Episode 20. Pistons Horsepower Rebrand.
Detroit's Traditional Red and Blue Identity Makes a Big U-Turn to... Teal?
The Year is 1995.
The NBA is in the middle of an NBA image revolution — a sports branding reboot —logos are bigger, colors are bolder, and uniforms are expressive. It’s a rebrand arms race of style and swagger, and the league’s visuals have never been more alive. But in Detroit, one of basketball’s proudest franchises, the team has been stuck in brand neutral—its once-formidable image now a staid relic of a bygone era. The Detroit Pistons are in need of more than a brand tweak… they need a branding makeover.
Taking the design steering wheel is Tom O’Grady, the NBA’s Creative Director and acclaimed sports branding architect, the mastermind responsible for some of sport’s most iconic transformations. The challenge? Take a pedestrian, red-white-and-blue identity and rebuild it—by making an automotive connection which made Detroit, Motor City. This wasn’t just about another new team logo. It was about dragging a legacy team out of their past and into a thrilling new visually eye-popping era.
The Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons.
Founded in Fort Wayne, Indiana, way back in 1937 as a company owned basketball team, the Zollner Pistons would turn professional in 1941 as a National Basketball League (NBL) member, winning two NBL championships in 1944 and 1945. The Pistons then joined the Basketball Association of America (BAA) in 1948. The NBL and BAA merged to become the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1949 with the Pistons becoming part of the merged League. In 1957, the franchise moved from Ft. Wayne to Detroit. It was a fortuitous move —as the Detroit Pistons have won three NBA championships since their admission into the NBA: in 1989, 1990, and 2004.
One of Four Pro Teams Named After a Person, Mr. Frank Zollner.
Initially, the team was known as the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons. The teams name came from team owners Frank Zollner and his sister Janet's company, the Zollner Corporation, a foundry that manufactured pistons, primarily for cars, trucks, and locomotive engines.
Really seems like the perfect team name, Pistons for a company that made (drum roll, please)… pistons? And Frank was one of the architect’s of pro basketball, which today is a global phenomenon and the NBA is a wildly popular sports property. Amazing!
An interesting footnote, the Ft. Wayne Zollner Pistons are one of only four teams ever named after a person. The Cleveland Browns are named after their original GM and Head Coach, Paul Brown. The Buffalo Bills are named after Buffalo Bill Cody through a naming contest. The Chicago Blackhawks are named after Sauk leader and indigenous warrior Chief Black Hawk and the 2004 expansion NBA Charlotte franchise was named after the team's owner Robert Johnson, who decided to use his short name “Bob” with “cats” becoming the Bobcats. Ugh… Hard to make that up!
A Long Standing Tradition of Royal Blue and Red Pistons Branding.
In the early years of the NBA, teams featured a limited amount of different uniform colors, with royal blue and red being the two dominant team colors.
There were exceptions such as the Boston Celtics classic kelly green and white and the Minneapolis Lakers light blue and gold. However, most teams stayed in traditional royal blue or red uniforms with contrasting trim and arched font lettering. No NBA team has played more seasons in red and blue colors than the Zollner/Detroit Pistons.
Beginning in the mid-1940s, the Ft. Wayne Zollner Pistons wore royal blue and red trimmed tank tops and shorts with basic designs, typical of pro and collegiate basketball teams from that era.
Fast forward to 1969-70, the Pistons changed their road uniforms to a powder blue uniform shade with red lettering, numbers, and trim, marking the first time the team had not to worn royal blue as their primary uniform color. The uniform arguably looks more contemporary than the team wears today as powder blue is a very popular brand color in all pro and college sports.
Pistons See Red. Then, BOOM, They’re Struck By Lighting.
In 1976, as the United States celebrated its bicentennial (200th) anniversary, the NBA Detroit Pistons radically changed their traditional royal blue with red trim uniforms to a bold red uniform featuring wide symmetrical white and blue side panels on the jersey and shorts, providing the team with bold and fresh looking uniforms. Sharp!
