I bet everyone living in New York City knows what the Yankees logo is.

Not only that, they could all provide a reasonable sketch of it. Simplicity rates extremely high in my book, and I hope the Jays go that route.

I'd also like to see all the players wearing their socks the old school way a la Orlando Hudson, and it would be cool for them to start a trend of sensible uniforms for the coaches. But I realize these are highly unlikely.

If Jaclyn Shoub had her way, the Blue Jays would be wearing see-through uniforms.

There go the plans for bringing in Rich Garces for the bullpen.

We could use a good article discussing the Jays' uniform, logo and general appearance from a marketing standpoint, but this isn't it. Asking fashion designers about baseball uniforms is like asking Daniel Libeskind how to remodel your bathroom -- their expertise is so utterly specialized that it has little practical bearing for the real world. A few gripes about this piece.

"I bet everyone living in New York City knows what the Yankees logo is."

This is hardly a fair comparison. The Yankees logo has been around for 100 years and is one of the most widely promoted in the world. The Mets' logo is simply the Yankees' with a blue-and-orange colour scheme. And it's easy for the Yanks, Dodgers and Giants to have simple initial-type logos because everyone knows what NY, LA and SF stand for. Toronto doesn't have that luxury -- their straightforward "T" logo gets ripped because it looks too much like Texas'.

Repeated changes in Blue Jays ownership, managers, starters, closers, left fielders, cheeseburger toppings and philosophies in the 10 years since the team's two straight World Series wins in '92 and '93 have seemingly erased the organization's feel for its own history.

No -- it was the lousy quality of those closers, left fielders and everyone else that erased the organization's one outstanding characteristic: excellence. The philosophy, in fact, remained the same the whole time, and that's what helped drive this franchise into the ground: a tolerance for losing, a country club atmosphere, a tools-based scouting system, a fondness for high-school draftees. And I haven't seen cheeseburgers on the Skydome menu for quite a while.

No sport is more historically minded than baseball, perhaps because no sport has been buffeted by so much change.

This makes absoluitely no sense. I just wanted to point that out.

With ING, the core quality was the colour orange, a nod to the banking company's Dutch roots. With the Blue Jays the core quality is ... well, it's a confrontational bird that's blue in colour.

Not only is the blue in the Blue Jays uniform also a nod to the franchise's roots -- the Labatt's ownership and the blue jay's local status -- it has a lot more connection to the product than orange does to banking. The ING campaign was largely successful, to my understanding, because of the quirkily handsome Dutch guy they used as spokesman. When I think orange and banking services, I still think Canada Trust, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Besides, you ever meet an actual blue jay? They're cranky little buggers.

Blue Jays at the start had that simplicity]. Their powder-blue 'away' uniform was a beauty.

She's joking, right? For starters, powder-blue road uniform were a highly unfortunate byproduct of the late '70s that stuck around till the mid-80s; the Jays were four years late in switching to road greys. And sorry, but powder-blue is suitabe for bridesmaid dresses and not much else. The other thing the Jays kept far too long was the '70s soccer-style numbers on the back; they still haven't entirely gotten rid of that look. Tradition is not an inherently good thing.

"Look when they won the World Series. I can remember. They had the uniform then. It said `Toronto' across the chest."

It still does, you dink.

I also think these folks have a loose grasp of "branding." Branding is not about your look, your style, your logo and so forth -- it's your reputation, your unqiueness, your value system in action. The Jays can build that, but not through uniforms and logos -- through aggressiveness, smart play, enthusiasm and ultimately, through winning. The rest is just there to sell merchandise.

http://economics.about.com
C'mon Jordan.. don't pull any punches.. tell us what you really think. :)

Nicely de-bunked Jordan, but I have to disagree on the single letter issue.

SF doesn't immediately say San Fran to me, unless it's on a baseball cap. Similarly, B, D, and T have come to mean Boston, Detroit, and Texas when in the proper font & colours. And what of the fact that T is already 'taken'? I give you C, which means both Cincinnati and Chicago and doesn't confuse this baseball fan. Further, Arizona is currently challenging Anaheim for the meaning of the letter A.

Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?

When I wear my Reds cap (bought in a moment of Griffey induced optimism) most people think I'm wearing a Chicago Bears cap. I own a Jays cap too but I don't wear it unless I'm at a Jays game. Why don't I wear it in my day to day life? It is ugly. I have the Roger Clemens logo (nicely designed bird on a huge red maple leaf) and the red brim. It's hardly something I like to wear. Don't get me started on the new logo. It's even worse.

I agree that a simple T would work. I only hope that they don't drop the blue from the blue jays. My biggest fear is that in a fit of trying to be distinct and to appeal to a younger crowd the Jays will introduce a Shawn Desman inspired "T Dot" logo.

