Off-White Is Making $1,100 Baseball Jerseys With Holes in Them, and Baseball Fans Have Some Questions
On Wednesday morning, ESPN writer Joon Lee called attention to an exciting new three-way collaboration between late designer Virgil AblohBrand of Off-White, the company that makes New Era caps and hosts Major League Baseball: a collection of classic New Era jerseys, 59FIFTY caps, etc. per garment.
Presenting said evidence before the court of public opinion, i.e. Twitter, Lee pointed out the hefty price tag of each item full of holes. The large crescent-shaped cap removed from the brim costs $260. T-shirt, $355. Robe, $630. Jersey, $1,030. (For reference, a standard imitation baseball jersey costs about $135 on the MLB online store.) Currently on sale on Off-White’s website, this jacket comes in other design variations. for six different MLB brands: Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, Miami Marlins, Oakland Athletics and Toronto Blue Jays.
As baseball writer Mike Petriello answered“I don’t understand a word about this, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t for me either.”
Chances are it’s the Venn diagrams of Major League Baseball fans — frankly, a sport that’s only recently started to become fashionable out there — and those willing to shell out. The four numbers for an intentionally punched costume are just… two distinct circles. (Or, if you’re a fan of Louis Sachar’s popular young adult novel, Pitmaybe you will be interested “Air Yelnats.”) But whether you’re new to the Off-White universe or deeply familiar with it, here’s a bit of context.
Round cuts are a running motif for Abloh, a design element he called “meteor” holes when he featured them in his spring 2020 womenswear collection, featuring tees and opera gloves have holes in them — like the crater on which a meteor shower can imprint any piece of soil that unfortunately falls under a piece of soil. Holes reappeared in his menswear collection that fall; in 2019, Off-White is introduced a bag full of meteor holeswhich the brand has labeled as clearly “no function”.
