Miami Heat Trademark New Vice-Themed “Heat” Wordmark

As first uncovered by a member of our forums, the Miami Heat recently filed an application to trademark a new “Heat” wordmark inspired by their Vice-themed City Edition uniforms.

The application, which was filed on Aug. 13 and posted in our forums by CCSLC member CaliforniaGlowin on Sept. 6, shows a script wordmark that was influenced by the neon signage at the old Miami Arena.

This signage served as the basis of their 2017-18 City Edition design, though those white uniforms featured a “Miami” wordmark across the chest in fluorescent pink and light blue instead of “Heat.”

That sparked a run of five different Vice-inspired by designs over the next four seasons, including “Vice Nights,” (black) and “Sunset Vice” (pink) in 2018-19, “ViceWave” (blue) in 2019-20 and “ViceVersa”(gradient) in 2020-21.

The black, blue and gradient versions were all considered the Heat’s City Edition designs during those seasons, while the pink version was their Earned Edition uniform, a reward given to the teams that made the playoffs the previous season.

Miami then revived the original design midway through last season, replacing its white Association Edition uniforms for the rest of the year. Perhaps that – combined with the recent filing – is a precursor to a looming rebrand for the franchise?

It could also signify a new run of Vice-themed City Edition uniforms that simply swap wordmarks across the chest. After all, the league will recolor or revive previous City Edition designs this season as Nike has seemingly run out of ideas for the yearly program.

It’s also possible that the franchise, the league and their apparel provider want to prevent other companies from encroaching on their intellectual property with the sale of unlicensed Vice-themed merchandise.

That said, last year’s version of the Vice-themed uniforms were joined by a new matching court, as well, but that design simply rendered Miami’s current “Heat” wordmark in pink along the baselines.

Photos courtesy of @BYUTracker, @MiamiHEAT and @WatnickCreative on X/Twitter.