The red uniforms were worn for two seasons. The Pistons would not wear a primary red uniform again until they sported red alternate designs in the 1994-95 season, 18 seasons after wearing the original red Detroit design. They had a modern feel to them.
Watch out for lightning! In 1978-79 the Pistons re-introduced royal blue and red uniforms but this time they featured eye-popping bold red lightning bolts with white outlines along the sides of the jerseys as they cascaded down to the sides of the game shorts. The new italicized DETROIT and PISTONS lettering included a lightning bolt underneath it with big, bold red and blue numbers on both the front and back of the uniforms. The familiar Detroit Pistons "Lucky Strike" cigarette pack logo appeared on the left shorts, splitting the funky cool lightning bolts.
Additionally, the Pistons wore one of the most outrageous warm-ups in NBA uniform history when they wore a grey hooded snap front with navy blue sleeves separated by a red lightning bolt. On the back of the warmups was a facsimile of the player’s signature (Bob Lanier), which honestly…. is a pretty damn cool design element. For a club steeped in simple uniform traditions, the lightning bolt designs electrified NBA courts across the League.
The 1980's Detroit Pistons "Bad Boys”… Were a"Very Good" Team.
In the 1981 NBA draft, the Detroit Pistons chose Isiah Thomas from the Indiana Hoosiers with the 2nd overall pick in the NBA Draft. Thomas started for the Eastern Conference in the 1982 NBA All-Star Game and made the All-Rookie Team. Over his storied career, “Zeke” would be recognized as one of the top 50 NBA players of all time playing his entire career in the traditional red and blue Pistons uniforms.
The Pistons, who had struggled for decades on the court finally found their messiah ---a point guard who would quarterback them on their rapid rise to respectability. While the 1980s NBA were primarily known for the Celtics vs. Lakers rivalry and Larry Bird vs. Magic Johnson match-ups, along with the stratospheric rise of Air Jordan in his Nike basketball shoes and commercials, the Pistons would also make their impact on arguably —the most important decade in NBA history.
The 1980's Detroit Pistons were a great basketball team capturing back-to-back NBA Championships at the end of the decade. However, the late '80s Pistons are often more known for their “Bad Boys” basket-brawl style of play and frequent displays of poor sportsmanship.
Doubling down on their brawler image, the Pistons created their own sub-branded logo including a black, silver, and orange with a skull and crossbones logo. Detroit “Bad Boys”, was the header and footer —which the Detroit Pistons ultimately sold as “official” merchandise at the team store. The NBA was not in support of their image.
Coinciding with Thomas being drafted in 1981, the Pistons also debuted simple new uniforms. Those uniforms have been basically the same design and colors, except for five seasons from 1996-97 through 2000-01. The standard Piston's bold red and blue side panels with the arched lettering PISTONS on the white uniforms and the double red stripes on the royal blue uniforms scream "DETROIT BASKETBALL.” And that traditional Pistons blue and red look continues to be their ongoing look of the teams’ brand identity today.
The U-Turn to Teal Branding.
There was a five-year period from beginning in 1996 where the Pistons would make a drastic change from their basic blue and red identity. In 1995, with the Pistons' infamous "Bad Boys" era a thing of the past, the Pistons were looking for a fresh start to their image as Detroit was no longer at the top pinnacle of contending NBA teams.
When the Detroit Pistons selected Grant Hill with the third overall pick in the 1994 NBA Draft, it wasn’t just the addition of a promising young player—it was the dawn of a new era. Hill arrived with the pedigree of a champion, fresh off a storied career at Duke where his poise, skill, and leadership had made him a household name.
For a franchise emerging from the shadows of its “Bad Boys” legacy, Grant Hill represented more than a fresh face—he was the franchise cornerstone, the superstar around which a new identity could be built.
