There’s an insect indigenous to Mexico called the cochineal. The cochineal is mostly immobile, a parasite that feeds on cacti, sucking the juice from the plant. It is a soft, fat, and oval shaped bug.

At one time, the cochineal was the most sought-after insect in the world. When squished, it produces a deep red liquid that was coveted by royalty and the wealthy, who would pay handsomely for clothing and dyes made from cochineal red. 

Introducing the Ranger new City Connect uniform, featuring cochineal red fabric, and giving you a unique opportunity to pay handsomely for yet more Rangers merch.

Gone are the black unis with the old-style TX and the mutant animal. Replacing it is a nod to Mexican culture. Thus, the deep, rich, royal, crimson cochineal red favored by Mexican royalty and nobility.

Why would the Rangers abandon their black City Connect uniforms just when everyone was getting used to them? To give you something else to buy. It’s an age-old idea called planned obsolescence. The idea was always to rotate new ones every three years. Public clamoring didn’t call for a new design. The calendar did.

So, the next time the Rangers play a Friday home game, these are the uniforms they’ll play that game in. You can rush out to your nearest Rangers website and buy a new cochineal red hat for just $53 and matching cochineal red jersey for only $180, and since you have the bank account of royalty, a $100 cochineal red hoodie.

Or, not.

Don’t know about you, but the idea of needlessly rotating new uniform designs every three years kind of bugs me.

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