Every Logo Explained | MLS Teams

[Music] the mls and its teams have never been afraid to update their logos let's start by looking at the logo of the mls itself when the mls began they started with a logo design that would last them for nearly two decades this logo features a cleated foot kicking a soccer ball with the word mark for the mls below it originally however much like some of the other leagues in the us they started with a red white and blue focused color scheme for their logo in the years leading up to their inaugural season once the league launched in 1996 they had already made the change to the blue and green colored logo seen here after two decades of growth the mls decided to change the design of their logo one of those changes was returning to a red white and blue color scheme but the logo itself was entirely different the new logo looks more like a shield common in the logo designs of soccer teams historically this shield was also designed to change color scheme to match the primary colors of the mls teams wearing it on the sleeve of their jersey in the upper corner we see the letters mls of course standing for major league soccer the three stars beneath it represent the pillars of the mls brand for club for country and for community now on to the team logos now the colorado rapids began playing in the inaugural season of the mls in 1996. originally their logo design featured the words colorado rapids and a nature scene of mountains and a rush of river rapids underneath it the colors were also a very earthy green brown and blue color scheme they also had a secondary more traditionally shaped soccer logo and what started out as that secondary logo a circular badge with a soccer ball in the center became the more primary badge on their chest of their kits during the early 2000s in 2007 they rebranded to coincide with the move into their new stadium the new logo is more in line with modern soccer crest design still featuring the mountains and adding the number 96 the inaugural mls season and the first season for the club as discussed in previous mls videos the original 1996 columbus crew logo features blue collared workers for which the team is named in 2014 the team decided to rebrand to reflect the quote dynamic and diverse city of columbus the new badge was perhaps more german soccer inspired in design towards the center is the number 96 which reflects the inaugural year of both the league and the club and it is contained in a mini crest the same shape as the original logo the rest of the badge is a circle within a circle design taking its inspiration in part from the design of the ohio state flag along both the top and the bottom of this badge design is the words columbus crew with sc added at the end as a part of the rebrand however uncontent with their new logo design in 2021 another rebrand was announced originally the name was announced as columbus sc dropping crew from the name entirely after a strong and swift backlash the name returned to columbus crew and the logo changed to this the shape of the badge gets its shape from the shape of the ohio state flag sc is dropped from the name and the design and replaced by crew the number 96 also returns to the badge for the inaugural season of the team and the mls dc united has had three iterations of their team logo in 1996 the original had three stars together mirroring the washington dc flag each containing a small soccer ball the bald eagle a national symbol for the united states takes up most of the badge with outstretched wings the original logo was quickly redesigned however after only a few seasons because it drew comparisons to the imperial eagle logo which was used as a symbol of nazi germany which i won't show here because i don't want to risk getting the video demonetized the new logo that replaced it had a more updated design for the eagle which now takes up most of the shield instead of three stars this logo contains only one which is contained within the bounds of the eagle inside of the star is another soccer ball i don't know why so many designs started out with the soccer ball as a part of the logo a little on the nose if you ask me in 2016 once again the dc united logo was updated this one has the eagle fully breaking out of the badge the word mark is more bold in style spanning between the wings of the eagle the soccer ball is eliminated all together and we get the return of the three stars this time however the three stars aren't just hinting at the flag of dc the flag of dc in full three stars included is superimposed across the chest of the eagle the original 1996 logo for fc dallas was when they were actually named the dallas burn this logo features a fire breathing horse with lightning legs their colors at the time were primarily red and black however in 2005 they rebranded to coincide with their moving into their new stadium as a part of the rebrand the team's new colors were red white and blue the colors of both the flag of the united states and the flag of texas their new logo has their word mark across the top with their team name below that is the number 96 to commemorate being a founding member of the mls in 1996. the bottom half of the badge is a texas longhorn which is a breed of cattle tied deeply to the industry in texas on the longhorn's forehead is a flame hearkening