If you look at any sports team’s logo from its first season to the modern day, there are likely to have been changes. Even expansion teams that have only been around for 20 or 30 years will have tweaked and tinkered with its most recognizable asset of brand identity. Sometimes, the alterations are drastic – usually in an attempt to reinvent a franchise – but sometimes, the changes are far more subtle.
As one of only two original NBA teams still playing in the same city as when they were founded, the New York Knickerbockers - to give them their official name - have probably underachieved over the years. As one of the world’s great cities – and a place of incredible wealth – the Knicks can only count two championships in their entire history, with the last coming over 50 years ago. However, the team has improved greatly recently, and many of the best NBA betting sites now consider the Knicks one of the favorites to win the title.
Stepping away from the action on the court, we will examine how the Knicks logo has changed over the years. Unlike many sports teams in the US, the team’s name does not lend itself easily to fierce imagery. There is no eagle, hawk, or even raptor to depict here. What even is a “knickerbocker” anyway?
To answer that initial question, we must go back to 1946, when the New York Knickerbockers were formed. College basketball was very popular in those days, and a group of sports-minded businessmen launched a professional league for the best athletes to continue to play. Ned Irish, president of Madison Square Garden, became the first owner and wanted a distinctive name for his team to represent New York City. “Knickerbockers” was eventually chosen after the Father Knickerbocker character, who represented the original Dutch settlers of the city. In the cartoonish style of the first NBA logos, Father Knickerbocker, dressed in blue and orange, dribbling a basketball, became the first-ever Knicks logo.
With little need for logos that could easily be applied to merchandise and apparel, the Father Knickerbocker logo lasted over 25 years before introducing the first roundball version. An advertising agency was drafted to modernize the brand's look, and the now familiar classic roundball image was produced ahead of the 1964-65 season. Simplicity was key here, with a 3-D effect of “Knicks” arched over a brown basketball. This introductory look remained the same until the early 1990s, with only slight alterations. The ball turned various shades of orange over the years, with the letters also changing from red to the more familiar orange, shaded with blue.
The following significant change to the New York Knicks logo came in 1992. With many of the league’s teams updating their brands and introducing new teams, the Knicks decided to modernize their look. NBA Marketing was in charge of the alteration, with more futuristic lettering introduced, along with an increase in font size. The lettering and ball were also framed by an inverted triangle, using silver to accentuate the new look. This is the New York Knicks logo we know and love today, and many other NBA teams have used the triangle since then.
Three years into the change, the words “New York” were added at the top of the logo, seemingly to root the brand in the city—and perhaps with an eye to the increasing global fanbase of the sport in the mid-to-late 1990s. The logo has only changed its accents and color definitions in the 30 years since to make the whole thing stand out even better.
Although the Knicks logo has changed very little since the introduction of the classic roundball version in the early 1960s, the organization has forged ahead with secondary logos and other brands to fully capitalize on the enormous commercial interest in the NBA in the last 30 years or so. These have usually been used as patches on jerseys and shorts and have not replaced the primary logo in any way. Examples include memorable 50th and 70th-anniversary logos, a short-lived apple motif, and a very New York Yankees-looking “NY” that only lasted a single season in 1978.
To add a little style to the uniforms, the Knicks have also introduced additions inspired by the traditional New York City subway token. The first came in 1995, with a stylized “NYK” in black lettering within an orange circle and blue frame. That has been used in various ways over the years, with other subway token logos used in the last few years that look like basketballs with the “Knicks” lettering through the middle. These have become remarkably popular thanks to their incorporation into merchandise and apparel, even though the actual subway tokens they were based on are no longer in use.
With a name like the Knicks, it is perhaps unsurprising that the logo has hardly changed. Subtle alterations and a slight modernization (from the classic roundball era) have kept the brand iconic and well-recognized. It seems fitting that one of the grand old teams of the NBA has not felt the need to chase the latest trends and completely rebrand. Some designs will last time – and the New York Knicks logo is undoubtedly one of the classics.
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