I've been in the us army for 21 years and gone through four combat uniform changes and three dress uniform changes. So it would kinda make sense that an organization as big as starfleet would have uniform fragmentation

One thing I do like and actually find impressive, is that despite so many uniform types and looks, they all easily read as Starfleet/Star Trek in origin.

Actually, prodigy uniforms are the same as L. decks. You just have to consider that Janeway is an admiral and admirals uniform were always inconsistent. The andorian and trill crewmembers are a better comparative.

I'd like to think that Starfleet has many approved uniform styles. It's up the ship captain to pick one, same with the comm badge to a point.

Funny thing about uniforms. On a day to day basis they rarely look “uniform”. Go visit a large military base, or in the US the Pentagon. One of the first things that leaps out at you is how, while everybody is very clearly wearing service uniforms, nobody seems to be dressed quite the same. There are complex rules about what to wear when. What to wear for heavy work garb vs casual office garb vs less casual office garb vs variations of formal up to affairs of state or funerals. And the concept of Uniform of the day which can vary by unit. For example Picard liked a certain decorum maintained so had the standard dress on the Enterprise be while not formal, the 24th century equivalent of collared shirt and tie. Whereas Sisco in DS9 was running a unit needing to get their hands dirty. Work coveralls were the order of the day. Janeway ran a ship that kind of split the difference with the equivalent of golf shirts and khakis. They are all Starfleet uniforms, and all can exist at the same time. Also differences in the uniform may indicate different units, divisions, internal organizations etc. Remember the Original breast patch in TOS had a lot of variation to indicate ship, division, etc. we may see a return to that with the com badges. A return to ship or fleet specific badges. (By fleet I mean not “Starfleet” but the smaller administrative units such as 1st Fleet, 3rd Fleet etc) Different Unit types can have unique uniforms. Paratroopers standard uniform has some differences from a Tanker or an Infantryman. With the classic example being the Paratroopers and only the Paratroopers we’re allowed to “Blouse” their pants, or tuck them into their jump boots. And finally uniforms don’t get rolled out all at one time. They will trial them in smaller units first. Some will fail and be retired without widespread adoption. Heck those godawful cavalry pants with the weird flared hips still show up from time to time almost a century after the last horses were retired and most units swore never to wear those silly things again.

My headcanon is that Starfleet got really uppity about making uniforms *unified* in the 2280s, and they got their way until the 2340s, when the TNG season 1 style emerged alongside the TWOK / Ent-C style, and once they retired the TWOK style, the powers that be allowed a lot more freedom for COs to choose uniforms from among different options.

I was in the USAF for almost 10 years, and I think we had...4? major uniform changes during that time. This all seems perfectly normal to me...

The uniforms change so often because they're a way for time travelers to figure out when they are without polluting the timestream too much. So blame the temporal cold war

The starfleet costume museum must be huge, maybe there is a planet just for it.

I mean the royal navy has gone through around 6 uniform changes in the last 10 years so it's plausible that with unlimited resources that uniforms would change fairly frequently

The Star Trek Beyond uniforms for both the Franklin and the Enterprise were amazing. They really did an amazing job with them.

Ooookay, here's my five cents: I explain the different uniforms from Lower Decks this way iny my head canon: the Cerritos is a Second Contact ship. The Titan, on which the First Contact uniforms are still in service, is a First Contact ship. Riker and crew meet new people, then ships like the Cerritos make deeper contact. For this job, they wear less militaristic looking uniforms. More brighter, dress uniform like, simply more friendly looking uniforms.

In Star Trek Online it was explained as every ship crew has it's own uniform style. Maybe CBS acknowledged this as canon?

Is it really that hard to believe that the organization that apparently for centuries can’t figure out how seatbelts work would also fail to make any uniforms make sense?

Look around any military. a) most have mulitple uniforms running simultaneously. b) many wear test prospective uniforms using active units. c) most change uniforms periodically, but not on any set time schedule. d) most have long running traditional uniforms. Basically, take all that into account, and everything we see on screen can very easily be very much in line with what modern day military forces already do - in other words, it all makes perfect sense, you just need to have a little experience with how uniforms work. Plus, it's a visual medium. You gotta make things interesting to the eye as well.

