10 Worst Brand Identities in Sports

Creating a distinct identity is a key component to making a sports team it's own entity. The identity is also the factor that influences merchandising and marketing; or better put, the identity makes the money.

So, for sure, you expect that some pretty intelligent people heading sports franchises would give valiant efforts to secure a solid and marketable identity for their respective team.

Notice you don't see old pencil sketch logos, or wacky uniforms—for the most part.

We are in an area where sports identities come with bold and streamlined logos, extremely distinctly designed uniforms, and an emphasis on standardization of trademarks.

Most teams handle this very well.

But some have fallen through the cracks. Here is a list of the absolute worst identities in sports.

Washington Redskins

Yes, Washington. Despite your logo's timelessness and support from fans, your identity kind of stinks.

Lots of sports teams have the profile of a native American as their logo. Or had.

As of the past fifteen years many collegiate programs have been forced to change their name from the term "Indians" because it was controversial.

I honestly don't think there is anything wrong with calling your team the Indians, especially if your logo is decent.

But things change when you call yourselves the Redskins. What about the Whiteskins or the Blackskins? If any team used those nicknames hell would break lose.

And to make matters worse, the logo is a straight profile of a native American, not even in team colors.

This identity does not compensate for the genocide at all. We glorify native American's by labeling them with spears through logos. I'm sure they appreciate that.

Cleveland Cavaliers

If LeBron James wasn't a Cleveland Cavalier, this would bother people a lot more.

The Cavaliers used to have an atrocious identity, however they cleaned up well in 2003 when they unveiled new colors, logos, and uniforms. The new color scheme was navy, wine (red), and gold. The logos are sleek and have tons of character. Good move right?

Then they went overboard. Cleveland has gotten addicted to wearing "throwbacks", most of which are not authentic looking at all, as well as wearing their alternate jersey way too often.

Despite having one of the best brand identities to start with in 2003, Cleveland has ruined it by wearing maroon and gold jerseys, and blue and orange jerseys.

To make matters worse, they have gotten in a habit of wearing these throwback-like uniforms for most of their nationally televised games.

As of 2010, when I think of the Cleveland Cavaliers I think of blue and orange. That's not good when your colors are neither of those.

The New York Knicks called, and they want their uniforms back.

Tampa Bay Rays

Tampa Bay has made some major improvements in the appearance department, switching to an extremely clean and solid looking design.

But the logic behind their messy name switch in 2008 is baffling. The Tampa Bay Rays were formerly known as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, which refers to the aquatic animal we are all familiar with.

But in 2008 they decided the nickname "Devil" Rays had negative and disturbing connotations, which is funny considering how many other sports programs call themselves Devils.

So, Tampa Bay switched their nickname to the "Rays". So what is a Ray? According to them it's a sun ray, hence the sparkle thingy on their script (on the R on the jersey).

But there is another part of the shirt that makes me crack up. Look at the sleeve. That's not a sun ray, that's a Devil Ray—that darn fish from hell that started the franchise's name change in the first place.

So you go through huge merchandising overhaul because your called the Devil Rays, but your official uniform still sports the Devil Ray?

I feel like that's a detail that should not have gone unnoticed.

Not only do they have one of the lamest nicknames in sports, as of now, but they are also in denial of this by keeping their old logo on the sleeve of the uniform.

You can still switch to the name "Rays" and still have the floppy fish as your primary mark, but by adding the sparkling sun beam and failing to remove the fish they created two completely different identities.

Can you say multiple personality disorder?

Buffalo Sabres

You are probably wanting to know what that is on Donald Trump's head?

It's his brand new hair piece, labeled the "Buffaslug", which is the infamous nickname that has been given to the Sabre's embarrassment of a logo unveiled in 2006.

The Sabres went from having a perfect logo to having one that is half bison, half cashew.

Hockey fans in Buffalo were furious with the logo, but made ends meet by making it a primary topic of water cooler jokes for the past four years.

The question is, "How many other objects can this logo represent better than it can represent an actual buffalo?"

As proven by Trump, it can also be a hair piece.

Anaheim Ducks

Ever hear the saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"?

I'm going to take this comment further. If it ain't broke, it's impossible to fix it. Therefore, anything you do in an attempt to "enhance" will simply break it.

I should be a philosopher. Okay, maybe not, but anybody with a right mind knows the Ducks screwed themselves over by changing one of the most identified looks in pro sports.

Anyone who has a brain knows the Anaheim Ducks. Thanks to a few cheesy kids movies the old Anaheim "Mighty Ducks" logo became a household icon, sports fan or not.

You know. Remember the hockey mask shaped like a duck head? Remember the green and purple color scheme? Sure, the colors were kind of "fugly".

But really, hockey teams make more sense in bright colors. Green and Purple worked because it looked cold. The logo worked because everyone knew it.