back to the team's origins as the burn at the bottom of the badge is a single star on the chest of the longhorn again mirroring the texas state flag and recognizing texas's state motto the lone star state the la galaxy were also a founding member of the mls in 1996. the original la galaxy logo has a spiral design that looks like well a galaxy a slight orange line runs through the l and a of galaxy bringing out the abbreviation of los angeles in 2007 they rebranded coinciding with the addition of david beckham the new design features a more conventional shield design keeping with the galactic theme of the team name at the top of the badge is a stylized quasar this quasar shape is also featured on the seal of the county of los angeles as a part of the border further tying the badge design to los angeles the new england revolution have sought to keep its americana style from the inaugural season of the mls in 1996 all the way up to today their original logo design was created to look like an american flag perhaps one that is a bit more tattered like you'd see as a standard flying high in front of the continental army during the american revolutionary war the stripes are stylized giving a waving effect with rugged edges the field of blue with white stars is replaced with a blue starred soccer ball the revolution kept this logo for over two decades until in 2021 the revolution revealed their new logo design this new design is more traditional in its shape for a soccer club the circle design features the name of the club new england on top and revolution across the bottom splitting the center is the year 1996 commemorating the team's status as a founding member of the mls at the center we see an ornate stylized shape meant to be reminiscent of patriotic buntings that you see during patriotic american holidays at the center of that shape is a stylized letter r it uses a revolutionary war era font design and is meant to resemble a mark used by the boston tea party the new york red bulls were also a founding member of the mls in 1996 but at the time they were named the metro stars their first logo had a comic book style design with skyscrapers to tie into the new york metropolitan area the stylized m shape helps to give the logo a bit more of a bad shape behind the words metro stars the logo was redesigned in 2003 dropping the comic book design in favor of a more traditional soccer badge shape in 2006 under the new ownership of red bull the energy drink company the team was rebranded to tie in with the corporate red bull brand the badge features the name red bull new york and the two bowls on the logo are drawn with a moving motion as if to head the ball in the center of the logo in 2008 the logo was cleaned up a bit removing the motion design from the bulls but keeping them featured on the logo as they are essential to the red bull brand another founding member of the mls in 1996 the san jose earthquakes were originally named the clash their team logo was originally a red scorpion badge shape with the words clash in san jose in between the scorpion's two outstretched claws gross i hate scorpions in 2000 the team was renamed to the san jose earthquakes continuing the legacy of the old nasl team also named the earthquakes that was founded in 1974. the new logo is a three-sided crest whose points represent the major communities of the bay area san jose san francisco and oakland this logo design is a bit more in a traditional badge shape at the top it features the banner with the word san jose and the badge itself is filled with a soccer ball with sun rays surrounding it the team's earthquakes word mark lays across the bottom of the badge stretching over both sides in 2014 the team released a new logo fully adopting a bad shape design the crest has the word quakes across the top abbreviating the full name of the club the number 1974 in red was added to the logo to call back to the nasl roots of the team and the tradition of the city that red pop of color on the logo also calls back to that first clash logo at the center of the crest is a soccer ball and behind it to the right is a field of diagonal black and blue lines the diagonal figures on the right side of the badge are meant to evoke tectonic plates sliding past one another the namesake of the team earthquakes starting out life in 1996 as the wiz sporting kansas city were also a founding member of the mls the shape of the logo is almost an upside down teardrop at the top is a soccer ball flying through the air and a magical rainbow streaming behind it the word whiz in a big bold and stylized shape fills the bottom two thirds of the teardrop logo after having to rename themselves in 1997 to the full name wizards the team logo adapted to keep the same rainbow design elements and incorporate the full team name in 2007 and much to my dismay the team brand moved away from the rainbow design elements their logo became essentially a large word mark with the words kansas city on top in the team's primary blue color and wizards on the bottom in white in 2011 there was a full rebrand for the future of the club the team was named sporting kansas city adopting a more european style naming convention with this came the adoption of a more traditional soccer badge the shield shape starts with a grey outline with kansas city across the top inside