Logos that can transcend sports

[TLChandler]

Houston Texans. Without a doubt.

[axl007]

[TTaylor44]

[ohryan]

n/m

[BadSeed84]

The Flyers logo, it certainly has a sense of motion and looks great on a hat.

[Mingjai]

Most NHL logos that don't involve pucks, sticks, or skates would work. I am not going to post images because that is a lot of them.

http://sportslogos.net/league.php?l=1

Examples

Devils

Bruins

Canadiens

Taking a cursory glance over the NHL primary logos, all of the logos except the Caps and Ducks look okay to awesome on a hat. Some of the more busy ones, like the Blue Jackets, Panthers, and Predators might be a little borderline, I think the rest are at least okay.

Of course, not all of them are transcendant like the Original Six or the Devils, Penguins, or Blues, but that's more a matter of longevity and popular recognition than anything else.

[Erik121]

Most NHL logos that don't involve pucks, sticks, or skates would work. I am not going to post images because that is a lot of them.

http://sportslogos.net/league.php?l=1

Examples

Devils

Bruins

Canadiens

Taking a cursory glance over the NHL primary logos, all of the logos except the Caps and Ducks look okay to awesome on a hat. Some of the more busy ones, like the Blue Jackets, Panthers, and Predators might be a little borderline, I think the rest are at least okay.

Of course, not all of them are transcendant like the Original Six or the Devils, Penguins, or Blues, but that's more a matter of longevity and popular recognition than anything else.

I agree that it seems like most NHL logos are really great at and could be used in all sports. I really think that the new Caps logo with the eagle is amazing and should stay around for a long time.

[BallWonk]

I agree that it seems like most NHL logos are really great at and could be used in all sports. I really think that the new Caps logo with the eagle is amazing and should stay around for a long time.

Stay around for a long time? Heck, I'd settle for having the Caps actually use that logo. Let's see how it looks on a hockey sweater before we start worrying about whether it can transcend hockey. And no, tiny little shoulder patches don't count.

I'd say the previous Caps eagle logo was borderline for the discussion at hand. It would work well on a football helmet or a basketball jersey or used in place of a crest on a soccer jersey. But I've seen it on ballcaps and it just doesn't quite work. I think it would look fine on a baseball jersey if used as the White Sox use their jersey logo, but not on a cap. Maybe it's because it has a strong right-to-left flow, whereas we're used to reading caps from left to right.

How about a Diamondbacks-inspired category for logos that would actually work better in other sports? I'll throw out baseball's minor-league Fresno Grizzlies and Quad City Swing (RIP). I think both are examples of great hockey uniforms that found their way to the wrong playing surface.

[CubsFanBudMan]

Based on the replies so far it seems it's much easier to find an NHL sweater logo that translates well to a baseball cap than vice versa.

But do they all really translate well as *MLB* caps? I ask because what makes most MLB cap logos work is the simplicity of the letter. That doesn't necessarily work blown up to crest size (as Coast2Coast originally noted with the Yankees -- although that might work better than the Cubs' C or Red Sox B ).

It's not surprising the only baseball logo listed on the original poster's list was the Astros, since it's a symbol, not a letter. Something that incorporates a letter and a logo might work, like the Marlins and, as mentioned, the Brewers, because there's something that gives it some added weight.

The Packers, 49ers and Devils are a few that work across the board because, again, they incorporate letters. Some of the simpler logos of the NFL and NHL would work as an MLB cap logo, but not nearly all.

So I guess the answer to the original question is very few, and I think many have been covered.

[MG helmets]

I actually thought about this when I was making my site (www.mghelmets.com) I made helmets of MLB, NBA and NHL teams. I had to modify quite a few of the logos to take out any baseballs, basketballs, hockey sticks, pucks, etc. I like the way most of them turned out.

MG

[BBTV]

I actually thought about this when I was making my site (www.mghelmets.com) I made helmets of MLB, NBA and NHL teams. I had to modify quite a few of the logos to take out any baseballs, basketballs, hockey sticks, pucks, etc. I like the way most of them turned out.

MG

That is a fantastic site you have there.

[Jezus_Ghoti]

I agree. Awesome site, MG. I just wish you wouldn't tilt the logos quite so much.

Here's a link for everyone who doesn't want to copy and paste:

www.mghelmets.com

[BallWonk]

Based on the replies so far it seems it's much easier to find an NHL sweater logo that translates well to a baseball cap than vice versa.

But do they all really translate well as *MLB* caps? I ask because what makes most MLB cap logos work is the simplicity of the letter.

I think you've hit on a key distinction there. A lot of hockey or football crests would look good on a ballcap. But no matter how good they look, they would still feel out of place if worn as part of a big-league uniform. The more decorative and symbolic logos look more appropriate for minor-league baseball uniforms, where we're inclined to accept a wider range of iconography. That's why I nominated the Diamondbacks snake-D logo as a counter-example to the topic of the thread. It's a great logo, and it looks great on a ballcap (and would look great on a helmet or a sweater). But even though the D-Backs are not the only big-league team to use either a cartoon or a nickname initial, it still feels like a minor-league move to have a cartoon nickname initial on their caps. Point is that, whether you agree with my specific example or not, we have different expectations of what a major-league uniform should communicate than what a minor-league uniform should communicate.

[Joshawaggie]

I actually thought about this when I was making my site (www.mghelmets.com) I made helmets of MLB, NBA and NHL teams. I had to modify quite a few of the logos to take out any baseballs, basketballs, hockey sticks, pucks, etc. I like the way most of them turned out.

MG

That is a fantastic site you have there.

I agree. Wow, a lot of the other sports logos look great on football helmets.

[Korkie]

I actually thought about this when I was making my site (www.mghelmets.com) I made helmets of MLB, NBA and NHL teams. I had to modify quite a few of the logos to take out any baseballs, basketballs, hockey sticks, pucks, etc. I like the way most of them turned out.

MG

That is a fantastic site you have there.

I agree. Wow, a lot of the other sports logos look great on football helmets.

Same here, a vast majority of the baseball logos work very well on helmets. Cool site.

[powersurge]

I actually thought about this when I was making my site (www.mghelmets.com) I made helmets of MLB, NBA and NHL teams. I had to modify quite a few of the logos to take out any baseballs, basketballs, hockey sticks, pucks, etc. I like the way most of them turned out.

MG

That is a fantastic site you have there.

I agree. Wow, a lot of the other sports logos look great on football helmets.

Same here, a vast majority of the baseball logos work very well on helmets. Cool site.

Throw me on the bandwagon. The site is really cool. Nice job!

Some of those concepts are better than the real thing. Love the Silver Bills helmet where the bull doesn't have the red stripe on it.

[Braden]

You can put that wishbone-style C on anything

[powersurge]

You can put that wishbone-style C on anything

Apparently anything BUT a championship banner.

DAMN BEARS!

[Coast2CoastAM2006]

the ducks logo set which generally looks boring and uninspired on a hockey jersey, would look great on a baseball uniform. infact it looks like it was made for a baseball uniform. the webbed D looks good on a hat and the 'Ducks' easily to transfer to the workmark on the jersey.

this would work well on a baseball cap and on a football helmet. with out getting in to a 12 page discussion on stick/rink, skate or orca and who likes what and what is and what should be, say a football team came in to the NFL and its first logo was said Orca and pulled off a decent uniform design, it probably would be one of the best looks in the league. same with buffaslug, which as a represenative of the sabres looks awful because of what it replaced, it would look great on a football helmet and would be in line with the chargers which i think was mentioned earlier.

[Drew22]

Anything with a letter or two looks good on all three types.