Welcome to Episode 56 of the Sports Branding Substack. Thank you for subscribing!

The last time the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks met in the NBA Finals, it wasn’t just a different league—it was a different communications world. 1999, the last year of the millennium. No smartphones. No social media. No streaming. No instant highlights arriving seconds after a buzzer-beater. You sat in front of a television and you watched the game. And the game itself looked very different than it does today.

In 1999, teams played through the post, mid-range jumpers were a staple of every offense, and the three-point shot was a complementary weapon rather than core foundation of modern basketball strategy.

As the Spurs and Knicks battle for the Larry O’Brien Trophy, Episode 56 climbs into a 27-year time machine to revisit how fans actually experienced the NBA Finals the first time these franchises collided—and how both the fan experience and the game itself have been fundamentally transformed in ways few could have imagined.

Living in a Water Cooler World.

The morning after an NBA Finals game, co-workers gathered around office water coolers, break room coffee pots, school hallways, neighborhood barbershops, and over backyard fences to relive the previous night’s action. Everyone had watched the same broadcast, saw the same highlights, and read many of the same newspaper stories.

The debate wasn’t fragmented; it was shared.

If you missed a game of the 1999 NBA Finals, there was no DVR waiting for you. No YouTube recap. No condensed highlights package game. No endless stream of clips appearing on your cell phone. You either watched it live — or spent the next day piecing together the story through newspapers, ESPN SportsCenter, sports radio, and debates with fellow fans.

Today, NBA Finals game consumption experience is almost the exactly the opposite.

A fan in 2026 may never watch an entire Finals game yet still consume hours of varied content. Highlights arrive seconds after they happen. Group texts replace break rooms. Social media feeds replace water coolers. And remote work has surely decreased water cooler sales. Podcasts, analytics, reaction videos, betting content, and personalized algorithms create a unique Finals experience for every fan.

In 1999, fans experienced the NBA Finals together at the same moment. Today, fans experience the NBA Finals individually through customized streams of content delivered on demand via completely different lenses.

The game is still basketball—but the act of being a fan has fundamentally changed.

Technology and Media Revolution.

In 1999, instant replay was not yet being utilized by the NBA. The League officially began using instant replay during the 2002-2003 in a limited and inconsistent form, and it was used sparingly and without the centralized, multi-angle precision we associate with today’s NBA broadcast environment.

Fast forward to 2026, and instant replay has become an integrated layer of the game itself. Coaches challenge calls in real time, referees consult multi-angle replay systems, and broadcast partners dissect decisions frame-by-frame within seconds.

What was once referees’ judgment is now a mediated decision loop involving technology, broadcast production, and league review systems, officiating by committee.

The result is not just more accuracy—it is a different rhythm of the game. Fouls and possessions are no longer just “plays”; they are reviewed, reconstructed, scrutinized, and re-litigated before the final verdict is issued. The NBA… Nothing But Attorneys.

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What’s a Smart Phone?

In 1999, “following the game on a smartphone” wasn’t really a thing yet—because smartphones as we understand them in 2026 just didn’t really exist.

Yet, a few primitive versions of NBA Finals live scoring was beginning to take hold:

• Text (SMS) alerts: Some services and early sports newsletters could send score updates via text, but it was basic and not widely real-time or customizable.

• WAP browsers (very early mobile internet): A few higher-end phones could access stripped-down web pages, including sports scores, but it was slow, clunky, not broadly adopted, and getting a signal… good luck!

• Call-in updates: Fans often used 1-800 sports hotlines or local radio updates for scores. Those would cost you around $1. a call to the 800-number. WILD.

• Radio + TV dominance: Most “live following” still meant being near a radio broadcast or watching on TV.

• Pagers (still around): Some fans even got score alerts on pagers in a very limited way. If you ever owned a pager in your life, you understand it’s limited access.

The first true smartphone shift didn’t arrive until the mid-to-late 2000s, with devices like the BlackBerry gaining traction and then the iPhone in 2007 fundamentally changing live sports consumption.

2001: Cell Phone Internet Access Begins.

For the first time in 2001, smartphones could connect wirelessly with a 3G network, two years after the 1999 NBA Finals. This capability opened up a whole new world to smartphone users, who could now send email attachments and video conference with their mobile devices. But forget about any apps to place wagers with, no apps to come for almost another decade.

The first iPhone was still eight years away (launched in early 2007).

The reality of the NBA Finals game day experience was still very communal and basic:

• Fans weren't checking updated scores every 30 seconds in 1999. (they couldn’t).

• If you were away from a TV, you might not know the score until you got home.

• NBA Radio Network was just becoming a popular option in the late 1990’s.

  

And… No YouTube!

• YouTube wouldn't launch until 2005. Yes… 2005, six years later, hard to imagine.

• There were no instant highlights, reaction videos, podcasts, or social clips.

• Then, rights battles for what content could play on YouTube was the Wild West.

No Social Media. Sports Talk Radio was all the rage.

• Twitter wouldn't arrive until 2006. Instagram, 2010. TikTok, 2016.

• Water cooler, taxi cab rides, calls with family/friends was “social” media.

• “Mike and the Mad Dog” ruled New York Sports Talk Radio in the ‘90’s.

NBA.com was still in its’ infancy.

• NBA.com launched in 1995, making it only four seasons old during the 1999 NBA Finals, and it was still figuring out how to best interact with the NBA universe.

• Most fans still got game recaps from television or newspapers rather than the internet. The 11 o’clock news sports report is when news show ratings PEAKED.

• In 2000, nba.com tv was launched adding it to the NBA League Pass package.

Dial-Up Internet.

• AOL CD-rom home startup discs were being mailed everywhere.

• A typical home-based modem ran at 56.6k speed. Tic Tic Tic… so slow.

• Loading a box score could take longer than today's fans spend watching condensed highlights of the NBA Finals games.

Uniformity Lost.

One of the more subtle changes NBA fans may not realize occurred over the past two decades has nothing to do with the game itself, it has to do with team uniforms.

For generations, basketball operated with a simple visual language: white uniforms at home and colored uniforms on the road. Fans instinctively knew who was who the moment they turned on a game.

Today, uniform selections are largely predetermined by the league and apparel partners weeks or even months in advance. As a result, the NBA Finals feature a rotating collection of uniforms game to game, often with little visual continuity throughout the series.

For decades, a team’s uniform was one of its most powerful brand assets. Today, that asset often feels more like a rotating wardrobe than a consistent visual signature. Unabashed money grabs — sans the guilt.

During the 1999 NBA Finals, the home team wore their white uniforms at home and their dark uniforms on the road. This standard home/white and road/dark was the team outfitting template all 29 teams followed including the Spurs vs Knicks Finals.

In 2026, the NBA Finals matchups unfold with neither team establishing a consistent visual identity. Through the first four games of the 2026 NBA Finals, the Knicks and Spurs will wear multiple uniform combinations, creating a different presentation salmost every night. Who’s the home team? Who’s the road team? It’s HORRIBLE.

One would make the assumption from a merchandising standpoint, the strategy creates additional product opportunities. From a branding standpoint, however, it raises a legitimate question: does constant uniform variation strengthen team identity—or dilute it?

Pre-Game Coverage.

Print and “TV” the primary NBA features access methods.

• Yes, actual magazines with team previews and match-ups:

  • Sports Illustrated

  • Sporting News

  • SPORT

• The USA Today Sports section, was a must read in morning newspapers.

• Listen to local sports radio.

• Side note: ESPN did not acquire the rights to broadcast the NBA and the NBA Finals until the 2002–2003 season.

• In 1999, the network's basketball presence was limited to studio highlight shows like NBA 2Night on ESPN2.

NBA on NBC. Cue John Tesh.

• NBA on NBC was the king of the court.

• Fans watched games live— there was no way to avoid spoilers then catch up later.

• VCR recording was the closest thing to DVR but quality was just okay.

After the Game.

• ESPN SportsCenter highlights.

• Local TV sports news wrap-ups and interviews.

• Next morning's newspaper for analysis.

• Maybe a call into sports radio.

The soundtrack of the NBA in the 1990’s:

🎵 "Roundball Rock" by John Tesh. (you all know this one, if not Google him…)

For many fans, hearing that theme immediately meant:
"Something important is about to happen."

1999 NBA Finals Pre-Game Costas Storytelling (14:00 video) transports us back.

• NBA on NBC logo.

• Marv Albert play-by-play.

• Knicks/Spurs uniforms.

• NBA Finals logos on shoulder strap.

NBC Broadcast Team.

Many fans remember the era of “Marv Albert and Matt Guokas,” but for the 1999 NBA Finals, NBC’s lead coverage centered around Bob Costas and Doug Collins. and NBC brought in eight broadcasters and on-air talents to tell the story of the heavily favored Spurs and upset minded Knicks:

• Marv Albert

• Matt Goukas

• Bob Costas

• Doug Collins

• Hannah Storm

• Isiah Thomas

• Bill Walton

• Peter Vecsey

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1999. The Alamodome.

The San Antonio Spurs played their NBA Finals games in the gigantic Alamodome with a capacity approaching 40,000+ spectators.

Imagine telling today's NBA fan that an NBA Finals game was being played in an indoor football stadium, originally built to try and attract an NFL franchise to San Antonio, which obviously never happened.

2026. Frost Bank Center.

The Spurs have played in this arena beginning in 2002 and has been known as both the SBC Center and later the AT&T Center before Frost Bank acquired the naming rights in September 2023. It underwent a massive $110+ million modernization renovation in 2015 to overhaul its seating, concourses, and technology infrastructure.

MSG. The World’s Most Famous Arena. The Garden!

1999 Finals Hall of Famers.

San Antonio Spurs.1999 NBA Champion Spurs in the Naismith Hall of Fame:

• Tim Duncan

• David Robinson

• Coach Gregg Popovich

1999 NBA Finals Runners-Up Knicks in the Naismith Hall of Fame:

• Patrick Ewing

Madison Square Garden Celebrity Row in 1999.

The celebrity culture was already strong, but it wasn't an Instagram event.

Most visible:

• Spike Lee (a fixture at every game for decades)

• Billy Crystal

• Chris Rock

• JFK, Jr.

The key difference in 1999 was that celebrities attended the NBA Finals game while today, celebrities attend and simultaneously broadcast they're attending the game.

3-Point Shot Attempts. The Game’s Revolutionary Change.

1999 Finals Game 1.

• Knicks and Spurs combined for 18 three-point attempts… that’s a quarter today.

2026 Finals Game 1.

• The Knicks and Spurs combined for 73 three-point attempts in San Antonio.

1999 vs. 2026.

In 1999, fans experienced the NBA Finals together at the same moment. If you missed the game, you missed the game. In 2026, every fan experiences the Finals through a personalized lens via a stream of highlights, alerts, podcasts, social media reactions, analytics, and on-demand content.

• One saw it on TikTok

• One saw it with betting implications

• One saw analytics breakdowns from different channels

• One watched numerous clips, not the full game

• One watched the game, followed it on a stream and saved the highlights

The game is still NBA basketball; but how you fan has fundamentally changed.

-The End.

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Welcome to Episode 55 of the Sports Branding Substack. Thank you for subscribing.

In this episode, I share one of the most unusual branding challenges of my career.

In 2002, NBA Creative Services was tasked with developing a new visual identity for the Cleveland Cavaliers. And a lesson we learned over time is every rebrand assignment differs significantly from one another.

We knew in advance that designing the new Cleveland Cavaliers identity was going to be challenging enough. But presenting the concepts and securing final approval from owner Gordon Gund—who was legally blind—turned the project into one of the most challenging and rewarding branding assignments of my career.

How do you present a brand redesign to someone who — cannot see the logos?

We were going to have to find a way to communicate a critically important brand identity decision to someone who couldn’t visualize our creative concepts.

Patience, understanding and ultimately, ingenuity were going to be needed as we had to completely rethink the methodology of how a brand identity is presented.

That became our biggest challenge.

At the time, Gordon Gund was one of the NBA’s most respected owners. A Cleveland businessman and philanthropist, Gund had lost his sight to retinitis pigmentosa in his early thirties, yet he guided the Cavaliers through one of the most stable periods in franchise history. He was deeply respected by Commissioner David Stern, and heavily involved in all major organizational decisions. At the project onset, David made sure we understood the importance of working with Gordon and his Cavs staff, as he was one of the Commissioners favorite owners.

Rebranding the Cavaliers.

The Cavaliers were ready to move on from their existing identity system from the early 1990s. The organization wanted to reconnect with their roots using wine as the dominant color, metallic gold as the secondary, and navy blue as a supporting accent.

The pressure surrounding this project was enormous. There was already growing speculation that the Cavaliers could soon land a transformational player, LeBron James, through the NBA Draft. Cleveland was looking for a modern classic identity system that could carry the franchise into a new era.

But before any of that could happen, we needed approval from Gordon Gund.

The First Presentation.

The presentation was held at the Gordon Institute for the Blind in Princeton, New Jersey, not too far from the NBA Entertainment offices in Secaucus, NJ.

Our early creative directions leaned heavily into “swashbuckling” typography — an aggressive “Cavaliers” wordmark with a long saber slicing through the composition, a basketball anchoring the design, and the layered visual style which dominated NBA branding during the early 1990s and through the early 2000s.

The Cavaliers executives responded positively to the work. Gordon’s wife, Lulie Gund, was incredibly supportive throughout the entire process. The team appreciated our efforts and focused on a few logo directions we were pushing, especially a direction (pictured above) which we will explain later in the article. Stay tuned.

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Our presentation method was to lay out five to ten logo directions across the Cavs conference room table, walk through typography, color relationships, symbolism, hierarchy and composition — standard process stuff. However, the person ultimately making the decision couldn’t grasp our visual explanations. We were in a quandry.

Our first two presentations were very well received, but did not yield an approved logo, which brought personal frustration to me. The work after all was really strong!

But, Gordon understandably — struggled with committing to something he could not physically experience himself, which provided a growing dilemma for my team.

Driving back from Princeton to NBA Entertainment after the second presentation, and I kept replaying the meeting in my head. My frustration was palatable. Gosh.

How do you help someone approve a logo they cannot see?

That question haunted me and my team.

What other manner of presentation could we use to convince Gordon the direction which the rest of the group was fully behind was a strong concept?

The Eureka Moment.

Then suddenly, finally — after racking my brain for days, something finally clicked.

What if Gordon didn’t have to “see” our logo design concepts at all?

What if he could feel it, experience it, touch it?

Of course, a tactile solution to presenting the logo suddenly became so obvious.

Now, how to move from a flat two-dimensional version to a three-dimension design?

Cue the Pop-Up Book Experience.

My first job out of college way back in 1981 was with a company called PaperMasters. I worked under the legendary Danish paper engineer, Ib Penick, a renowned pop-up book designer and paper engineering wizard. Ib was simply a pop-up book savant.

For nearly a year, I learned the craft of dimensional paper construction — cutting layers, building forms, engineering tactile depth all with an X-Acto blade and paper.

The epiphany was obvious. Instead of presenting a flat color copy logo on paper, I would create a three-dimensional white “blank” Gordon could then experience through touch. Brilliant, really!

I took the final logo direction the Cavaliers were leaning toward and physically build it into a three-dimension layer cake logo using standard foam core!

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Each color — the wine, the gold, and the navy blue — would become its own layer. The saber would sit independently from the background basketball. The typography would rise off the surface. The details would be all “cut out” and assemble with Elmer’s Glue. This was going to be therapeutic for me after banging my head for days on how to convince the Cavaliers (Gordon) to approve the logo.

The Final Presentation. Winning.

Before returning to Princeton, I reviewed the artwork internally with Commissioner David Stern and NBA Entertainment President Adam Silver. Then, I headed back for the third presentation to the Cavaliers executive staff and Gordon Gund.

When we arrived, Lulie Gund, Gordon’s gracious wife, who was present in the previous two meetings greeted us at the door.

“Thomas, I will need to speak with to you for a minute, please…” she said.

She explained Commissioner Stern had called Gordon and Lulie personally in advance of the meeting and let them know how excited our group was by the Cavaliers logo concept and how he wanted them to know how much effort had gone into solving the approval process for Gordon.

Then Lulie said something I’ll never forget.

“The one thing that I need to ask you, is that I believe Gordon would feel more comfortable if I could lead him through the dimensional artwork myself by holding his hand...”

This was perfect. Lulie wanted to guide his hand through the logo design layer-by-layer, which of course would be the right approach. Perfect!

Slowly. Personally. Carefully. Lulie guided Gordon’s fingertips through the structural art — explaining each layer as he felt his way across the design.

The saber.
The typography.
The basketball.
The separation between elements.

Honestly, I was relieved when Lulie stepped took over as I had been nervous about trying to guide Gordon through the tactile presentation myself. Lulie immediately took ownership of the moment with extraordinary grace, patience and control.

She was incredible.

Within fifteen minutes, Gordon was smiling, engaged, and fully invested in the logo presentation. You could hear it in his voice. He appreciated not only the design itself, but the effort everyone had made to help him experience it independently.

