The top-level farm club of the Cincinnati Reds will look a lot more red in 2016.
Today the International League’s Louisville Bats unveiled an entirely new identity, new colours, new logos, new uniforms, all that remains is the team name. The old, unique colour scheme of black, purple, and gold has been dropped in favour of the more common red, white, and blue. This Bats are the second team in the league to change to red, white, and blue in less than a week.
The colour shift was said to both pay homage to the parent club in Cincinnati as well as Louisville’s baseball past.
Designed by SME Branding, who are winning the Minor League logo race so far this off-season, the new logo is a roundel featuring a bat carrying a bat (we’ll leave it up to you to determine which is carrying which). Even if the team has lost some uniqueness with the colour scheme and the use of a roundel, the design itself is pretty solid and the basic construction of the logo makes it look like it could belong to any era of baseball.
Alternate marks include an “LB” logo which will be worn on all caps home and away, two somewhat cartoony logos featuring the mammal bat wearing the road ballcap – one swinging away and another while carrying a baseball.
“The Bats tasked SME with an overall objective of delivering a brand identity that got back to the grass roots of Kentucky baseball. The overall identity suite is accented by stylized typography inspired by baseball’s past as well as the bourbon industry, synonymous with Kentucky. The move away from the previous black and purple was made in an effort to rekindle the spirit of the original brand palette when the team was known as the Louisville Redbirds.” — SME Branding
Four uniforms were unveiled along with the new logos, all of which included baseball-stitching stripes around the sleeves… awesome! You’ve got your standard home whites and road greys as well as two alternates – one red (and patriotic themed), and one navy.
At home the Bats will wear an all red cap with the “LB” logo in blue, jersey is white with “BATS” wordmark across the chest in red, player number to the lower left of the wordmark in plain blue. On the sleeve is a patch featuring the primary logo and the baseball stitching stripe. Back of the jersey has no player name, two colour number red with blue trim. Pants contain a single red stripe (not baseball stitching).
Road uniform has a blue and red version of the home cap, blue crown with red bill — logo is now red instead of blue. The grey jersey includes a just-marvellous wordmark across the chest, “Louisville” is scripted diagonally in red with two blue bats dotting the i’s. Very well done here, SME. Details to the player number and sleeves are the same as home jersey except number on the back is blue.
Patriotic alternate uniform is red and will be paired with the home red ballcap. In the upper-left corner of the jersey is the “LB” logo similar to the cap logo but now with a USA-flag pattern within it, player number in the opposite corner of the jersey in plain white. Jersey back has a collegiate-style block number with the USA-flag pattern.
Alternate uniform number two is navy blue — shown paired with both the navy blue/red road ballcap and the home red cap. The “LB” logo from the cap is on the upper left chest in red while the player number is in white at the same level horizontally on the right. Player number is in plain white on the back of the jersey as well.
Overall an upgrade to the logos and uniforms, but personally I’d have liked to see them retain a unique colour scheme. Compare it with the old look below:
What do you think?
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