The Clippers will have a new look when they move into the Inuit Dome next season, the team announced Monday morning (via Twitter). The franchise unveiled a new logo and uniforms, along with a redesigned court that will help establish a fresh identity after 40 years in Los Angeles.
The rebranding comes after outside consultants were hired to conduct fan surveys, according to Zach Lowe of ESPN. Team officials considered everything, including a possible name change, but that didn’t poll well, with sources describing the reaction to Lowe as “outright hostility.”
“The focus groups are advisory, not definitive,” owner Steve Ballmer said. “But I still listen to them, and I have heard, partially to my surprise, that there is no interest in a name change. I had thought about [the name] years ago, before I got the team, but we heard similar reactions back then.”
The Clippers will replace their current logo, which has been described as bland, with a large “C” that has a ship inside it, a nod to the clipper ships of San Diego that inspired the team’s name when it moved to that city in 1978. The global version of the logo contains the words “Los Angeles Clippers” surrounding the ship in a circle.
The court display released by the team features the logo in the center with “Inuit Dome” printed in blue on both sides of it. The N in “Angeles” extends through the center court stripe to create a compass effect. The painted area is dark blue, with red semicircles above the foul line, and longitude and latitude coordinates for the new building are listed along the sidelines. Other home court designs will be released later, sources tell Lowe.
The Clippers also unveiled white and blue versions of their new uniforms, which feature the logo on the shorts and a new font for the team name. A red statement edition has “Los Angeles” on the front and “Clips” on the waistband of the shorts. Three nautical flags line the sides of the red jersey.
The team won’t have a black version of its jersey next season, with Gillian Zucker, president of business operations for the Clippers and Intuit Dome, telling Lowe, “We kept hearing from people that black was overdone.”
The Clippers are also excited about their new secondary logos, one of which is a version of “LA” with a smaller A perched on the bottom line of a larger L.
“It will make for a phenomenal hat,” Zucker said. “In 20 years, people will look back and this will be iconic for the Clippers.”
It looks like a cruise ship
Is a Clipper a ship? Did I learn something new today?
Fancy Catamaran Ferry doesn’t have the same ring…
Looked it up: A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century merchant sailing vessel, designed for speed. Clippers were generally narrow for their length. Huh lol, so I did learn something new today.
Bro what did you think it was before? A Razor?
I honestly never thought about until now lol.
Yuck
Yeah, so boring. Navy blue is the most boring color choice and so many teams pick it. Paired with red, another boring choice, and this is so bland.
Compared to their old logos I kind of like it
Not the greatest but way better and more relevant than the current logo
It’s really not a bad rebrand. They are keeping a classic look for the jerseys and are getting rid of their horrid logo. You can’t do much worse than what their current logo looks like. It gives off boring corporate vibes. I understand the original logo changes because they want to distance themselves from the Lakers. The Clippers old logo looked the same, they played in the same arena, and they were terrible.
A lot of teams did logo rebrands about 5-10 years ago to move back towards their retro logos of the 80s (retro style is back in) from their cartoonish logos that were popular in the late 90s and early 2000s.
The Hawks, Pistons, Warriors, 76ers, Kings, Jazz, and T-Wolves all went back to a version of their classic logos; The Bucks back to their original colors; the Bobcats rebranded as the classic Hornets teams; and the Cavs, Nuggets, Magic, Raptors, and Wizards modernized their look. Brooklyn completely rebranded at it looks better than the old Nets logo and jerseys. The only team that looked objectively worse were the Clips. This rebrand is honestly for the best.
Looks good
clearly its a Los Angeles submarine!
I don’t like the guy at all, but kudos to Ballmer for putting his money where his mouth is.
Where’s MJ at ?
My idea for the clippers logo would be a close up of hair clippers on someone’s head, with faeces underneath….
Looks nice