That was the breakthrough. Not just visually. But more importantly — emotionally.

Stern Calling.

The next morning, around 8:00 a.m., my office phone rang, it was unusually early.

Seeing “D. STERN” on the call identifier was usually never a good sign. It typically meant something was wrong and David was looking for the who, what and WHY?

You have to understand about David Stern — he was demanding, intense, and relentless. He did not call anyone early to casually just to say “good morning”.

So naturally, my stomach tightened, my nerves perking up… this can’t be good.

“O’Grady, Stern… how are you?” Huh? He wasn’t immediately raising his voice?

But instead of a cross examination, he was upbeat and excited (in a very good way).

“I just got off the phone with Gordon and Lulie. They loved your presentation. They approved the Cavaliers logo exactly as presented. Gordon wanted one thing — as long as we moved away from the black, orange and light blue color palette and returned to wine, gold and navy blue, he’s completely on board. APPROVED! Good job, O’Grady. That whole cutting out of logo idea… very smart move….”

That praise meant a lot.

Compliments from Stern inside NBA Offices were rare commodities. David threw praise and acknowledgements around like they were manhole covers.

When I hung up the phone, I honestly felt like taking the rest of the day off to celebrate, in fact, looking back I think I did — and went golfing… LOL.

I was thrilled, not just because we got another great looking logo approved, but because we solved a very sensitive problem none of us had dealt with before.

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The Aftermath.

Once the logo system was approved, the uniform development became far easier. We extended the same typography, saber elements, and color hierarchy throughout the entire identity system, which turned out remarkably well.

The wine, metallic gold, and navy blue uniform became the jersey LeBron James wore during his rookie season — and decades later it remains one of the most recognizable Cavaliers throwback uniforms produced by Mitchell & Ness selling for $350 a jersey.

Looking back over 25 years the success of the project was the patient design process.

Cavaliers Rebrand Takeaway.

This wasn’t just another challenging branding assignment. It became a lesson in empathy, patience, adaptation, and ingenuity. After the first two presentations, I could have pushed harder for approval based on everyone opinions. I could have asked Gordon, please simply trust our expertise, but that would have been ignorant of me.

For me personally, the presentation solution came from an old skill I hadn’t used in over 35 years. Ultimately, cutting out a logo made of foam core was the difference.

That’s a lesson I still carry from this project. Never let those old skills fade away. Keep them in your bag of creative tricks as you might need them again — someday.

Let Them Know.

Sometimes great branding work isn’t about a logo, uniforms or even a court design.

It’s about understanding how another human being experiences the world — and having enough patience and empathy to meet them there with resolve and patience.

And sometimes, if you’re fortunate, that effort earns you an unexpected early morning phone call from David Stern filled with praise instead of problems. -The End.

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Welcome to Episode 54 of the Sports Branding Substack. Thank you for subscribing.

In this episode, we rely on our branding mallets, strap on our creative helmets, and chase big ideas all over the design possibilities polo field — while learning on the fly. But first, yes… we must admit we had no idea what we were getting into. However, our humility became the greatest asset for the project’s success.

When Gameplan Creative won the branding agency of record contract with the United States Polo Association and National Polo Center back in November 2022, we didn’t know a single rule of the sport. Seriously. We didn’t know polo is the fastest team sport on the planet. True. We didn’t know that the real athlete in polo isn’t the rider, it’s the 1,000‑lb. pony galloping in perfect, silent trust with their rider. Amazing!

We learned about the sport of kings fast. We had no choice. The ponies taught us. The players taught us. And eventually, so did the game.

Our creative team—Brigitte Smith, Patricia Aguilar, and I—were ready to divot stomp (more on that term later) on one of the most interesting and enlightening projects of our long sports design and branding careers.

A moment of harsh reality came early on the project we had to come to grips with.

At our start-up meeting, a simple question arose: “So how does scoring in polo work?”

Awkward silence. UH-OH…

What did we collectively know about the sport of polo? What are the rules, rhythms, terminology, flow of the game? We were polo novices starting from a baseline of zero understanding of the sport of kings.

Of course, we understood sports branding. Fan psychology, venue design identity, typography, atmosphere, tradition, spectacle—that was our language. But for polo?

Brand Immersion 101.

What do you do when you need to become an expert on a subject almost overnight?

Well… you don’t guess, or in this case, you go straight to the horse’s mouth… LOL.

We built an accelerated learning curve around four pillars:

Interviews. We sat down with players, coaches, announcers, longtime patrons, and USPA leadership. We asked basic questions. We asked obvious questions. We asked some pretty unusual questions. And we even asked the same question three different ways until the patterns emerged.

Look books. We studied the visual history of polo—vintage tournament posters, equestrian portraiture, celebrated classic sports venue destinations, polo match photography from eras when the sport was covered like front-page news. We needed to feel the aesthetic lineage before we could make it “modern and relevant”.

Site surveys. We walked the National Polo Center grounds in Wellington. Measured sightlines. Watched how light moved across the field at different hours. Noticed where fans gathered, where horses were attended to, where quiet moments happened. We even visited the US Polo Hall of Fame which was only a mile from the National Polo Center, and an incredible center of history and learning.

NPC features world-class competition from some of the top players in the world, while also developing up and coming American players across all levels of polo in a targeted fashion to promote excellence in the sport.

Attending polo matches. There is no substitute for being there. The thunder of hooves. The crack of mallet on ball. The build of sound before a goal. You can read about “divot stomping”, but you until you’ve walked onto that field at halftime with a hundreds of strangers, all stepping on turf, it’s unique in sports.

These weren’t just sideshow activities. This was a crash course curriculum: Polo 101.

From January through April, Sunday afternoons at the National Polo Center transform into one of South Florida’s most distinctive live sports and social experiences. Sunday polo at the National Polo Center offers an intimate, family-friendly atmosphere where sport, hospitality, and social culture come together every week.

The National Polo Center (NPC) experience in Wellington, Florida, blends world-class equestrian athletics with a lavish, high-society social scene. Running from January through April, the polo season is characterized by exhilarating high-goal matches, vibrant Palm Beach fashion, and elegant hospitality.

Being There.

For Patricia Aguilar, our Gameplan Creative Managing Partner, (and lifelong horse aficionado), our site survey wasn’t just research and interviews—it was sort of a homecoming which she didn’t see coming.

“For as long as I can remember I have loved horses and horseback riding. My admiration and respect for these beautiful and majestic animals goes back to my childhood when my family went on summer vacations to Mexico. Any time the chance presented itself, I would ride horses and that has continued throughout my life. Today, I volunteer at a horse sanctuary in Illinois — which brings me great joy and satisfaction.

When we won the US Polo assignment, I was thrilled to learn about the sport. It’s ironic because I knew practically nothing about the sport or the culture of polo.

On our original site survey to the National Polo Center, I was thrust into a fantasy world for me. The magnificent creatures were gorgeous! And their strength, their skills and their speed… left me speechless.

Then to watch the polo players ride these powerful animals with such skill while hitting a small ball towards a goal at 30 MPH was incredible.

When down on the field standing not far from the action, I was left breathless at their speed, ability to react to a play and their focus in tight quarters—even contact, which struck me as extremely dangerous.

The experience of that initial site survey opened my eyes to why this sport has survived for centuries.” — Patricia Aguilar, Managing Partner.

Patricia’s lifelong connection to horses gave her a perspective the rest of us lacked—she understood the animal’s half of the player-pony partnership. Watching that partnership operate at full gallop changed how she thought about design.

As Gameplan Creative creative lead, Brigitte Smith has a deep sports branding résumé—hockey, MLB All-Star Games, the World Series, even SlamBall. But polo was something else entirely.

“I was beyond thrilled to be the lead creative director on this assignment. My background includes the AHL’s Iowa Wild, MLB All-Star Games, the World Series, SlamBall, Princeton Athletics and beyond... But polo? I had expected a more elevated couture athletic landscape than I was used to working with — but it was so much more once I immersed myself into the polo culture. It was tradition, fashion, competition, hospitality, and storytelling all existing within the same environment, each element contributing to an atmosphere unlike anything I had experienced before.

At our first site survey at the National Polo Center, I was completely consumed—in the best way. The pageantry, tradition, and culture immediately struck me with a level of spectacle that, in Hollywood terms, could only be compared to the Oscars.

As a designer, I couldn’t stop studying the details—the colors across the grounds, the intricate patterns woven into each polo jersey, every element perfectly contrasted against the multitude of horses and the impossibly green field. The palette was everything.

Not to mention the fashion—the women’s elegant hats and bold dresses, the men’s intricately tailored sport coats. It was impossible not to notice how every detail felt intentional, curated, and cinematic. I realized polo isn’t just a game—it’s a living, breathing visual and cultural masterpiece.” — Brigitte Smith, Creative Director.

For Brigitte, the assignment became a rare chance to build a visual language around a sport that had never needed to shout. Polo’s existing elegance was an asset—but it also demanded restraint. Her challenge was to amplify without overwhelming.

Personally, I came around quickly to polo’s appeal with an appreciation from a completely different angle entirely… competitive ice hockey… yes, ice hockey. As both a player and coach, I was both drawn to and completely understood the speed, the spacing, systems, and teamwork needed. Was this basically “hockey on horses”…?

“The spectacle of these magnificent animals in complete coordination with their riders was almost indescribable. As someone who’s played and coached hockey, the idea of riding a 1,000-pound polo horse while chasing a small ball at 35 miles an hour was mind boggling...

Hoevere, when I interviewed polo players, I understood their instincts. They talked about creating space and triangulation (never bunching up), always supporting the ball. Just like hockey. But what fascinated me was the handicap system: each player carries a rating from -2 to 10 (10 being an elite rider), and a team’s total handicap determines the matchup. You can have four individually talented riders who don’t mesh, or a lower-handicap team that plays beautifully together. It’s so much about teamwork within those individual levels.

I asked about “checking”; and they smirked and called it ‘controlled contact with restraint.’ The rules forbid cutting off riders and lanes, so the strategy is always finding open space.

I tried to limit my hockey-on-horseback comparisons, but the sports are excellent parallels. Biggest difference? No goalies. The polo goal is always open.” — Tom O’Grady, Author.

Looking at the polo through a hockey lens turned into a surprising asset. The more we learned about polo’s flow, the more we saw the same chess match Patricia, Brigitte and I love on the ice rink—it’s just faster, larger, and it’s played on 1000 lb. horses!

Fast Game. Fast Facts. Polo 101.

The more we learned, the more we subsequently realized how much we didn’t know.

To summarize, here’s what surprised us most:

• A polo field is expansive. A polo field fits roughly nine football fields inside it. Nine. The photography we’d need to capture that sense of vastness would have to be completely rethought.

  

• Games literally change direction. After every goal, teams switch which goal they’re attacking. This isn’t a gimmick—it’s a tradition rooted in fairness, preventing any advantage from wind, sun, or field conditions.

• Numbers mean something. In most sports, jersey numbers are personal. In polo, numbers 1 through 4 define position and responsibility.

• Six chukkers per match. That’s polo’s equivalent of quarters or periods. Each one is a sprint, not a marathon. A chukker lasts approximately seven-to-eight minutes long depending on stoppages in play and instant replay fouls reviewed in real time from a drone feed that flies over the field — acting like a third polo official.

• Divot stomp. During halftime, spectators stream onto the field to flatten torn-up turf. It’s functional, social, and utterly charming—a tradition we knew we had to honor in our branding.

  

• Horses are also athletes. Players change ponies multiple times during a match, often between chukkers. The partnership between player and horse isn’t just a sentiment—it’s the entire engine of the sport.

• Polo players mallet sizes. Depending on position and the horse the player is riding, players use different size mallets⁠

Our Moment of Reckoning.

Somewhere in that deep dive into the world of polo—probably standing on the field after a match, dirt on our shoes—something for all three of us— clicked.

Polo isn’t just another sport with different rules. It operates in an entirely different rhythm. The pace is both explosive and patient. The culture and the sport is both refined and rugged. The audience includes both fourth-generation patrons and curious first-timers who wandered into Wellington’s vibrant polo scene. From a branding standpoint, this distinction matters enormously.

Polo’s greatest branding challenge isn’t positioning it as a luxury lifestyle — it’s shifting perception away from exclusivity and toward the extraordinary athleticism, speed, and connection between horse and rider that define the sport at its highest level.

Our interviews, look books, site surveys, and match attendance weren’t just research. They were translation guides. They helped us understand which traditions were sacred, which details were storytelling gold, and where there was room to welcome new eyes without breaking faith with longtime fans.

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Bridging Sport Cultures.

One of the most interesting discoveries during the project was realizing that polo had an opportunity—not to become something different, but become more approachable to more traditional American sports audiences.

Long-time loyal polo fans understood the rhythms of tournament play, handicap systems, and its seasonal competition schedules and multiple competition events throughout the US Polo four-month season.

However, new audiences to the sport of polo often did not understand its interesting and unique idiosyncrasies.

Americans Love Bracket Mania.

One of our branding project challenges: How do you make an elite heritage sport feel intuitive and comfortably familiar- without stripping away its authenticity?

One solution which came to us early came directly from our background in popular mainstream American sports culture… the idea of tournament brackets… of course.

The concept was simple but effective: visually organize tournament progression in a way American sports fans instantly recognize. Even first-time spectators to polo and the in-season tournament could understand advancement, elimination, momentum, the stakes, even the presenting sponsor was given more exposure.

It wasn’t about turning polo into the basketball office pool, but rather utilizing familiar American sports storytelling devices to help new audiences engage with an unfamiliar sport.

That careful creative balance became central to the US Polo branding project:

• Honor long-standing polo traditions.

• Lower the learning curve.

• Never dilute nor diminish the culture.

• Sports branding is not only about aesthetics.

The US Polo project objective became about orientation and helping fans quickly understand where they are, what matters, who’s involved and why they should care.

Four Seasons Later.

Our creative team’s initial uncertainty how to approach the sport and the culture of polo has over the past four years evolved into one of our agency’s most rewarding partnerships and enjoyable ongoing brand development experiences.

Gameplan Creative has worked with the USPA and the National Polo Center for four consecutive years. Together, we’ve built a venue atmosphere and fan experience that honors polo’s visual heritage — while welcoming a new generation to the sport.

Our brand approach blends timeless sophistication with dynamic speed and power—because that tension is exactly what makes polo compelling. The sport is elegant and aggressive. Often controlled. Sometimes chaotic. A perfect mix of tradition and thrills.

We’ve developed a cohesive, polo season-specific graphics package that brings the sport to life across environmental displays, digital platforms, and printed materials.

But the real success isn’t in the deliverables. It’s in something harder to measure: A spectator who stomps huge grass/dirt divots for the first time and feels like they belong. A young fan who sees themselves in the sport’s future. A longtime polo enthusiast who nods approvingly at a design ideally reflecting the sport of kings.

What We Learned.

Looking back, the lessons we learned are pretty simple: Authenticity doesn’t come from pretending you already know. It comes from being willing to learn about a sport which was completely foreign to our crew before the creative assignment began.

• We conducted direct interviews when we could have Googled.

• We built look books when we could have simply scrolled Pinterest.

• We surveyed the site in person when we could have used provided images.

• We attended matches when we could have watched highlights.

Every one of those immersive choices accelerated our curve. And every one made final brand solutions more authentic, more meaningful, and more true to the sport of kings. Thank you for your ongoing support of the Sports Branding Substack! -The End.

The Sports Branding Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

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Welcome to Episode 53 of the Sports Branding Substack. And thank you, as always, for being part of this journey through the branding of sports landscape. ENJOY!

There’s a moment in every great sports brand journey when it the team stops sounding like an organization… and starts sounding more like a fan chant. Not written, not formalized—just shouted, repeated, owned. That shift doesn’t happen in a boardroom. It happens in the stands, on talk radio, in headlines, and eventually, in the way designers choose to compress the visual brand identity. What begins as a full, often cumbersome identity gets edited down in real time—by fans first, and only later by the team organization itself.

This episode is about that process— it’s about brand compression. The evolution from formal identity to > fan speak > to visual shorthand. It’s where history, linguistics, and design intersect. And it’s not accidental.

Brand savvy teams have tolerated their team names being shortened. Because shorter names move faster. They chant better. They fit the evolving geometry of a popular logo. And ultimately, they reflect the way the brand choses to lives in sportstopia.

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Below, we’ll look at nine teams that made that transition—some intentionally, others pulled along by culture—and how their identities compressed over time. Along the way, you’ll see before-and-after marks that tell the story visually. Longer names giving way to shorter/sweeter ones. Formality surrendering to simplicity. And logos that didn’t just follow language—but finally caught up to it.

1. Portland Trail Blazers (to Blazers back to Trail Blazers).

“Trail Blazers” is a phrase with narrative weight—frontiers, exploration, the forging of paths. But in practice, it’s a two-beat name trying to live in a one-beat world. From their 1970 inception, the pinwheel logo cleverly sidestepped the issue by leaning on symbol over language. Designed in the heyday of cool, abstract corporate identity systems—think Chase Manhattan Bank and the rise of geometric, reductionist marks—the Blazers icon fit that moment perfectly. It was modern, rational, and deliberately impersonal. Heck, people didn’t understand then, and most don’t understand it today.

