Which City Lends Itself To The Best Uniforms & Logos?

[hjwii]

So many cities... so many sport clubs... so many color combinations...

So, I ask...

What city/geographical area/state could the best monikers and logos come from? I'm loosely basing this on local cultures and characteristics and even colors...

I'm from New Orleans, so I can think of so many things, from the Mississippi River to the Cajuns to Mardi Gras to the swamps. And purple, green and gold is always related to New Orleans. Plus, the fleur de lis is now synonymous with the city.

Am I making sense here? A place like home (New Orleans), I can run off 20 names for sports team; a place like Tulsa, maybe 2...

So... list a city; list names and monikers directly related to that city; list symbols and colors that evoke that city.

Wake the kids; tell the neighbors! I'm curious to see what other people see when they think of all those cities and how they might relate them to a sports team/logo/uniform...

[Quillz]

Los Angeles Angels (city of angels)

Los Angeles Stars (Hollywood, etc.)

Los Angeles Mets (hey, we're a big city, too)

Los Angeles Express (name of a newspaper+implies the fast-paced city life)

And, of course, the teams we've had in the past and present: Chargers, Rams, Raiders, Lakers, Clippers, Dodgers, Avengers, etc.

I think any very large city can have a great number of teams attributed to it.

[BBTV]

Seriously? Every city, big or small, could have dozens of great names / logo packages.

This is just going to turn into idiots posting "my city is the bestest!!!"

[eRay]

My city is bestest!!!

But from an outsider's perspective (I live in a small town in Maine, so obviously nothing around me is in the running) I would say New Orleans does have a lot of imagery attached to it, and therefore a lot of possibilities for names. Obviously huge cities like NYC, Chicago, and LA are in the running, too. Southern cities feel like they have a lot of great possibilities too, places like Houston, Phoenix, and Dallas. Also, cities on the water in a warm region seem to have a lot of proper options, like Miami, Tampa, and the Bay Area. Then there are cities that just have a lot of history/landmarks/interesting imagery associated with them, which includes Nawlins, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and St. Louis. I'm not going to come up with names for all these places, but those seem to be some rather vague categories that I'd lump the cities into. I'd put New Orleans at the top of the list, FWIW. Also, these answers will vary depending on who is answering because a lot of people in the Pacific Northwest will know more about Seattle and Portland than I do, and put them on the list. Thats my thoughts.

[-kj]

Moreover, I believe we've done (basically) this thread a few times already.

[hjwii]

Moreover, I believe we've done (basically) this thread a few times already.

Oh...well, then... nevermind...

I was just hoping to get some untapped insight from around the country.

Call in Charon and send it to the graveyard...

[ColeJ]

i'm going to buck the trend, and actually diss my home town...

i've run into several problems naming fantasy sports teams around a dallas motif.

all the decent dallas names are taken already, and it's impossible to get a new one that isn't either ridiculously overdone and "western" or so obscure that no one would get the reference.

i've always thought "dallas assassins" rolls off the tongue nicely... but that seems to be a little too taboo to ever fly.

[hecticbro]

i'm going to buck the trend, and actually diss my home town...

i've always thought "dallas assassins" rolls off the tongue nicely... but that seems to be a little too taboo to ever fly.

They can play in the same division as the Oklahoma City Bombers and the Waco Massacre.

Seriously, though, I think Western cities lend themselves to really cool nicknames, particular in Texas.

[Korkie]

I think Pittsburgh obviously does with the city wide black/gold link.

[Bmac]

Omaha has...umm...the railroad...the biggest zoo...beef...college world series...not much

And that is why my city is the bestest!!!

[Jamikel]

i'm going to buck the trend, and actually diss my home town...

i've always thought "dallas assassins" rolls off the tongue nicely... but that seems to be a little too taboo to ever fly.

They can play in the same division as the Oklahoma City Bombers and the Waco Massacre.

Still better than the Thunder.

The Pacific Northwest is good for cool regionally-appropriate names and logos: Mariners, Seahawks, Supersonics, Thunderbirds, Trailblazers, Grizzlies, Canucks.

[Mingjai]

The way I read the OP's statement, I think he wants to talk about which locality has the most outside-recognized identity that everyone would understand the "local" nickname. When you live in that locality, it's easy to think of locally tied nicknames--but does people outside that locality "get it."

