The OKC Thunder have one of ugliest logos in all of pro sports, but according to its marketing folks, it may get a much-needed facelift starting in 2017.
Nike, the NBA’s incoming uniform provider (and, notably, the chief marketer for both Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook), is working with the Thunder on a possible new look.
OKC, however, says they’re “committed to the idea” of the current branding.
Per Grantland:
Straddling the fence resulted in this vanilla mishmash. “It might be the best D-League logo ever made,” says Tom O’Grady, who served as the NBA’s first creative director before leaving to found Gameplan Creative, a Chicago-based branding consultancy. Team officials say the shield hints at a leader charging into battle, and that the upward rising “bolts,” which don’t look like bolts at all, symbolize a young franchise growing up.
No team has worse art, top to bottom, and Nike will push for an overhaul once it replaces Adidas as the league’s apparel partner in 2017. Nike and the Thunder are already talking, and the Thunder “haven’t ruled out” a more explicit weather-related secondary mark, says Brian Byrnes, the team’s senior vice-president for sales and marketing.
Bad news: Oklahoma City seems locked into the shield motif and likely won’t replace it with a bison — or anything else. “To some extent, we are committed to the idea we have,” Byrnes says. “But we would not dismiss good feedback, particularly from Nike. We’re open to modernizing the logo, but we don’t have an appetite to overhaul it.”