The irony is that more than five decades later, while the NBA has often moved toward expressive, story-driven identities, Portland remains anchored to that same cold sterile corporate pinwheel. What once felt progressive now reads as detached. And in a brand where the name naturally wants to shorten to “Blazers,” yet the symbol never quite made the same emotional leap.

2. New York Knickerbockers (to Knicks).

The New York “Knickerbockers” was never intended for a logo for a multi-billion dollar value franchise—it was built for 19th-century literature. The term traces back to Washington Irving and his satirical History of New York, where “Knickerbocker” became shorthand for old Dutch New Yorkers. By the time the franchise debuted in 1946, the nickname already felt antiquated, which is why Willard Mullin’s Father Knickerbocker character worked—it visualized something otherwise too long and too abstract. But language around the long name — kept evolving.

By 1964, designer Bud Freeman introduced the “roundball” mark with a clean, assertive “KNICKS,” and just like that, the brand aligned with how people actually spoke. Two NBA championships followed—but more importantly, the name finally fit the hard core passionate Knicks fans voice.

3. Seattle SuperSonics (to Sonics).

“SuperSonics” was born of the jet age—specifically Boeing’s SST program—so the name carried speed, futurism, and civic pride. But it was also a mouthful. Almost immediately, “Sonics” took over in conversation, and crucially, over time, in design. The 1990’s mark leaned hard into that tighter word—bolder, more rhythmic, more graphic. “SONICS” wasn’t just shorter—it sounded like motion. It snapped. It hummed. And in a league where identity lives at center court, that kind of phonetic energy matters. The shortening didn’t dilute the brand—it distilled it.

Then in 1995, the NBA Creative Services group pushed that logic to its conclusion—advocating for “SONICS” to stand front and center, drawing a clear through line to the precedent set by the New York Knicks, Portland Blazers, and Cleveland Cavs. The move wasn’t loud—it was precise. A subtle compression, reinforced by a superhero-inflected type treatment that gave “SONICS” lift, energy, and a sense of upward motion. It’s the kind of design decision that doesn’t call attention to itself—but once you see it, you realize the brand had been heading there all along.

4. Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (to Anaheim Ducks).

The original “Mighty Ducks of Anaheim,” launched in 1993 under The Walt Disney Company, was one of the rare cases where a team name came pre-loaded with narrative—from film to ice. But “Mighty Ducks of Anaheim” always felt like a title, not a chant. By 2006, new ownership stripped it down to “Anaheim Ducks,” and the identity followed suit—darker palette, sharper tone, fewer words. The change wasn’t just aesthetic—it was tonal. Dropping “Mighty” and “of Anaheim” shifted the brand from cinematic to competitive. What remained—“Ducks”—was simple, flexible, and finally built for repetition.

“Are we Ducks or what…?” - Gordon Bombay, District 5 Ducks Head Coach.

5. Minnesota North Stars (to Stars).

Minnesota North Stars shortened to Dallas (Stars) when the team moved to Texas. You can’t call a team the “North Stars” when they’re playing in the southernmost part of North America (Dallas is closer to Mexico City than to the Canadian border). So management did the most obvious, minimalist thing: they chopped off the “North.”

And thus, the Dallas Stars were born.

Here’s the quirky part: dropping “North” didn’t make the name less specific—it made it infinitely more generic. A star could be anywhere. A star could be any star. But in Texas, of course — everything bigger includes a lone star on the flag. It simply worked!

6. Chicago White “Stockings” Sox (to Sox).

Originally the “White Stockings,” the name was shortened to “White Sox” in the early 1900s—partly for headline efficiency, partly for everyday speech. But what looks like a casual phonetic shift (“Stockings” → “Sox”) turned into a design advantage. The diagonal “SOX” mark, introduced prominently in the 1950s and refined over time, is a typographic solution that wouldn’t exist with the original name. “Stockings” is descriptive. “Sox” is graphic. The abbreviation didn’t just modernize the name—it unlocked a visual identity.

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The diagonal interlocking S-O-X clarity is exactly what carried it off the field. The mark translated seamlessly into urban street fashion and hip-hop —especially in black and white—where its compact, almost coded feel made it wearable as identity, not just fandom. It became less about the team and more about an attitude, which is when a sports logo crosses over into popular culture.

7. Cincinnati Red Stockings (to Reds).

The franchise began as the “Red Stockings” in 1869—baseball’s first openly professional team. Over time, “Stockings” fell away, leaving “Reds,” a cleaner, more immediate identifier. There’s a practical elegance to it: one syllable, instantly legible, visually bold. Even during the 1950s, when political sensitivities briefly pushed the team to “Redlegs,” the gravitational pull of “Reds” proved stronger. It returned because it worked—linguistically, visually, culturally. Some names don’t just shorten—they settle into their final form.

8. Cleveland Cavaliers (to Cavs to C).

The name “Cavaliers”, chosen by owner Nick Mileti, was inspired after attending a matchup between the Ohio State Buckeyes and Notre Dame Fighting Irish, as he moved by the tradition of militaristic and valor-driven nicknames. After exploring options, “Cavaliers” stood out—evoking nobility, courage, and a certain swashbuckling bravado. Early identities leaned into that spirit, from ornate wordmarks to sword-through-the-letter treatments that visualized motion and flair. But as with so many teams, language did its work. “Cavs” became the natural shorthand—quicker, chantable, more conversational.

By the time the brand evolved into its modern phase, the compression was complete. The identity didn’t just say less—it showed less. The current primary mark, a singular, stylized “C,” carries an immediacy that feels almost cinematic—like the quick, decisive slash of Zorro carving his mark. It’s a gesture more than a letter. An evolution formed form a romantic, multisyllabic name rooted in tradition… to a one-letter C emblem built for speed, clarity, and instant recognition.

#9. Toronto Blue Jays (to Jays back to Blue Jays).

One of the most fascinating modern examples of failed brand compression came from Toronto. In 2004, under new ownership, the club unveiled a dramatic rebrand that intentionally deemphasized “Blue Jays” in favor of the shorter “Jays.”

Team executives explained that fans and media already referred to the club conversationally as the “Jays,” and the redesign sought to acknowledge that reality while presenting a more modern, streamlined identity.

The new system stripped away the iconic red maple leaf, removed much of the traditional royal blue, and introduced darker graphite and black tones intended to feel sleek, contemporary, and internationally marketable.

But unlike the Knicks, Mets, Sonics, or Cavs, this compression never felt organic. Fans didn’t see “Jays” as a natural distillation of the brand—they saw it as subtraction. The removal of “Blue” and the maple leaf felt less like refinement and more like abandonment of identity itself. The backlash was immediate and persistent, with many fans viewing the black-and-graphite era as disconnected from the club’s history and personality. By 2012, the organization effectively admitted defeat, restoring the classic blue-heavy palette and returning “Blue Jays” to visual prominence. In branding terms, it was a powerful lesson: true brand compression only works when the shortened identity still preserves the emotional core of the original.

Tampa Bay Devil Rays (Rays).

Though the "Devil" part of the name was because of the rays found in the Tampa Bay area, some people had issues with the word in the team’s name. After nearly a decade as the Devil Rays, and countless phone calls pleading with the team to change the name, the team's new ownership, led by current owner Stuart Sternberg, decided that it was best to change the name to the Tampa Bay Rays. That change happened after the 2007 season. This change was driven by negativity towards having the word DEVIL in the name — and was not a strategic brand decision.

You can feel the pattern now—across eras, across leagues, across completely different origin stories. But what ties it all together isn’t just language or design—it’s listening.

The best brands, in sports and beyond, don’t rigidly protect what they were called on day one. They pay attention to what people actually say. They adapt. They edit. They follow the audience’s lead. Because fans don’t just consume a brand—they reshape it, refine it, and, over time, rename it. What starts as a formal team brand identity becomes something more organic, more immediate… more tribal in tone.

The Portland Trail Blazers tried to hold onto a full narrative name, but the culture trimmed it to “Blazers.” The Seattle SuperSonics arrived as a symbol of the jet age, only to find their true voice in the tighter, more kinetic “Sonics.” The New York “Knicks” shed the literary weight of Knickerbockers for something faster and more playable. The swashbuckling Cavaliers over time sliced and shredded a long name for “Cavs” and then went full logo blanding with a standalone “C”. The Anaheim “Ducks” dropped the theatrical Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and became something cleaner, tougher, more easy to reference. The Minnesota North Stars relocation froze the name in time, thus came the “Stars” in the Lone Star state. And in baseball, the Cincinnati “Reds” completed the journey earliest—“Stockings” quietly disappearing, replaced by words that were simpler, sharper, and far more design-ready. While in Chicago, the White Sox literally removed their “pale hose” white socks and simplified to “Sox”.

Different cities. Different decades. Different sports. Same outcome. Short but sweet.

Long names drift toward short ones. Formality gives way to familiarity. And eventually, the version that fans say becomes the version that brands show. Not because it’s clever—but because it’s true.

This isn’t about trends and much as it is about brand brevity. The full team name may live in the record books and official legal documents. But what about the shortened names? Those are the ones that live on forever—on the jersey, at center court, and in most definitely in the roar of the crowd. -The End.

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Excited to Welcome Our Subscribers to Episode 52 of the Sports Branding Substack.

In sports, no team takes the field without a playbook. The coach doesn’t walk into the locker room and say, “Just go out there, play hard and win the game.” There are innumerable formations, audibles, route trees, two-minute drills and on and on…

The same is true for sports branding—yet too many designers and clients skip the most critical phase of the project cycle, the look book. Instead, they rush straight to logo sketches, jersey mockups, social media graphics, and other core brand impression touch points — only to find themselves lost in overtime revisions, conflicting feedback, and a brand that feels like it was assembled by committee.

That’s where the look book comes in. It’s not a mood board. It’s not a Pinterest collage. It’s the visual GPS of the branding project, codified before a single thumbnail is sketched. And it lives within a larger, disciplined process—a game plan that separates professional work from amateur $29.99 logos while you wait targetless design.

What is a Look Book?

A look book is a curated, visually driven presentation that defines a brand’s identity and creative direction. Rooted in fashion— but recently widely adopted in sports and design, it communicates tone, style, and intent through imagery over explanation. At its best, it becomes a storytelling tool—aligning key stakeholders around a clear and consistent visual narrative before creative execution begins.

At its core, a look book serves three purposes: to inspire, highlight trends, and introduce new work or products. It can also document the evolution of a design project or present a cohesive collection in a stylized, editorial format. Designers rely on consistent use of typography, color palettes, and brand elements to reinforce identity and create a unified visual experience over an array of applications.

When executed well, a look book becomes more than a portfolio—it’s a storytelling tool that connects a brand or designer to their client through a distinct and memorable visual narrative.

For this episode, Gameplan Creative Director Brigitte Smith and I present a case study look book developed for the Armadillo United movie—(yes, we’re going Hollywood… how cool is that?) exploring the brand identity direction for the youth soccer club — the central character (club) in the movie.

“I’ve spent 35 years designing brands seen globally on courts, fields, and broadcasts around the world. You don’t really think about where else they might end up—certainly not Hollywood. And then one day, you’re looking at your brand work as the central character in a film. A totally new audience. A new place for the work to live—the big screen. It’s flattering… and if I’m honest, a little humbling too.” -Tom O’Grady.

Look Book Case Study | Armadillo United: The Movie.

“Armadillo United” follows 12-year-old Dante Delgado and his fictional soccer club’s thrilling and unpredictable roller coaster ride to the World Cup of Youth Soccer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Antonio Banderas plays a character named Diego, described as “an eccentric ice cream vendor who believes he’s the legendary Argentine soccer player Diego Maradona and imparts important soccer and life lessons to the protagonist.” Rubén Blades (“Fear the Walking Dead”) will portray Coach Yepez, a former professional soccer star who serves as the coach of Armadillo United. Danay Garcia (“Prison Break”) will play Dante’s mother DeeDee. Trejo will portray Coach Koko, who leads the Armadillo United’s arch-rivals and nemesis, The Champions.

The feel-good film marks a reunion between Banderas and Trejo, who have shared the screen over the years in 1995’s “Desperado,” 1996’s “From Dusk Till Dawn” and the “Spy Kids” franchise. Yes, that “Spy Kids” franchise. Amazing.

Project Cycle. Process Breakout.

Since 2004, Gameplan Creative has utilized the “project cycle” with eight-phase milestones ensuring smooth client/agency engagement with turnkey execution.

SOCCER CLUB BRAND IDENTITY APPROACH

PHASE 1— ENGAGEMENT
1. RFP Issued by Client
2. Agency Response (No Spec Creative)
3. Contract Execution

PHASE 2 — DISCOVERY & STRATEGY
4. Stakeholder Interviews & Research
5. Market / League Audit
6. Brand Strategy & Positioning
7. Creative Brief Development
8. Client Approval of Creative Brief

PHASE 3 — CREATIVE DIRECTION
9. Lookbook Creation (Visual Explorations)
10. Lookbook Alignment & Strategic Sign-Off

PHASE 4 — IDENTITY SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT
11. Identity Exploration (Logos, Typography, Uniform Concepts in Parallel)
12. Concept Presentation & Iteration
13. Primary & Secondary Mark Refinement
14. Uniform & Equipment Design Integration

PHASE 5 — APPLICATION SYSTEM
15. Environmental / Venue Graphics
16. Digital & Social Media System
17. Merchandise & Retail Applications

PHASE 6 — VALIDATION & APPROVAL
18. League Review & Trademark Clearance
19. Manufacturer / Production Alignment

PHASE 7 — FINALIZATION
20. Brand Guidelines (Developed Throughout, Finalized Here)
21. Final Client Approval
22. Production-Ready Art Delivery

PHASE 8 — LAUNCH & MANAGEMENT
23. Launch Strategy & Rollout Planning
24. Public Launch
25. Ongoing Brand Management / Adherence Retainer

Phase 3 of the project cycle is where the Armadillo United Look Book is developed — serving as the creative launching pad—where visual direction is explored, tested, and aligned before creative direction and visual development begins.

Inspiration Look Book.

Unlike a simple mood board pinned to a wall, a professional look book is a structured presentation (typically 15–20 pages) that establishes critical benchmarks. For this project, Brigitte Smith and I developed an 18-page presentation deck that was submitted to Alan Jacobs, Executive Producer of Armadillo United.

“A look book isn’t just a tool for research or refining details—it’s where the story begins. It lays the foundation for the narrative behind the identity, capturing the essence of what lives beyond the logo. In this case, it serves as the starting point for shaping the world and storyline of Armadillo United.

By giving your clients the ingredients throughout the look book, you begin shaping direction, defining tone, and building toward a clear emotional outcome: what the audience should feel and how they should engage when they’re fully immersed in the brand.” -Brigitte Smith

Section i. Native Texas Armadillo

The look book targets the armadillo as both a symbolic and visual foundation for the brand. Key attributes—armor, resilience, adaptability, and movement—are defined to align the creative team and client around a shared visual language.

Layered throughout are lesser-known details help to deepen the narrative. For example, there are nine species of armadillos native to Texas, a detail that doesn’t sound important, but informs subtle design decisions, patterns, or hidden elements.

The goal is not restraint, but range of ideas. A surplus of reference material creates opportunity—where even the smallest detail can influence direction or become an embedded element for fans to discover over time. Easter eggs in today’s visual jargon.

10 Fast Facts About Armadillos | Biological & Behavioral Insights.

1. Armadillo is a Spanish word meaning little armored one, the outer shell their most noticeable feature.

2. The nine-banded armadillo has been designated the “Official State Small Mammal of Texas”. This fact led to the nine-banded armadillos’ stripes becoming a key brand component.

3. There are 21 species of armadillos, but only one, the nine-banded armadillo, is found in the United States, primarily in the South and West US regions.

4. Armadillos are most closely associated with Texas; home to more of them than any other state.

5. An armadillos’ body temperature is lower than most mammals and they have very little fat.

6. With climate change, their territory will continue to expand in warmer areas with 15 inches of rain annually.

7. Armadillos foraging for beetles, ants, termites, and worms makes them unwelcome yard guests for the damage they create as they dig for food.

8. Armadillos while having a clumsy appearance, can travel up to 30 mph.

9. When startled, an armadillo can jump straight up, as much as two or three feet.

10. The nine-banded armadillo found in Texas cannot roll up into a ball like other armadillos, which makes it more susceptible to predators.

Color and Texture Inspiration – Not a traditional palette, but a structured hierarchy:

• Primary colors – the shell (becomes the core identity)

• Secondary colors – supporting accents (extended tail and long snout)

• Territory color – a localized identity layer

For the Armadillo United brand identity, copper and navy blue operate as the territory colors, referencing the 9-ring armadillo native to Texas.

Color, Texture & Kit Materiality System – The design system draws directly from the armadillo’s copper-toned armor shell, establishing a unified visual and physical language across identity and apparel.

