The Cincinnati Reds carry five uniforms in 2026, and the headline is that they now run two City Connects at once. The brand-new all-red City Connect 2.0 owns Saturday home games, while the original black "C" set — the one that debuted back in 2023 — sticks around as a Friday-night alternate. Outside those two weekend hooks, the closet runs on feel more than a published timetable, with the home pinstripes and road grays doing the day-to-day work. Here's the full Reds wardrobe for 2026 and when each jersey actually comes out.
Sample Home-and-Road Week at a Glance
One honest caveat the grid can't show: outside the Friday-black and Saturday-red City Connect habits, the Reds don't run a fixed day-of-week system. The red alternate can surface on its own — usually at home and often on a Sunday — and any homestand can lean on the white pinstripes more than the grid suggests. Treat the week above as a representative homestand, not a guarantee.
The big 2026 story is the City Connect shuffle. Cincinnati revealed an all-new red City Connect set in April 2026 and slotted it into Saturday home games, while the original black "C" City Connect — the polarizing 2023 design — wasn't retired but instead reassigned as the Friday-night home alternate. That move gave the Reds a five-uniform closet, two of them City Connects. Everything else is the classic red, white, and black identity the franchise has run for years: white pinstripes at home, "CINCINNATI" grays on the road, and a red alternate that drops in for a pop of color.
Home White Pinstripes (Most Home Games)
The home white is Cincinnati's signature and the jersey most fans picture: a clean white shirt laced with red pinstripes, the red wishbone-"C" with "REDS" tucked inside it across the chest, and player numbers in a vintage early-1900s-style typeface. The cap is the all-red one with the white wishbone "C" lightly outlined in black. It's the default for the bulk of every homestand — essentially any home date that isn't claimed by the Friday black or the Saturday red City Connect. It's one of the more timeless home looks in the National League, and the Reds are right to leave it almost entirely alone.
Road Grays (Most Away Games)
On the road, the Reds wear the standard gray set with "CINCINNATI" arched across the chest in red, player names and numbers on the back in the same vintage typeface, and the two-tone road cap — a red crown with a black bill. It's the workmanlike default for most away games, the look that lets the home team's colors be the star. Nothing flashy, and on a club this committed to its classic identity, it doesn't need to be.
Red Alternate (Manager's Choice, Mostly Home)
The red alternate is the splash of color in an otherwise traditional closet. It's a solid red jersey with the cursive "Reds" script across the chest in white, paired with the all-red cap. There's no rigid day attached to it the way there is for the two City Connects — it's the jersey the Reds reach for when they want the lineup in full red, most often at home and frequently on a Sunday. Because it isn't locked to the weekly grid, it keeps a little bit of event energy whenever it shows up.
Red City Connect 2.0 — The All-Red Set (Saturday Home Games)
This is the newest piece in the closet and the one that made headlines. Unveiled in April 2026, the City Connect 2.0 goes head-to-toe red: a red jersey, red pants, and a matching red cap, with narrow darker-red pinstripes layered over the base for texture. The chest carries a crisp white wishbone-"C", and the sleeves are rendered in a deeper shade of red — a deliberate nod to the vest-style jerseys the Reds wore two decades ago — with the pinstripes intentionally cut off at the shoulder. The sleeve patch pairs the "Cincy" wordmark from the original City Connect with a graphic of the Tyler Davidson Fountain on Fountain Square downtown. Since debuting in April, it has anchored Saturday home games for the rest of the season. It's loud, monochromatic, and unmistakably Cincinnati red.
Black City Connect — The Original "C" Set (Friday Home Games)
The first Reds City Connect, introduced in 2023 with Nike, didn't go away — it just changed jobs. The primarily black uniform features "CINCY" across the chest, a modified diamond-shaped "C" on the cap and sleeve, an Ohio buckeye emblem, and the city's Latin motto "Juncta Juvant" ("Strength in Unity") worked into the details. For 2023 through 2025 it was the team's lone City Connect; for 2026, with the red set taking over Saturdays, the black "C" was officially reassigned as the Friday-night home alternate. Keeping it around rather than mothballing it gives the Reds a genuine two-City-Connect rotation, and it lets fans who bought into the original design still see it under the lights once a week.
How the Reds Rotation Actually Works
Let's be straight about it: the Reds are not a strict scheduled-rotation team the way the Phillies are. That club treats its closet like a published timetable; Cincinnati really only has two firm anchors — the black City Connect on Friday home games and the new red City Connect on Saturday home games. Everything else is feel and matchup: home white pinstripes for the rest of the homestand, "CINCINNATI" road grays for most of the trip, and the red alternate dropped in when the staff wants the lineup in full red, most often at home on a Sunday.
It still works, because the two anchors cover the jerseys fans actually plan around. The pair of City Connects are the looks people buy tickets and merch for, so handing each one a standing weekend night builds anticipation even without a rigid system. The pinstripes and grays are perfectly content to handle the quiet weekday work in between, and the red alternate stays a little special precisely because it isn't pinned to a day.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many uniforms do the Reds have in 2026? Five: the home white pinstripes, the road grays, the red alternate, the new all-red City Connect, and the original black "C" City Connect. The jump from four to five came when Cincinnati added the red City Connect 2.0 in April 2026 and kept the older black set as a Friday alternate.
When do the Reds wear the new red City Connect uniform? The all-red City Connect 2.0, unveiled in April 2026, is worn for Saturday home games at Great American Ball Park for the rest of the season.
Did the Reds get rid of the black City Connect jerseys? No. The original black "C" City Connect from 2023 wasn't retired — for 2026 it was reassigned as the team's Friday-night home alternate, running alongside the new red set.
What do the Reds wear on the road? The gray road set with "CINCINNATI" arched across the chest in red, worn with the two-tone cap (red crown, black bill). It's the default for most away games.
When do the Reds wear the red alternate jersey? There's no fixed day for it. The red alternate — the cursive "Reds" script in white on a red jersey — is manager's choice, most often worn at home and frequently on a Sunday, which is why it isn't pinned to the weekly grid.
Do the Reds wear player names on their home jerseys? Yes. Unlike a few clubs that keep the home whites nameless, the Reds carry both names and numbers in their vintage-style typeface across the set.
More MLB Coverage
- St. Louis Cardinals 2026 Uniform Schedule — the NL Central rival and the league's most tradition-bound closet
- Chicago Cubs 2026 Uniform Schedule — the division's other classic pinstripe set, broken down
- Philadelphia Phillies 2026 Uniform Schedule — the gold standard of a true scheduled rotation
- Boston Red Sox 2026 Uniform Schedule — a five-jersey closet built around two City Connects
Uniform details compiled from team and league sources. ColorWay Sports is an independent design site and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the Cincinnati Reds or Major League Baseball.