At the same time, the NBA was undergoing a visual renaissance. Around the league, teams were shedding their conservative skins for bold colors, dynamic logos, and audacious uniform designs. Inside the league’s own NBA Creative Services, a wave of rebrands was redefining what professional basketball looked like. The Pistons seized the moment: pair their new generational talent with a visual identity that matched the energy, style, and excitement of the game’s changing landscape. Grant Hill wasn’t just the face of their roster—he would become the face of their transformation.
Shifting Brand Gears.
Tom Wilson, former Detroit Pistons President, decided this might be the ideal time to shaking things up visually for the team and mulled over having his Pistons go through a complete rebrand. The timing coincided with the NBA’s suggestion to present new trends to teams whose logos and uniforms had been the same for an extended period and had become dated-looking with all the new rebrands.
The NBA Creative Services pitch to the Pistons: get not only core Detroit fans — but casual basketball fans to purchase merchandise with new Pistons team logos and colors and take full advantage of the exploding sports licensed products category.
In the late ‘80s, sports apparel was becoming BIG business as urban brands looked to the four major sports for their bold colors and team logos as a new fashion trend. At that time, the NBA had more than its' share of traditional NBA blue and red team logos and uniforms. But that was about to change as the decade of the 1990’s began.
NBA Properties revenue grew from roughly $50 million in 1988 to approximately $2.8 billion in 1998. This represents an increase of about $2.95 billion, or roughly 5,900% (a 60-fold increase), fueled by the league's unprecedented global popularity during the Michael Jordan era. That’s not a misprint… $2.8 billion in 1998!
NBA VP/Creative Director, Tom O'Grady was overseeing fan focus groups in different markets and developing fashion “look books” on NBA sports licensed apparel. Fans were enamored with the rapid change in team branding in all pro sports and the NBA was the leader with it’s hip-hop and urban fashion followers driving that popularity.
By 1993, teal, purple, black, and metallic silver, were by far, colors that fans were responding to most positively, especially younger fans --- a demo the NBA was focusing on heavily as the games popularity was exploding in modern pop culture.
The NBA presented these findings to Tom Wilson and his Pistons marketing staff making a compelling case to go through with an entire rebrand. Detroit was known for its blue and red, but the team realized the time to restart its’ identity was long overdue and agreed with O’Grady to make a formal application for a change.
Hood Ornaments and Horsepower.
The Detroit Pistons, O'Grady and his NBA Creative Services graphic design team began a design journey in the pursuit of an entirely new breathtaking bold identity for one of the NBA’s original franchises. O’Grady immediately turned the focus of the new rebrand creative direction to the automotive industry which was full of options and inspiration. The design of automobiles and their company logos were ideally suited to be replicated for the Pistons.
Pistons Red and Blue Identity Makes a U-Turn.
Late in 1995, NBA Creative Services made their final presentation to the Detroit Pistons' upper management. The team chose a horsepower concept with teal, black, red, yellow and silver as new team colors. It was a RADICAL transformation.
This breakthrough color scheme was driven by NBA Creative Services who understood the marketing and merchandising potential of the new Pistons logos, uniforms and bold new teal, black, red and yellow colors.
The Pistons upper management was excited but nervous about such a radical change but their long-time and highly respected owner Bill Davidson approved the designs ---even with the understanding there might be some initial push back from long time Detroit fans.
In the summer of 1996, the Pistons held a big fashion show for fans and the media in the lobby of the Palace at Auburn Hills, the new home of the Pistons in the arena's main entrance and Grant Hill and Allan Houston wore the new teal road and white home uniforms.
The reaction to the Detroit uniforms as predicted by long-time owner Bill Davidson from many long-standing Pistons fans and team-beat sportswriters was overall very polarizing. A love it or hate it response.
There was a wide array of new team merchandise and a big push with the player's pictured in the new uniforms. It was a revolutionary rebrand and finally had put the negative "Detroit Bad Boys" branding to its' final resting place. The timing for the Pistons to reveal a modern, fresh new unique look was ideal. It worked out great!
The new Detroit Pistons brand identity program included:
An animated PISTONS primary logo.
