The official Detroit Tigers colors are navy blue, orange and white. The primary color is navy (#0C2340), paired with orange (#FA4616) and white (#FFFFFF). These three appear across the Old English D logo, the home and road uniforms, and team merchandise, a scheme the club has kept since its early American League seasons.
Detroit Tigers color codes table
| Color | Swatch | HEX | RGB | CMYK | Pantone |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Navy blue | #0C2340 | 12, 35, 64 | 100, 60, 0, 56 | PMS 289 C | |
| Orange | #FA4616 | 250, 70, 22 | 0, 65, 83, 0 | PMS 172 C | |
| White | #FFFFFF | 255, 255, 255 | 0, 0, 0, 0 | N/A |
A quick note on accuracy: the two Pantone references above (289 C and 172 C) are the ones cited consistently across brand and team color references. You will occasionally see 282 C floated for the navy on other sites. That one is off. Cross-check against a printed swatch book before you send a job to press, because monitor navy lies to you.
The navy blue in the Tigers palette
Navy (#0C2340) is the anchor. It fills the Old English D on the cap, it runs as piping down the placket of the home whites, and it carries the script on the road grays. This is a cold, near-black navy blue with barely any life in it under low light, which is exactly the point. On a wool cap in 1905 it read as authority. On a broadcast in 2026 it still does.
The D itself dates to 1904 on the jersey, 1905 on the cap. The color underneath it moved from black to blue during those early decades and settled.
The orange in the Tigers palette
Here is the fun part, and the thing most color-code pages get lazy about. Orange (#FA4616) is not a modern marketing addition. The Tigers wore orange stripes on their socks in the 1920s (that is literally where part of the nickname stuck). Orange came back for stirrups around 1951, then vanished, then returned properly in 1972 when Detroit went to double-knits and put a big orange D on the road cap.
The odd fact worth knowing: for decades Detroit was the only club in MLB with a color on the road set that does not appear on the home set. Orange lived on the road. Home stayed navy and white. That asymmetry is unusual and it is a real design decision, not an accident.
The white in the Tigers palette
White is not filler here. The home jersey is a full white field with navy piping and nothing else competing for attention, which is why the Olde English D reads from the upper deck. Older uniforms leaned toward a warmer, creamier white (fans still call them the ice cream whites). Modern polyester runs cleaner and brighter.
Uniform colors: home, road, alternates
Home: white jersey, navy piping, navy Olde English D on the left chest, navy cap with a white D. The template has barely moved since 1934.
Road: gray base, “Detroit” in navy script outlined in orange, orange D on the cap. The script has been on the road shirt since the 1990s.
Alternates: in February 2026 the club finally added real alternates after roughly 18 months of fan surveys and focus groups. An orange jersey for select home games with a navy D, and a navy jersey for the road with the Detroit script in orange and white trim. Both borrow the three-color sleeve striping and V-necks from the 1984 team. The cap that came with them (navy crown, orange brim, orange D) is the piece people actually lost their minds over.
The 2024 City Connect set was a separate thing entirely: navy with tire-tread patterning, “Motor City” on the chest, a VIN tag stitched into the cap.
Palette history and rebrands
1901: no D at all. The cap logo was a red tiger silhouette, socks were blue with a red stripe, and DETROIT ran across the chest in block letters.
1903: a plain block D shows up briefly.
1904 to 1905: the blackletter D arrives and never really leaves. The Detroit Free Press called it a German letter before renaming it Old English two weeks later, and the name stuck.
1927 to 1930s: tiger head logos, orange with blue outline, pinstripes, then back to the D.
1960: the club replaced the D with a “Tigers” script on the home jersey. Fans revolted. Owner John Fetzer killed it after one season and the D returned in 1961.
1972: orange goes full-time on the road cap.
2018: the jersey D was changed to match the cap D. This sounds trivial. It was not. The two letterforms had been slightly different since the early 1900s (different manufacturers, hand-cut felt versus embroidery) and plenty of people were genuinely attached to the mismatch.
