New Jersey Nets Logo: New Look a Slap in the Face to Real Fans of the Franchise

The New Jersey Nets are desperate to get any sort of attention.

As their big brother across the river attempts to bring Chris Paul to town, the Nets are trying to grab headlines with a cool new logo.

Problem is, this logo is going to last for a grand total of one season before it becomes irrelevant. A completely different logo will be designed for next year’s inaugural season in Brooklyn.

So all of the jerseys, hats, t-shirts, bumper stickers, flags, mugs, shot glasses and whatever else can be sold has about a five-month window of relevance. What are the real fans of the team supposed to do? Their team is getting hijacked and they are expected to toss gobs of money toward the franchise to wear a jersey that will be extinct by the summer?

You know people in Brooklyn aren’t going to splurge on anything that reads New Jersey on the front.

Of course, this doesn’t stop the Nets P.R. team for spinning it into something much more than it really is. Chief marketing officer Fred Mangione told The New York Times it’s some sort of goodbye to fans:

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It will be our farewell moniker. As we go out, we want to go out the right way.

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The logo itself is actually decent looking. It pays homage to the ABA roots of the past with a tri-color basketball with the Nets scribbled in an old-school 1970s-like script. The big 35 in the middle signifies the number of years the team has been in the Garden State. A microscopic picture of the state is at the bottom.

I personally think the 35 is featured too prominently on the front. The team name always needs to be most prominent, and it doesn’t work to just have a big 35. It’s going to be very hard to pick out of a crowd whoever is wearing No. 35.  

The kicker is their new slogan: “Jersey Strong, Brooklyn Ready.”

So are the fans strong for sticking with team despite losing it to a different state? Or because they have put up with all of the losing in the last 35 years?

If you’re a true hardcore Nets fan, this is a slap in the face. A franchise is requesting that you spend $35 on a hat with a logo that features a number more prominently than the team name that will be old news in June.

It will be very interesting to see how merchandise sales for the club go this season. I guess that’s one way to garner attention.