the badge we find a smaller blue badge with sporting across the top of that on the left side we see the six lines cutting across the badge in the team's primary color sporting blue the lines create an invisible line first diagonally down left to right before going straight down the center of the badge itself this invisible line is shaped after the state line that separates the two halves of kansas city with kansas city kansas on the left in kansas city missouri on the right uniting the two halves of kansas city as one on the badge in the indigo blue field on the right is a stylized and intertwined sc for sporting club as an expansion team to the mls the chicago fire chose a badge that would fit its name the badge was designed with the cross of saint florian shape a common cross symbol used by fire departments in the united states the sea in the logo is meant to feel similarly to the logos of the cubs and the bears the six points that overlay the florian cross are derived from the six-pointed stars of the city of chicago flag one of the stars representing the team's namesake the great chicago fire of 1871. before the 2020 season the chicago fire announced a change in their branding replacing the old logo with this one it features a fire crown in the center of the logo with the words chicago fire fc on the top and bottom the fire crown has six points just like the six point stars on the chicago flag this branding change however was not met favorably by the fans the fire crown reminded many of the vancouver whitecaps logo the logo was also compared unfavorably with the logo which i won't feature here on screen of the latin kings street gang that was originally founded in chicago in the middle of the 2021 season the chicago fire announced that they had listened to their fans and came back with a new logo design this new logo still features a sea in the center with the florian cross around it inside the sea is the six-pointed star from the chicago flag this season as of riding in 2022 will be the first season when they use this logo for the full season joining the mls in 2005 real salt lake chose the shield-shaped crest in a more traditional soccer design language the lettering at the top of the badge is designed with a capital r lowercase e capital a l which is a clever way of pointing the english speaking fan base toward the correct spanish pronunciation real salt lake a crown placed over the e hints at the royal meaning behind the spanish word real on the bottom of the badge is an intertwined rsl placed just above the soccer ball after winning the mls cup in 2009 the team worked on a redesigned logo dropping the word mark from the top of the badge as the rest was made bigger in the crown incorporated with the rsl to make the new logo and that's the real salt lake logo we see today joining the mls in 2006 after moving from san jose the original houston dynamo's logo features a single star which is a symbol of texas and houston as both feature a single star on their flag the top of the triangular shaped badge is the location houston underneath houston is the soccer ball common in the design of many mls logos of this time across the center jutting out from the edges of the triangle on either side is the team named dynamo the letters a and o feature serifs giving an energy to the font that harkens to the namesake of the team in 2021 the team redesigned the logo from the ground up the new logo is hexagonal with interlocking h and d at the top h d standing for houston dynamo the full team name houston dynamo fc is underneath that and at the bottom of the hexagon is a lightning bolt tying in the energy industry roots of the dynamo name the team also wanted to have a redesign to create a consistent look for both the dynamo and their associated team the houston dash of the design the team released the quote the hexagons are meant to reflect strength stability and unity they are their strongest when arranged together each one making its neighbors stronger and more stable the six-sided design also gives a nod to the houston dynamo's inaugural year in 2006 and the six awards that make up the original layout of the city also the way the shapes of the interlocking h and d of the dynamo and the h with an h of the houston dash are designed are both meant to draw from houston's bayou system a number of slow-moving rivers that run through and around the city and have always been integral to the city's industry joining the mls in 2007 toronto's logo has remained the same their entire existence the logo features a shield shape with a maple leaf the national symbol of canada sitting on top in the place where you might find a crown on other club badges the shield is predominantly a large t with f and c on either side giving the club abbreviations of tfc laid across the shield is a banner that reads toronto the ends of the banner have that same shape as the ends of maple leaves deeply tying the logo design to toronto canada the seattle sounders did not begin as an mls team but rather playing in the apsl and usl before eventually joining the mls their original logo is frankly it's incredible it takes its design directly from the original nasl seattle sounders logo in the 1970s the same team that gave the seattle sounders their name the wave through the logo gives the pacific northwest ocean vibes