Branding 180s that have actually worked

[spartacat_12]

The Utah Jazz rebranding & immediately admitting to their mistake has to be a record for the fastest a team has went from a 180 with their brand to a full 360 back to the old one beloved by fans. It got me thinking about instances where a team has made a drastic change to their colour scheme that actually stuck. There are tons of cases of teams trying to force a new brand(s) onto their fans before eventually returning to an old one (or something close to an old one):

• Astros going back to blue & orange after trying a navy/gold & brick/sand/black
• Brewers bringing back blue & yellow
• Blue Jays ditching the black & grey
• Padres returning to brown & yellow 
• Pistons hopping on the teal bandwagon before going back to the classic colours
• Warriors getting rid of the power ranger and going back to blue & yellow
• Sixers ditching the black & gold AI era set
• Wizards playing Bullets dress up after trying the blue & gold look for a while
• Coyotes returning to the kachina set
• Sabres trying to be a black & red team before bringing back the classic colours/logos
• Islanders experimenting with the fisherman/navy then bringing back the original uniforms
• Canucks taking a couple detours before a return to royal & green
• Capitals going back to red, white, & blue with an updated wordmark logo

 

By comparison I can only think of a few times where the 180 has stuck:

• Seattle Mariners - They've worn navy, teal, and silver for almost twice as long as blue & yellow. They do have a fauxback alternate, but it doesn't seem like there is a big push for them to go back to the old colours full time
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers - People have come around on the creamsicles as a once-in-a-while thing, but the 2 Super Bowls have cemented pewter & red as the definitive Bucs look
• Pittsburgh Penguins - It may have been a pandering move to switch from double blue to match the Steelers & Pirates, but the black & yellow isn't ever going anywhere

 

I didn't look beyond the big 4 North American leagues, but can anyone think of other drastic rebrands that actually worked?

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

The Kansas City A's adopting green and yellow/gold.  The team had been wearing a rather incoherent mix of blue and red since the move from Philadelphia, where it had had a sharp blue and white colour scheme.

 

The Lakers adopting purple and yellow/gold, changing from powder blue and yellow/gold.

[sky1324]

The Sacramento Kings switched to purple and black in 1994, and even when they brought back an updated classic logo they stuck with that color scheme.

 

Not sure if this counts but when the Titans of New York became the New York Jets they swapped out blue and gold for green and white.

[WestCoastBias]

Silver & Black LA Kings have stuck after switching from the original Purple & Yellow. 

[Discrim]

Brazil used to wear all white, until their infamous 1950 World Cup final loss.  Afterwards, they changed to their now iconic canary yellow shirts, blue shorts and white socks.  A decade later, Leeds United went in the opposite direction: they'd historically worn yellow and blue in various forms, but inspired by Real Madrid, manager Don Revie changed Leeds' kit to all white, which they've worn ever since.

[ManillaToad]

The Raiders looked like this before they switched to the black and silver in 1963

 

[DTConcepts]

I think the Predators' switch from a navy/silver to yellow counts here.

[chcarlson23]

4 hours ago, DTConcepts said:

I think the Predators' switch from a navy/silver to yellow counts here.

They seemed all but ready to ditch the yellow too with the navy, black, and white alternate, alongside the “revealed” (idk the full story on it) matching white version.
 

I’m so glad they turned it around and emphasized the yellow instead… 

[VampyrRabbit]

AS Roma, changing to their Gelato sets with the Gratton designed Lupetto logo.

 

On 2022-06-28 at 7:39 AM, Discrim said:

Brazil used to wear all white, until their infamous 1950 World Cup final loss.  Afterwards, they changed to their now iconic canary yellow shirts, blue shorts and white socks.  A decade later, Leeds United went in the opposite direction: they'd historically worn yellow and blue in various forms, but inspired by Real Madrid, manager Don Revie changed Leeds' kit to all white, which they've worn ever since.

Leeds did start wearing white shirts, shorts and socks as the home in September of 1960, before Revie became manager, though the yellow and blue trim did disappear.

[TrueYankee26]

Rays have had many winning seasons and 2 pennants since getting rid of the Devil in their name.

[MilSox]

On 7/9/2022 at 5:43 PM, DTConcepts said:

I think the Predators' switch from a navy/silver to yellow counts here.