An armadillo’s shell has a distinctly unique structure—rich with pattern, rhythm, and texture. Those geometric qualities offer a natural design language to build from, creating depth and visual interest. It also serves as a compelling parallel to the athlete: built for protection, resilience, and performance under pressure. Both its physical attributes and symbolic meaning align seamlessly, making it a powerful foundation for the identity.
-Brigitte Smith

The color hierarchy is derived from this same source: primary tones represent the core shell, secondary accents provide structural variation, and a territory color anchors the identity in place through copper and navy blue—referencing the 9-ring armadillo native to Texas.

Surfaces are treated as segmented armor rather than fabric alone—defined by layered protection, subtle metallic undertones, and structured paneling that echoes natural plating.

Within the kit system, these principles translate directly from identity to application. Thekits becomes a physical extension of the crest: a wearable armor system where color, structure, and material all originate from the same armadillo reference point.

Section ii. Armadillo United Logo Design.

For Armadillo United, the logo system is grounded in what consistently defines strong soccer identities at the highest level. A successful club mark must be immediately recognizable, emotionally resonant, and aspirational in tone. It should carry team spirit and pride, while functioning as a clear visual anchor for players, supporters, and partners alike. And if the icon can have an attitude, all the better.

Experience and exploration suggest strong soccer crests work best when they are:

• Memorable, recognizable, and aspirational

• Rooted in crest or roundel structures

• Simple, with distinct color, shape, and typography systems

• Flexible across all applications and sizes

• Effective in one-color, black-and-white, and full-color formats

• Designed for extension into secondary and tertiary marks

• Aligned with club values and audience buy-in

In most cases, the most effective soccer identities lean into crest or roundel-based structures, creating a contained and disciplined space for symbolism and storytelling.

Within that structure, simplicity becomes a strength—distinct shapes, controlled color systems, and considered typography ensure clarity at every size and application.

Equally important is brand flexibility. A primary soccer mark must perform across all environments: digital, print, apparel, broadcast, and merchandise. It should remain legible and powerful in single-color, black-and-white, and full-color executions. Where appropriate, the system can be constructed with layering in mind—allowing for secondary and tertiary brand expressions without diluting the core identity.

· Typography Systems - Play a defining role in differentiation. Proprietary fonts and custom wordmarks elevate the club beyond category conventions, while reinforcing ownership and authenticity. Subtle references to the sport itself may be embedded within the crest, acting as secondary cues rather than overt illustration.

Athletic lettering separated from supporting typefaces. Each font is assigned a job: “This typefont for jersey numbers, this for the wordmark, this for social graphics, and this font on broadcast and environments.”

Finally, the most effective club identities are built with alignment in mind. The mark must reflect the values of the organization, resonate with its intended audience, and achieve clear internal and external buyoff. When appropriate, a club slogan or rallying call can be integrated—either within the structure of the crest or encircling it—to

Section iii. Armadillos Kit (Uniform) Design.

From its earliest functional roots to its role today as a cultural and commercial icon, the evolution of the soccer kit has elevated it into something far greater than apparel. It is a badge of loyalty, a marker of moments, and a canvas where a club’s past, present, and future converge.

A kit becomes a symbol of unity and pride, connecting players and supporters through a shared visual language. It holds history, reflects culture, and signals ambition—bridging the gap between performance and belonging.

For the Armadillo United film, the kits function as both team identity and cinematic device. They are not built for the grind of a full season, but for the scrutiny of the camera—where every stitch, texture, and color decision is magnified on screen. Details of the outfits will be highly scrutinized when close-up scenes appear on the big screen in movie theaters.

Strip away the over-hyped Nikesque performance language and the reality is straightforward: the kit is worn, filmed, and returned to the prop house. A very unusual role for athletic wear in 2026.

In this context, there are no lightweight interpretations or exaggerated performance narratives. The work is practical, intentional, and visually disciplined—designed to hold up under lighting, framing, and repetition across multiple takes. The kit ultimately operates as a controlled extension of the movie, built as much for storytelling as it is for sport.

Section iv. Armadillo United Regional Imagery.

The Armadillo United movie script does not call out a specific home location for the club so the look book lacks standard visual call outs of local “points of interest”.

Why Look Books Matter.

One of the most common missteps in branding is rushing past the look book and moving straight into logo concepts. It’s tempting—but it bypasses the most critical phase of the process since the look book is where alignment is built and strategic permission is earned.

It reframes subjective reaction (“I just don’t like blue…”) into objective evaluation, grounding feedback in a shared visual language rather than personal preference.

At its core, a look book functions as pre-agreed creative direction between client and agency—a form of visual insurance established at the outset. It defines the boundaries, sets expectations, and creates clarity before creative execution begins.

Once approved, the project moves forward with confidence: primary logo development, kit design, environmental graphics, digital systems, merchandise, and ultimately a complete set of brand guidelines. Each phase builds on a foundation that has already been vetted, understood — and agreed upon.

This process is not a one-off creative exercise, but an invaluable repeatable framework for building identity systems across sports—and, when applicable, beyond sport entirely… even movies!!!

The look book becomes a transferable structure: a disciplined method for aligning stakeholders, defining visual territory, and establishing decision-making logic before execution begins. Whether applied to a professional club, a youth program, or a non-sports brand environment, the principle remains the same—clarity before creation.

Look Book Final Page.

The look book is where direction is decided before execution begins—where opinion gets replaced by alignment, and where every future decision is already speaking the same visual language.

Get that part right, and everything downstream—logos, kits, environments, digital systems—stops being interpretation and becomes execution with intent.

Miss it, and the brand spends the rest of its life correcting itself.
Stick to the process, and the work holds—on the field, on screen, and in memory.

When you’re sitting in a dark theater, popcorn in hand, and Armadillo United shows up larger than life on the big screen—the identity, the kits, the world around it—just remember: that didn’t happen by accident.

That’s what process looks like when guided by sports branding GPS… the look book!

That’s the visual creative direction game plan (Vince knew it…). - The End.

In this episode of the Sports Branding Podcast, Tom O’Grady and Brigitte Smith break down the three major pro teams that don’t follow the traditional “city/state + nickname” formula—a rule that 121 out of 124 teams across the Big Four leagues stick to.

We dive into:
• Why most teams anchor their identity in geography
• How a few outliers broke the rules—and won
• The branding strategy behind regional and conceptual naming
• Why winning can amplify even the boldest brand decisions

Bold strategy… or branding genius?

Read more + listen to the full episode on our Substack:
👉 sportsbranding.substack.com

#SportsBranding #SportsDesign #BrandIdentity #SportsMarketing #CreativeDirection #BrandStrategy #FanEngagement

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Welcome to Episode 51 of the Sports Branding Substack. It’s baseball season, finally.

Okay, it’s time to roll up our sleeves… or in this case, remove our sleeves entirely?

What started in 1940 as a simple, almost surgical design decision—cutting away fabric to free up the baseball player in the field, on the mound or at bat—quickly became one of the most fascinating on-again, off-again sartorial experiments in sports uniform design history. From innovation to rebellion, from team-wide identity to nostalgic throwbacks, sleeveless baseball jerseys have never been about comfort alone—it’s been about control, expression, and the ongoing and constant push and pull between tradition and evolution. In 2026 —it’s ALL about driving those baseball jersey sales.

1940 - Sleeveless Jerseys Introduced.

In 1940, the Chicago Cubs introduced one of the most radical uniform innovations in baseball history: a sleeveless flannel vest worn over a knitted undershirt.

This wasn’t just a gimmick. This was performance design decades ahead of its time.

The sleeveless baseball jersey concept came from Philip Knight “PK” Wrigley, the chewing gum magnate and Otis Shepard, the legendary Wrigley Chewing Gum Co. graphic designer and Chicago Cubs team art director. Otis was PK’s personal graphic designer who understood something the game hadn’t yet confronted or considered: baseball uniforms were still rooted in 19th-century tailoring.

For decades, standard baseball uniforms were heavy, cumbersome, scratchy made of non-breathable wool. Full sleeves. Restrictive construction. Incredibly uncomfortable.

PK and Otis Roll Up the Cubs Sleeves.

By removing the sleeves, players gained greater freedom in their shoulders and arms, particularly hitters and outfielders. The undershirt provided contrast, breathability, and layering flexibility depending on weather. It was, in many ways, the vest was an early performance uniform long before “performance” became an industry buzzword.

The result of removing the jersey sleeves:

• Greater freedom of motion and reach in the shoulders and arms

• Improved comfort for hitters and outfielders

• A system using undershirts for temperature control (long/short/none?)

And from a branding standpoint, it did something just as important:

• It simplified the typical baseball player silhouette.

No sleeve striping. No visual clutter. Just a clean chest canvas anchored by the familiar Cubs’ roundel mark.

A true masterclass in Sports Branding: reduce the noise, amplify team identity.

By 1941, the Cubs doubled down—going fully vested and experimenting with contrasting undershirts and shoulder yokes, creating one of the earliest examples of layered uniform design in MLB.

Interestingly enough, the Chicago Cubs wore sleeveless jerseys for only three seasons.

Big Klu.

If the PK Wrigley and the Chicago Cubs introduced the sleeveless jersey idea, then muscle-bound Cincinnati Reds Ted Kluszewski made it truly iconic.

Cincinnati Reds’ sleeveless look of the 1950s wasn’t originally born as a uniform innovation—it was born out of necessity, and out of one man’s physique that simply refused to fit the template.

That man was Ted Kluszewski, the Reds’ powerhouse first baseman, affectionately known as “Big Klu.” Standing 6-foot-2 and carrying one of the most imposing builds in the game. The result to remove Klu’s sleeves was inevitable: restricted movement at the very moment his swing demanded freedom… so bye-bye sleeves.

What started as a personal adjustment quickly became a visual signature for the Cincinnati Reds. The sleeveless look—more vest than jersey—aligned perfectly with Kluszewski’s presence in the batter’s box: powerful, direct, and unencumbered. In an era still defined by tradition, “Big Klu’s” sleeveless jerseys didn’t just challenge convention—they previewed a future where performance and design would begin to negotiate on equal terms.

When Ted Kluszewski selected by the 1960 MLB expansion Los Angeles Angels, he petitioned and was allowed to alter his new jersey by removing the sleeves — while his other LA Angels teammates wore the traditional sleeved-style jerseys.

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However, the adoption of sleeveless vests across Major League Baseball didn’t happen overnight—it crept in slowly through the mid-1950’s and 1960s, almost like a design experiment unfolding in real time. Teams that had never been associated with the vest look began testing it as an alternate uniform option, treating it less like long standing baseball tradition and more like a natural design evolution.

The Baltimore Orioles are a perfect case study in that trial-and-error era. They gave their sleeveless jersey an exploration, stepping into the look with curiosity but without long-term commitment. And just as quickly as it arrived, the experiment faded—after only two seasons, the Orioles moved on, discontinuing the vest and returning to more conventional uniform silhouettes. A mistake in our opinion.

For the Orioles, it’s a small but telling case study in baseball uniform history: not every innovation lasts after it finds its’ way onto the field.

In 1956, the Reds introduced the sleeveless vest. The vest-style uniform was a first for Cincinnati and its adoption was inspired in part by the bulging biceps of "Big Klu," the club's intimidating first baseman. The uniform also marked the first and only time that the club's Mr. Redlegs mascot appeared on the front of the team's jerseys.

In 1963, the Indians were trying to turnaround growing apathy of Cleveland fans for their struggling team and the game of baseball in general. So the Indians tried some new things introducing sleeveless jerseys and adding more red with Chief Wahoo adorning the front of the zipper vest and player numbers balancing the overall look.

In 1963, Kansas City Athletics owner Charles O. Finley introduced kelly green and "Fort Knox" gold uniforms to break the monotony of traditional white/gray baseball attire, inspired by his wife's favorite colors and Notre Dame football.

The vibrant, often-ridiculed uniforms were a marketing stunt to build excitement, paving the way for baseball's technicolor era, but the team soon relocated to Oakland in 1968.

Finley's move was ahead of its time, making the Athletics the first major league club to move away from strictly white/gray uniforms in decades, setting the stage for more colorful sports uniforms.

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The Pittsburgh Pirates sleeveless vest jersey, a staple of their 1950s–60s and 2000s look, was first adopted in 1957, making them only the second MLB team to adopt the style after the Cincinnati Reds. The look was designed to be worn over a black undershirt, allowing players more mobility and offering a, then-modern, “guns out” style that remained popular through the 1960 World Series championship.

By 1972, the verdict was in—full sleeves were back, and the vest experience was out.

Baseball, as it tends to do, had corrected itself. The sleeveless experiment which exploded from the mid-’50s through the late ’60s and early ’70s was filed away as a quirky chapter—one that teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates and Kansas City/Oakland A’s had pushed to the limit… and the rest of the league quietly walked away from.

Fast forward about 25 years, and the game is in a very different place. The late 1990s usher in the alternate jersey boom—black uniforms, bold color palettes, expansion teams with no historical baggage— suddenly, the vest has an opening again.

Teams didn’t abandon sleeves—they just went back to the baseball uniform closet and started experimenting with looking at sleeveless styles again. And here it came, the vest slipped back into the mix as part of that 1990’s more expressive design wave.

More than a dozen clubs took a swing at it: Cincinnati Reds, Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks, Seattle Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays, Texas Rangers… even traditionally conservative teams at least considered it.

And this wasn’t your mid-20th Century heavy wool scratchy material.

This was the dri-fit 100% nylon polyester version—lighter fabrics, more athletic cuts, and those now trendy performance-driven materials. The silhouette was cleaner. The look was sharper. And maybe most importantly, the undershirt was no longer hidden—it became an integral part of the design. Performance fabrics improve to the point where sleeves aren’t a limitation anymore—they’re an advantage.

That’s where things got interesting.

Because now, for the first time, players had a layer they could truly control. Black sleeves, red sleeves, even player numbered variations—it introduced a subtle but meaningful level of individuality into a uniform system that had long resisted it. At the same time, teams—working alongside Major League Baseball Design Services—found new real estate, applying secondary logos to the undershirt and quietly expanding the visual language of the brand beyond the jersey itself.

You even get validation at the highest level—the 1997 Florida Marlins and the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks both win the World Series in sleeveless vest uniforms. Arizona, in particular turns it into a signature look: purple, teal, black… sleeveless, but unmistakable in the omnipresent 1990’s purple, teal, black and metallic color.

By the late 2000s, the look and feel of baseball starts tightening up again. Uniform systems get much cleaner, at least temporarily. And team branding gets much more controlled as Nike takes over the on field authentic rights from Majestic. But before long — Major League Baseballs’ team uniform design gets a shock to it collective soul with the introduction of the Nike City Connect (yikes) uniforms. And for better or worse, sleeveless vests are asked to take a seat on the bench for yet another generation.

Introduced in 2005, the Colorado Rockies black sleeveless vests became inseparable from the club’s identity during “Rocktober” and their 2007 World Series run. Favored by starting pitchers—often as much for superstition as comfort—the vests carried a quiet mystique on the mound.

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But their legacy is even more distinct in hindsight: they became Major League Baseball’s final sleeveless uniform. Although the Rockies last wore them in October 2021, the look was formally retired from the rotation in 2024, closing the book on one of the game’s most unique—and enduring—uniform experiments.

And the sleeveless vest era? Back to the closet. Just phased out, no big fanfare, no carefully crafted MLB PR release. GONE-ZO. GONE. BYE BYE.

In a game that usually hides its heart behind pinstripes and high socks, the vest was a rare moment of vulnerability—a team wearing its swagger on its sleeve by having no sleeves at all. It’ll come back; baseball can’t help but fall in love with its own reflection eventually. But until the next time the game decides to let its guard down...

So, until the next time a team decides to roll up their sleeves, peace out. -The End.

Can we please just take a moment to celebrate? Because we are—patting ourselves on the back, fist-pumping, and smiling ear to ear. And none of this would be possible without you, our amazing subscribers. Seriously, your support has fueled every episode, every post, and every deep dive into the world of sports branding to date. And look at that EPISODE 50 Sports Branding celebration logo. Brigitte nailed the logo!

February 28th, 2025 - We post our first episode, How the Raptors and the Grizzlies Revived the NBA, kicking of our new Sports Branding Substack, and Podcast journey by reflecting back to the 1995 NBA Toronto and Vancouver Expansion Team’s Branding.

Back then, we were just testing the waters, hoping a niche subject like the branding of sports could find a community. Fast forward 13 months, and here we are with 335 subscribers, and aiming for 1,000 paid subscribers by April 1, 2027. For a category this specialized, we believe we’ve hit upon something special.

The Sports Branding Podcast.

And here’s a fun reality check: creating a standalone audio-only podcast in this space is tough. After all, so much of what we talk about—team branding, logos, uniforms, court designs, stadium graphics—is visual. You can describe it, sure, but the full impact comes from seeing it. That’s why we’ve expanded into video content (we think that’s called vlogging?) , alongside our Substack episodes. Remember, you can catch us on: YouTube, YouTube Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or right here on Substack.