perfectly my drawing here doesn't even do it justice here's the original just look at that look at the gradient in the red impact pow shape like something from a comic book honestly this sits in like the flag of provo utah or pocatello idaho territory and i love it i want a gray sweatshirt with it slapped across it and i'm not even a sounders fan look at the orca look at look at his little eyes the way it's heading the ball this is fantastic i know this isn't a video about raiding logos but this one gets a 12 out of 10. easy luckily or unfortunately depending on your preference the team rebranded to the logo we know today when they moved to the mls in 2009 the unique design features a banner over a badge over a badge design to create its unique shape the banner on top holds the team name seattle sounders fc the top shield shaped badge features the space needle on a green field space needle is a world famous observation tower in seattle and a de facto city symbol the bottom more pentagonal shaped blue badge rounds out the shape of the overall logo the blue and green colors were picked to evoke the bodies of water like the puget sound and the forests that surround seattle and are so closely tied to the industry and identity of the region philadelphia union joined the mls in 2010 their colors of blue and gold were chosen for the continental army during the american revolutionary war the round-shaped crest features 13 stars along the bottom representing the original 13 colonies of the united states of which philadelphia was the capital the snake atop the shield at the center takes its origin from the famous benjamin franklin political cartoon join or die which shows most of the original 13 colonies as eight segments of a snake a piece of commentary on the importance of colonial unity the shade of lighter blue behind the snake and shield is a tribute to the sons of ben an independent supporter group that was founded three years before the team ever took the field for the 2018 season they decided to update their logo darkening the blue and exchanging the dark gold for a lighter gradient of gold which i flattened out in my drawing of and simplifying the center circle bringing the light blue to a solid strip down the center portland timbers originally began playing in the usl the original timbers logo features an unbordered shield shape under the word mark that reads timbers it features a pine tree in the primary team color in stylized green waves hearkening to the lush dense forests of oregon and the logging industry that gave the team its name in 2005 they rebranded the logo to mirror the former nasl timbers logo it features the t-shaped axe in the center of the circle with diagonal lines in the background shaped like a pine tree a larger circle encompasses the entire badge and holds the team name the portland timbers upon joining the mls in 2011 they updated that logo giving it a modern twist still featuring a t-shaped axe but it now pokes out of the edges of the top of the logo and the team name overlays the axe across the handle after winning the mls cup in 2015 the logo was amended again dropping the word mark from the logo and allowing the diagonal lines to extend to the inner moss green border the three lines on each side of the axe are still shaped reminiscent of a pine tree and they represent the three leagues the timbers have belonged to the original nasl timbers their time in the usl and now as a member of the mls in 2019 the timbers made one final alteration to the logo making the moss green more of a gold color giving us the logo that we see today the vancouver whitecaps began life before the mls's first season in 1995. they originally played in the apsl the a-league and then eventually the usl before finally joining the mls originally they were named the vancouver 86ers the red and white color scheme of their original logo matched the original color scheme of the first logo used by the original nasl white caps that they are now named after the 86ers logo featured a soccer ball flying through the air with the team name on either side when the team was rebranded to the white caps in 2001 their second logo adopted a similar evolution of the original nasl team with the logo featuring a wave cresting in front of a soccer ball finally coinciding with their move to the mls in 2011 the white caps rebranded to their current logo the color scheme matches that second logo of the nasl white caps in the triangular mirrored shapes above and below the word mark symbolizes both the white caps of the snow-covered mountains around vancouver and the white-capped waves of the pacific ocean creating the illusion of mountains reflected on water originally starting in another league in 1992 cf montreal were originally the montreal impact the original impact logos of the early apsl impact and then in the usl were actually two logos one primarily the team's word mark and the other the badge that they wore on their kit in both instances you can see a soccer ball flying through a hole that it had just made in one logo it flies through the letter i of the word mark and the other it flies through the white and black stripes the team name impact montreal placing the location name second as is more common in non-english speaking languages fitting for predominantly french-speaking quebec in 2005 they