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Orix Buffaloes (NPB) re-branding


FirearmofMutiny

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Even before the season ended, Orix had been hyping a "new" Orix Buffaloes. Gone would be the mismatched primary/hat logo/script.

Old logo:

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Old "Osaka" jersey

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Old "Kobe" jersey (they eventually went away from these, preferring something closer to their Osaka set, but last season they wore BlueWave throwbacks for select games in Kobe)

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Old away jersey

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And what they came up with... was this (all from the official Orix Buffaloes web site):

New logo:

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Also some uniform pics:

Home

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Away

img01.jpg

Alternate

img01.jpg

Thoughts? I personally don't like them; I thought they were going to go for something completely different (especially since this is a team that, save for one second-place finish in 2008, is usually at the bottom of the standings), but all they did was keep what they had and changed anything that didn't fit. So like I said... all that trouble just for opposing "f"s.

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I find it humorous that their hats simply say "Bs"

When they first announced the re-branding last Spring, the one thing that they said is that they wanted to keep the "Bs" abbreviation. Which of course sparked speculation that they'd go back to Orix's pre-BlueWave name, Braves. But I guess they decided to keep Buffaloes. Also, their web site, before the unveiling, showed all their "Bs" logos in black and silver. Which would have been awesome, but I guess it would look too similar to Lotte's color scheme.

And here's a bonus pic: their yet-to-be-named mascots.

img_mascot01.gif

Before this, they were using the BlueWave's Neppie (who no longer had a trident after the Orix/Kintetsu merger) and Ripsea, his female companion mascot. While Neppie was the best (at least he was in the BlueWave era), I guess it doesn't hurt to have buffalo mascots for a team named Buffaloes.

EDIT: I should also mention, while the opposing "f"s keep me from liking their home or alternate jersey, that away jersey is EXCELLENT.

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I really liked the look the Buffaloes had just before the BlueWave merger:

BUCJ177bigger.jpg

The colors are washed out in that pic, but the orange is nice and bright, and the blue is close to the Carolina Panthers' shade. Love the script, love the color combo, love the mascot sleeve patch.

On 1/25/2013 at 1:53 PM, 'Atom said:

For all the bird de lis haters I think the bird de lis isnt supposed to be a pelican and a fleur de lis I think its just a fleur de lis with a pelicans head. Thats what it looks like to me. Also the flair around the tip of the beak is just flair that fleur de lis have sometimes source I am from NOLA.

PotD: 10/19/07, 08/25/08, 07/22/10, 08/13/10, 04/15/11, 05/19/11, 01/02/12, and 01/05/12.

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Sad...I have always wanted to see them update/bring back their logo from when they were called the Kintetsu Buffaloes

KintetsuBuffaloes1.GIF

I was cheering hard for this to come back too. It was THE best thing logo-wise about either of the two teams going into the merger. I'm going to guess it will come back at some point if they've worn BlueWave throwbacks. Then again, when I started getting into NPB (2006) Kintetsu was already gone, and it seems like people remember Kintetsu as "the team that never won the Japan Series".

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I'm thinking the 2 F's are supposed to create a Buffalo "horn" look. Am I the only one seeing that?

I thought the exact same thing. That said, given the style of the font, said "horns" really don't stand-out very much. They get lost. As such, the Buffaloes should have opted to go with both f's facing the same way.

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Are those pinstripes a texture? Like corduroy?

Yep, many (maybe all) of the Japanese jerseys are like that. I have a Hanshin Tigers jersey that is made of the same material, with the added benefits of actual pinstripes. The weird thing about that jersey is that only the first three or four buttons are functional, the rest are just sewn on and the jersey itself is a pull-over.

So far as the rebrand goes, I'm glad they stuck with the B's logo. It has a classic baseball feel to it, reminiscent of Boston but without being a carbon-copy, and I like that they tied the rest of the identity to that look. But the opposing F's are a bit disorienting...

On a side note, I think this rebrand is a good opportunity to try and get the main site's NPB logo's updated with the same level of detail as the MLB. I've hand-drawn (in Illustrator) many of the NPB logos for fun, but does anyone out there have quality logos that could go on the main site? I'm happy to contribute mine for now.

Grunge-Logos.png

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