How to use these colors in your own work
For screen work use the HEX or RGB values. For anything printed, go with the CMYK breakdown or the Pantone spot colors, especially on merch, because #0C2340 in four-color process can drift muddy and greenish if the press is even slightly off.
Contrast is the thing to watch. Orange on navy passes fine at large sizes but it gets shaky for body copy, so keep white as your text color over navy and reserve the orange for accents, rules and headers. Navy on orange is safer than the reverse.
:root {
--tigers-navy: #0C2340;
--tigers-orange: #FA4616;
--tigers-white: #FFFFFF;
--tigers-road-gray: #C2C0C1;
}That last variable is not an official brand color. It is the practical road-gray value people use when they need the full uniform look. Label it as such in your file so nobody on your team ships it as official.
Related resources
- Baseball team color codes for every MLB club in one place
- The Detroit Tigers logo, its history, fonts and meaning
- Division rivals worth comparing: Cleveland, Chicago White Sox, Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals color codes
- The other big orange-and-dark-blue club in the AL: Baltimore Orioles colors
- If you are building around this scheme, these blue color palettes pair well with the navy base
FAQ on The Detroit Tigers Colors
What are the Detroit Tigers colors?
The Detroit Tigers colors are navy blue, orange and white. Navy (#0C2340) is the primary color, orange (#FA4616) is the accent, and white completes the palette across the logo, uniforms and merchandise.
What are the Detroit Tigers color codes in HEX and RGB?
Navy blue is #0C2340, RGB (12, 35, 64). Orange is #FA4616, RGB (250, 70, 22). White is #FFFFFF, RGB (255, 255, 255).
Those three hex codes cover every official application.
What is the Detroit Tigers Pantone color?
The navy is PMS 289 C and the orange is PMS 172 C. Use these spot values for print and merchandise instead of converting from HEX, since the deep navy shifts badly in four-color process.
What is the primary color of the Detroit Tigers?
Navy blue. It fills the Old English D on the cap, the piping on the home whites, and the script on the road grays.
Orange is a secondary accent, not a co-primary.
When did the Detroit Tigers adopt their current colors?
The blackletter D arrived on jerseys in 1904 and caps in 1905, with navy settling in over that era. Orange returned as a full-time road accent in 1972 and has stayed since.
Are the Detroit Tigers colors the same as the Houston Astros?
No. Both use navy and orange, but the Houston Astros colors pair a lighter navy with a softer orange. Detroit’s #FA4616 runs hotter and more red than Houston’s.
What color is the Detroit Tigers road uniform?
Gray, with “Detroit” in navy script outlined in orange and an orange D on the cap. Detroit was long the only MLB club carrying a road color absent from the home set.
Do the Tigers have orange jerseys?
Yes, as of the 2026 season. The club introduced an orange home alternate with a navy Olde English D, plus a navy road alternate, both drawing on 1984 striping details.
Conclusion
The Detroit Tigers colors come down to three values you can copy and move on: #0C2340, #FA4616, #FFFFFF. Save the Pantone equivalents too, because print will punish you otherwise.
What makes this palette worth studying is the split personality. Navy carries the Comerica Park home look, orange lives on the road cap and the newer alternates.
Grab the CSS variables above and the Old English D font reference if you are rebuilding the full brand identity.
Renowned for his expertise in logo design and visual branding, Bogdan has developed a multitude of logos for various clients.
His skills extend to creating posters, vector illustrations, business cards, and brochures. Additionally, Bogdan's UI kits were featured on marketplaces like Visual Hierarchy and UI8.
He also wrote in the past years on sites like Design Your Way, WebDesignerDepot, WPDean, Designmodo, Speckyboy, Slider Revolution, and more.
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Bogdan Sandu is a seasoned designer who has been designing websites since 2008. Renowned for his expertise in logo design and visual branding, Bogdan has developed a multitude of logos for various clients. His skills extend to creating posters, vector illustrations, business cards, and brochures. Additionally, Bogdan's UI kits were featured on marketplaces like Visual Hierarchy and UI8. He also wrote in the past years on sites like Design Your Way, WebDesignerDepot, WPDean, Designmodo, Speckyboy, Slider Revolution, and more.
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