Here’s how I see it in my head canon- When Doctor Bashir was held captive by the Dominion, he was in the original DS9 uniform. But his changeling replacement was in the new First Contact uniform right? So having frequent uniform updates post-dominion war could be a security measure that escalates as Starfleet descends into the paranoia surrounding the Romulan Supernova / Attack on Mars.

It doesn't bug me that much, but I like to imagine at some point, with replicators being able to recycle and remake clothing, Starfleet just introduced a very lax uniform policy where as long as the uniform meets specific standards (com badge, visible rank insignia, visible division color), officers can play fashion designer

I always assumed that they just couldn't get the memo out to every starship that there's been a new uniform. Would be nice for there to be a gag in Lower Decks where two people realise that there's been yet another uniform change they weren't told about.

I like to say the only thing Star Trek changes more than the Klingons are the uniforms.

I mean, in a universe where virtually anything can be replicated, there’s no longer any economic argument for standardization. Theoretically, every ship in the fleet could have their own unique uniforms, and as long as they conform to certain regulations, no one cares.

I have to laugh.I am a US Navy Retiree. I watched the Navy (and I'm still watching) change uniforms once every 2 - 3 years for the last 15 years. It's crazy. Maybe Star Trek is getting their "Q" (pun intended) from the US Navy!

DS9 having a variant uniform made sense as being for use by distant space stations etc (and is where I figure the California class uniforms fit too), and this is backed up by the fact that when Sisko visits Starfleet Headquarters he changes into the more appropriate TNG style uniform. Voyager and Generations throw a spanner in the works by then allowing those variants on starships.

I would love to see Sean in a different uniform for each video! I would have an extra reason (not that i need one) to anticipate these wonderfull video's!

When TNG and DS9 first ran side by side, I assumed the TNG uniforms were for ship personnel only, with the DS9 uniforms for station / starbase / planet side etc.

Sean nearly hyperventilating as the uniforms keep on getting redesigned and altered.... shout out to Kris for the editing on this as well!!

I love the “All Good Things” uniforms that we saw several times. I have been hoping that they would make a comeback. It would made things feel like they came full circle now that we are getting stories that take place around the time those future/alternative episodes took place. I also just really like the design.

I’m going with Starfleet gives a lot of autonomy to ships regarding their uniforms, perhaps due to moral (i.e. voting, crew suggestions, etc) and maybe how vast the Federation is, it could difficult to keep everyone in sync. Also everyone in Starfleet due to space travel would likely be experiencing time at different rates, likely complicating fleet-wide consistency.

More changes than an airline cabin crew uniform. 😁

They probably did this to see if they can make someone over analyze the situation to the point there head explodes.

It gives costume designers job security. I think uniforms match the series budget.

I was in the Australian army, our main uniform had very little change from before WWII until 1992 when we were issued with our camo uniforms. These from what I have seen have changed very little (beyond the material) in 30 years.

Modern day military has so many uniform variations depending on the mission, formality, branch, rank, department, deployment, etc

US Navy currently has 14 (non maturity) active uniforms, they also have coveralls and camouflage variations besides those. Just sayin'. Everyone like a new uniform type. :)

I like the uniform variations, even if the designs occur during the same general time period, as you can cosplay and its generally clear from which ST show you are cosplaying.

You need to make a uniform tier list now.

In TOS the badge (wasn't a commbadge back then) was unique to each ship/starbase. The insignia that was later retconned to be the Starfleet insignia was originally just associated with the enterprise, if I'm not mistaken.

Most militaries have different uniform styles for different occasions - dress uniforms, basic duty uniforms, battlefield dress, etc. But Trek doesn't use the uniforms that way. It's one uniform for all occasions, which is why seeing so many different styles is so jarring. It would make sense if Starfleet had different branches, each with a distinctive uniform style and variations based on duty/occasion. But they don't, so it doesn't make sense.

Many military members here are talking about how they went through plenty of uniform changes, which makes this plausible. I'll add a little headcanon that it's possible that at any given time captains and crew have multiple uniform options to pick from, with their relatively isolated places on their ship they'll be seeing it often so I can imagine that a little bit of flexibility there in the form of options is offered to the crew, or at least to the captain to pick from.

I wish they would have just kept the Dominion war uniforms throughout this whole time with some minor adjustments

Sean, you look positively spiffy in that Disco S4 uniform. I said the instant I saw it, if it weren't for the weird asymmetry in the front bottom, that would be my favorite uniform design full stop.

