Maroon

TODAY IS THE DAY!!!

MLS4TheLou shared their cardboard cutout audience picture last night:

Seems a little silly to me that Clan spelled with a "C" would be confused with the KKK, but if there are actually people who have been confused by it then good call. 

The already suggested Scots and Highlanders would be great. Gaels seems to work for a number of colleges. Could take from NFL Europe and go with Claymores (always thought that was an awesome name). Other Scottish related nicknames could be Thistles, Guardians (less overt, but a reference to the Scottish "guardian thistle"), or Tartans.

16 hours ago, FiddySicks said:

You lost me completely when you eliminated the most superior name of all time, the St. Louis LazerSnakes.

3 hours ago, BC985 said:

If posts like these continue, could we be looking at Saint Louis City?

 

 

If anything, the no boundaries or limits comment makes me think Saint Louis United. Which, considering St. Louis is a community largely defined by how fragmented it is between the City, the County, St. Charles, JeffCo, and even further - the sentiment could play really well.

1 hour ago, gosioux76 said:

 

The NBA owns the Spirits of St. Louis trademark, per the TESS database.

 

And calling the team St. Louis City would be remarkably tone deaf. There's a huge divide here between city of St. Louis and St. Louis County, a division many believe is a driving force in many of this region's economic and political struggles. It would be an odd choice to pick a name that could stoke that divide. 

 

 

Agreed. Saint Louis City would be just about the worst name they could go with, and I don't see it happening.

Okay, but now can somebody explain to me why Big Ten teams keep on scheduling this cupcake?

11 hours ago, WideRight said:

 

That is a really nice spin on Juve.  Kind of hoping they go with something like "Lou City" or "Lou Racing" just to see the look on British faces when they hear that one.  

Oh! I've heard people suggest St. Louis City (which is fine but would seem to exclude St. Louis County and other STL metro areas, which could be a bad move), but nobody has mentioned Lou City being the full name as far as I know. I really like that. Especially since the whole movement for the team has been called #MLS4TheLou

 

14 minutes ago, gosioux76 said:

And I only moved here recently. I was skeptical at first, but I've come to appreciate Imo's. It's not for everyone, and it's not something I'd order every time I eat pizza, but every now and then I crave it. 

 

Also, so not to fully pizza-jack this thread, MLS4TheLou released a bunch of other names that didn't make the cut.

https://twitter.com/MLS4theLou/status/1287852785552314368?s=20

 

Also, also: I clearly do not know how to embed a tweet in this message board, despite all my years of trying. 

 

Ya, this is the second tweet for names they're not going with. Ravioli Boyz made me chuckle.

And here's the embedded tweet:

2 hours ago, gosioux76 said:

For the record, the Louligans' support of Lazersnakes has been entirely tongue in cheek. They also make references to chupacabras in at least one of the gameday songs, so these are largely a nod to the local supporters culture. 

Assuredly, but I wanted to provide some context as to why Lazer Snakes was even a suggestion.  

I dunno where the Capybaras one came from, though, but I actually really dig that logo.

2 hours ago, WideRight said:

Pizzash!te FC

 

Anyone who has ever tried St. Louis style pizza will agree that this name is entirely appropriate.  

For the time that I lived in StL County people could tell that I wasn't a native based off my aversion to Imo's (even though Imo's also has a location in the hometown where I grew up). But, in fairness, there is some dang good pizza in St. Louis. But that good pizza isn't Imo's. 

MLS4TheLou shared some logos for some of the more outlandish/fun suggestions that came in from fans (also, for those not in the know, the local supporter group St. Louligans has been a strong proponent of Lazer Snakes)

I just gotta say I'm most likely going to be excited regardless of what the identity package ends up looking like. Just stay away from stuff like "St. Louis Steamers" or "St. Louis Stars" and we'll be good. 

I'll reiterate the Olympique St. Louis is the best option even if it's impossible. And RE: Discussions of those Olympics, the cultural and architectural impact of the St. Louis Olympics are still very present in Forest Park even independently of the actual things that happened at that event. As someone else said, it's also more a hearkening back to the era where St. Louis was a pinnacle city in the United States. 

19 hours ago, AndrewMLind said:

My wife says to me as I'm writing the article on the front page last night: "Why does it look like an IUD." Now I can't unsee it.

