Rebrand - Take 2

now I'm in full on carefullwhatyouwishfor mode...

 

I have my reservations again, but I give the Fire management credit for not being stubborn about this.

Pete (thinks that's a good sign)

 

Filled out my survey. I considered getting specific with wants and desires and then decided it's best to avoid confusing them with too many options.

Pete (told them he'd just be happy to get the "red" back)

 

Oh no. Fan focused? I wouldn’t trust most of us to design a pair of socks, much less the visual identity of a soccer team Kudos to them for caving in to the mob and listening - in this case it was clearly the right move.

 

Why couldn't they just back to the original crest?

 

That was my response in the survey about what I would like to see from a "new crest."

 

Whatever they come up with can't be more reviled than the Fire Crown (TM)

Whatever they come up with ain't going to make everyone happy even if it's good.

That's a really good design team that they hired. Wolff is local and has made some of the best crests in American soccer over the last few years.

 

The old crest needs some work. It was not well designed for certain applications like B&W or shrunk down on the web. Little things like the name in the logo are difficult to reproduce in some mediums. A variation of the florian cross could easily work but the logo does need to change.

What’s more important to me is the red jersey with a white stripe. That’s iconic and easy to recognize anywhere. You could be watching a 9” B&W tube TV and know you’re watching the Fire because of the jersey. PS1 graphics on a videogame? Doesn’t matter. It’s the Fire.

That’s been lost because Nelson is a putz.

 

I'm pleased that the process seems to be improved from the insular one that resulted in the Fire Crown. That alone should yield something that isn't terrible.

 

I put that in the "What's the Fire mean to you" section. Red jersey, white stripe, no debate.

 

I simply am pleased that they did not take long to come to the conclusion the crest/look was not a good/popular one and that they actually are willing to try to do better on it. Encouraging.

 

My first comment in the survey as well. The jersey can be as much of a brand as the logo.

 

To me, the red shirt with the stripe across IS Chicago soccer at this point, beyond any other branding element the team has. I was fine with it not being white for a year or two, but 99% of the time I want that shirt to represent the club, no matter what the badge looks like, what the name is, what stadium they play in, whatever. Few teams in the league had that kind of identity baked into their uniform program year after year, and it’d be great if we had that back.

I like the striping on the current set and felt it could similarly help identify us immediately to anyone that saw it, but the stripes are too thin and even if that’s fixed it just doesn’t quite “announce” the team in the same way that the chest stripe did. I’m kind of pissed I didn’t mention that in my submission now.

 

100%. The horizontal stripe is great for busses and billboards too!

 

I love the white jersey with red stripe but for my home jersey...honestly...I'd prefer a pure red jersey with a white stripe. Fire=red to me. I do not even mind the orangish or firey tendrils look but I am not into any blue in the Fire's jersey. As a firefighter I tend to look at it from a firey perspective. That being said...would be satisfied with the older white with red stripe jersey over what we have (or any blue). However, the crest does matter to me.

 

So happy with this.

I'll finally share the story. Fire go to Adidas with that logo I "leaked" for 2022 logo. Adidas tells them to ******** off and come back in 2023 because no new logo during a World Cup year. Fire enter fight with Adidas. I'm still not sure if it'll be 2022 and if they'll win that fight, but we're finally going to get it done right. 2022, 2023 I don't care, it's being fixed and we'll get it right.

 

well they officially announced on the website it'll be 2022 with a probable announcement at the end of this calendar year, unless I read things wrong

 

Sure but they could always say in the summer “hey it’s 2023 because we ran into a problem with adidas”. I’ll try to find out if they actually won the battle with Adidas or if it’s still ongoing

 

At least they admitted they were wrong.

 

Given the timeline involved, it would seem they'd be going MiTeam again in 2022.

Which would probably mean no horizontal stripe, and (due to how MLS has been doing things) another plain white away kit.

 

@TyrusRose , why would Adidas care what logo the Fire tell them to slap on their jerseys for 2022? They didn't resist the current abomination. Isn't Adidas only responsible for coming up with the jersey design, not the logo? And don't they do new jerseys for the entire league every year anyway, World Cup or not?

We can make this really easy for those guys in Portland. Red jersey/white stripe and white jersey/navy stripe. We'll let you know what patch to paste on it at the end of the year fellas.

 

Their full focus is on World Cup jersey production or whatever. We’ll see what happens

 

Likely just production timelines. Takes about 18-24 months from design to release for MLS kits. You can do it faster like the Fire did this season and Cinci did the previous season but that just means they slap a logo on a completely stock uniform that you could otherwise order for you high school team if you were a school district AD.

One of the strange quirks of the MLS adidas contract is that the uniforms they produce for us are the same materials quality as their "Elite" teams, which is one reason the on-field authentics are so expensive. It also means Real Salt Lake are given higher quality uniforms than Ajax.

https://www.footyheadlines.com/2020/10/adidas-football-sponsorships-ranking.html

 

two new kits in 2021, 2022 likely to be one new kit and one carryover. We’re still working through some details with adidas so more to come on the topic

— ⚽️ Kyle Sheldon (@kylesheldon) January 9, 2021