San Francisco 49ers unveil 70th anniversary logo

One of the National Football League’s blueblood franchises will be celebrating a major milestone this year, as the San Francisco 49ers will be marking their 70 year anniversary as an NFL team. The Niners will be celebrating the occasion all year, and they’ve officially kicked off the celebration by unveiling a commemorative logo to mark the anniversary.

If that shield logo looks familiar, then that’s because it’s clearly inspired by their old alternate logo from the 1960s and 1970s.

Here’s the full explanation about the inspiration behind the new logo from the 49ers themselves:

Inspired by the franchise’s historic “Shield” logo design, the 70th anniversary logo was created to celebrate the 49ers past while looking toward the future. Design elements of the commemorative logo include five squares in the upper left corner of the shield representing each of the franchise’s Super Bowl victories, as well as modern components of the team’s brand such as the current “SF Oval” logo font for the word “years” and the current uniform jersey font for the numbers.

Commemorative logo on the left, 1965-1972 alternate logo on the right.

I’ve got to say, it’s a very strange-looking logo. What made the original shield logo work was that the original design was able to deftly form a shield out of the number 49. With the commemorative logo, all I can focus on is the “4”. but there’s no 9. That may just be a problem for me, so if it’s bothering you too then let me know so that I’ll feel a little less crazy about this bothering me. Also, they probably would’ve been better off with going with just one color in the background, instead of alternating white and red.

In my opinion, it’s not a bad logo, but it’s not the best, either. What do you think, though? Am I being a bit harsh or am I dead on, here?