When the Double-A Erie SeaWolves refreshed their brand in 2013, the end result was an updated version of their wolf pirate character, smirking at the viewer from behind an eye patch over a pair of crossed baseball bats with sword handles.
The rebrand was well received and is still in use today.
Before the team settled on that look, though, one of the concepts that designer Dan Simon presented had a much more sinister feeling—a wolf skull with glaring red eyes over those same bats. (Dan Simon provided the image above for a 2016 article about the SeaWolves in SportsLogos.net’s Story Behind the Nickname series.) At the time, the team opted for the less frightful version of the logo, and the skull logo sat on the shelf for almost a decade.
“It was a long shot because, though it definitely has appeal, the principal identity, the official team identity needed to have a much broader appeal,” Simon said. “The identity needed to appeal to the widest possible audience.”
Exactly 10 years to the day after Simon presented the wolf skull concept, the team announced this week that they were fleshing the logo out, making some modifications, and bringing it to life in the form of their newly unveiled Howling Dead brand. The new alternate, which incorporates the outline of the wolf and a custom script created by Simon, appeals to a narrower audience, and one in particular.
“[Team President Greg Coleman] said that he wanted something aimed at the players demographic,” Simon said. “The players themselves, as well as people that age, who would think this was cool. He wanted something to make the players look badass on the field.”
According to Simon, the minor league baseball world was not ready for this brand when he created it a decade ago because its appeal was too narrow. The preponderance of alternate brands since then has created space for this sort of thing.
“There’s room for this now because back then you needed something to appeal to the widest possible audience,” Simon said. “This isn’t that, but there’s definitely an audience for it.
The SeaWolves will wear the Howling Dead brand on Thursdays in 2023.