Secondary DP logo.
A partial horse/basketball logo.
Unique PISTONS uniform lettering.
New color palette combination.
These five sports branding elements became the core brand architecture for the team. The new Pistons team identity was distributed via printed logo sheets to NBA licensees, media, and broadcast partners with detailed measurements and instructions.
By creating a "peelable" Detroit Pistons primary team logo, parts of the primary logo are able to be repurposed as partial logos without the substantial costs of trademarking. Alternate teams logos and wordmarks produced large revenues to Pistons local sales and to the NBA and its licensees.
Beginning in the late 1980s, there was a strategic design decision when creating NBA team uniforms to use the teams’ logo lettering and apply on the front of team uniforms. This carefully orchestrated “extending the brand” creates consistent impressions of the teams logo since it’s featured so prominently on the uniforms. The Pistons lettering was created to look like a chrome tail pipes from a vintage hot rod automobile.
The rounded Pistons letters were the visual cues for the players numbers, again working from a center visual theme and pushing it through the entire uniform design.
The Detroit Pistons DP secondary logo was placed on the lower left front of the player shorts. And the Pistons neck, sleeve, waistband and shorts trim was cleverly designed to match green/yellow and red traffic lights, a nod to the overall horsepower concept.
Give Change a Chance.
Changing a professional teams logos and uniforms is a both challenging and highly scrutinized brand undertaking. And when the change involves changing a traditional team’s brand, those updates are understandably polarizing. Social media today would probably have a lot to say about the 1995-96 Detroit Pistons dramatic rebrand.
The rebranding process for an identity change typically takes up to 18 months. The NBA established this timeline to provide enough time for the overseas production of team's redesigned replica jerseys.
Champion Athletic (at the time) replica jerseys traditionally are the NBA’s top-selling product. At a team’s logo launch, retail outlets must have enough merchandise on hand to address the immediate demand fans have to get their hands on the new “stuff”. The online NBA Store, individual team shops and Pistons retail outlets also needed the new team logos in many different styles. Additionally, when a rebrand happens, NBA Global Merchandising does not want retailers to be stuck with left over merchandise of the old logo.
From 1996-97 to 2000-2001, the Pistons wore white home and away teal road uniforms. For two seasons, the Pistons also wore an alternate deep red uniform, which quickly became as popular as the teal uniforms since Pistons fans felt the connection with red to their previous uniforms. They were truly a great set of designs that perfectly reflected their Motor City roots.
After five seasons of teal horsepower, the team decided the color scheme did not reflect the true traditional Pistons brand and had the NBA and Nike Basketball default back to uniforms reflective of their late 1980’s NBA Championship seasons.
The teal uniforms were retired into NBA rebranding oblivion --- potentially never to be worn again. They were a short albeit, colorful and bold departure from the traditional blue and red Ft. Wayne/Detroit Pistons branding. Truly gorgeous designs.
Champions Once Again In Red,White and Royal Blue.
By 2004, the Pistons had rebuilt their team and made it to the NBA Finals. And in a stunning upset, the Detroit Pistons defeated the heavily favored Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O' Neal, Gary Payton, Karl Malone, and Derek Fisher Lakers four games to one capturing their 3rd NBA Championship.
No Detroit Bad Boys... no teal horsepower... just a “hard-working” team with no real NBA superstars... a passionate, talented team coached by legendary Head Coach Larry Brown. Since winning the crown almost 20 years later, the Pistons have stayed with their classic traditional royal blue and red uniforms, making minor adjustments along the way.
In 2015, the Detroit Pistons worked with Nike basketball to develop a grey alternate uniform featuring navy blue lettering, numbers, and navy blue/white/navy blue side panel trim along with the secondary P on the short legs. The design was not definitely not popular with Pistons fans and after one season, it was discontinued. Nike Basketball adjusted the design using the same template from the Pistons white uniforms but replacing the navy blue with royal blue and then sprinkled red throughout the uniform.