Apparently there is no uniformity is the Star Trek universe. Great video Sean.

For me, the more simple design a uniform has, the better it looks. It is also more timeless which makes sense for a sci-fi show.

You missed my favourite, the Enterprise era blue jumpsuit. The only one that has ever looked practical to me.

I'd love to see you try and explain how STO fits in too 🤣 The Captain uniform with the white shoulders 👌 Also, can we just stop and ask, how 64% aren't subbed? What are you doing with your life? 😂😂

I like the headcanon theory that the reason for so many uniform changes occured was to help time travelers identify the year they traveled to just by the uniform type.

Thank you! For a few years now I was convinced I'm the only one that was bothered by those uniforms!

I think it makes sense that each crew would have its own identity. The captain chooses a uniform style/com badge so when visiting other starfleet ships you are easily identified as a visitor.

The First Contact/DS9 uniforms are my favorite 🥰

My personal head cannon is each ship, outpost, starbase, etc. is allowed to choose its own uniform and sometimes ships chose the same one as another ship.

Hi thanks for the upload and great work you guys! I honestly never worried about details like uniforms, com badges ext...What I care about is a great story and an entertaining story.

Many have said it. Different divisions and so on. Here is my Fan theory (partially supported by shows). LDS: the California class ships are primarily administrative and maintenance ships, so they get their own uniform, while most other ships use the old FC uniform. The Protostar was an experimental ship and had its own uniform, which is confirmed by the show itself and the showrnners. Janeway & Crew of the Dauntless Uniform is more of a problem, because it seems to be in widespread use by 2384 with the commbadge and all. I think the idea is that they adopted bits of Admiral Janeways future uniform in endgame, so this could indeed be a new design introduced to replace the FC and maybe even LDS design. The Picard flashback uniform on the other hand could be tied specifically to the evacuation efforts and maybe that fleet got their own uniform design and used the old combadge. By the 2399 uniform it all makes sense again.

Even today most military services have multiple uniforms that can be worn depending on everything from what season it is to what duty assignment you have.

I look at all the confusion as Star Fleet mandates upgrades of the comm badges. However they provide uniform "guidelines" and each ship can replicate their own uniforms and badges meeting said "guidelines". Saves my brain for blowing up.

I've always assumed that the uniforms are weird because ships are out on missions and would only update whenever they're in port.

The Monster Maroons should never have been replaced. Also, they looked better with the turtleneck.

My hc is that Starfleet gives individual units a lot of leeway on how they want to uniform their crew. Which if true is cool because it gives like an edge of fun competition, a way for crews to express themselves, identify themselves, or for uniforms to become iconic and gain prestige.

I've been thinking this for years.

Perhaps it’s related to the role of a ship or a station. The uniforms for Starfleet Command are almost full dress uniforms, while the uniforms for a ship like the Cerritos which has a lower role on the ladder as a “second contact” vessel reflect this role. Meanwhile flagships and major space stations get another level of uniform(s) (since the grey shoulder and red/gold/blue shoulders show up on Enterprise-D and DS9.)

My head canon for the color switch between TOS and TNG is that some intern/junior officer messed things up for the uniforms that came out after the maroons were fully retired, and nobody noticed until it was too late. And that change stuck at least through the 32nd century.

Ultimately I think it's Paramount cashing in on all the new shows. More uniforms means more merch. By the way, are you planning to do an episode on how / why all the crews from various ships and bases started using the Enterprise insignia? I know I've asked before but I'd love to know

Once heard a fan theory that the various uniforms are a way for time displaced individuals to quickly understand when and where they are if theybend up on a Star Fleet ship and that's always worked for me.

In the modern day uniforms are manufactured in mass for cost effectiveness. In Star Trek with replicators, every single thing can be custom made at very little cost. So it would be strange if they did not have so many different uniforms.

I worked on a military base convenience store and I saw a great many different uniforms.

You should check out the changes in US Army uniforms over the last 20 years....

