Raptors Primary Logo
The Toronto Raptors have a long and storied history, with the primary logo being no exception. The team was founded in 1995 as part of the NBA’s expansion into Canada, and its original logo featured a basketball-playing dinosaur on an orange background. This design was meant to represent both the city of Toronto's nickname “The Big Smoke” due to its smoggy air quality at times, as well as pay homage to Jurassic Park which had recently been released when they were established.
In 2004 however, this design was changed drastically in order to give it a more modern appeal while still maintaining elements from its predecessor. The new version features a red raptor claw holding onto an orange basketball that has black stripes running across it horizontally; these stripes are meant to symbolize movement since raptors are known for being fast creatures who can move quickly through their environment. It also includes two letter R's intertwined together which stand for "Raptors" itself - making this one of few logos in professional sports where text is actually incorporated into the main image rather than just sitting next beside or below it like many others do (e..g Yankees).
Today, despite some minor changes over time such as different colors used or slight alterations made here and there -the Raptors' primary logo remains largely unchanged from what we saw back in 2004! While other teams may come and go throughout history; fans can always count on seeing this iconic badge proudly displayed whenever they watch games featuring Toronto's own beloved franchise!
2021 - Present
The Toronto Raptors made some color changes to their primary logo. Silver was eliminated completely from the color scheme and the basketball was re-colored red. New to this logo is an outside thick white border. The Raptors continue with a red basketball with black lines that resemble the dinosaur claw. The words “Toronto Raptors” appear in white, block lettering above and below the basketball design on a black background.
2015 - 2020
The new design features a silver basketball with black lines that resemble the dinosaur claw that’s long been associated with the team. The words “Toronto Raptors” appear in white, block lettering above and below the basketball design on a black background with a red border. The new logo was designed by local firm Sid Lee a creative services agency.
2009 - 2014
The logo used since 2008 is a slight modification of the original logo from 1996, with the color purple removed. A red raptor dribbling a silver basketball on a black circle with a wordmark “TORONTO RAPTORS.”
1996 - 2008
The original Raptor logo is a red dinosaur in a basketball uniform with the letter “R” on it’s chest dribbling a silver basketball on a purple circle with a black semi-circle above. A wordmark “TORONTO” in silver on top and “RAPTORS” in silver in a “u” shape.