Everyone knows what NY, LA and SF stand for. Toronto doesn't have that luxury -- their straightforward "T" logo gets ripped because it looks too much like Texas'.

The best-known acronym for Toronto is T.O., not "T".

The Jays don't need new uniforms or new logos (though I hate the font they are using for the players' names and numbers). They need to win, often and regularly, in order to draw fans.

The Detroit Tigers have a simple uniform with a recognizable logo (the Old English D) that has not changed since Ty Cobb's day. But they're not drawing flies because they're not winning.

I've been a Jays fan for almost 20 years now and just yesterday, purchased my first Jays cap. I finally, finally found a cool one. It's dark blue with a white 'T' on the front, outlined by a small, lighter blue line. I'd LOVE to see the players wear a similar hat.

Has anyone seen the one I'm talking about?

"T" would be nice, but if we're looking to be distinct, I don't know any other city with the letters "TO". Anyways, simple classic letter designs would be best, but we didn't get it. But I'm at least happy we got rid of the maple leaf and the color red. We definately needed a change in uniforms. Looked like clowns for a bit there. New logo could be better as in classier, but at least its an improvement. But why "J"? We don't have any major sports franchise with a "T". Even the Argonauts have always used "A". Weird. I thought we were going to get rid of the cartoons. It doesn't look like Woody Woodpecker anymore, but still. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyways. How about some pitching now?

"T" would be nice, but if we're looking to be distinct, I don't know any other city with the letters "TO". Anyways, simple classic letter designs would be best, but we didn't get it. But I'm at least happy we got rid of the maple leaf and the color red. We definately needed a change in uniforms. Looked like clowns for a bit there. New logo could be better as in classier, but at least its an improvement. But why "J"? We don't have any major sports franchise with a "T". Even the Argonauts have always used "A". Weird. First its red in the uniforms, and now its "J" when we're still the "Blue" Jays, and when it really should be "T". Plus, I thought we were going to get rid of the cartoons. It doesn't look like Woody Woodpecker anymore, but still. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyways. How about some pitching now?

"T" would be nice, but if we're looking to be distinct, I don't know any other city with the letters "TO". Anyways, simple classic letter designs would be best, but we didn't get it. But I'm at least happy we got rid of the maple leaf and the color red. We definately needed a change in uniforms. Looked like clowns for a bit there. New logo could be better as in classier, but at least its an improvement. But why "J"? We don't have any major sports franchise with a "T". Even the Argonauts have always used "A". Weird. First its red in the uniforms, and now its "J" when we're still the "Blue" Jays, and when it really should be "T". Plus, I thought we were going to get rid of the cartoons. It doesn't look like Woody Woodpecker anymore, but still. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyways. How about some pitching now?

"T" would be nice, but if we're looking to be distinct, I don't know any other city with the letters "TO". Anyways, simple classic letter designs would be best, but we didn't get it. But I'm at least happy we got rid of the maple leaf and the color red. We definately needed a change in uniforms. Looked like clowns for a bit there. New logo could be better as in classier, but at least its an improvement. But why "J"? We don't have any major sports franchise with a "T". Even the Argonauts have always used "A". Weird. First its red in the uniforms, and now its "J" when we're still the "Blue" Jays, and when it really should be "T". Plus, I thought we were going to get rid of the cartoons. It doesn't look like Woody Woodpecker anymore, but still. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyways. How about some pitching now?

"T" would be nice, but if we're looking to be distinct, I don't know any other city with the letters "TO". Anyways, simple classic letter designs would be best, but we didn't get it. But I'm at least happy we got rid of the maple leaf and the color red. We definately needed a change in uniforms. Looked like clowns for a bit there. New logo could be better as in classier, but at least its an improvement. But why "J"? We don't have any major sports franchise with a "T". Even the Argonauts have always used "A". Weird. First its red in the uniforms, and now its "J" when we're still the "Blue" Jays, and when it really should be "T". Plus, I thought we were going to get rid of the cartoons. It doesn't look like Woody Woodpecker anymore, but still. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyways. How about some pitching now?

"T" would be nice, but if we're looking to be distinct, I don't know any other city with the letters "TO". Anyways, simple classic letter designs would be best, but we didn't get it. But I'm at least happy we got rid of the maple leaf and the color red. We definately needed a change in uniforms. Looked like clowns for a bit there. New logo could be better as in classier, but at least its an improvement. But why "J"? We don't have any major sports franchise with a "T". Even the Argonauts have always used "A". Weird. First its red in the uniforms, and now its "J" when we're still the "Blue" Jays, and when it really should be "T". Plus, I thought we were going to get rid of the cartoons. It doesn't look like Woody Woodpecker anymore, but still. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyways. How about some pitching now?