‘Past. Present. Future. Forever.‘ The Los Angeles Kings have signed off on a new logo for the team, and it may look somewhat familiar to fans.
A call back to their 90’s days, changes to the design of the vintage Kings logo have been on the mind of the organization since debuting their throwbacks in 2019-20, which have turned into their current alternates, still five years later.
A clear hit for the club, the decision for this brand re-vamp came from polling fans, current players, and alumni — all of whom were in agreeance that a call back to the Gretzky-era design was the path to follow.
Jack Dooley, editorial content manager for the Kings reported on these logo updates, explaining that this has been in the works since the summer of 2022 when the organization teamed up with House Industries. Andy Cruz, co-founder of the company has been described as the ‘Michael Jordan of the design community’, and has worked with countless big-name brands and groups, from Green Day to Lucky Charms.
“We’ve thrown around rebrand, refresh, update, but I think when you really get down to it, it is rethinking, pieces, elements, part of the visual legacy that was there,” Cruz said. “How do we look at that, not only through the House Industries lens of a little hug here, a little cleanup here, but also making sure that the team and the leadership with the Kings understands what we’re doing and ultimately trusts us with with their baby.”
Another factor that came into play for the timing of this release was the new partnership between the NHL and Fanatics, which will replace Adidas as the jersey provider going into the 2024-25 season. The new partnership means only home and away jerseys are allowed for teams for the upcoming campaign, no alternates.
So what’s different about it?
The sizeable updates come from the crown in the logo as it’s a modernized version of the original 1967 design, a nod to the team’s roots when joining the league. Going back to the player and fan polls, the original purple and gold crown was voted in behind the Gretzky-era black and grey, so the team felt it important to factor that in as well.
Other changes were to re-introduce the iconic ‘speed lines’, the same ones that originated in the logo up until the late 90s. These resting behind the ‘KINGS’ lettering have become a staple for the organization. As well as updating the two different fonts — one for ‘KINGS’ and one for ‘Los Angeles’ — along with their overall shapes.
For now, this is all that has been unveiled by the team, as fans will have to wait for the official jersey to be released, which likely won’t be too far behind.