Special kudos to Brigitte Smith, our Gameplan Creative director. Brigitte’s doing a phenomenal job mastering Descript, the video editing software which gives us professional-quality results without the steep learning curve of traditional tools. Her work on the Podcast has been incredible both from a co-producer and co-host role!

THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FOR SUBSCRIBING AND AWAY WE GOOOOOOO!

Celebrating Anniversary Logos.

Because this is our Episode 50, we’re diving into something a bit different and fairly untapped: sports teams’ anniversary logos—yes, those clever, creative, and often under-the-radar screen designs that pop up during milestone seasons. You know them but do you really understand their value, impact and one and done season impact?

Over the years, designers have gotten incredibly creative with team anniversary logos. While doing our research into the topic and we’ve noticed six distinct creative approaches teams and designers lean into—and today we’re breaking them all down.”

Whether you’re a casual fan, a collector, or a designer yourself, you’ll start seeing these anniversary logo patterns play out. It’s interesting to see how these creative paths have evolved over time. -Brigitte Smith, Gameplan Creative Director.

Subtle Anniversary Logos Impact.

Anniversary logos have a way of hiding in plain sight. They don’t demand attention—but they’re everywhere. You’ll find them stitched onto team jerseys in prominent areas. They’re placed onto team playing surfaces, marking center court or center ice. They flow through an endless stream of social media content, from Instagram posts to highlight reels — omnipresent on team streams through the anniversary season.

“The thing about anniversary logos—they often fly under the team branding radar screen. They’re not the primary team logo, and rarely get the same spotlight as alternate jerseys or special event graphics, but they have deep meaning.” -Tom O’Grady, Gameplan Creative.

They show up on anniversary merchandise—hats, tees, glassware, even collectible pins. And they extend beyond the game itself, appearing on out-of-home billboards and online ticket graphics.

While fans might glance past them, anniversary logos are front and center during these birthdate seasons. They create a sense of occasion, celebrate team history, and maintain brand continuity without overshadowing the core identity.

It’s the type of branding designers love to lean into—working seamlessly across platforms and resonating with both hardcore fans and casual observers alike… all with a built-in, one-year team logo expiration date.

Individually, each placement might feel small. But collectively, they create a constant, almost subconscious presence—quietly reinforcing the significance of the milestone season without ever stealing the spotlight from the primary team brand.

Here are six creative approaches sports branding designers use to shape anniversary logos—each rooted in storytelling, heritage, and visual impact. These directions reflect how teams celebrate milestones while balancing tradition, modern design, and brand identity. all effective but significantly different just the same.

Approach #1. Beveled Font Style for Anniversary Date.

Beveled anniversary logos add depth and dimension, transforming a simple number into a bold, premium visual statement. Inspired by the Houston Rockets’ beveled number font from the mid-1990s—now nearly 30 years ago—this approach brings weight, polish, and a subtle 3D effect that feels built for the big stage. It’s a go-to technique for designers, giving the anniversary number real presence across jerseys, graphics, and merchandise.

Approach #2. Home Plate Retaining Shape.

Home plate or shield-shaped anniversary logos provide a structured, heritage-driven framework that naturally contains the team logo, anniversary number, and commemorative slogan in a cohesive design. These shapes draw heavily from traditional sports iconography—particularly baseball’s home plate—instantly reinforcing sport-specific identity while evoking legacy, tradition, and milestone significance.

Approach #3. Banner/Ribbon-centric Designs.

The furling banner or ribbon anniversary logo approach places milestone details front and center by integrating banners, scrolls, or flowing ribbons directly into the design. These elements often wrap around shields, crests, or central marks, carrying key information such as the anniversary number, founding and current years, or commemorative phrases like “Celebrating 25 Years” or “100 Seasons.”

Inspired by traditional sports team emblems, championship patches, and heritage branding, this style reinforces history and credibility while maintaining a bold, structured look.

The result feels timeless and ceremonial—classic in presentation, celebratory in tone, and effective at conveying longevity, tradition, and honor in a way that resonates strongly with fans, organizations, and commemorative merchandise alike.

Approach #4. Layered “Peelable” Logo Designs.

Layered or “peelable” anniversary logo designs are built using stacked visual elements that can be separated, rearranged, or repurposed across multiple applications. These designs often feature the central anniversary number layered with team marks, background shapes, banners, dates, and supporting graphics that can function together as a complete logo or— independently as standalone assets. Very layered.

This modular graphic design approach gives teams greater flexibility, allowing designers to maintain brand consistency while tailoring visuals for different platforms and use cases.

By creating adaptable components within one cohesive system, layered anniversary logos extend the life of the design, increase engagement across fan touchpoints, and ensure the celebration remains visually dynamic during the anniversary campaign.

Approach #5. Team Logo Takeovers “in the Zero”.

The “Team Logo Takeover in the Zero” design treatment is a simple yet highly effective way to integrate a team’s primary identity directly into the anniversary number. By placing the team’s logo, symbol, or iconic element inside the zero of the milestone year—such as 10, 20, 50, or 100—the design instantly becomes both commemorative and brand-centric.

This design approach allows the anniversary mark to feel authentic rather than decorative, as the team’s identity becomes an essential part of the number itself rather than an added element.

This clean and direct treatment works particularly well because the zero naturally functions as a container, creating a balanced composition without overcrowding the design. Whether it’s a basketball, winged wheel, lettermark, or team crest, placing the icon within the zero creates visual harmony while reinforcing brand familiarity. The “logo in the zero” design solution makes it one of the most effective and widely used anniversary logo strategies in sports branding.

Approach #6. Minimalist Icons.

The ultra stripped-down anniversary logo approach focuses on simplicity by reducing the design to its most essential elements—typically just the milestone number paired with a simplified team icon, symbol, or wordmark.

This minimalist treatment removes decorative elements such as banners, shields, beveling, or complex backgrounds, allowing the anniversary number itself to become the primary visual statement.

This sports branding solution emphasizes clean typography, bold spacing, and limited color palettes creating a modern, confident look. The result is a highly legible mark that communicates the milestone quickly and effectively, whether viewed on a mobile screen, social media graphic, jersey patch, or broadcast overlay.

The less is more approach is effective in today’s digital environment, where logos must perform across a wide range of sizes and platforms — making the design easy to reproduce across merchandise, video content, and marketing materials without losing clarity or impact.

By combining minimalism with strong team brand recognition, this direction delivers a clean, versatile, and modern anniversary identity that resonates across both traditional and digital fan experiences.

Just Showing Off.

As an international sports branding agency, we would have been remiss by not designing an anniversary brand for our 50th Episode, which we are very proud of. Brigitte Smith and I spent an afternoon, designing the logos below and using most the six approaches mentioned in this special episode. It’s really great work if I do say so myself. Big bow to our subscribers.

In the end, anniversary logos represent one of the most effective forms of subtle branding in sports—quietly omnipresent, historically meaningful, and collectively powerful in shaping how fans experience a milestone season. -The End.

Tennessee Orange v. Michigan St. Green Matchup was Color-on-Color One- Color Classic Which Came Down to a Dominant Spartans Brand.

The Sports Branding National Championship Game was a showdown of one-color intensity. Monday night’s marquee matchup visual spectacle was a truly wonderful color-on-color experience. On one side, the blazing, unmistakable Tennessee Orange. On the other, the deep, commanding Spartan Green.

The victory margin was razor thin. The outcome was in the balance until the very end. A championship game defined by restraint, clarity, and brand authority, Michigan State didn’t just win—they imposed their will.

Tennessee came out swinging—visually explosive, impossible to ignore. But Michigan State did what elite brands do: controlled the game in the back and forth runs.

The Five-Category Breakdown.

At Sports Branding Substack, we set out to determine the best uniform design in this year’s college basketballs’ SWEET 16 built around five core brand design attributes we developed to separate the contenders from the also-rans.

Our evaluation—as objective as sports designers can be—focused on the final four teams, with Tennessee and Michigan State ultimately outscoring the remaining field. This was about design not records…

Each college program’s uniform was graded on five key creative benchmarks:

1. Brand Identity Recognition
Can you identify the team instantly—at full speed, from the upper deck?

2. Typography Execution
Wordmarks. Numerals. Personality.
Does the type system feel proprietary—or generic?

3. Jersey Trim & Striping
Piping, side panels, collar treatments—are they intentional or just filler?

4. Secondary Logo Usage
Are alternate marks used with purpose—or simply along for the ride?

5. On-Court Fit & Style
How does the uniform move with the athlete?
Does it elevate the player—or disappear on the body?

Each category was graded one thru 10, 10 being the highest score.

For the final game our creative team of Brigitte Smith and Tom O’Grady took those five points a step further—breaking down the final two uniform systems in a head-to-head design showdown. From typography to trim, we dissected what works, what doesn’t, and which program earns the title of Sports Branding National Champion.

. Brand Identity Recognition

Michigan State: 10 | Tennessee: 9

Michigan State is instantaneous. That green doesn’t exist anywhere else in college basketball with this level of consistency. Add in the Spartan helmet—clean, iconic, timeless—and there’s zero hesitation.

Tennessee is equally bold, but their reliance on color alone (without a dominant central mark on the jersey front) leaves just a fraction of recognition on the table.

Edge: Michigan State

2. Typography Execution

Michigan State: 9 | Tennessee: 9

Both programs deliver—but in completely different ways.

• Michigan State leans into a traditional collegiate block serif, balanced and authoritative but customized providing a proprietary design feeling.

• Tennessee opts for a more modern, athletic sans-serif system—clean, but less proprietary with a classic arched lettering top/bottom around player’s #’s.

Michigan State’s typography feels institutional. Tennessee’s feels functional.

Edge: Push (but MSU carries more legacy weight)

3. Jersey Trim & Striping

Michigan State: 10 | Tennessee: 9

This is where championships are won. Michigan State’s striping system is surgical:

• Clean side panels

• Controlled contrast

• No wasted motion

Tennessee, by comparison, plays it straighter—minimal trim, less storytelling.

Michigan State uses trim as a design language. Tennessee treats it as structure.

Edge: Michigan State

4. Secondary Logo Usage

Michigan State: 9 | Tennessee: 7

The Spartans secondary logos are two of the strongest secondary marks in all of college athletics, one modern, one retro—and most importantly, they are deployed with discipline. Tennessee’s “Power T” is certainly iconic—but its application within the uniform system feels more expected than elevated.

Edge: Michigan State

5. On-Court Fit & Style

Michigan State: 10 | Tennessee: 10

This is where Tennessee made its final push. That orange moves. It jumps off the hardwood. It energizes the athlete. It creates visual speed. Michigan State is flawless in fit—tailored, balanced, composed—but Tennessee’s color gives them a kinetic advantage.

Edge: Push (but Tenn carries more legacy weight)

And that’s how you win a uniform design championship: Not by dominating every category, but owning details that matter most and doing consistently for 40 minutes.

No confetti. No ladder. No “One Shining Moment.” Design clarity at the highest level. When you strip away scoreboards and storylines, what remains is brand identity—and how well it shows up under pressure. as the Spartans held on for the uniform Championship.

We’re building a community of curious sports branding fans and glad you’re here.

If you enjoy smart conversations about sports, branding, and pop culture, please subscribe and consider a paid subscription to the Sports Branding Substack. We’re building a community of curious fans, and we’re glad you’re here along with us.

To see the great work behind our sports branding case studies which often will appear on the Sports Branding Substack or Sports Branding Podcast. - The End.

Okay, who had the Creamsicle orange clad Tennessee Volunteers advancing against the hunter green Michigan St. Spartans in the Sports Branding Substack’s inaugural NCAA College Basketball Championship Best Uniform Design Tournament?

Every March, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament delivers chaos—Cinderella runs, buzzer-beaters, and bracket-busting drama. But let’s be honest… that’s only half the story.

The other half? Uniform design.

At Sports Branding Substack, we set out to determine the best uniform systems in college basketball, built around five core brand attributes we developed to separate the contenders from the also-rans.

Our evaluation—as objective as sports designers can be—focused on the final four teams, with Tennessee and Michigan State ultimately outscoring the field.

Each program’s uniform system was graded across five creative benchmarks:

1. Brand Identity Recognition
Can you identify the team instantly—at full speed, from the upper deck?

2. Typography Execution
Wordmarks. Numerals. Personality.
Does the type system feel proprietary—or generic?

3. Jersey Trim & Striping
Piping, side panels, collar treatments—are they intentional or just filler?

4. Secondary Logo Usage
Are alternate marks used with purpose—or simply along for the ride?

5. On-Court Fit & Style
How does the uniform move with the athlete?
Does it elevate the player—or disappear on the body?

Each category was graded one to 10, with 10 the highest score.

For the final game our creative team of Brigitte Smith and Tom O’Grady took those five points a step further—breaking down the final two uniform systems in a head-to-head design showdown. From typography to trim, we dissect what works, what doesn’t, and which program earns the title of Sports Branding National Champion.

Let’s recap how we got to the Tennessee vs Michigan State Championship Game.

It all comes down to this. The favorite—and No. 1 seed—Michigan State Spartans have powered their way into the Sports Branding Substack National Championship Game, where they’ll face the upstart Tennessee Volunteers, fresh off a shocking upset over Arizona.

From a branding perspective this should be a classic: a clash of single-color identities. Tennessee leaning into its unmistakable,“creamsicle” orange, while Michigan State counters with its classic dark green.

In an era where many programs layer in alternate color variations and accent palettes, both of these teams have advanced to the title game doing it the old-school way—owning one color, and owning it completely. Tennessee Orange. Spartan Green.

And now, a decision has to be made.

On one side, Tennessee Volunteers bring a color that’s impossible to ignore. It’s loud, it’s polarizing, and it demands attention. That signature “Creamsicle” Tennessee orange isn’t just a hue—it’s a statement. It shows up on a field, on a broadcast, or in a social feed, and you instantly know who it belongs to. Few brands in sports can claim that level of immediate recognition.

On the other side, Michigan State Spartans offer something entirely different—restraint, tradition, and timelessness. Their spartan green doesn’t scream for attention; it earns it. It’s consistent, collegiate, and incredibly versatile across every sport and surface. Where Tennessee is bold and brash, Michigan State is confident and composed—a brand that doesn’t chase the moment.

Color-on-Color Match-up Classic. Tennessee Orange vs Spartan Green.

The Sports Branding National Championship Game isn’t just about the Final Four—it’s about a showdown of pure color intensity. On one side, the blazing, unmistakable Tennessee Orange. On the other, the deep, commanding Spartan Green.

For Monday’s marquee matchup, the visual spectacle alone is reason enough to watch: a fiery orange Vols uniform charging against a verdant green Spartans set, in a color-on-color duel that demands attention.

As co-Commissioners of the Best of Uniform Design Tournament, Brigitte Smith and I had the thrilling task of choosing exactly what these teams would wear—and the results are electric. Each set screams contrast, each hue fights for dominance, and every glance at the court is a lesson in Sports Branding 101.

No confetti. No ladder. No “One Shining Moment.” Just design clarity at the highest level. When you strip away the scoreboards and storylines, what remains is brand identity—and how well it shows up under pressure.

So, now all we need to do is let the game begin and let the designs do the hard work.

We will have a championship team by late evening Monday night, so stay tuned and look for a Substack entry from you Sports Branding Tournament Brand Design Team.

We’re building a community of curious sports branding fans and glad you’re here.

If you enjoy smart conversations about sports, branding, and pop culture, please subscribe and consider a paid subscription to the Sports Branding Substack. We’re building a community of curious fans, and we’re glad you’re here along with us.

To see the some of the great work behind our sports branding case studies which often will appear on the Sports Branding Substack or Sports Branding Podcast. - The End.

What would the ELITE 8 be without a review of the best team uniform designs of the remaining teams in the NCAA College Men’s Basketball Championship Tournament?

Every March, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament delivers chaos, Cinderella runs, and buzzer-beaters. But let’s be honest—that’s only half the story. The other half?

The ELITE 8 team uniform designs.

We took an objective (well… as objective as our designers can be? LOL) look at the remaining eight teams and graded each teams uniform sets across five objectives:

1. Brand Identity Recognition
Can you identify the team instantly—at full speed, from the upper deck?

2. Typography Execution
Wordmarks. Numerals. Personality.
Does the type system feel proprietary—or generic?

3. Jersey Trim and Striping
Piping, side panels, collar treatments—are they intentional or just filler?

4. Secondary Logo Usage
Are alternates and marks used with purpose—or just along for the ride?

5. On-Court Fit and Style
How does the uniform move with the athlete?
Does it elevate the athlete—or disappear on the body?

Each category was graded on a 1-10 scale with 10, the highest score.

The Sports Branding Elite 8 Best Team Uniform Design Match-ups:

2026 NCAA EAST Region Championship

Game 1: Duke Blue Devils (Nike) vs Michigan St. Spartans (Nike)

Final: Spartans Advance Winning in Double OT Thriller.

