With the recent unanimous decision to end the year 2018 at midnight tonight, I’m taking this opportunity to look back on the past twelve months to see what all of you were interested in reading here at SportsLogos.Net over the course of the year.
From leaks to unveilings, legal challenges to pranks, the year saw several major new logo and uniform stories — here, I’m sharing with you the most read story on this website during each month of 2018. It also doubles as a half-decent year-in-review!
Enjoy…
JANUARY 2018
Army Officially Opposes Vegas Golden Knights Trademark (Jan. 10, 2018)
The Vegas Golden Knights run to the Stanley Cup Final in their expansion season earlier this year is one we’ll remember for years to come, but the Army wasn’t necessarily concerned with all that when they sought to protect their trademarks back in January. The Army took exception to the similarity between the name of the hockey club and their Golden Knights parachuting team, citing comments made by the hockey team’s front office in the months leading up and following the naming of the team. Eventually, these two worked out their differences, reaching a deal in July, the terms of which were not disclosed.
One would think the NHL has certainly learned from what happened here and will advise extra care be taken when it comes to naming the new Seattle franchise for 2021.
FEBRUARY 2018
Atlanta Braves Change Colours for 2018 Season (Feb. 28, 2018)
No, it wasn’t the Super Bowl, nor any news about a new Jaguars or Dolphins uniform coming soon, instead, it was a note that the Atlanta Braves simply darkened the blue and gold on their logos which garnered the most attention on SportsLogos.Net in February. Looking to simply match the shades of fabric used by uniform manufacturers the news, which was so insignificant it wasn’t even announced by the club, caught the attention of the non-uni-fans across social media who couldn’t understand why a change like this would ever bother to be made (they also have a hard time grasping that the design and marketing departments don’t typically make trades or sign players)
MARCH 2018
Nuggets, Grizzlies Making Colour Changes in 2019 (Mar. 5, 2018)
It’s just a coincidence that the most-read story two months in a row had to do with simple colour changes. Back in March, we learned from SportsLogos.Net contributor Conrad Burry that the Denver Nuggets and Memphis Grizzlies were both going to make changes to their colour scheme for the then-upcoming, now-current 2018-19 NBA season. Within the post, Burry shared his usually-accurate predictions of what this meant for both of the team’s logo and uniform sets. The post proved correct as the Nuggets and Grizzlies both unveiled their new logos, uniforms, and colour schemes during the off-season that soon followed.
APRIL 2018
MLB Teams Wearing Easter Pastel Colours Today (Apr. 1, 2018)
Should I feel bad that an April Fool’s Day joke turned into the top story of April? The very unique occurrence of the annual day of tricks falling directly on Easter Sunday was an opportunity I just couldn’t pass up to post a story that all Major League Baseball clubs would be wearing Easter pastels in their games that afternoon. Plus it was just a lot of fun re-colouring a lot of these uniforms, many of which I actually ended up liking such as the Rays in yellow, the Phillies, Nationals, and Cardinals in powder blue (that last one? huh). To cap it off I even added bunny ears and an egg to the MLB logo on the back tag. The story ended up getting attention from several members of the media, fooling some, before I ‘fessed up to the prank before the end of the day.
If you’re wondering what the top non-April Fool’s Day story was in April, it was about the Ottawa Senators and their indecisions about what logo to use going forward
MAY 2018
Memorial Day 2018: MLB Wearing Green and Camo This Weekend (May 26, 2018)
You may think that this annual event is getting old and that a lot of people don’t really care to see it anymore, but alas, here it is as the most-read story for the month of May 2018. Surprised? It just barely topped a leak of the new Denver Nuggets logos which came in second. Major League Baseball’s 2018 Memorial Day jersey design remained the same as 2017 (with the exception of a few teams changing their base colours) but the caps saw a considerable change in design, crowns were black with a camo pattern sublimated, bills and pills were olive green and cap logos were black and green with a green outline.
