Adidas Has Defined the Vegas Golden Knights Logo: Creating the Ultimate Branding Opportunity

Brands and logos have been the unique identifying marks for companies and products alike, since ages past. Just like Nike has their truly iconic ‘tick mark’ logo and their equally well known slogan “just do it” so too have their rival sports brand “Adidas “ gone out of their way to create a unique look and logo that would remain in the minds of their target audience.

Let us take a closer look at Adidas’s association with the Vegas Golding Knights team and their logo:

The Golden Knights of Vegas

Bill Foley paid a grand total $500 million to the All-American NHL (national Hockey League) for the successful acquisition of the Vegas team. However, the purchase was only the beginning, and the most important task was to come up with a one hundred percent new branding strategy that had to include a new logo, a new name, and of course all-new colors, as well.

This extremely important task was entrusted to Adidas since they are no strangers to fashion brand logos. With plenty of branding and logo design experience under their belt, they set about creating a new brand for a team that did not even exist. Moreover, they had a very small window of time due to the up and coming season. This was both a huge task and an even bigger responsibility.

As far as brands and logos are concerned, they really need to make sure that they would create a dedicated fan following with the Vegas Golden Knights logo. Ergo, for the brand logo design to resonate with its target audience, viz. its fan base.

Ultimately, it’s a sponsorship game, and a dedicated sports following is the single most important aspect of any sport since it helps to bring in more funds and sponsors.

The Owners Ideas

Bill had his own ideas regarding the best brand logos around. He basically wants to associate his newly purchased team’s name as well as its logo with his own time and service in the American Army.

He specifically wanted to call his team “The Black Knights.” This is because it was the very same name that is used by the US army uses for their sports team. If you look at it from Foley’s point of view, it made sound sense. He wanted to appeal to the patriotic ardor amongst the people of Vegas. He thought that associating the name with the American army will automatically result in an enhanced fan following all across the sport.

While being factually correct to an extent, the term black was not deemed positive by many people. In fact, the current branding and logo design is a joint collaboration with the Golden Knights’ operations team, the owner as well as their marketing team too.

As a matter of fact, the new logo actually tells an enthralling visual story of the meaning behind their new name. Here, the core goal was to try and align the whole of the team with a more modern looking yet aesthetic logo that would also simultaneously resonate with the sport’s local fan base in the city of Las Vegas. This was a truly unique approach as it allows the residents of the town to think of the team as one of their very own.

As a matter of fact, the first part of their by now well-known name, “Golden,” has been derived from the narrative and history that has spurred the settlement of the state of Nevada.

From those humble beginnings, it has also gone on to describing the sheer opulence of Las Vegas as it exists today. This has a lot to do with the fact that this state currently remains one of the largest producers of pure gold within the continental United States. The second part of their name, “Knights,” had been chosen because it has always represented the ideals for which had been created – courage, valor, and victory.

These seminal concepts regarding such naming protocols and brand logo design were based off countless brainstorming sessions between the owner of the team’ Bill Foley and the creative team as Adidas.

The Myth of the Black Knight!

The original Black Knight was Zawisza Czarny. He was a graduate of West Point, and he served as a wonderful inspiration for Foley due to his disregard for personal safety and self-sacrifice.

The designers at Adidas started off with a knight’s helmet to serve as a simple yet bold a representation of the new NBL team. After that, their team decided to add some really subtle nuances that also spoke to the team’s Las Vegas hometown.

In fact, the outline of a “V” can be seen to be sitting firmly in the center of the knight’s helmet. This V represents “Vegas” and also serves as the real face of the helmet and by extension, the team that carries this logo.

The Age of Heraldry

Through further research in ancient folklore, the creative team at Adidas found that the use of certain patterns, colors, and symbols on medieval shields had a specific meaning. They revealed details through which lords and kingdom may be seen by friends and enemies, alike.

This is why the creative team then decided to try and place their knight helmet on a shield. This logo was the perfect way to go about crafting a logo that was able to “represent” the city of Las Vegas in the truest sense.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, we can easily see that the primary logo today features a distinct grey color. This is the color of the armor of olden day Knights, and it retains its original dark and steely look. All in all. A truly amazing combination.