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Largely because of the basketball team’s success, Virginia’s logo has become much more prestigious and recognized nationally.
It’s such a great logo too: the V with the crossed cutlasses under it is clean, elegant and instantly recognizable.
So naturally Virginia wants to muck around with it. So here’s the new secondary logo.
The new look comes courtesy of Nike, which should be a hint to Virginia to think twice. Nike does amazing equipment but their design sense at times is just puzzling. Take the roundly mocked Duke-UNC jerseys from the game this past season in Chapel Hill. Those deserved to be mocked.
Some can be really good. Take the Purdue design that looks like a cowcatcher. That’s a tremendous design and some of the Duke jerseys have been nice. Like the Gothic lettered jerseys from this past season, which were widely admired.
But honestly? Nike misses and misses a lot. Look at the atrocities they inflict on Oregon on a regular basis.
And it may turn out that they missed with this design too.
Remember when State tried to redesign the wolf logos? Mr. Wuf with the red sailor’s cap is State’s image and has been for decades. When they tried to bring in the three wolf Wolfpack logo it just didn’t go over and is mostly forgotten now although it may still be active. But who cares?
It might work for Virginia. Taste and the future are equally hard to predict. But it may also bomb.
The thing that Virginia is missing is that, thanks to Tony Bennett, the Cavaliers have arrived. And when you have arrived, you don’t need to overhaul things. Your logo, your brand, is already powerful. It becomes iconic.
Virginia really just made it into the big leagues. Now isn’t the time to monkey around with the basics.