Pittsburgh’s top soccer club is getting a serious upgrade in the logo department.
A member of the United Soccer League for twenty seasons, Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC unveiled a new look on Friday night, one that immediately changes the identity of the club from “just another minor league soccer team” to “these guys are pros”.
“This logo, this new era, has been something I’ve wanted to give the fans for a long time and I couldn’t be happier to see it all finally become a reality.”, Riverhounds SC owner Tuffy Shallenberger said. “We hope everyone can see the passion and dedication that went into this entire process, as we look to continue to build on and off the field and become part of this city’s rich sports culture.”
The logo was designed by Brian Gundell, who in the past has worked with Adidas, Nike, Under Armour, as well as the Miami Dolphins, San Francisco Giants, and San Diego Padres. Brian is also one of two designers currently working on the Open Branding Project here on SportsLogos.Net to create a new look for Baseball New Zealand.
A circular crest, the new look features numerous references to the City of Pittsburgh. Naturally it makes use of Pittsburgh’s famous black-and-gold colour scheme not only long used by their NFL, NHL, and NBA franchises but also the colours of the city flag and seal — somehow these colours were not already being used by the Riverhounds. Within the shield itself we have tributes to the Steel City’s numerous bridges, the three rivers, architecture from the courthouse, even the font is inspired by what can be found around the city.
A solid logo, there’s no other way to describe it. One they could bring with them to Major League Soccer should the opportunity ever present itself.
In addition to the primary the team also has a series of new wordmark logos which continue the checkerboard pattern from the primary logo:
The kits, made by Adidas, have the new badge in the upper left corner of the jersey, the home kit gold with black horizontal stripes.
The road white with black verticals:
And the alternate look:
The Riverhounds will kick things off with the new look as their 2018 USL regular season schedule begins with a tilt at Nashville on March 24th. They make their home regular season debut a week later on March 31st against Penn FC.
