets. All right. So I guess that was on the podcast, right? Or am I supposed to say all that? Well, it is on the podcast now because I said it. Okay. That's what I wanted to do. But I did do talk back to you a minute ago. Yeah. See, I can never tell what's talk back and what's not. That's okay. I try not I try not to disrupt you too much. You're wonderful. I'm not groups. Yeah. You're wonderful. Awesome. First time you came in my ear, I was I was like, wait. Would would that wasn't one of our voices. So it did catch my own words. Alright. Thank you, boys. Really appreciate it. And to all of you out there, see you at the Eric Nadel birthday bash of the Longhorn tomorrow night. Bye. Alright. I'm gonna go take my pants off. You're Dark Companion is a stolen water media presentation.