updated their branding using a blue and silver floor deli a common symbol in french-speaking quebec we still see the soccer ball flying through the air and the serif marks on the word impact create the same motion as the lines coming off the back of the soccer ball once again the impact changed their logo this time once they joined the mls in 2012 they chose a design that was inspired by large international clubs keeping the floor de li the word mark seems to emphasize montreal a tad bit more than impact across the top it reads and i apologize for all of the french that i'm butchering in this section tusper garnier which means all for victory in french the four stars stand for the four founding communities of quebec the french english irish and scots those same four groups are commemorated on the coat of arms of montreal with the florida lead for the french a red rose of the house of lancaster for the english a thistle for the scots and a shamrock for the irish in 2017 the coat of arms added a pine tree in the center in recognition of the indigenous peoples in 2021 as a part of a rebrand away from the name impact the club became cf montreal the new team logo features the full name of the club across the top and bottom and retains the fleur-de-lis albeit much smaller on both the left and right side of the logo the logo also features a snowflake shape which is a tribute to the expo 67 world's fair that was hosted in montreal in 1967. the snowflake is made up of a series of m's and arrows the m's stand for montreal and the arrows are inspired by the metro system in the movement of people around montreal the blue line around the border represents the river that surrounds the island of montreal joining the mls in 2015 new york city fc's logo features the interlocking nyc which is an abbreviation of new york city and a style which is common of new york teams such as the mets and the yankees which makes sense since the latter is a partial owner of nycfc the design also fits well with the colors and design of the majority owner city football group owners of manchester city in the premier league the colors of blue and orange were also chosen to match the flag of new york city finally the design takes some inspiration from old new york city subway tokens circular in shape with the text across the top and bottom with the same familiar circle within circle designs at the center of one of the subway token designs is a pentagon for new york city's five boroughs the bronx brooklyn manhattan queens and staten island the same pentagon finds its way on both sides of the nycfc logo when orlando city began playing in the usl in 2011 their original badge featured three lions the lions paid tribute to an earlier history of soccer in orlando with a team named the orlando lions playing in orlando from 1985 to 1996. the team is still called the lions as a nickname in 2015 when the team moved to the mls they updated their logo the new logo that we know today is a shield shape that features a single lion taking up most of the badge with 21 sunflare shaped points making up the lion's mane they're shaped like the sun because florida is the sunshine state and there are 21 of the sun flares to represent orlando city's place as the 21st mls team also note the subtle crown shape on the head of the lion this shows the successful rain that orlando city had in the usl before moving to the mls in those four usl seasons orlando city won the league two times and finished with the best record in the league three times pretty dominant usl run the atlanta united fc badge has remained unchanged since they began playing in the mls in 2017. it features the team colors with a large a for atlanta in the center of a circle with the team name curving along the top and bottom of an outer circle the design is inspired in part by the seal of the city of atlanta which has a similar design however the seal features a large phoenix rising out of a fire instead of the atlanta a the five red and black stripes behind the a represent the five pillars of the team unity determination community excellence and innovation this pattern of five stripes has also made its way onto many atlanta united kits and has become a sort of nickname for the team being called the five stripes minnesota united played their first two seasons as nsc minnesota in a new iteration of the nasl starting in 2010 their original shield-shaped badge featured a star prominently in the middle of the badge nsc in large bold letters on top stood for the national sports center being named after the state-owned sports center that founded the team in 2012 nsc was dropped from the team name and they were officially named minnesota stars fc the new badge kept the colors blue and yellow and made the star the prominent feature in the center laying behind the star is a soccer ball in light blue the state model detoid which is french for star of the north is across the top of the badge in 2013 the team was rebranded the new name was minnesota united fc and the new badge features a stylized loon the state bird of minnesota the star is kept as a hexagram off the top left of the badge itself it is almost as if the loon is looking at the northern star the initialism mnufc are across the bottom the light gray of the badge is divided by a stripe of light blue diagonal across the