I’m rediscovering this video over a year later while Picard season 3 is airing and the lack of UNIFORMITY (see what I did there?😜) is even worse and more fragmented now in ways that are so unnecessary. Ultimately the issue isn’t even changes in uniforms, it’s the lack of consistency and a respect or collaboration between shows on what era has what uniform. It feeds like each show just made up the uniforms they wanted to see and didn’t consult or care how it fits with other shows? Back in the syndicated 90s shows you might be able to get away with saying budgetary restraints made things an issue but new Trek as a whole has immense budgets, the inconsistency just stands out no matter what dismissive hand waving is used to justify it.

Always love to see a Trek Culture video with Seán Ferrick.

They should have just stuck with the DS9 era type uniforms which are by far the best uniforms in the series. Hate the colorful looking uniforms that had to make a comeback.

It's all about the visual appeal on the screen so, yep all over the place. Love your analysis and opinion!

If you're after "glaring omissions" Sean, there's a few in TOS: Kirk's wraparound thing, landing-party field jackets becoming landing party belts, before being abandoned entirely, The Cage uniform differing from the standard adopted throughout the rest of the series...in it's infancy Star Trek had SID (Sartorial Indecisiveness Disorder), that nowadays, untreated, has become full blown SHAD: Sartorial Hyper Activity Disorder. Star Trek needs our help, not our complaints...

you forgot to include the space pjs from the motion picture. Or - we could just choose to forget those.

Before clicking I though "God I hope its our Seán explaining this one"... and lo and behold!!...

My guess is since Janeway is an Admiral now, and the Dauntless is her flagship, they’re all wearing a dress uniform all the time.

Anybody else remember when each ship/station/base in TOS had its own uniform insignia? Then the "arrowhead" became standard for all Starfleet by the first Motion Picture. Then somehow it got retconned into all Starfleet in Discovery.

Well, at least the fact that you can easily make uniforms in the replicator makes it pretty easy to redesign them again and again. At the time of Picard, Prodigy and so on, I could imagine that there are simply many variants and you can choose an your uniforms depending on the ship, planet and use. The only important thing is to be able to recognize your rank and your department.

My favorite uniform is the ST 2-6 uniform, followed closely by the Dominion War uniform. You know the real reason for all the changes is to sell new toys.

The simplest explanation within Cannon could be that local command Authority Fleet Admirals and sector commanders have the authority to set local uniform regulations within certain parameters

My head cannon on uniforms is whatever admiral or commodore the ship works under they are the ones who chooses what uniforms their fleet uses. Which would give you multiple different uniforms in use

In short since the Kurtzman era it became very chaotic. Thanks Alex...

I have a preference for consistency in uniforms, like we had from the Original Series through Nemesis.

I agree with greg, actually uniform styles come down to Needs vs. Costs. In any omni-service Organization, or Corporation you have different jobs. Each of these jobs have specific appearance & workplace hazards that are inherent to those jobs. An organization is going to approve a standard uniform if they value a corporate brand recognition, logos, hair grooming requirements, etc. I have worked for organizations that required a certain uniform appearance for all employees. For Administrative; a business casual, or executive professional wear. For food service; depending on the job, smart restaurant wear, and for line cooks and chefs, Safety flame retardant chef coats, head/facial hair wear, nitrile gloves for servers a cotton cloth aprons, and, heavy rubber gloves/aprons for kitchen scullery. Non slip footwear. Maintenance and facilities; heavy duty work wear, fire/chemical resistantance depending on craft, uniforms, safety toe and non-slip footwear, PPE, hand, head, eye, respiratory, hearing, and face protection. So even though a standard uniform is worn for a period of time by a specific branch, there are phase in/out transitions for either a new look, or for updated safety, hazards/protections requirements. I would imagine that with the new technology, and hazards that are constantly being faced by space explorers, they'd probably have uniform changes quite often. As for formal-wear uniforms, I don't know, I guess that would depend on their specific organizations customs, and courtesies. So in a uniform heirarchy, I would guess it would be; ☆Cost for implementation and upkeep/replacement, ☆Brand identification, ☆Branch divisional requirements, ☆Health & safety requirements, PPE, and ☆Employee comfort. Unfortunately, employee comfort is usually not considered as much of a priority. They figure that an employee can choose work some other place if they're not happy with the current company requirements.

In TOS, the badges were patches, not communicators, and characters used handheld devices.

That's because the "monster maroon's" are simply BRILLIANT please make one :) I missed the chance as years ago "many many years" was in a small comic book shop and they had one, never got and when I went back about a month later the shop had closed. Have not seen one since...