A Black Alternate Horsepower Throwback? Hmmm…
In 2018, Creative Director Brigitte Smith of Gameplan Creative was intrigued with the idea for a Pistons alternate black uniform (the exact same style as the teal horsepower design) and created a comp in black with a gear, wrenches, and six-sided nut basketball on the waistband as a new secondary logo.
The design was posted to Gameplan Creatives’ Twitter page. Almost immediately, the design began getting a significant amount of Likes and almost universally favorable comments — suggesting a return to the teal and black with the horsepower logo might be due for a big comeback. This is a stunning look and the Pistons were foolish NOT to consider at a City Edition option. But Nike is gonna Nike.
Return of Teal. 150K Likes on X.Com. 110K Instagram Likes. 2.7M Views.
On July 25th, 2022, the Detroit Pistons blew up the Internet with a perfect teal uniform shock drop. An incredible 150.0K Likes on Pistons Twitter and 110.0K Likes on Pistons Instagram social media accounts! Numbers like this have never been seen for a new uniform reveal in professional sports. Talk about real teal horsepower!
The Pistons teal horsepower cult favorites made a wildly popular comeback in Motor City during the 2022-2023 season for a one-year run in their 1996-97 teal uniforms. The Pistons wore their iconic jerseys for ten games at home at Little Caesar’s Arena as part of Nike’s Basketball Classic Edition uniforms.
The Piston's expanding millennial fan base has been desperate for the team to inject some life, bold style, and youthful energy into their team. The classic blue and red jerseys are another drab cases of NBA "Bland"-ing (not Branding)... stuck in the early '80s and NOT in a cool way. The bold teal jerseys addressed the "retro relevancy" professional teams are seeking today. Younger Pistons fans were desperate for something new and all they had to do was take a look back at the one of the most popular 1990’s NBA uniforms — to find their answer!
Visual Vindication.
The teal horsepower Detroit Pistons was one of the best jerseys from the 1990s. Were those late '90s Pistons teams good? No. But the teal jerseys? Outstanding. An all-time throwback classic, no longer arguable with both NBA and Pistons fans. Social media weighed in, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive; a throwback blowout.
Running Out The Clock.
In the mid-1990’s and even today, there’s a pretty clear split how different demos groups react to non-traditional designs. The haters typically are anyone approaching 50 or over — they embrace traditional classic uniforms of the Celtics, Lakers, Bulls, Knicks, and Spurs.
The 1996–97 Detroit Pistons teal uniform has become more than just a uniform—it’s a time capsule. For a generation that grew up in the neon-splashed, attitude-fueled NBA of the ’90s, those bold horsehead logos and teal threads aren’t just fabric and ink; they’re memories of a league at its most colorful and daring.
Then, you have the people under 50, particularly the millennials, who continually clamor for the colorful, bold and animated uniforms from the '90s, such as the Hawks, Suns, Bucks, Raptors, Rockets, Sonics, Warriors even the Vancouver Grizzlies. This demo grew up wearing Charlotte Hornets Starter jackets, Orlando Magic Penny Hardaway replica jerseys... and Phoenix Suns AJD snapback caps.
Those kids have come of age, and their memories are all about the bright, in-your-face NBA "I Love This Game" era. That's their brand. That's who they are. The staggering amount of Likes on Twitter and Instagram for the Detroit Pistons Return of the Teal is a message to the NBA, its teams, and Nike Basketball... please keep giving your fans more engaging and animated team identities. And above all, listen to their requests they’re your core base —not Boomers of the 70’s and 80’s NBA!
In the end, it’s not just about basketball—it’s about reclaiming the feeling of when the game, and life, felt bigger, brighter, and a in sports branding certainly more electric.
In sports branding, nostalgia wields immense power—it can turn once-polarizing designs into cherished emblems of “better days.” The Pistons’ teal is living proof: a reminder that what may divide opinion in the present can, with time, become the beating heart of a fan base’s identity. - The End.
These are my favorite jerseys of all time! Incredible read!