I liked the rebrand until you pointed this out.

1 minute ago, -kj said:

 

Now that I've seen it, I think you're right.

 

I'm also not sure about shoehorning that T into the background of the primary.

For sure. I think they really wanted to tie the athletics and academic logos together in some way (which would make sense - a lot of schools use Bulldogs), and that was their concept. If they made their secondary their primary, and then made the primary the secondary without the "T" in the background I think it'd be a lot cleaner and be just about perfect.
 

Then again, I'm also the guy who annoys everyone with how I think Truman should have changed their mascot when they went from "Northeast Missouri State" to "Truman State." So many possibilities to be something unique! 

Truman State Statesmen/Stateswomen

Truman State Redlegs (from when Truman served in the battery in the US Army)

Truman State Hellraisers ("Give ’Em Hell, Harry!")

Truman State Buckstoppers (from Truman's "the buck stops here")

1 minute ago, -kj said:

Not bad.  Certainly better than the generic bulldog they used when I went there.

You went there? My wife, sister-in-law, and brother-in-law all went there as well. 

Here's their document for all the logos, including the secondary: https://spark.adobe.com/page/sIK7r8pcSdWaY/ 

My issue is just that I think the secondary logo would make a much better primary logo than the one they went with. The primary logo should be the secondary. 

I also know a lot of Truman alums really, really dislike the new academic logo (which the T in the new athletics logo is based off of) and prefer the old one. One of the jokes I've seen go around is that the top of the T in the new academic logo looks like the Budget car rental company logo.

Old: 

New: 

18 minutes ago, leopard88 said:

It looks the blue is a little darker too.

 

A cleanup of the old one might have worked. However, tradition is almost the only thing it has going for it.  The arched Brush Script lettering is terrible.

 

Overall, I like the new logo and word mark.  I only have two criticisms/comments:

 

1.  I'm surprised there is no tertiary mark that just includes the I and the state outline.

2.  I think this might have worked even better if the I matched the rest of the wordmark. This is particularly noticeable with the secondary mark.  The style of the I doesn't seem to lend itself easily to a full alphabet, so the best option would probably be to match the I to the new wordmark.

The old brush script definitely needed updating. But they could have at least kept it as a script, but more legible. The block letters just really don't work for me in this case, the shape for the state looks bizarrely not like Indiana, and I could have done without the "I" being present in the logo at all.

EDIT: I think that, upon further reflection, it's not even the individual elements that I dislike. I wouldn't dislike that font elsewhere. There's nothing inherently wrong with the I they included. It's that it all doesn't seem cohesive to me. It looks like a mishmash of three different elements that don't really go together layered on top of each other. Maybe that means once I get used to it I'll like it more. The reason I'm saying this is I actually find their full wordmark acceptable if not even good. It's the primary logo I don't find appealing.

2 minutes ago, Volt said:

Are you saying this new logo is worse than the previous?

 

What I am saying is that their old logo was classic and iconic. Their new logo is terrible. A clean up of what they had would be much better than a complete overhaul. 

This just in: Indiana State's classic, iconic logo has been abandoned for this trash.

Edit: Their new style guide for their wordmark - https://gosycamores.com/documents/2020/3/2//ISU_Style_Guide.pdf 

20 hours ago, Red Comet said:

 

Guardians of the Galaxy. Main character is from a farm near Kansas City. Personally, as someone from there? I'd probably call them the Kansas City Viceroys to keep the city-wide theme of teams being named after rulers.

Other potential "rulers" nicknames that could be used:

KC Sovereign

KC Emperors

KC Majesty

KC Conquerors / Conquest (not really a "ruler" but could use a monarch of some sort in imagery)

On 2/16/2020 at 10:33 PM, LogoFan said:

Hmm...I didn't see this posted in the last 2 weeks so wanted to share the new Defenders and Dragons secondaries.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Tbh, like the Seattle secondary better than their primary. 

New BattleHawks secondary logo announced:

Best uniforms overall: Defenders and Guardians
Best helmet: BattleHawks
Worst uniforms overall: Dragons and Wildcats

Worst helmet: Wildcats

Also underwhelmed by the Vipers, but they don't class out as the worst on anything for me. 