Remember all of the comms badges in service in Starfleet would all have to technically compatible to work together. So the internals would have to be the almost identical, even if the external shape is different.

It makes perfect sense the ferengi keep selling them new style uniforms

TOS era was supposed to have different badges for each ship so badge variation isn't a huge deal. We also see admirals and captains have several uniform variations throughout the franchise.

For me my favorite uniforms for Starfleet would be The red standard uniforms from Wrath of Khan on up to the first couple of years of Star Trek: TNG ( Also including TNG ) The period of the Dominion War.

if you consider lower decks, picard, and paramount plus star trek cannon. the uniforms are easy to explain, star trek ng and deep space are different for a good reason.deep space is a space station, so the uniform needs are different than the needs on a space ship. just like the air force, army and navy all have different uniforms. if you think about star trek along those lines the difference in uniforms make sence.

Agreed, the constant changes drive me nuts too.

Thanks for this, Sean. I do just generally settle on the idea that it’s okay for Starfleet officers to have more than one uniform spread across the fleet at the same time. Might be a bit confusing, but i can roll with it. Your video here has helped me to decide that I want to buy uniforms for Lower Decks and Discovery. Although if you do record anything with me in a different get-up, you’ll probably need to sort that for me 😜 But we’ll see.

What about the Star Trek:Enterprise uniforms?

I personally don't include the animated stuff. I was surprised that the uniforms for Picard season 2 were updated again. I really like them though!

Honestly? Go back to TOS and you'll find there was always room for variants. Kirk's wraparound tunic, different uniform badges for different ship commands (see Commodore Decker, Captain Tracey, etc.), McCoy's short-sleeve sickbay shirt. Not to mention Scotty's utility vest in the movie era, the away team jackets, the bomber jackets of Scotty (III/IV) and Kirk (V).

I loved this, as it's the sort of thing I obsess about too! I was going to write about the various different uniforms and badges in alternate timelines/universes/illusions. However, I know the video's mainly about the Prime universe. An additional thing I do remember is the use of multiple different uniforms being used at the same time. In "Generations", characters are allowed to keep changing between the TNG uniforms and the DS9 uniforms (obviously due to the behind-the-scenes hiccups). In DS9, "Homefront"/"Paradise Lost", Sisko goes back to Earth and has to change back into a TNG uniform (this was Season 4 of DS9!). Then, in the very last DS9 episode, when the Dominion War ends and the Founder signs a peace treaty, there's a crewmember in the background in a TNG uniform, despite the First Contact uniforms having been in use for a few years by this point! I know there was also the big outcry about the Voyager crew remaining in the early-DS9 uniforms long after having regained contact with Starfleet and seen the updated FC uniforms. Some fans put that down to them not wanting to waste replicator energy. However, the crew were still seen regularly making new clothes, such as Tom and Harry's racing uniforms in "Drive". I think the easiest explanation for the many different confusing uniforms being done at the same time is with STO's thing where every crewmember/ship/station can have their own uniforms from ANY period. Now that Picard Season 2 has made some of the STO ships canon, maybe this little uniform explanation could become canon too?

Did you forget about the ST:Enterprise uniforms? The ones with actual pockets and modeled after actual military uniforms?

Here's something else to think about: in the photograph of Picard holding a baby Thaddeus Troi-Riker, Picard is wearing his uniform from the 2385 flashbacks. But Thaddeus was born in 2381, so those uniforms must have existed earlier than 2385--maybe even being introduced soon after Lower Decks season 3?

I always thought that Starfleet chooses 5 uniforms. The Captain chooses one for their crew. This is why different commands have different uniforms.

And the inconsistency gets even worse! Have you noticed that in "The Visitor" when Jake is an old famous writer and Nog comes to visit him - easily 30 to 40 years after DS9 - he's still wearing the TNG uniform? In spite of the all the uniforms that follow that era. Well, that's logic for you. 😃

That last one is sharp 👌

I've heard the theory the frequent changes are here to identify time travelers, it doesn't really make sense since we know lots of uniforms run at the same time but i like the concept

In the Voyager episodes Future's End and Relativity, we see another uniform in, I believe the 2800s. Also, a video about how this cannon and the Discovery timeline makes sense, I'd love to see a video on.