Miwaukee Admirals Changing Logos

[KDubK414]

Initially I was SHOCKED at this....

But then I realized the arena I work in is somehow haunted. LOL, how else would you explain all the logo and color fiascos of late?

In that veign, this logo makes a ton of sense then!!!

Maybe we need some haunting pirate admirals around there...

Kyle

[eSabre]

I like the idea of a gray home jersey, but this is poorly executed.

[Moser316]

Only the vast dislike I had for the previous logo and wordmark mitigates my initial negative reaction.

You're not actually trying to say that you think this logo is better than the previous set, are you?

Didn't you know, Kevin? It's an involuntary reflex of Gothamite's for him to instantly like anything that I hate, and vice versa. He must be my long-lost evil twin.

[DMadSport]

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article on the logo unveiling

Quote from the article:

Amid much fanfare, including break dancers, strutting models and a rock band, the final piece of the makeover was introduced at the Potawatomi Bingo Stage on the Summerfest grounds. The large crowd that filled the staging area seemed to generally like what it saw.

"What says hockey better than break dancing?" Admirals President Jon Greenberg kidded.

Break dancing?? Great logos and good on-ice product... THAT'S hockey!

Quote from the article:

The new logo is quite a bit edgier than the last logo of the salty seaman admiral. The new admiral, designed by Joe Locher of Yes Men of Milwaukee, is a skull with a black admiral's cap with ice blue trim.

The team's new colors will be black, ice blue and silver, replacing the old red, white and blue. "We wanted to do something that would be really popular with the younger crowd," Locher said. "We wanted to avoid the idea of a trendy logo, yet we wanted to tie it in to the heritage of the team to have it make more sense."

Clearly not meant for the older, traditional hockey crowd. They're just discussing this on WTMJ radio. A personality from their FM sister station served as MC of the event, and apparently he noticed that there was clearly a generational divide as to an opinion on the logo: The older folks at the event didn't like it, but the younger set were drooling over it.

All I can say is... if I want to see pro hockey, I'm driving down from Madison to Chicago to see the Wolves or Blackhawks. Screw the Admirals.

[DrBear]

Which brings up this:

A New York Times article (requires registration or bugmenot.com) on how skulls have become this year's fashion statement - the "happy face" of 2006. And Ralph Lauren has a store that sells a lot of skull sweaters and other gear.

In short, we now have the world's first goth hockey team.

I don't know, but if anyone shows up in that jersey, I'm going to tell him to get off my damn lawn.

(PS - an early poll by the Journal Sentinel has a 78 percent "don't like" vote for the new logo.)

[Gothamite]

Only the vast dislike I had for the previous logo and wordmark mitigates my initial negative reaction.

You're not actually trying to say that you think this logo is better than the previous set, are you?

Oh, yes. I'm saying exactly that.

But it's not saying much. The old scheme was awful, a bastardization of a logo that wasn't very good to begin with. Terrible colors, and bad sweater trim with the blocky wave pattern.

So this was bound to be better. Almost anything would be better. Doesn't mean that I necessarily like it, though.

[Sterling84]

Once I found out (on this site) that the Admirals were unveiling a new look I took it upon myself to call their marketing dept and "introduce" myself.

The gentlemen was kind enough to return my voicemail and chat with me a bit. I found out it was done by Locher and YESMEN. But he also told me the Admirals' goal in this project was twofold.

#1) REALLY shake things up. They felt they were getting lost in a major league town with the Bucks and Brewers (as well as Packers) and they're fairly traditional stuff dominating the scene.

#2) Specifically target the tweens. Which, although he didn't say it...many times means abandoning anyone and everyone even slightly older than that. Think YuGiOh or something similar. THink of how the toleration point for that stuff just drops off after you...I dunno. Notice women for instance.

Anyway. Of course I hate this. Like BiB said. I rather LOATHE this. But perhaps, you'd have to argue they met both of their goals. The BC rarely even has 3,000 fans for most games and maybe the organization felt that rather than targeting teens and young adults they should go after the kiddies...the ones who hope to play in the peewee games between periods.