And I guarantee you nine out of ten Americans can't tell you that the Ducks changed their logos and their colors.

But they did, to one of the worst brands in sports. The new logo looks like something that belongs on the deck of a skateboard, and the colors are hideous.

Sure, purple and green might have drawbacks, and it might scream 1990s. But what in the world spawned poo-gold and orange?

If Tony Hawk was Tony Duck, he probably would be involved in a lawsuit with Anaheim's hockey franchise at the moment for copyright infringement. I'm not even a hockey fan, but I know a crappy hockey look when I see one.

They could have kept the old logo and changed the colors. It appears that they instead went to some 14 year old kids and asked them to graffiti a new logo.

Washington Nationals

...or as some would call, the Washington "Natinals".

The MLB's latest franchise gets an F in the identity department. Much like Buffalo does with their big horned fuzzy friend, Washington can't seem to make a sports franchise without coloring it red, white, and blue and throwing stars and stripes all over the place.

And, what the heck is a National?

Not only that, but they have more problems. Their uniforms are absolutely horrendous, thanks to the ugly scripts.

Their home uniform is white and mostly red while their road uniform is gray and mostly blue. However, their home uniform uses the new script while the road uniform uses an old script.

And their alternates include a hideous American flag style uniform.

But there's more knocks!

Read the script on those shirts above. Not only does their identity suck when correct, but their equipment team can't spell. Way to keep the "national" pride shining bright.

Oh, and the one that bugs me the most is the cap logo, which is basically identical to that of Walgreens.

The United Football League

This makes the Oklahoma City NBA franchise look like branding geniuses.

The United Football league debuted this fall with four teams, all of which sport the same colors.

Green, light blue, black, and silver are the main colors used on all four UFL team's logos and uniforms.

Not only is this the worst color scheme I have ever seen, but the uniforms are an absolute mess. Also, the logos looked like they were designed by infant babies.

When you are an up and coming league trying to make profit the last thing you want to do is create merchandise that looks like boogers and cotton candy.

I mean, seriously...

Oklahoma City Thunder

This is the biggest case of "fail" in sports since the Bills streak of four Super Bowl losses. (okay, I need to leave the city of Buffalo alone)

Now time to pick on Oklahoma City, who completely failed in creating their only professional sports franchise. The speculation of the team's identity went berserk after fans found out the team would be called "The Thunder".

I'm not going to lie, that is an awesome nickname. People expected a really cool "thunder-esque" logo, as well as some western elements. A lot of fans even made concepts that used a bison, which all looked really cool (here we go again, talking about the bison, but ironically this time we are praising it).

Well, Oklahoma City came up with this logo instead. I know they were on a short time frame on creating a brand, but that didn't mean they had to sit a 15 year old down at a computer and give him thirty minutes to mock something up.

What we got here was a logo that has nothing to do with thunder, except for that completely unoriginal script that says "Thunder", and a color scheme that speaks nothing of storms but screams sunshine and happiness.

What in the world were they thinking? The colors are orange, dark blue, light blue, and gold. Their uniforms are as generic as can be, and look like the Knicks (another occurring theme here).

If I was Kevin Durant, who now is the ruler of Oklahoma City, I would demand a logo change and send the current logo to a church league somewhere.

Oh, but wait, church leagues have better logos.

Los Angeles Clippers

It's ironic that the Los Angeles team with the nickname that makes sense would fall on this list, while the team called the Lakers in a city without Lakes did not.

But the Clippers identity is downright horrendous. First off, if you notice their logo is essentially the Lakers logo in different colors. This team has no character at all.

Also, whoever drew the logo needs to go back to school. Check out the lines at the top, and then on the bottom.

There are two tapering lines above the script, which is the middle seam and the outside seam of the basketball.

Makes sense. But look at the bottom of the logo. Down there we have three tapering lines.

The Clippers have been using a logo that is drawn completely wrong. Reason No. 241 to kick the team out of the city.

Cleveland Browns

The picture above is the current "official logo" of the Cleveland Browns.

Their "logo" is a helmet. But, it's not just any helmet. You are probably thinking, man this looks really generic.

It is. That specific drawing of the football helmet is a universal template used by NFL teams when they submit their uniform slicks (uniform renderings) to the national football league office.

Each team uses a standardized template, using that helmet, to send in so that the NFL can approve of the team's uniforms and trademarks.

Cleveland adopted that rendering as their logo. Are you kidding me?!

The Browns have attempted to make some logos, recently with the "B" logo and the Dawg head.

But for some reason they continue to use this insanely generic template picture as a logo.

Not to mention the fact that their colors are orange, brown, and gray.

And, the Browns got made fun of all of this past season for wearing solid brown pants on the road for games.

The pants have quickly become known as the "tootsie roll" pants for looking more like a chocolate candy than a football uniform.