Take the example of Minnesota--I'm not from Minnesota, but I've now lived here for about 6 years. Being from the rocky mountains area, before that, the state never really crossed my radar. From that perspective--

Minnesota Twins? Sure, I had heard of the Twin Cities

Minnesota Vikings? Yeah, made sense because I'd heard there were lots of Scandanavians in Minnesota

Minnesota Timberwolves? I guess Wolves live in Minnesota, but I wouldn't have associated the name as particularly "local"

Minnesota Wild? Wild was something that I would never have thought of

Living here, I know that these nicknames were all attempts at creating a local nickname. Just like the Tampa Bay Lightning--who would have known that Tampa-St. Pete was the lightning capital of the country.

I would think high-profile places with longer histories would be easier to come up with locally-tied identities that people nationwide would understand. Boston and New York come to mind as great localities to come up with nicknames for.

[New_Member]

Even if this thread has been done already, it's an interesting idea. However, does the city make the good logos, or do the good logos give the city its good rep? When I think of cities with great logos or names, Pittsburgh always comes to mind first. But the quality of their logos wasn't inherent. The only inherent trait of the city that has been used by its big three pro teams is the Steel City. The other two names are alliterative... which works well, but have nothing to do with the city's history, vibe, culture, etc. It also helps that Pittsburgh's teams use consistant colors. That said, maybe one of the best keys to having a good sports city is having a unique and beautiful set of colors on the city or state flag.

Big cities, which would seem to lend themselves well to team names or logos, may be at a disadvantage. Often they have more than one representative from each sport (ie, Cubs and White Sox), so having a common theme or color scheme, a la Pittsburgh, is impossible.

So many of our great team names have nothing, or little, to do with the city history (are there lots of bears in Chicago?), but the history of the club makes the mascot iconic. I always thought it is ironic that the Yankees are in NY. From a name point of view, the Yankees should be most associated with New England and Boston, no? Without context, the fact that Bostonians randomly start "Yankees Suck" chants seems self hating.

California is often at a disadvantage because so many of their teams were transplants, rather than expansion or original teams. Whatever inherent advantage SF and LA may have for team naming, they are stuck with irrelevent names like the Giants, Dodgers and Lakers due to history. Consequently LA and SF both have groupings of sports teams with no color or mascot consistancy.

As others have written, it is probably easier to pick out the cities with the biggest disadvantages. DC may have the biggest disadvantage. The city has little identifying features except for its Federal existance. Many of the nation's associations with this are negative (Washington Insiders, Lobbyings, Fatcats, etc.). The fact that the two most recent team namings: the Nationals and Wizards, are duds is a good example of this.

[DustDevil61]

In all do honesty, I think that Pittsburgh is the first city to come to mind. Using basically the same color scheme for all the city's teams? That's unheard of and needs to do more.

Chicago, as far as da Bears and da Bulls are concerned; orange/navy and red/black seem to be color schemes that come to mind when I hear Chicago.

St. Louis, as big as the Cardinals are, seem to be a blue/gold city with the Rams and Blues.

Seattle, green or blue are traditionally found in the city's color schemes (Seahawks, blue/green, Mariners, blue/gold, Sonics, green/gold), though nowadays it's more like navy and teal (current Mariners and Seahawks looks)

Phoenix, with the exception of the oldest franchise, the Suns, has revolved on a brick red look, and it fits.

And let me try to make some sense out of Salt Lake City...uh, this is going to be harder than I thought...well, you now have the Jazz in a blue/purple (though mostly blue) look and Real Salt Lake with navy in their look. The Utah Blaze kind of breaks the mold with orange/black, but they (or their league) may not play another down. Generally, SLC/Utah is a red/blue kind of place, especially with the Jazz in their navy/light blue look. The underlying cause of red/blue is probably the BYU/Utah rivalry.

[KevinMcD]

Buffalo, New York

Honestly there is no question, Chicago

Blackhawks-IMO best uniforms in the NHL

Bears-traditional unis with a unique color scheme

White Sox-traditional, pinstripes, nice interlocking logo

Cubs-IMO, worst of the bunch, but still top third of MLB

Bulls-Clean with a nice logo

[hjwii]

Hmmm... I think the point I was trying to make has been misunderstood... or I didn't ask it properly...

I wasn't so much interested in existing teams, so much as possible names due to a city's history or industry or wildlife etc....