MICHIGAN ST. 46 - DUKE 45

2026 NCAA South Region Championship.

Game 2: Nebraska Cornhuskers (Adidas) vs Illinois Fighting Illini (Nike).

Final: Fighting Illini Lead from Start to Finish to Advance.

ILLINOIS 48 - NEBRASKA 37

2026 NCAA West Region Championship.

Game 3: Arizona Wildcats (Nike) vs. Purdue Boilermakers (Nike) Uniforms.

Final: Purdue Switch to Bland Look Costs Them Final 4 Spot.

ARIZONA 48- PURDUE 40

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2026 NCAA Midwest Region Championship.

Final: Tennessee’s Peaking at the Right Time… Advances.

TENNESSEE 47 - ALABAMA 41

We’ve narrowed a highly competitive group of outstanding and competitive uniform designs from the SWEET 16 down to the ELITE 8 now we move to the FINAL FOUR!

Sports Branding Substacks’ FINAL FOUR top team uniform designs are set… WOW!

This week, we’ll take it one step further. We’ll provide a thorough design breakdown of our final two teams uniforms who advanced through the Sports Branding Substack brackets making it to our own NCAA Men’s College Basketball Championship Game.

If you enjoy smart conversations about sports, branding, and pop culture, please subscribe and consider a paid subscription to the Sports Branding Substack. We’re building a community of curious fans, and we’re glad you’re here along with us.

And please make sure to visit: http://www.gameplancreative.com to see the some of the great work behind our sports branding case studies which often will appear on the Sports Branding Substack or the Sports Branding Podcast. -The End.

What would the Sweet 16 be without a review of the best team uniform designs of the remaining teams in the NCAA College Men’s Basketball Championship Tournament?

Every March, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament delivers chaos, Cinderella runs, and buzzer-beaters. But let’s be honest—that’s only half the story. The other half?

The Sweet 16 team uniform designs.

We took an objective (well… as objective as our designers can be? LOL) look at the Sweet 16 teams and graded each teams uniform sets across five objectives:

1. Brand Identity Recognition
Can you identify the team instantly—at full speed, from the upper deck?

2. Typography Execution
Wordmarks. Numerals. Personality.
Does the type system feel proprietary—or generic?

3. Jersey Trim and Striping
Piping, side panels, collar treatments—are they intentional or just filler?

4. Secondary Logo Usage
Are alternates and marks used with purpose—or just along for the ride?

5. On-Court Fit and Style
How does the uniform move with the athlete?
Does it elevate the athlete—or disappear on the body?

Each category was graded on a 1-10 scale with 10, the highest score.

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2026 NCAA EAST Regional | Final Four Teams.

East Game #1: Duke Blue Devils (Nike) vs St. John’s Red Storm (Adidas) Uniforms.

Final: Blue Devils Advance Against Upset Minded St. John’s.

DUKE 46 - ST. JOHN’S 42

East Game #2: Michigan St. Spartans (Nike) vs. UConn Huskies (Nike) Uniforms.

Final: Spartans Survive and Advance in Overtime Classic.

MICHIGAN ST. 48 - UCONN 47

2026 NCAA South Region | Final Four Teams.

South Game #1: Iowa Hawkeyes (Nike) vs. Nebraska Cornhuskers (Nike) Uniforms.

Final: Nebraska Makes a Uniform Statement to Advance.

NEBRASKA 39 - IOWA 34

South Game #2: Illinois Fightin’ Illini (Nike) vs. Houston Cougars (Jordan) Uniforms.

Final: Fighting Illini Advance Pulling Away Early.

ILLINOIS 47 - HOUSTON 38

2026 NCAA West Region | Final Four Teams.

West Game #1: Arizona Wildcats (Nike) vs. Arkansas Razorbacks (Nike) Uniforms.

Final: Wildcats Advance Holding Off Razorbacks Late Rally.

ARIZONA 44 - ARKANSAS 42

West Game #2: Texas Longhorns (Nike) vs. Purdue Boilermakers (Nike) Uniforms.

Final: Boilermakers Lead From Start to Finish and Advance.

PURDUE 44 - TEXAS 37

2026 NCAA Midwest Region | Final Four Teams.

Midwest Game #1: Michigan Wolverines (Jordan) vs. Alabama (Nike) Uniforms.

Final: Alabama Rolls and Defeats Listless Michigan Design.

ALABAMA 39 - MICHIGAN 34

Midwest Game #2: Tennessee Vols (Nike) vs. Iowa State Cyclones (Nike) Uniforms.

Final: Volunteers Display Flawless Design to Advance.

TENNESSEE 48 - IOWA STATE 44

After breaking down all 16 NCAA men’s basketball teams, we’ve narrowed the field.

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The Sports Branding Substack Elite Eight is officially locked in. And this weekend, we’ll take it one step further. We’ll reveal the eight game winners and break down why each uniform advanced as we move toward Sports Branding Substack’s Final Four.

DUKE vs MICHIGAN ST ARIZONA vs PURDUE

NEBRASKA vs ILLINOIS ALABAMA vs TENNESSEE

If you enjoy smart conversations about sports, branding, and pop culture, please subscribe and consider a paid subscription to the Sports Branding Substack. We’re building a community of curious fans, and we’re glad you’re here along with us.

And please make sure to visit http://www.gameplancreative.com to see the some of the great work behind our sports branding case studies which often will appear on the Sports Branding Substack or Sports Branding Podcast. -The End.

Excited to welcome our subscribers to Episode 49 of the Sports Branding Substack.

Before we start filling in brackets: if you enjoy smart conversations about sports, branding, and pop culture, please subscribe and consider a paid subscription to the Sports Branding Substack. We’re building a community of curious fans, and we’re glad you’re here.

And please make sure to visit http://www.gameplancreative.com to see the some of the great work behind our sports branding case studies which often will appear at some time on the Sports Branding Substack or Sports Branding Podcast.

Most Important Sheet of Paper in America.

Is there any stronger “social connectivity glue” in our fractured, content-saturated world today than an 8 ½” x 11” sheet of paper covered with a bunch of narrow lines?

Mid-March arrives, and suddenly, that simple grid is everywhere. It’s in our group chats, on our office printers (for those still working in offices), and pulled up on desktop monitors from coast-to-coast. After all, it’s the NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball Championship bracket. It’s Bracketmania!!!

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Players have many unique ways of filling out their brackets rituals. Some pick winners based on their favorite college teams mascots. Some choose teams by uniform colors.

Imagine AI’s workload as it churns out millions of basketball bracket combinations many with wonderfully creative “what if?” prompts.

And yes, some of us—the very most obsessive among us—fill out multiple brackets, as if one perfect brackets just simply isn’t enough? How many brackets do you fill out?

The Boomer Bracket.

This brings us to a term we love: The Boomer Bracket. We can relate to the term as our co-author, Tom O’Grady is a late stage Boomer (1956 to 1964).

And our Creative Director, Brigitte Smiths’ dad, is really good at bracketology. But he’s more old school, which is cool. He’ll print out his bracket, settle in with a sharpened pencil and a fresh eraser, and carefully write in his picks. Once the masterpiece is complete, he hands it over to Brigitte, who then acts as his digital scribe, entering his multiple bracket picks into an online contest bracket template.

It’s a perfect reminder that for all our tech, the simple, tangible act of filling out a bracket by hand is charming and even therapeutic. It’s a connection to a time not too long ago when the bracket was a tool, not yet the national obsession it has become.

Where Did All This “Madness” Come From.

So, when did all of this crazy college basketball madness (in March) really begin?

The term “March Madness” was first used in 1939 by Henry Van Arsdale Porter, an Illinois high school official, to describe the chaos of the state’s high school hoops tournament. But it took decades for it to stick as a moniker for the college game.

Now, if you go looking for the 1939 tournament online, you’ll find plenty of images labeled “1939 NCAA tournament bracket.” The first tournament did happen that year—eight teams, Oregon beating Ohio State in the final . But here’s the catch: those brackets you see? They’re retroactive visualizations created decades later by sports historians and statistics sites to help us make more sense of the past.

So when you see a “1939 bracket,” you’re actually looking at history through a modern lens—proof that the bracket has become so essential to how we understand the annual tournament — that we project it backward into the past.

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The concept of a “bracket” as a diagram for tournament play actually dates back to 1851 in chess tournaments. Eighteen Fifty-One!

The idea of fans filling out brackets for profit didn’t arrive until 1977 at a Staten Island bar called Jody’s Club Forest, where patrons paid $10 to predict the winner. They hosted a legendary NCAA March Madness bracket pool from 1977 to 2006, often cited as an early progenitor of modern bracketology. Starting as a local $10. fill out a single bracket 88-person contest, it quickly grew into a huge operation with 166,000+ entries and a $1.6M+ jackpot before being shut down by the IRS in 2006. Those IRS guys can spoil just about anything…

In the early 1980s, long-time CBS broadcaster Brent Musburger began using the phrase “March Madness” during the NCAA tournament telecasts. It was simply perfect. It captured the buzzer-beaters, the Cinderella stories, and the sheer pandemonium. The term was so powerful — that the NCAA later licensed and trademarked it, branding the entire event with an authentic, emotional identity.

March Madness Logo Features a Bracket.

For the ultimate proof of iconic slogan, look no further than the March Madness logo: the bracket isn’t simply represented—it frames the wordmark, so deeply ingrained in the tournament’s identity that it transcends mere graphics to become the brand itself.

The March Madness logo traces back 10 years. What’s so interesting about the logo is that it’s half / SLOGAN and half / LOGO… what graphic designers call a “SLOGO”.

The bracket has become one of the most iconic parts of March Madness. I happened to be at the tournament in Des Moines in 2016, the year the branding evolved into the March Madness logo system we see today, with the bracket embedded directly into the design. -Gameplan Creative; Creative Director, Brigitte Smith.

The bracket wasn’t just part of the tournament format—it became part of the total visual brand identity itself, it’s part of the logo! Now, March Madness and the bracket coexist so closely that it’s impossible to separate one from the other.

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The Birth of a Design Icon.

The bracket culture began when national newspapers started printing blank grids in the late 1970s. Publications like USA Today gave readers a game board. Suddenly, the tournament wasn’t just something you watched; it was something you played.

The highest-rated college basketball game of all time is still the 1979 NCAA Championship between the Michigan State Spartans and Indiana State Sycamores featuring Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.

This legendary matchup holds the record for the largest TV audience in college basketball history, drawing an estimated 35.1 million viewers and a 24.1 Nielsen rating. It remains the highest-rated basketball game—college or pro—ever aired .

With the 64 - team full-page newspaper March Madness bracket you could:

• make predictions across four different regions.

• track the progress of all your picks visually.

• compete with friends, families, and co-workers.

But the real design magic happened in 1985. That’s when the NCAA expanded to 64 teams, creating the “perfect” bracket format. For fans, it meant six total rounds of March Madness. For graphic designers, it was a simple visual dream come true:

• Perfectly balanced symmetry.

• Four distinct regions (East/South/Midwest/West).

• Instantly readable narrative flow.

• Dramatic visual tension when an upset breaks the line.

This format created what is arguably one of the most recognizable diagrams in all of sports branding. It’s a piece of accidental information design that has become a cultural artifact.

The Digital Explosion.

In the mid-1990s, the internet changed everything in “bracketmania”. Companies like ESPN, CBS Sports, and Yahoo launched online bracket contests. Black + white photocopiers were out; the server farm was in.

Last year’s, ESPN Men’s Tournament Challenge collected more than 20 million completed brackets before the start of the tournament, the most ever for the No. 1 college basketball bracket game. At the peak period of entries shortly before the start of the first game, fans registered more than 26,000 brackets per minute.

The ESPN Women’s Tournament Challenge saw a 41% increase in total brackets in 2023, part of a significant upward trend in the popularity of women’s sports and women’s basketball in particular.

This digital shift transformed the bracket from a simple following-along tool into:

• A national participation game board -(think McDonald’s Monopoly).

• A data-visualization phenomenon.

• A nationwide obsession of college hoops.

• A geography class. (where the hell are some of these schools?)

The Bracket as a Cultural Meme.

“Bracketmania” has long since escaped college basketball. Doesn’t it feel like everything has a bracket now? Here’s a small sampling of non-hoops bracketmania.

Favorite CHRISTMAS Movie Bracket.

Favorite POKEMON Character Bracket.

Favorite POP-TARTS Flavor Bracket.

During COVID, Gameplan Creative Director Brigitte Smith and her husband even created their own “favorite things” brackets just to pass the time. The world needed to know: What is the definitive Pop-Tarts flavor? The winner? Brown Sugar Cinnamon!

Favorite PRINGLES Chips Bracket.

The 2017 HR Derby Bracket.

Today “everything can have a bracket”, even at the professional level. One of our favorite Gameplan Creative projects in the past was creating the Home Run Derby bracket animations for MLB’s Mid-Summer Classic.

In 2017, we pitched a concept for the HR Derby at Marlins Park: assign each player a personal emoji and build the bracket around them. It might have been a little ahead of its time, but the idea—using the familiar bracket structure to tell a new story—was a good one. Brackets with a baseball long ball personality.

The Magical Bracket.

The 64-team tournament bracket is a masterclass in sports branding because it is:

• A shared social object. It’s the excuse for the office pool, the group chat, and the family wager.

• A two-week storytelling map. You can trace the path of a Cinderella team. You can see where your bracket went to die.

• An all-possibilities interface. For a few days in March, anything is possible. The blank lines represent hope.

Ultimately, Bracketmania is Just a Lot of Fun!

Hope you’ve enjoyed our deep dive into Bracketmania. Our goal is to provide insightful conversations about sports and branding—and, even bracket design.

We’re working hard to build a community of like-minded fans. So please, leave a comment: What’s your bracket methodology? Uniform colors? Mascot fights? Cold, hard analytics? And are you a Boomer Bracket printer, or all-digital?

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Sports Branding Substack and visit gameplancreative.com to see the work behind the conversations.

And good luck with your brackets. May your pencil lead never break, and may your upsets be intentional. - The End.

TOMORROW AT 11AM!!!

The Sports Branding Podcast dives into the MANIA, HISTORY and CULTURAL IMPACT behind MARCH MADNESS.

Don’t think March Madness isn’t a big deal? How about a bracket that’s the size of 12 regulation sized basketball courts attached to ?

https://fox59.com/news/indynews/2026-march-madness-bracket-on-the-jw-marriott-is-the-size-of-12-basketball-courts/

In this episode of the Sports Branding Podcast, Tom O’Grady and Brigitte Smith examine the unexpected design controversy surrounding the 2026 Winter Olympics hockey rinks, where dark turquoise dasher boards made it difficult for players to track the puck. Drawing on their experience designing environmental graphics for major sports organizations, they explore how rink design has evolved from simple white boards to complex modern branding environments, and why contrast and functionality are critical in fast-paced sports like hockey. The conversation highlights the delicate balance between visual branding and athlete performance, and what the Olympic design misstep teaches about testing, player input, and the responsibility designers have when their work directly impacts the game.

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Excited to welcome our subscribers to Episode 48 of the Sports Branding Substack.

Beginning in the 2026–2027 season, there are 124 pro sports franchises across the US and Canada who are part of the “Big Four Sports Leagues” — Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National Football League and National Hockey League (apologies to MLS, WNBA and Professional Women’s Hockey League). One hundred and twenty-one of those teams follow a basic rule in team name branding: plant your flag! City or State name first. Team nickname second. Geography and local pride equals valued brand identity.

But there are three pro franchises don’t follow that standard city/state name rule.

It’s hard to imagine three franchises who compete at the highest level of North American sport without a city or a state in their official name, isn’t it? No municipal tether. No provincial claim. No regional modifier. Just a nicknames — standing alone.

In an industry built on civic pride, territorial rights and broadcast maps, that’s not a design oversight. It’s a deliberate positioning strategy.

Who are they? And more importantly — why does it work?

Are you able to name the three professional sports teams in North America, not named after a *city or a state? Of the three teams, only two of the teams are named for a “marketing” reason — with the intent of helping to brand an entire area rather than a specific city or state.

Go ahead, take a shot at the two teams which don’t claim a city or state prefix…

The third team without a city or state name in their current name is only temporarily without a city/state — which will be added once more time passes. We’ll explain…

*- Please note: we are NOT including the three Tampa “Bay” teams, the Buccaneers, Lightning and Rays, although they are named for the body of water known as the TAMPA BAY. However, the word TAMPA (the third most populous city in FL) appears within their name —- so we decided their three teams didn’t make the cut. It’s an interesting debate.

Ready… Set... Go…

#1. Athletics.

Okay, we start with a long time Major League Baseball team, the previous “Oakland” A’s. With their move out of Oakland — the Athletics are temporarily playing at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, California, which began in 2025 and expected to last through at least 2027, while waiting construction of their new stadium in Las Vegas.

Previous to Oakland, the Athletics played for 12 seasons in Kansas City, and before that, the A’s played in Philadelphia, beginning back in 1901.

