The Major League Baseball season has its highs and lows, but 162 games over a six-month regular season tend to blur together. Did we already play the Cardinals, and if so, how did that series go? Or maybe that was the Reds?

One of baseball’s many charms is the way it plays like comforting background noise. Every time you turn on a baseball game, the grass is green, the pitcher’s mound is 60 feet and six inches from home plate, and the visiting team bats first. Superstar players always make their presence felt, but most of the guys on the field exist as shapeless, faceless characters—particularly the umpires. But if you look closely at those guys calling balls and strikes, you’ll realize something: They have that shit on.

Umpire fashion is not a big conversation topic, but it is a part of the game. The full-time MLB umpire population is just 76 people, some with close to 30 years of big-league service, others who joined the circuit as recently as two years ago. Like the players they share the diamond with, umpires come in all shapes and sizes—veteran Jordan Baker is six-foot-seven—which can create wardrobe challenges. “To please all 76 bodies is impossible,” says Cory Blaser, who umpired his first MLB game in 2010. “But I think where we’re at right now is a really, really good spot with our pants.”

The umpires are outfitted by Purchase Officials Supplies, a retailer based in Akron, Ohio that specializes in referee equipment for all sports, not just baseball. Aaron Frame—Executive VP of Sales, Major Accounts—joined the company about ten years ago and has known Blaser since he was calling minor league games. He describes Purchase as the clearinghouse for all the different vendors that provide sporting officials with their gameday attire. (In other words, Purchase does not make the clothes, just distributes them.) While Frame says high school sports, travel ball, and the NCAA are Purchase’s “bread and butter,” the company is also responsible for swagging out MLB’s on-field adjudicators. Purchase organizes and dispenses the apparel to all 76 umps, plus the 16 on the call-up list, who are pressed into duty whenever a full-time ump needs a day off.

There’s much more that goes into the pants’ creation than the average fan might think. Blaser explains that through the umpire union’s collective bargaining agreement, each umpire is permitted two pairs of pants per season to wear when they’re behind the plate, and two when they’re manning the bases. “That being said,” Blaser adds, “you’re in the league—or as a call-up—for multiple years. I’ve got pants that still got tags on them.” The pants come in a charcoal color with an option for either a flat or pleated front, and are often worn baggy, especially the behind-the-plate pants that have to cover up protective shin guards. As such, the trousers typically cast a billowy, loose-fitting silhouette that is very in line with 2026 menswear trends. Pleats are hot right now, after all, and Blaser has taken notice. While he’s never worn his umpire pants straight from a game at Yankee Stadium to a post-game meal at a swanky Manhattan restaurant—or ever rocked them off the field, he admits—he recognizes the fashion appeal of his work uniform. “I’m not some fashionista, but I’ve seen that baggy is kind of back in with, like you said, the pleats. Before, my wife or someone 10 years ago, [would say] that is so outdated. Now it’s back in! I think they’re pretty cool.”

There’s also been a functional revolution in the umpires’ legwear. Blaser not-so-fondly remembers wearing a stifling polyester-wool blend for his first game 16 years ago. “Those pants were very durable, wrinkle-free,” he concedes. “That being said, working in Atlanta, 2 o’clock day game in July, polyester pants with equipment on didn’t really work.” Now, he says, there have been massive improvements. Umpires are only allotted those four pairs for an entire season, and they must withstand countless laundry cycles in between games. “I know you can get much more fashion-forward materials, but those generally don’t wash and wear to the extremes that these guys are dealing with,” Frame says. When calibrating the right fabric blend for today’s pants, holding up to a washer and dryer was just as important as making sure the umpires’ movements wouldn’t cause a wardrobe malfunction.