Chicago for instance - Cubs, Bears, White Sox have little to do with Chicago outside of the sports clubs. Fire and Bulls are directly related to the history of the town (I think...): Fire - because of Mrs. O'Leary's cow; Bulls because of the stockyards. Now, I don;t know a whole lot about Chicago, so I was hoping others would chime in with possible names, like "Gangsters" or the "Ferris Buellers" or something uniquely Chicago...

Oh...and btw... my city is the bestest...

[AHcreative]

Yeah, I kinda took it as a "which city do you think has the best uniforms overall, for each major team?" Or something like that. In which case I could argue St. Louis. Yes, it is my hometown, but:

Cardinals: Best uniforms in baseball. That scores big points.

Blues: The "Blue Note" is one of the most recognizable logos in hockey, the uniforms are great, and that 3rd jersey could be argued as on of the best in hockey.

Rams: Horns on the helmet started the trend for logos on NFL helmets, and IMO the jerseys are great (when they're wearing gold pants instead of those ugly blue or white pants)

[karby65]

Yeah, I kinda took it as a "which city do you think has the best uniforms overall, for each major team?" Or something like that. In which case I could argue St. Louis. Yes, it is my hometown, but:

Cardinals: Best uniforms in baseball. That scores big points.

Blues: The "Blue Note" is one of the most recognizable logos in hockey, the uniforms are great, and that 3rd jersey could be argued as on of the best in hockey.

Rams: Horns on the helmet started the trend for logos on NFL helmets, and IMO the jerseys are great (when they're wearing gold pants instead of those ugly blue or white pants)

I'm from St. Louis, but I don't think we should be at the top of this list - now - because of the Blues change (RBK Edge) to the new uniforms, and the Rams wearing their non gold pants. If those two changes were made, then I'd agree with you.

[RollWolfpack]

While this thread is pretty much objective and the opinions are almost worthless, I'll still throw mine out there.

When I first saw this, I initially thought of the big cities across the country, and I settled on Chicago probably having the best.

White Sox, Cubs, Bears, Blackhawks, Bulls, Fire... they all have great uniforms. Colors are inconsistent with each other, but I don't think that has to be a requirement for a city to have a total great package.

[tBBP]

I think I can see what the original poster was getting at with this here, so if I'm wrong, OP, let me know.

I don't think he means which city or cities currently has the best logos + uniforms; rather, I believe he is curious as to which city or cities have the potential to have the best logos + uniforms, or, in short, identity package.

Let me throw out a little bit of an example by using my hometown of Pensacola, FL. Unless you've been there before on Spring Break or have a seriosu interest in seafood (or unless the second half of the city name is also the first half of your CCSLC username--and I'm looking right at a certain guy in South Carolina ), no one outside the state of Florida has probably heard of it. First and foremost, Pensacola is known for its naval presence, as it is the "Cradle of Naval Aviation" (the very first naval air station in the nation was established there, and of course, the National Museum of Naval Aviation is also there). If anyone's familiar with the Blue Angels precision flight team, it's also based there. So that right there could provide some interesting fodder for an identity. As a matter of fact, one team just had one...the Pensacola Ice Pilots of the ECHL (they no longer exist). Colors? dark royal and gold(en yellow)...the same colors as the Blue Angels. Someone in here had a fantasy team called the Pensacola Destroyers, utilizing the imagery of a naval battleship (of which many have been docked at NAS Pensacola) and the familiar "Pensacola colors" of blue and gold(en yellow). So there's that.

However, Pensacola's also known for more than it's naval presence; it's also situated right on the Gulf of Mexico, so of course the beach is a big thing. Lesser known to the masses is that Pensacola was actually the country's first European settlement, way back in 1559, found by spanish conquistadors. (Of course, a hurricane wiped it away some years after that, and they had to start back over again.) As such, there is also much Spanish imagery to be pulled from the city. One of the proposed nicknames for the old AF2 football team that was there was "Conquistadors", most likely for that reason. (The team ended up being called the "Barracudas"...which again ain't bad, you know, because of the water.)

There's more I could provide, but these are the best two examples, as they stick out the most in the minds of many.

Now...i ain't saying Pensacola could have the best uniforms + logos = identity package (especially based off what I've seen produced by teams based there over the past couple years, save for one or two); just using it as an example of what I believe the OP was trying to get at. Hopefully this helps somewhat.