JUNE 2018
Nuggets Evolved: Unveil New Logos, Colours, Uniforms (Jun. 6, 2018)
News of a new look for the Denver Nuggets had been trickling out for three months leading up to it’s unveiling – it was the top story in March, the number two story in May, and when it finally happened it easily took the top spot in June. Denver recycled a few of their older logos and colour schemes and mashed them all up to create a stellar identity for the team. The new look would land the Nuggets a Creamer Award in December for the Best New Alternate Logo of the Year.
JULY 2018
Lakes Announce New Unis Coming Soon; Immediately Leaked (Jul. 7, 2018)
It’s not uncommon these days for a new uniform to leak, but you just had to shake your head and chuckle when the Los Angeles Lakers had their new uniforms leaked about twenty minutes after announcing they were making a change for the new season. The new look appeared on several items being sold on eBay which showed recent Lakers free agent signing LeBron James wearing a tweaked Lakers uniform on a commemorative beach towel. Of course, the leak was right, the Lakers officially unveiled the new uniform three weeks later.
AUGUST 2018
Memphis Grizzlies Unveil New Logos and Uniforms (Aug. 2, 2018)
My trip down to Tennessee to cover the new-look Memphis Grizzlies uniforms, logos and colour scheme in person was worth it as it ended up being the top story, by far, in the month of August. The Grizzlies unveiled three new uniforms at the party held in a new presentation room at the FedEx Forum, the design featured a new wordmark including an inline, in tribute to the lights of Beale Street, a MEM collar trim acknowledging the shipping industry in Memphis as well as the original Vancouver Grizzlies uniform, and the addition of a FedEx patch to all jerseys. Changes were made to the logos as well, a blue was dropped, silver was added, and the long-time alternate “paw-ball” logo was tilted to resemble the letter “M”.
SEPTEMBER 2018
New York Islanders New Third Uniform Leaks (Sep. 2, 2018)
The New York Islanders and their endless pursuit of a decent alternate uniform continued into the 2018-19 season, but first, it had to leak. Tweeted early by a contributor to a New York-based sports blog, the leak showed a mockup of the entire new uniform from helmet to jersey to pants to socks in fairly decent quality. The leak was accurate, the Islanders officially unveiled the new uniform a month later confirming what we’d already seen weeks earlier.
OCTOBER 2018
Possible Leak of New Miami Marlins Logo for 2019 (Oct. 16, 2018)
The news of a new Miami Marlins logo came right out of left field (somewhere close to that giant sculpture at Marlins Park) so naturally having both the news of a new logo and a leak of that logo hitting at the same time garnered a lot of attention. Via a post to Instagram, we saw the new Marlins logo on a Spring Training logo, while the graphic was small it gave us a pretty good idea of what to expect and see the new colour scheme. One month later the Marlins unveiled their new logo package which confirmed the leak.
NOVEMBER 2018
Our Colores: Miami Marlins Unveil New Logos, Uniforms for 2019 (Nov. 15, 2018)
If the leak got that much attention, naturally the official unveiling did as well. The Marlins logo leak took the top spot in October, the unveiling in November, and a teaser from the team earlier in the month took the second spot. What was new in this story was the first sighting of the primary logo and the first look at the Marlins new home, road, and two alternate uniforms – including a blue jersey. Needless to say, the new Marlins look was a big deal ’round these parts in the last few weeks of the year.
DECEMBER 2018
All Eight XFL Team Locations for 2020 Revealed A Week Early (Dec. 1, 2018)
Vince McMahon’s return to professional football rolled a few eyeballs but those same eyeballs also couldn’t look away with the accidental revealing of the eight charter franchises of the new XFL by the league itself. On the contact page for the league’s official website, they listed the eight cities that would be home to the first teams when the league kicks off in 2020. After the news got out, the XFL quickly scrubbed those cities from their site before making the official announcement, confirming the list, one week later.
Alright, very good, thanks for reading throughout the year and I hope I’ll see you all back here again in 2019 as we close out yet another decade.