 

Is this really a 180 though? Sure they decided to brand around gold and cleaned up their crest a bit, but otherwise this looks like the same team. 

[kimball]

There's a Utah Jazz joke somewhere here.

[YELDARBfield]

On 7/9/2022 at 10:55 PM, chcarlson23 said:

They seemed all but ready to ditch the yellow too with the navy, black, and white alternate, alongside the “revealed” (idk the full story on it) matching white version.
 

I’m so glad they turned it around and emphasized the yellow instead… 

Long story short, then-Chairman David Freeman was big on the darker look and pushed for the checkered alt + exploratory white jersey. Before he could pull the trigger on the full-time rebrand, Herb Fritch and Tom Cigarran (among other owners) took control of the board and went gold.

 

Going gold was the right move, IMO. Though I wouldn't mind a Reverse Retro version of that navy & black alt.

[throwuascenario]

Am I the only one that missed the Jazz' 360? I must have missed something and can't find anything about them reverting to their old jerseys.

[Indigo]

Upon the mve to Brooklyn, the Nets went from different shades of RWB to B/W.

[TrueYankee26]

I still miss the NJ Nets.

[GeauxColonels]

On 6/27/2022 at 2:34 PM, spartacat_12 said:

By comparison I can only think of a few times where the 180 has stuck:

• Seattle Mariners - They've worn navy, teal, and silver for almost twice as long as blue & yellow. They do have a fauxback alternate, but it doesn't seem like there is a big push for them to go back to the old colours full time

I was watching a Mariners game the other day and was thinking to myself how much I really like their brand. It really holds up well even now. The color scheme is pretty classic now and the primary logo is one of my favorites in the league. I hope it stays around.

[dont care]

15 hours ago, LA Fakers+ LA Snippers said:

Upon the mve to Brooklyn, the Nets went from different shades of RWB to B/W.

You can’t say two different shades of red white blue, when one is a throwback that hadn’t been worn for more that 10 year prior to the move.

[Indigo]

1 hour ago, dont care said:

You can’t say two different shades of red white blue, when one is a throwback that hadn’t been worn for more that 10 year prior to the move.

I meant their entire 50-year history in NJ. Obviously they were not wearing two different color schemes at the same time.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

17 hours ago, LA Fakers+ LA Snippers said:

Upon the mve to Brooklyn, the Nets went from different shades of RWB to B/W.

   

 

If by "worked" one means helping to sever my lifelong emotional bond with the team, then that change worked wonderfully.

 

I realise that a lot of people like the current Nets uniforms.  But I cannot understand why.  The Nets had gone through a period of several crappy uniforms (one of which they inexplicably used as the basis for a City Edition uniform this past year), before settling on the Kidd-era set.  That uniform was magnificent, featuring two different road looks, one in grey.  (The less said about the latter-day red road uniform, the better.)

 

       

 

 

The  wordmarks, both home and road, were gorgeous.  And the set featured the stripe down the sides of the uniform in a net pattern.

 

 

 

 

They threw all of that away for a drab and entirely uninspiring set — one that didn't even say "Nets"!  They paired the nondescript "Brooklyn" wordmark with some of the lamest-looking numbers I can ever remember seeing.  The folly of this becomes apparent upon a comparison with the Celtics' jerseys, which pair an equally simple and thin wordmark with bold and strong numbers.

 

 

 

Between the name that, rather insultingly, excludes the majority of my beloved City of New York, and the crappy uniforms, and then topping it off with jerky players (Erving forever; Irving never), this team has spent its entire time since the move pushing me away.  Even the links to before the move went sour.  Kidd himself, who had remarkably turned the team around in a way that Seaver had done for the Mets and who then returned as head coach after the move, wound up being pretty jerky in his own right, first getting rid of assistant coach Lawrence Frank (another link to before the move) for assisting too much (!), and then getting into spats with the GM about player acquisition, before making an ugly exit.

I tried to hang onto my Nets fandom after the move, I really did; but that has not been possible.  So the Nets' change of look upon the move now feels like the point at which the team went from being my team to definitely not being my team.  The uniform and logo are not only symbolic of that transition, but, more fundamentally, they are ugly on purely aesthetic grounds.