It's odd to me. My philosophy has always been to target the 18+ crowd because the younger kids wanna be like their older counterparts anyway. Like make every movie an "R" cause if you can get the teens, you'll get their younger siblings sneaking in by default. The Moose went through pretty much the exact opposite thinking. They very much wanted to bring their franchise into the adult market.

YES MEN, from what I've heard of them in town, are mainly a gorilla marketing firm. Real subversive, word of mouth stuff. I used to go to their site and honestly want to throw my PC in the river. It was a quasi-spy motif where you had to "secure" login to view and no matter what you entered you "crashed the system" initiating some countdown and from that point every bit of rollover text was black on a black screen. It was a maze. It took me 15 minutes to find a "contact us" button. It was infuriating. So from that mind, comes this Tim Burton-esque thing. It pains me. I think Lloyd Pettitt is probably rolling over in his grave.

But I'd have to argue they hit their own mark. I think it's time we question their aim instead. Going with YES MEN means they wanted something this controversial.

After our phone call they requested that I call them back and give them my feedback. I may not do that just now. I need a moment. I am trying to put my own personal feelings aside and sort this out. It's not as though this drawing style is "UNACCEPTABLE". We all know there is no such thing. And the tonal comic style that overtook lineart in the last 20 years was at one point, new as well. But this style has never been used with a team this prominent.

I also question the crossover of Pirate connotations. I understand they "myth" of the lost Admiral's corpse. But in reality, this is still reading to me as a NickJr tribute to Jack Sparrow or Barbosa or whomever. We are close to losing our name's relevance altogether for a flavor of the day fad.

Only time will tell. Later boys.

[SabreGuy]

I think when he was alive, that admiral must have been part flounder, because both of his skull's eyes appear to be on the same side of his head.

[-kj]

The old scheme was awful, a bastardization of a logo that wasn't very good to begin with. Terrible colors, and bad sweater trim with the blocky wave pattern.

Well, I can't say that agree with any part of that statement.

[Gothamite]

That's cool. We can agree to disagree.

But for all the times I've been accused of living in the past with my logo preferences (and as an Admirals fan from childhood), I never liked any of the big-chinned Skating Admirals, going well back into the 1980s.

Making brick or claret (or whatever they were calling the ugly dark red) the dominant color was a mistake. And the choppy wave pattern on the bottom of the sweater sounds like a good idea in practice but never worked for me on the ice.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I have zero attachment to both Milwaukee and the Admirals franchise.

That said, I think it looks terrific. It's unique, funny, and highly stylized. The jerseys are, of course, incredibly ugly, but the logo itself is definitely something different. And I kind of like the backstory.

[WBGMike]

Wow, when I first saw this on the AHL site I thought it was just a special Halloween logo. Then I read it is there new primary, then I saw they are using grey aways. This is below bush league at least bush league has some creative funny logo and names.

I give it,     

The max pukes allowed by the board.

This is like CHL (Central Hockey League that is) quality as far as logos.

even the CHL has better taste

[Sterling84]

Alright. I've made up my mind.

I hate this. I will always hate this. I will never purchase ANYTHING with this on it. I will be embarrassed when they show it on TV and when I watch them in person. I pity the young men who have to cut their NHL teeth in those jerseys.

BUT...

and bear with me here. Try to put aside the lifetime of history and fandom we all bring to the table. Milwaukee does not have enough people like me or you...hardcore hockey fans to fill the stadium every night. Minor league hockey couldn't ask for a better product. Calder Cup finals two of three years. Champions three seasons ago. And yet even the lower stadium bowl is only half full most nights.

So from a BUSINESS perspective, I think what the Admirals are trying here is bold and possibly genious.

There is just too much competition for the entertainment dollars of the 18-35 yr old demographic. Why NOT target the youngins? Parents these days let their kids run their lives. Hook the kiddies, land the parents and grandparents too.

Many have noticed the buying power of the teen generation lately. But the preteens have buying power by proxy too. Have you seen how far the greedy fingers of the Dora empire reach? Hook em early and create brand loyalty at an age when they are more susceptible.

I gotta go against my better judgment and give em credit for trying. THey can't improve the on-ice product any more. SO they are switching strategies. I hate this. But I don't have season tickets, so maybe they need to go another direction?