center representing the twin cities of minneapolis and saint paul which are divided by rivers los angeles fc has maintained the same logo since joining the league in 2018 it's designed to be an art deco inspired logo think the chrysler building or the empire state building in new york city the badge is a shield shaped design similar to the shape of the shield in the center of the city of los angeles city seal you can see how the shape compares with the team splitting los angeles along the top of the shield and football club along the bottom the center is dedicated to a large stylized la an abbreviation for the city of los angeles the a has a large angel wing cutting across it playing to los angeles as the city of angels when fc cincinnati began playing in the usl in 2016 their original logo featured many of the design elements of their current crest the colors of the team orange and blue remain unchanged the badge is a shield with a crown on top and the team name taking up most of the shield the crown pays tribute to cincinnati's nickname the queen city at the bottom of the shield is a winged line of saint mark many of the colors and designs were borrowed from the dayton dutch lions who were also playing in the usl at the time and helped to launch the cincinnati-based team the badge was updated when the team moved to the mls in 2019 keeping the design elements of the original logo and updating them for the mls franchise inter miami short for club international day football has kept their logo the same since joining the mls in 2020 the design is an art deco style with black and pink primary colors the black helps the pink to pop out giving us an 80s vaporwave style aesthetic reminiscent of things like the tv show miami vice the club's full name follows the circle of the badge around the top and on both sides in the center is a shield with the city miami in the center the a creates a small m shape underneath it under miami are two white herons back to back with interlocking legs to create another m shape the heron's wings also form stylized m's herons are found year-round in florida in between the heron's heads is a sun for florida's state nickname the sunshine state at the bottom are the roman numerals mmxx for the year 2020. the same year that inter miami began playing in the mls nashville sc began playing in the usl in 2018 they acquired the name and logo from a fan owned amateur team this circular logo features the primary club colors of blue and yellow with the team name around the top and sc in the center separated by a stylized stripe pattern on the bottom of the logo are the roman numerals mm-xii for 2018 the year that the club began playing in the usl in 2020 they joined the mls their updated logo is an elongated hexagonal yellow shield the shield has nashville sc along the bottom and a pattern of blue stripes along the top use the yellow negative space to create an in for nashville the pattern creates a waveform shape that pays tribute to nashville's nickname the music city austin fc joined the mls for the 2021 season their logo is a shield with the words austin across the top below that is a green oak tree and under the canopy on either side of the trunk are the letters fc the oak tree stands for the bond between club and city and the four routes are meant to unite all of austin from all four cardinal directions north east south and west charlotte fc are set to begin playing in the 2022 mls season the circular logo features the colors black blue and white the blue is the same blue as the carolina panthers of the nfl who are owned by the same owners the name of the team is across the top and bottom of the logo with the words minted 2022 on the sides this is a reference to charlotte's banking industry as well as charlotte being the location of the first branch of the us mint the four points on the crown in the center of the logo represent the four wards of uptown charlotte the city's business district the crown itself is in reference to the city nickname the queen city charlotte got that nickname because the city of charlotte is named after charlotte of mecklenburg's sterlitz queen of great britain and ireland and wife to king george iii who is the king of england when the united states declared their independence st louis city sc are set to join the mls in 2023 the shield-shaped logo features the team's primary red and navy blue colors the words st louis city with city big and bold are vertical along the right side of the badge sc sits centered at the bottom and the left two thirds of the badge feature multiple lines and arches the big upward swinging line represents st louis's gateway arch and the others using negative space create blue lines which represent the mississippi in missouri rivers and that is the history of every mls logo at least so far in the future if anything changes i will create an update and attach it to this video in the meantime if you enjoyed this video please like and subscribe share the video with your other soccer friends and we'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Justin Learns Things

Views: 18,985

Keywords: MLS, soccer, Football, Futbol, Names, Badges, Teams, History, Educational, Sports, expansion, league, merger, USL

Id: k7kT4mDBg1U

Length: 39min 3sec (2343 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 16 2022