The Athletics logo has gone through multiple versions across three cities since 1901. It started as a plain blue “A” in Philadelphia, shifted to elephant imagery for decades, then settled into the green-and-gold “A’s” letterform after the move to Oakland in 1968. The most recent change came in late 2024 when the franchise dropped “Oakland” entirely to reflect unfortunately, their departure from the Bay Area.

#2. New England Patriots.

When the city name “Boston” became too small for an AFL-NFL franchise.

A purposely strategic rebrand that a regional New England sports dynasty. In 1971, the Boston Patriots quietly became the New England Patriots — and in doing so, executed one of the most forward-thinking geographic rebrands in professional sports history. This was a moment in sports branding when geography becomes destiny.

At first glance, it looked like a simple name adjustment, but it wasn’t. It was a strategic branding and expansion strategy disguised as a minor geo relocation.

Q1. What is the back story of why the Patriots changed their name from Boston Patriots to New England Patriots?

The franchise was founded as the Boston Patriots in 1960 as a charter member of the AFL, the American Football League. For their first decade, they played in various Boston-area venues, even Fenway Park, but never had a permanent home stadium.

1. Nickerson Field - 1960–1962 - Boston University campus

2. Fenway Park - 1963–1968 - Boston Red Sox ballpark

3. Alumni Stadium - 1969 - Boston College

4. Harvard Stadium - 1970 - Harvard University

When the team moved to a new stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts in 1971 (then called Schaefer Stadium), ownership wanted a broader regional identity that better reflected their geographic footprint. Foxborough sits roughly midway between Boston and Providence, Rhode Island — making “Boston” feel too limiting.

Originally, the team considered “Bay State Patriots” but the NFL rejected it, leading to the "New England" rebrand to represent the entire region.

The name “New England Patriots” more accurately represented the entire six-state region and symbolically aligned with the colonial “Revolutionary War’” heritage that has defined the region for many years.

Q2. What were the marketing reasons the original AFL Boston Patriots did this?

The four reasons for the change was primarily both strategic and commercial:

1. Regional Expansion of Fan Base.
   By adopting “New England,” the franchise positioned itself as the team for all six states — not just Boston-proper. This widened ticket sales, media appeal, and merchandise reach.

2. Stadium Geography.
   The move to Foxborough, Massachusetts made “Boston Patriots” geographically inaccurate since it’s 25 miles away. A regional name helped legitimize the relocation.

3. Broadcast Footprint.
   Television markets were expanding rapidly in the early 1970s. A broader identity increased relevance across Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire, the six states that make up New England.

4. Brand Differentiation in the NFL Era. With the AFL–NFL merger completed in 1970, the newly unified National Football League was becoming more national in scope. A regional identity gave the franchise greater stature and competitive positioning.

From a branding standpoint, this was an early example of geographic expansion strategy — similar to how other clubs later embraced statewide or regional identifiers.

Q3. When did they officially change their name? The team officially became the New England Patriots in 1971, coinciding with their move into Schaefer Stadium in Foxborough, which later became Gillette Stadium.

Q4. Was the name change met with any resistance? There was some initial pushback — primarily from Boston traditionalists who felt the city was losing “its” team. However:

• The team had already struggled with stadium instability in Boston.

• The regional identity quickly proved commercially smart.

• As the franchise gained success — especially during the Tom Brady era — the “New England” name became one of the strongest regional brands in American sports.

In hindsight, the change is widely viewed as visionary. Rather than diminishing Boston, it elevated the club into a six-state flagship — one of the earliest examples of regional sports branding done right.

#3. Golden State Warriors.

When the city name of “San Francisco” became too small for an NBA franchise…

The strategic rebrand that built a modern professional basketball dynasty. In 1971, the San Francisco Warriors quietly became the “Golden State” Warriors — and in doing so, executed one of the most ambitious geographic rebrands in professional sports history. This was a moment in sports branding when geography becomes scale.

At first glance, it looked like a poetic name change. But it wasn’t poetry. It was positioning. It was expansion strategy disguised as civic pride. It wasn’t a relocation. It was a declaration praising the beauty and pride in the golden state of California.

Q1. What is the backstory of why the Warriors changed their name to Golden State?

The franchise began in 1946 as the Philadelphia Warriors, a founding member of the Basketball Association of America (which later became the National Basketball Association).

In 1962, owner Franklin Mieuli relocated the team west, rebranding as the San Francisco Warriors. They played primarily at the Cow Palace, just south of San Francisco’s city limits.

By the late 1960s, the Bay Area was evolving into a multi-city economic engine — San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose — all growing rapidly. Meanwhile, California itself was emerging as a cultural and economic superpower. In California, the San Francisco Warriors identity felt geographically confined.

When the franchise moved across the Bay to Oakland Coliseum Arena in 1971, ownership made a bold decision: remove the San Francisco “The City” entirely.

Not Oakland. Not San Francisco. Not even California. They chose “Golden State.”

A nickname long associated with California itself — rooted in the Gold Rush mythology and the state’s identity as land of sunshine and opportunity.

Q2. What were the marketing reasons behind the change?

Just like the Patriots’ shift to New England, this was strategic expansion masquerading as a California tourism marketing campaign rebrand.

The four reasons for the change was primarily both strategic and commercial:

1. Statewide Fan Base Expansion and Acceptance. “San Francisco” limited the franchise to one city. “Golden State” positioned the team as belonging to all of California — from Los Angeles to Sacramento to Silicon Valley. It created psychological ownership across the entire state.

2. Arena Geography. The move to Oakland in 1971 made “San Francisco Warriors” geographically awkward. Rather than switching to “Oakland Warriors,” ownership thought bigger. Why fight over city lines when you can transcend them?

3. Broadcast and Media Growth.

   California was (and remains) one of the largest media markets in the country. A statewide identity expanded television appeal and merchandising beyond Bay Area borders — critical during a time when the NBA was fighting for national relevance.

4. Brand Differentiation.

   There was only one “Golden State.” No other team in professional sports carried a statewide poetic moniker of that scale. It felt cinematic. Expansive. Mythic.

   In branding terms, this was emotional positioning — not municipal labeling.

Q3. When did the change officially happen?

The franchise officially adopted the Golden State Warriors name in 1971, coinciding with its relocation to Oakland Coliseum Arena. The identity would later travel again — first to Oracle Arena’s modern era dominance, and eventually back across the Bay in 2019 to the Chase Center.

But the name never changed again and ultimatolden State was portable.

Q4. Was there resistance to the name change?

Yes — though not overwhelming. As expected some Bay Area loyalists questioned the abandonment of “San Francisco.” Others found “Golden State” unconventional, too gimmicky and lacking a core central fan base.

The Golden State Warriors reside in San Francisco now, but for many of the players and coaches who brought championships to the Bay Area in recent years, the connection to Oakland is undeniable. An

The city of Oakland is where the team played for 47 years and recently went to five straight NBA Finals inside Oracle Arena -- the connection remains stronger than ever.

There’s an uncomfortable branding contradiction embedded in the history of the Golden State Warriors, that deserves honest scrutiny.

The team arrived in the Bay Area as the San Francisco Warriors and rebranded to “Golden State” in 1971, positioning itself as a statewide franchise. On paper, that sounds expansive and inclusive. In practice, it meant the city that actually housed the team for nearly half a century was abstracted into a marketing concept.

That abstraction became more glaring over time. Oakland endured the departures of the Oakland Raiders, the Oakland Athletics, and decades earlier the Oakland Seals. Through all of that civic instability, the basketball team remained — physically in Oakland — yet symbolically aligned with an idealized “Golden State” identity. The brand drew statewide equity, but the emotional and economic investment was hyper-local.

There is a heavy dose of brand hypocrisy for the “Golden State” Warriors who called THE TOWN (Oakland) their home for nearly a half century — but who only paid homage to Oakland after they left the market…? Bad.

But the brilliance of the Golden State team name revealed itself over time:

• It avoided city rivalries within the Bay Area.
• It allowed the franchise to relocate within the region without rebranding again.
• It built a mythic, almost cinematic identity that scaled nationally.

When the dynasty years arrived — led by Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green — the “Golden State” name felt prophetic.

How Has the Rebrand Affected Their History?

The name created elasticity.

Unlike city-specific teams that become tethered to municipal politics, the Warriors operate under a statewide banner — a rare and powerful positioning tool in professional sports.

Today, “Golden State” reads less like a nickname and more like a platform brand.

In hindsight, the 1971 decision mirrors what the Patriots did that same year.

• When the city “Boston” became too small, they became New England.
  When the city “San Francisco” became too small, they became Golden State.

Both moves turned geography into destiny. And both built dynasties on the back of a “marketing-themed” name that refused to remain small. -The End.

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Welcome to Episode 47 of the Sports Branding Substack.

Before we drop the puck on this one, a sincere thank you to our subscribers. You give us your time — and in today’s content-saturated world, that’s the ultimate currency. March marks our one-year anniversary on Substack, WOW!!! — and we couldn’t be more energized about what’s ahead — including the pending rollout of our Sports Branding Podcast app.

You know you have a problem when the pucks begin disappearing at the Olympics.

I’ve been a passionate hockey fan for decades. I fondly remember when rink dasher boards were simple — clean white, no visual clutter, no digital overlays, no immersive Olympic environmental wraps. The bright white boards framed the game. They didn’t compete with it, either in person, or on broadcast.

So when the recent Winter Olympics in Milan pushed the visual boundaries of what those environmental ambience boards can become, it raised a much bigger question:

At what point does brand identity environmental design stop supporting the sport — and start distracting from it?

We’re talking about something that never should have been an issue at the 2026 Winter Olympics — the rink boards color… yes, the color of the boards???

Not the team jerseys.
Not the logos on the ice surfacec.
Not even the event mascots.

But the rink dasherboard colors???

Midway through the Winter Olympics tournament, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) made the decision to lighten the dark turquoise-greenish dasherboards after negative feedback from teams, federations, and broadcasting partners.

This was an amazing consolation for IOC Operations Executive Staff to admit blame.

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Though the IIHF usually does work on the boards to clean up dents, scuffs and other wear and tear at the midway point of a tournament, the change is was made in response to concerns that the darker turquoise color is different from what is typically seen in professional arenas throughout Europe and the NHL.

The overarching problem?

Players, especially the goalies, were occasionally losing sight of the puck and at the highest level of international hockey because of the dark color of the dasher boards!

USA Goalie Jermey Swayman lost sight of a puck shot from center ice vs. Denmark?

"Nine times out of 10 -- or 99 times out of 100 -- Sway’s going to have that long shot, it's a crazy play. I don't know, I lost the puck up in the lights a few times tonight as well. The setting is a little bit different." -USA forward Jack Eichel..

Now let’s be clear — this isn’t about taste. It’s not about whether turquoise “looked cool” on television. This is about contrast. Performance clarity. Visual trust.

In the National Hockey League, in Canada, the United States and across Europe, rink boards are white for a very simple performance based reason. A black puck moving at 90 miles per hour needs maximum visual separation from its background.

When you darken that background, you compress the visual window. And when you compress the visual window, you change the game.

Our Gameplan Creative designers believe environmental graphics are performance tools — not decoration. Basketball courts, baseball diamonds and outfield walls, dasher board hockey rinks, soccer pitches — they are the athletic instruments.

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Back to the 1970’s. All White Boards.

Hockey boards in the 1970s were plain white, serving as a clean, bright contrast to the ice without the heavy, ubiquitous advertising seen in today. These dasher boards were often covered in black puck marks and scuffs from gameplay, providing a classic, rugged look.

Goalies could easily see the flight of the puck (unless of course they were screened by traffic in front of their nets. And forwards and defenseman could easily see caroms and rebounds of the black puck off the white dasher boards. It was just the way it always was, of course until profits seeped into the sport.

Signage first began appearing on NHL dasher boards in the 1980-81 season, initiated by the Minnesota North Stars. By the end of the 1980s, dasher board advertising had become standard across the league.

NHL Dasher Boards Advertising Begins.

1980-81 season, initiated by the Minnesota North Stars. By the end of the 1980s, dasher board advertising had become standard across the league. This evolved into digital, camera-visible ads, with the NHL introducing “Digitally Enhanced Dasherboards” (DED) begins across the League in the 2022-23 season.

Key milestones in NHL dasher board advertising history include:

• 1980–81: The Minnesota North Stars became the first team to sell dasher board ads for approximately $3,000.

• 1980s (late): All NHL teams adopted signage advertising on their boards.

• 1990s-2020’s: Teams evolve with photo imagery, 1-800 #s, and different types of sponsor activation, team controlled inventory, and NHL League PSA’s.

  

• 2016: The NHL tested digital, virtual, or “digitally enhanced” ads (DED) during the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, which allowed targeted sponsor advertising to the different competing countries marketing partners, a huge tech breakthrough.

  

• 2022–23: The NHL officially implemented DED technology, allowing for unique, dynamic advertisements to be shown on television broadcasts compared to what is physically present in the arena.

What Are Digitally Enhanced Dasherboards (DED)?

All 30 NHL clubs now leverage the NHL’s Digitally Enhanced Dasherboards (DED) system — a broadcast-only virtual ad layer that replaces the physical rink boards seen on TV with dynamic ad content — as a core part of their sponsorship inventory. Team partners know have the ability to show period-by-period messaging, full-board takeovers, QR codes, localized branding — and more across home and away feeds.

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This capability has become a major driver of league and club sponsorship revenue because it expands inventory teams can sell and lets brands buy virtual board time alongside other rights.

NHL League Office recommends each advertiser’s DED logo/artwork occupy between approximately 30-70% of the imageable area to avoid an abundance of empty space within creative, or, conversely, ensuring advertising space is not oversaturated.

Branding Should Never Compete with the Game.

Global sporting events want differentiation. They want arenas that feel unmistakably “Olympic.” A turquoise ring around the rink photographs beautifully in wide shots. But the rink is not a branding canvas. We understand the environmental temptation.

When environmental graphics begin influencing puck tracking, deflections, or reaction time, design has crossed a dangerous line. It is a performance mortal sin.

Because when branding starts competing with game play, you’ve gone too far.

If Gameplan Creative had been designing the boards, here’s how we would have handled the creation and the testing of the Olympics rinks dasherboards before a single hockey board panel was fabricated and installed at the arena:

1. On-Ice Prototyping Under Game Conditions.

Not renderings. Not mockups. Not AI generated virtual boards.
We’d bring players to the ice to test… test… test. Live shooters. Live goaltenders.

2. Luminance & Contrast Measurement at Milano Santagiulia Arena.

Actual contrast ratios under Olympic lighting loads.
High-speed tracking at multiple elevations.

3. Broadcast Simulation and Video Capture/Review.

Television white balance shifts.
Glare analysis from 12+ camera angles.

4. Athlete/Media Partner Validation.

Goalies sign off. Shooters sign off. Officials sign off. Broadcast production sign off. You don’t debut a visual experiment at the Olympics. You validate it months before the torch is lit.

The Takeaway: Graphics Cannot Overpower the Game.

In performance environments — whether it’s a hockey rink, basketball court, or Olympic venue — every visual element must serve clarity, contrast, and athlete instinct. Push color, pattern, or motion too far and you don’t just create atmosphere… you risk compromising sightlines, depth perception, officiating judgment, broadcast readability, and player performance.

When environmental designers chase “eye-catching,” they can cross an invisible line. The moment graphic ambiance becomes the star, the sport becomes the supporting actor.

Great environmental design elevates the stage. Overly complex environments can compete with the game being played on it. And when that happens, the brand doesn’t win — the experience loses.

We saw unexpected long-distance goals. Elevated shots misjudged. Even Team USA goaltender Jeremy Swayman lost a center-ice puck against Denmark — a shot he admitted he couldn’t track at that “perfect height” between the boards and the stands.

The situation at the 2026 Winter Olympics hockey rinks was a reminder that sport is not a showroom. It is a performance laboratory. Every surface, every color field, every reflective edge influences perception, timing, and possibly game outcome. -The End.

As Hernando, the nor’easter/blizzard storm pummels New England, bringing sheets of snow and ominous grey and murky blue low level skies, it feels like the perfect moment to revisit one of the most “atmospheric” uniform alternate launches in recent memory: the New England Patriots’ “Storm Blue” Rivalries alternate team uniform designs.

Thinking more about the Patriots Storm Blue uniforms, Jim Cantore from the Weather Channel would have been the ideal person to provide design commentary — since he’s the anointed weather goat of ominous storms.

Designed as part of the NFL’s new “Rivalries” program and created with the power and unpredictability of a New England storm in mind, the Nor’easter uniform blends the region’s natural elements, rich maritime history, and football tradition into a bold, future-forward design.

The bold white Pats helmet — sharp and cold as fresh snowfall — slices through the darkness, while flashes of red crackle like distant lightning.

The palette tells the storm blue story before a word is spoken. A brooding, slate-blue base mirrors gathering storm clouds over Foxborough, MA. Subtle striping elements feel like wind shear cutting across the stormy threatening horizon.

