Definitely design number 3. Love including both blues, and I think the text "pops" better against the background in that design. I am in for buying at least one.
As an outsider, I think the design is awesome and the idea of honoring an original team member who has been through it all with the organization is very classy. I'm don't know Chet North but I can't imagine he's both very touched by the gesture and finds it amusing as well.
I would like to see your original specs: Side One = light blue background Side Two = dark blue background
So, I don't know if he embraces the fact that his last name is also a cardinal direction, but if he did then it could be fun to do a play on that concept, something like this, only less ASCII art: Code: ^ /|\ / | \ / | \ / | \ / _ | _ \ | \ | | | | \| | | | | \ | | | |\ \| | | | \ | | | | |\ | |_| | \_| | I'm not sure if it works as well on a scarf as it might on a T-Shirt, but just something I was thowing around in my head.
Just a heads up. I'm still working on this. My next trick is to get approval to use the various logos from the powers that be. Hopefully that'll be this week. Stay tuned.
I'm sure you can....as long as you use an official MLS vendor....which require a minimum order of 150 scarves.....
Old logos can be tricky to get approval for. Teams don't always want to relive their past, or they may want to keep the retro usage for themselves. And the 150 scarf minimum is negotiable (at a cost).
Grrr. Running into more serious road blocks than I expected. Apparently this thread created a bit of a storm behind the scenes. In other words, we're being watched. Apparently the team has no control or say whatsoever in the usage of old marks. Apparently the league has limited control or say whatsoever in the usage of old marks. Apparently Adidas controls the rights and usage of the old marks, and if they don't want the old stuff in use, it ain't gonna happen. In other words, don't hold your breath on a turn back the clock rainbow jersey night. I could probably get the scarf done if I dropped the logos altogether. I might be able to get the scarf done with the Sporting logo if I convince the team to have it made for general public sale. Both of those compromises affect what I was trying to do with the design.
I guess for a million/year per team in gear and cash, I guess Adidas gets a lot of say. But I'm still shocked that the team's themselves don't retain some level of control over their own historical branding and marks. Houston not having control of the old Clash/Earthquakes marks is one thing. But Sporting not having control over Wizards or Wiz really shocks me.
Would this expire with the league's deal w/Adidas or do they own them as in forever? Any idea? I don't know how far we'll get, but if you decide you want to go the 2nd route, we'll bring it up in the next meeting the Cauldron has. I think we could get enough push behind it here at some point to meet the sales numbers. I know the Cauldron logo isn't what you were going for either, but I'd think it's yours to use obviously. We do have the other supporters group logos in various progressing stages, and I'm guessing everyone would have no problem with their use.
Can we still make something using the old logos as long as we don't sell it? If it's given away? I know that sounds weird, but isn't it the sale that makes it illegal?
Production would still have to go through an official licensee and the same approval process. And to clarify: adidas doesn't own the team marks. The league does. adidas just controls a lot of the usage of the marks because they are the official apparel supplier of the league. Apparel includes scarves. There are two adidas sub-licensees who can produce scarves with team/league marks, Ruffneck and SportsScarf. Anything they produce goes through the approval process.
Was that through Ruffneck or the other sub-licensees? I'm guessing it would be the same, but just checking.
I don't know specifically each company's minimums. 150-200 seems like a reasonable number. I would assume that number is at least somewhat negotiable, depending on if you're willing to pay more for the specific scarf design.
And Adidas has final say. But to use any of the old marks you need approval from both the league and Adidas. There is pretty much a zero percent chance that we could get these made by Ruffneck or SportsScarf. The only real chance would be if the team, itself, put this through as an item the team wanted to sell. Then Adidas would 1) have to approve the usage of the old marks and 2) decide whether they wanted to produce the scarves themselves. The problem is that the quantities we're looking at being viable don't really make this work at the team level. Among other problems.
Simply not true. That's not how the process works, and adidas doesn't have that kind of control. Anything adidas can't produce (for a whatever reason) can go to a sub-licensee, in this case Ruffneck or SportsScarf. And as I understand it anyway, adidas doesn't produce any scarves on their on in the USA. All of their scarves are sourced out through Ruffneck or SportsScarf. As a semi-related example: adidas couldn't produce the BoonBooRee shirts for a variety of reasons, so we went to a sub-licensee to have them made. None of that really effects this particular situation. I'm just clarifying so a rumor doesn't start going around that adidas controls all of the league marks present and/or past. It's just not true.
Controls <> owns. And whether Adidas uses a subcontractor or not, they still retain the right to produce items like scarves. They do not always exercise that right. I've dealt with folks over the years at pretty much every level of the production chain - including Stu Crystal. I don't think what I'm saying is really that different than what you're saying.
Yeah. We're close. I'm just saying that adidas doesn't have final say. Because they definitely don't. And if adidas excercises their right to not produce an item, it can be produced by a sub-licensee.
Except that Adidas does have say over the marks. Ruffneck can't produce the Chet North scarf as designed without MLS and adidas approval to use the marks. If it was just league approval, they'd be in production by now. For me, the frustrating thing is that the approval isn't just a team approval (with league input) thing.