Among a series of brand changes unveiled today, the Syracuse Chiefs have added a Native American-inspired logo to their set. Yes, in 2015. Not the sort of move you’d expect these days; coincidentally the announcement coming the same day as the University of North Dakota’s name change.
The biggest change to the Chiefs logo and uniform set is the colour scheme, heading into their eighth season as the Washington Nationals AAA affiliate the team had still retained the colours of their previous affiliation with the Toronto Blue Jays. Not the current Blue Jays even, but the 2004-11 black and grey Blue Jays look, yeah, believe it or not but that long forgotten era of Blue Jays baseball was still alive and well down in the International League. The Chiefs will now replicate the red, white, and blue colours of their parents in Washington, the same colours the team used during their first seasons in the 1930s and again more recently when they were the SkyChiefs in the late 1990s.
“I remember on Memorial Day, thinking we looked so good in red, white and blue; so we worked with Brandiose, changing the colours, freshening things up.” — Chiefs GM Jason Smorol to MiLB.com
Two new logos were added to the mix, and they’re not even really new. The first is a stylized “S” which appeared on their caps originally during the 1970s, the new version of this “S” incorporates the modern bevelling of the late-2000s Blue Jays Chiefs set. The other new mark, which is the one everyone will focus on, is the Native American chief head wearing a headdress, the Chiefs used this logo during the 1980s in double blue — it has been updated to reflect the new 2016 colour scheme.
So yeah, about that one logo? From MiLB.com:
Another alternate cap showcases the silhouette of a Native American in full headdress, a logo similar to the Chiefs’ primary logo from 1987 through 1996. Smorol said he did not expect the Native American imagery to garner controversy, since the Chiefs won’t be wearing it on the field and they have a strong relationship with the local Onondaga tribe.
Wait, they won’t be wearing it on field? Didn’t they just say it’s an alternate cap? It’ll probably still garner controversy regardless.
The team also gave us some looks at the new caps and jerseys they will be wearing, although, we didn’t see much when it came to the jerseys. See them in the screen caps:
And there’s this curious uniform, which looks to be some sort of Astros-USA hybrid?
So we’ll still wait for more information to come flowing in, in the meantime… how do you feel about the colour change? Does red-white-blue work with the same train logo from the Jays days? Do you think the new Native logo will ever see the field? Let us know in the comments.
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