[BostonBlazer]

Good: It's something original, not a rip-off of another logo like the Worcester Sharks. (at least what I'm aware of)

Bad: It's still a lame-ass logo.

[DrBear]

OK, so I'm pushing 50 and have taste. I guess they don't want me to buy tickets.

That said...I hope they realize they're trying to tap into the most fickle marketplace there is. Does this mean a new logo, slogan, backstory, colors, etc....every farking season?

[Sodboy13]

Oh, this makes me angry. Very angry, indeed. I'm sorry, but if I were an Admirals fan, I'd look 90 miles to the south of me, see what the Wolves wear out on the ice, and wonder why my franchise of choice was forcing this third-rate garbage on me.

I can understand the angle to try and lure in the kids. Even though the Wolves have one hell of a youth following, and they don't feel the need to make their identity completely flavor-of-the-moment to attract kids, I get it. Fine. Make your little skeleton boy the official mascot of the Admirals Kids Club. Have him on a one-off charity jersey every year at Halloween. Even have him as a life-size mascot in the stands. But do not make him your full-time identity. You're pandering, and likely to alienate far more people with real spending power than the tweeners with mommy and daddy's money you'll attract. If you want a skull logo, grow it up. Check the former Peoria Pirates of af2 for probably the best skull logo ever.

And don't get me started on the wordmark.

I'm just glad there's a throwback in my closet. Viva la anchor stripes.

[Sterling84]

OK, so I'm pushing 50 and have taste. I guess they don't want me to buy tickets.

That said...I hope they realize they're trying to tap into the most fickle marketplace there is. Does this mean a new logo, slogan, backstory, colors, etc....every farking season?

I'm not disagreeing with you Bear.

I'm merely saying that yes...it appears they would rather go for the most fickle market because it's much larger.

They've tried catering to the 50 yr old hockey fan with taste. And it gets them 1,100 people a night or whatever.

Maybe they are tired of swimming upstream.

I know this is insanity. I've never seen any logo rollout like this before. It's certifiable. What remains to be seen is whether it's crazy like a fox or just bat:censored:.

And I don't envision them having to reinvent this lil' weirdo every year to keep the attention deficit kids loyalty. Companies all over the world have taken advantage of building brand loyalty when you are young. Cereals, S'mores, crackers, juice, mac n cheese, hotdogs....everything they feed you when you are little feels and tastes "better" when you get older. Plus, all us Xers are running around with retro crud from when we were younger....like it's bulletproof or something. Targeting young doesn't suck.

Except for those of us who like our hockey grown up.

[Thunderstruk]

Didn't old Blackhawk announcer Petitt own the the admirals? Man he is rolling in his grave!!!

[LetsGoAdmirals]

See this is where this place gets a little out there. Talk about boycotting the team and going to Chicago or Madison for hockey. Screw that(well I do to Madison for hockey, but not excusivly).

The day I stop going to a teams' games because of what they wear is the day I stop being a sports fan.

[Sterling84]

Oh, this makes me angry. Very angry, indeed. I'm sorry, but if I were an Admirals fan, I'd look 90 miles to the south of me, see what the Wolves wear out on the ice, and wonder why my franchise of choice was forcing this third-rate garbage on me.

I can understand the angle to try and lure in the kids. Even though the Wolves have one hell of a youth following, and they don't feel the need to make their identity completely flavor-of-the-moment to attract kids, I get it. Fine. Make your little skeleton boy the official mascot of the Admirals Kids Club. Have him on a one-off charity jersey every year at Halloween. Even have him as a life-size mascot in the stands. But do not make him your full-time identity. You're pandering, and likely to alienate far more people with real spending power than the tweeners with mommy and daddy's money you'll attract. If you want a skull logo, grow it up. Check the former Peoria Pirates of af2 for probably the best skull logo ever.

And don't get me started on the wordmark.

I'm just glad there's a throwback in my closet. Viva la anchor stripes.

I think the Wolves logo is one of the worst I've ever seen.

It still has pencil marks in it. The puck is 12 feet across. Or the Wolf is the size of a doormouse.

Topic shift I know. Sorry. But I don't point southward for good AHL identities either.