On 1/26/2020 at 11:21 AM, GDAWG said:

 

His suggestion of Indiana State, the school of Larry Bird, to the Big Ten, a P5 conference makes no sense.  If the Big Ten was to expand, it would be from the MAC.  My guess is that he is an alumni of Indiana State or is related to alumni of Indiana State. 

As a Missouri State fan, I find it laughable that anybody would suggest ANY MVFC team to the Big Ten (NDSU and SDSU are the only teams that really could even justify FBS right now based off football success, and they wouldn't be going to the Big Ten that's for sure), but INDIANA STATE? You're talking about a state school with an enrollment just north of 12k. Excluding the one private school, the smallest state school in the B1G is Iowa with 33k+ students (and Northwestern is a private school with 20k+ at that). If any school in the MVFC would have a chance in hell of ever making it to any P5 conference within the next 50 years it would be Illinois State or Missouri State... and that ain't happening 'neither. If an FBS move ever happens for them it'd have to be something like the MAC or Sun Belt.

Just now, GDAWG said:

I would not call the XFL jerseys as generic.  If any jerseys are generic it's most NFL jerseys. 

That's the struggle. If they've been around a long time they're called "classic." If they're new and designed to look classic they're "generic." Do you know what's generic? The Colts jerseys. Blue with white stripes, and a white helmet with a logo. And I love them. And they're clean and perfect for what they are, but if an XFL team came out with an identical kit (but, let's say, different colors), they'd be slammed as "generic."

Do you know what uniforms are actually generic? The new NY Jets uniforms. They're not even classic, they're just dull and pointless.

Wasn't able to be online as they were being rolled out apart from the Defenders. This is pretty simple for me.

1 & 2. NY and DC - Great uniforms. These are classic and well done.

3. Dallas - I see a lot of split opinions of these on here. I'm in the camp of people who think these look like how the Titans SHOULD have done their jerseys. These are great.

4. St. Louis - Like them, don't adore them. The helmet is exactly the kind of direction I was hoping for, but the wings look awkwardly too high up to me for some reason. Would rather the logo start lower, with the wings taking up more of the side of the helmet rather than the top.

5. LA - Still think the overall brand identity is weak (Wildcats is a terrible pro football nickname), but the jerseys aren't half bad. Like the homes more than the roads, which is not true for most of the kits.

6. Tampa Bay - The overall package is okay but a lot of problems/flaws that bring it down. Unlike some others, I like the V fang logo on the helmet.

7. Houston - Not good.

8. Seattle - Hate, hate, hate the homes. Like the away jerseys just fine.

15 hours ago, Ice_Cap said:

Often times uniform supplier deals are just glorified ad placement deals. The CFL, for example, kept the same supplier when they changed from Reebok to New Era. It's just that the factory started stitching New Eras logos in place of the Reebok logos. You see this in the NFL too. The Packers didn't want to give up their traditional uniform cuts and fabrics, so their uniforms remain entirely unchanged from the same factory they had under Reebok. It's just that now the factory stitches the Nike swoosh onto the uniforms. 

 

I'm not sure what factory is supplying the XFL's uniforms, but chances are that whoever signs on as the league's "official" supplier won't actually take over production. They'll just get their logo added to the uniforms at whatever factory is churning these out.

 I was not actually aware of that. Thanks for the information.

1 minute ago, Ice_Cap said:

Honestly? I don't think the "big three" of Nike, UA, and Adidas want anything to do with minor league football. The AAF could only get Starter, and they're probably not eager to jump in bed with the XFL so soon after the AAF failed. I don't think the XFL had very many, if any suitors. And given what we know about Vince? He probably scoffed at the idea of paying a supplier. So here we are.

 

My guess is the league is taking the approach of "no supplier until someone comes to us first."

Which is ballsy and full of confidence, but it could also make their gear look minor league. Even the AAF had a brand on their gear people knew. Mostly from nostalgia, but still. It was something.

 

Champion would probably be perfect for this league, but either they're not interested or Vince didn't think they were big-time enough for his special project.

Right, and I get all of that, but if there's no supplier... then who is supplying the uniforms? Are they just getting a custom print job from the team sports shop down the road?