The Patriots leaned into regional identity in a way that felt authentic — not nostalgic throwback, not futuristic overhaul — but structurally basic. The uniform feels forged from New England weather itself: heavy, physical, relentless. This wasn’t just a navy blue and red color swap, it was environmental branding storytelling about a region.

Storm Blue (Grey).

At the heart of the look is a deep Storm Blue base – rugged, weathered, and worn in, like the coastline after a gale storm. The moody grey color reflects the unforgiving power of Atlantic nor’easters and perseverance of the people who face them head-on.

Nike Team Outfitting and Patriots Creative Services collaborated on the Storm Blue Rivalries Uniform with an acute focus on subtle design elements throughout the uniform process. The goal. Connect NE Patriots past, present, and future branding:

• Six stars on the uniform represent the six New England states:

  Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont.

• A new “NE” shoulder logo, inspired by nautical lettering and compass points, underscores the unique nature of the Patriots as the only team to represent an entire region.

  

• Jersey numbers pull their vertical striping and mesh-like design from the iconic 1990s Patriots uniform, evoking memories of Drew Bledsoe-era battles.

• Shoulder and pant stripes carry a subtle netting pattern, an homage to the working harbors that define the New England coast.

• The matte white helmet suggests a blinding snowstorm; the metallic silver face mask reflects the icy cold that defines the often fierce region’s winters.

• Small pops of red (including stars on the players collar) offer a subtle connection back to the team’s traditional color palette.

• And inside every collar, a reminder that through every storm, We Are All Patriots.

Whether braving the elements on the eastern seaboard coast or lining up across from your fiercest rival, the idea behind the Storm Blue uniform is built to weather whatever comes next.

When the skies turn steel-gray and the wind starts to howl, there’s no better time to examine how a franchise turned weather into visual identity.

Storm Blue Rolls Over Gillette Stadium, Home of the Patriots.

What makes “Storm Blue” successful isn’t just aesthetics — it’s cohesion. Every element, from hue to texture to typography, reinforces a single atmospheric narrative. The contrast hierarchy sharpens the on-field silhouette. The monochromatic mass creates visual weight. The white helmet elevates recognition from distance and on broadcast.

Patriots Choose Climate Over Comfort.

The “Storm Blue” concept drifts well beyond the traditional red, white, and navy blue patriotism that’s long defined the New England Patriots brand. It abandons the overt Americana cues. It detours from the standard colonial symbolism. It trades the Paul Revere-driven patriotism cliche for brooding threatening ominous atmosphere. It proves the Patriots identity is strong enough to stretch without snapping.

Strong brands don’t survive by repeating themselves to the point of safe redundancy. The best brands evolve by expanding their emotional range.

With “Storm Blue,” the Patriots resisted the predictable. They didn’t lean on flags. They didn’t overplay nostalgia. They didn’t force a throwback to safer territory. Instead, they reached into something deeper — regional truth. Climate. Grit. Environment. Identity shaped by weather as much as history.

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The Patriots sports branding game plan was “calculated” risk taking.

“Storm Blue” shows that you can honor tradition without being imprisoned by it. You can move away from the expected color story and still land squarely within authentic territory. You can reinterpret patriotism not as fireworks — but as resilience.

When a uniform feels inevitable rather than experimental —when it deepens the mythology instead of distracting from it — when it expands the emotional vocabulary of a franchise, that’s strategic brand evolution. It proves the New England Patriots identity is strong enough to stretch without snapping. -The End.

We’re here to break down what works. What doesn’t work and why this logo has the entire sports branding industry buzzing.

I’m Tom O’Grady, and I’m joined by our co-host Brigitte Smith. Together we bring more than 50 years of combined sports branding, experience, creating, designing, producing, and even occasionally rescuing sports brands. Our goal is to give you honest, unfiltered conversations about what great sports design really involves because we have an outstanding track record of success.

Before we hit the slopes, please make sure you’re plugged into our sports branding network ecosystem. Subscribe to Sports Branding on Substack. Follow us on x.com and Instagram. Listen on Apple podcasts like and subscribe to our Gameplan Creative YouTube channel, and explore our branding and animation work at gameplancreative.com.

All right, now that we got business out of the way, time to zip up your parka. Grab your goggles and let’s head to Salt Lake City for our breakdown of the Utah 2034 Winter Olympics logo.

Brigitte Smith
Hey everyone. I’m Brigitte Smith, Creative Director at Gameplan Creative.

Tom O’Grady
This is Tom O’Grady, founder of Gameplan Creative. I’ve had the great privilege to contribute to Utah Sports branding history while NBA creative director in the nineties, and I’m very excited to discuss the new logo. But we’ll get into my Utah branding background later. Again, thanks for joining us on the Sports Branding Podcast.

We’re talking about the recently released and already controversial Utah 2034 Winter Olympics logo design. Almost immediately after the IOC Unveiled logo, BOOM, the sports branding and graphic design worlds just lit up with comments and criticism.

Brigitte Smith
Designers, fans, athletes, everybody has strong opinions. It’s exactly the kind of event we love to dissect, analyze and debate back and forth here. Olympic branding always sets a global benchmark. Every detail, colors, geometry, typography is debated, critiqued, and studied.

Tom O’Grady
Utah has a deep design history in sports. The 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics logo set a very high standard. And personally, I’ve done my share of Utah branding work over the years, so I’m heavily invested in how this new logo represents the beehive state. Once the International Olympic Committee dropped a new Utah 2034 logo, it caused a blizzard of controversy both in the region and around the world, like the blizzard pun?

Today we’ll break it down piece by piece and provide some takeaways for our audience.

 Brigitte Smith
Yeah, absolutely. Tom. There’s a lot to unpack, symbolism reactions, comparisons to past winter games. Eyeballs on this are intense, So let’s hit the ice and have at it!

Most listeners can’t see this. So here’s the picture, Utah, in all caps stacked above 2034, no icon, no pictogram, just a word mark. Thick lines collide with receding thin lines, almost chaotic. The designers are telling a story, but it’s messy in an intentional way.

Tom O’Grady
The brand design team says it represents interlocking community pathways, Mount geometry, having a modern take on Utah’s stunning landscape. But rationale is one thing, execution is another. And that word mark, man, it’s sparking debate like hockey fans. After a referee makes a bad call.

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Brigitte Smith
The word mark is bold, technically sharp, but too strong. Letters feel clunky. Line choices a little scattered and emotionally for me, it doesn’t hit.

Tom O’Grady
Gosh, I love the clunky lettering font description. I’m picturing a set of boomerangs all with thick and thin triangular shapes and blunt rounded edges. I’m seeing a Polynesian tiki bar stacked font. It’s bold, but it’s really clunky. I understand the attempt to convey a rugged landscape, but this seems to be wrestling with itself.

Brigitte Smith
Exactly. Think thick, cartoonish strokes, fighting thin receding lines, stack tight like a tug of war. Fascinating technically, but emotionally underwhelming.  

Tom O’Grady
My take on the Utah 2034 logo is through a very personal lens. I helped to shape Utah’s sports identity in the 1990s, beginning with the design of the 1993 NBA All-Star Weekend logo and event branding and Salt Lake City. The final logo was regional, very distinct and feature the great Wasatch Mountain Graphics.

Brigitte Smith
Those All-Star logos, amazing energy and symbolism. They’re peelable designs that work individually as partial logos and when merge together are just so memorable.

Tom O’Grady
Yes. Thank you Brigitte. Just a few years later, I was responsible for rebranding the 1996-97 Utah Jazz. That’s when they began wearing what I coined the Purple Mountain Majesty uniforms, you know, the ones they wore and back to back NBA finals against Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. Talk about great rebrand exposure. Wow.

Brigitte Smith
Those jazz uniforms still resonate today. The team is constantly remaking them, but they never quite match the originals. Those uniforms are part of Utah’s visual, DNA.

Tom O’Grady
Looking closer at the 2034 Utah logo, and I just don’t see Utah’s visual history, not the colors, the attitude, the mountains, any of that personality. Sure, the logo is structurally tight and well constructed, but as an Olympic logo, it seems forced. I want frosty, snowy, mountainous. I want movement. I mean, it’s all missing.

No suggestion of any of those icons whatsoever.

Brigitte Smith
Yeah, it feels more like an outdoor performance apparel logo. Something you’d find like at REI or Under Armour.

Tom O’Grady
Is the Utah 2034 logo? Good. Well, it’s different. Is it memorable? Well, maybe. But is it appropriate? No, it’s not appropriate to me.

Let’s go back a few years to do a Winter Olympics logo, historical comparison. Thought we’d start in Calgary in 1988, which was a very playful logo. And then onto Torino, Italy in 2006, which has a futuristic pattern to it.

It’s very cool. And then Vancouver, which pays homage to the region with a totem pole concept with much more human warm feeling to it. And finally, in 2022 Beijing in this kinetic italicized motion design.

This is not, however, the first time Salt Lake City and the encompassing Utah region has hosted Winter Olympic games. In 2002, Salt Lake City was the epicenter of the sports world, with the city putting on a spectacular event. The area was a wonderful mix of modern sports venues, all surrounded by the snowy winter wonderland of the Wasatch Mountains, which served as a majestic backdrop to a very memorable Olympic Games with the Utah 2034 logo recently unveiled.

We can compare and critique Winter Olympic logos designed some 32 years apart.

 Brigitte Smith
When placing the 2034 Utah Olympic logo next to the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic logo, it is obviously striking to the viewer on how different these two logos are.

The Salt Lake City 2002 logo has four angular V-shapes in muted tones starting at the top, the muted yellow shapes symbolize the Olympic flame and sun. The muted orange shapes in the middle signify the beautiful Utah sunsets and the blue shapes at the bottom represent the rugged rocky mountains.

These shapes are all cleverly connected in the center to create a six-sided snowflake. The Salt Lake City 2002 typeface reminds me of way-finding signage you would find at an airport. Very clean and legible from a distance.

From a designer standpoint, it was probably chosen, so the word mark didn’t fight the more complex snowflake icon.

 Tom O’Grady
The Utah 2034 wordmark. Not having a symbolic icon like previous Winter Olympic logos makes it feel like it’s missing something. A lack of color besides the Olympic rings also lessens the concept while removing the emotional impact it should have for a sporting event of this magnitude. This comparison illuminates concerns we have about Utah 2034, maybe the full Utah 2034 identity package would generate more positivity.

Once mascots, pictograms motion graphics are added to the entire brand package. Maybe patience is the key word here.

 Brigitte Smith
There are some positives to the logo. It does scale beautifully. It’s very versatile. It animates well and is a strong word mark for pattern design.

Tom O’Grady
Many Olympic marks go over the top. Complexity wise. This logo, it definitely shows restraint. It’s as simple and as bold as any Olympic logo ever.

Brigitte Smith
But having the Olympics being such a momentous event, this word mark misses a spark and it’s very underwhelming.

Tom O’Grady
I really want that only Utah could produce this icon. Feel and relevance.

Brigitte Smith
My final takeaway. Boldness is great for sports branding, but the Olympics need a little more spark and magic. I’m hoping the extended identity system will bring that magic to life in the new phase.

Tom O’Grady
My final Utah 2034 takeaway. This is a great case study for brand designers. Sometimes the global stage demands boldness. Other times committees choose safe, creative, and the tension between those two is often where great Olympic brand identities can happen.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of the Sports Branding Podcast. Remember to please subscribe to Sports Branding on substack. Follow us on x.com and on Instagram, listen on Apple Podcasts. Please like and subscribe to our Gameplan Creative YouTube channel, and check out our branding and animation work@gameplancreative.com.

Thank you for following us and take care.

Welcome to Episode 44 of the Sports Branding Substack and we’re talking patches.

Every so often, a uniform stops being just equipment and becomes treasured tribute to a legendary figure to the franchise and the sport. Not just another throwback. Not a one-season mourning band. Something deeper — and far more powerful — stitched permanently into the fabric of the team and the game itself.

NFL eternal patch tributes are embedded into the franchise’s identity, and they survive uniform redesigns, and serve as a permanent, visible link to the legacy of a foundational figure in the NFL.

In this episode, we explore what may be the most meaningful honor an NFL-AFL contributor to the sport can receive: a tribute that never comes off, survives every redesign, and is carried forward by players who never met the person it represents.

What Makes a Commemorative Patch “Enduring”?

An eternal commemorative patch in the NFL is distinguished by a combination of historical significance, permanent placement, and league/team recognition. Unlike temporary memorial patches, which are typically worn for a single season or during the year following a person’s passing, eternal patches remain part of the uniform indefinitely, symbolizing a lasting tribute to an individual’s contribution to the team or the league.

Key characteristics of enduring NFL commemorative patches include:

• Selective and Rare-

  Only a handful of individuals receive this honor, underscoring the exclusivity and weight of the tribute. To date, the NFL has only three permanent uniform tributes:

  • George Stanley Halas – GSH (Chicago Bears)

  • William Clay Ford – WCF (Detroit Lions)

  • Lamar Hunt – LH (Kansas City Chiefs)

• Permanent Placement-

  Eternal patches are typically sewn onto a uniform in a consistent, non-rotating location, such as the sleeve, chest, or shoulder yoke, ensuring that every uniform iteration continues to honor the individual.

  The Detroit Lions’ WCF patch initially appeared on the chest but was later moved to the left sleeve, where it now remains a permanent feature seamlessly integrated in the jersey.

• Institutional Significance-

  These patches honor individuals whose impact shaped the identity or legacy of the franchise or the league.

  George Halas’ GSH patch for the Chicago Bears recognizes the team’s founder and architect of the NFL’s early structure, making it a symbol of the Bears’ historical continuity.

• Recognition Beyond Temporality-

  Unlike seasonal memorials, eternal patches are meant to be timeless, enduring across multiple coaching eras, uniform redesigns, and player generations.

• Design Integration with Team Identity-

  Eternal patches often incorporate team colors, logos, or historic league references to visually tie the tribute to the organization’s broader narrative.

  The Kansas City Chiefs’ LH patch uses the AFL legacy emblem, connecting Lamar Hunt’s initials directly to the franchise’s origin story and the AFL’s historic influence on professional football.

• Symbolic Continuity-

  Beyond honoring an individual, the patch becomes a visual anchor for fans, players, and media, reinforcing the team’s lineage and the enduring values or achievements of its founder or influential figure.

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George Stanley Halas. GSH on Chicago Bears Sleeves.

While the Chicago Bears’ “GSH” patch for founder George Halas (added in 1984) is the most prominent and long-standing permanent tribute in the NFL, several other teams have adopted permanent uniform patches to honor key contributors to their teams on and off-field success, although many of these are often placed on the sleeve or chest following the person’s death.

William Clay Ford. “WCF” on Detroit Lions Sleeve.

The Detroit Lions added the initials “WCF” after owner William Clay Ford’s death in 2014. William Clay Ford, was the Lions’ former owner who owned the team from 1963 until his death in 2014. The team is currently owed by his widow, Martha Firestone Ford. That memorial to Ford was initially a patch on the chest and later placed on the left sleeve as a permanent tribute to him.

Lamar Hunt. “LH” Inside AFL Patch on Chiefs Left Chest.

The Chiefs have a permanent patch honoring Lamar Hunt, founder of the AFL American Football League and the Kansas City franchise. The patch is based on the AFL legacy design and includes his initials (LH) inside the emblem.

Hunt’s legacy sits within the Chiefs organization, too, as he brought the team to Kansas City in 1963. He originally owned the Dallas Texans starting in 1960, but then decided to move the team. He stayed with the Chiefs organization until his death.

As mentioned above, Many teams have sported temporary memorial patches, which are typically worn for a single season, or during the year following a person’s passing, while eternal patches for Halas, Ford and Hunt remain part of the uniforms.

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Some examples of temporary patch tributes to ex-players and executives:

• Buffalo Bills (RCW): The initials “RCW” (Ralph C. Wilson) were added as a permanent tribute to their founder in 2014.

  

• New York Giants (ATM/A): The Giants have used various, long-lasting, and temporary memorial patches for crucial organizational figures, including “ATM” for Ann Mara (2015) and “Spider 43” for Carl Lockhart (1986).

  

• Indianapolis Colts (JII/JIR): The team wore a black patch with initials and a signature for owner Jim Irsay in 2025, which often becomes a long-term fixture.

  

• New England Patriots (MHK): Wore “MHK” (Myra Kraft) for an extended period following her passing in 2011.

• Baltimore Ravens (Art): Wore “Art” (Art Modell) for an extended period starting in 2012.

Walter Payton “NFL Man of the Year” Award Patch.

The prestigious Walter Payton “NFL Man of the Year Award” recognizes a player's excellence on and off the field, with winners entitled to wear a special jersey patch for the rest of their career.

About the: Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award

Some figures didn’t just contribute to the game — they literally built the stage it’s played on. And the most fitting tribute isn’t always a statue.

In a league obsessed with the next season, the next draft, and the next uniform redesign, these eternal marks refuse to move forward. They anchor the present to the origin story. Players change. Stadiums change. Even logos evolve. But the legendary legacy thread remains. Halas, Ford, and Hunt’s impact on the NFL is worn on the field every week, forever. -The End.