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One designer’s take on a potential NYCFC uniform and crest

NYCFCDesignerKitHome (MikeRetrum)

By DAN KARELL

We’re still a year and a half away from New York City FC taking the field as Major League Soccer’s 20th franchise, but one designer already has eyes for the club’s crest and official uniform.

Mike Retrum of Digby Labs has put together his personal designs for NYC FC, featuring the Manchester City sky blue and white color on the jersey, along with a badge that pays homage to all five boroughs of New York City.

What do you make of the designs? Think they are too closely resemble City?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. The alternates remind me of LA Galaxy alternates. Very similar. When I saw the guy lives in California it connected the dots.

    I’m not a big fan of the mock-ups. MLS should know to avoid Chivas USA 2.0.

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  2. Lame. But the crest is good. Just need to have more of a connection to NYC and less of a connection to Man City. People need to feel like this club is their own, not a farm team for a club in the EPL. It hasn’t worked with Chivas USA, right?

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  3. This Stadium will not be built in the Five Boroughs. The Sheikh’s involvement will prove too toxic.

    This isn’t normal American politics. It’s New York politics. His pile of problems is bigger than his pile of money.

    County pols outside the City will be quicker to take his cash.

    They’ll have to play in Yankee Stadium for much longer than anyone predicted or build just outside the city.

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    • You should tell the Bronx borough president who is begging them to come there and the New York Yankees how much they don’t know about New York Politics.

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      • I think you’re right. They’re going to get bogged down in NYC politics and it is VERY hard to get a stadium built within city limits (unless you’re building it in your own parking lot, with your own money). This stadium will take a long time to finally get done, and in the interim they’re going to be playing at Yankee Stadium or some spot that is much less than ideal.

        In the meantime, people will start wondering why NYCFC is in MLS and the NY Cosmos are not…

    • I don’t think it’s getting built in the city anytime soon, but I doubt it’ll have anything to do with Mansour. NYC pols take money from plenty of unsavory types.

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  4. NYCFC is a joke waiting to happen at this point. I wouldn’t worry too much about Jersey’s, it’s the stadium you dumbasses should concern yourself with!

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  5. Home whites with navy pinstripes, navy numbers with sky blue accents, navy neck and armhole bands with sky blue accents. Solid navy shorts with sky blue numbers. Road greys, solid, with sky blue numbers with navy accents, navy neck and armhole bands with sky blue accents. Solid grey shorts with sky blue numbers.

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  6. Honestly, i give them a 5,out of 10. I just dont get it, why do people think, NYCFC is going to take their ideas serious and listen to them.

    First of all, New York city is a fashion capital of the world and basically the owners can give adidas help by telling a fancy designer to help with the uniform and crest design, given that many fashion designers are into soccer, since soccer players all around the world connect with fashion designers.

    You also have so many american and european and even asian fashion designers that attend soccer games, which would help NYCFC in a heartbeat to design the crest and uniform.

    Second of all, if MLS screws up the crest and uniform design, i will go crazy because MLS doesnt learn their lesson and never gets it right.

    Look at:

    Houston dynamo=lame name and crest (for all MLS teams ,stop putting a soccer ball image in the crest) Their name should have been something that connects to NASA, Houston city jets, houston halo, houston galactics or simply Houston Republic.

    San Jose earthquakes= fans love their name but wtf? their crest is awful. Why not, San Jose bay Athletic, San Jose bay evolution (due to the technology presence in san jose)

    New England Revolution= Terrible crest and their name should be, Boston New England or Boston republic. I also remember reading a piece about rebranding new england, and it was really good.

    FC Dallas= Not bad but how about DFW United, there is only one united team right now and sooner than later, another team will use united. How about DFW metropolitans.

    Colorado rapids= just go for rio colorado fc or colorado pikes or 4 point colorado

    Columbus crew= new name, new logo. I would go for C-O Steel or Inter city columbus (due to its economy connections)

    New York Red Bull= New logo at least and new unis as well. As for the name, go for Red Bull Jersey or New Jersey Bulls

    Chivas USA= Rebrand ASAP or become Los Angeles Aztlan or Aztecs

    Real Salt lake= new logo with no soccer ball, and maybe go for Salt Lake city, no real. Or Utah warriors or Utah wasatch fc

    Chicago fire= i know people love their name but how about Chicago blue stars, i think their womens team has that name.

    Note: All MLS teams should use their state flag colors in their crest and uniforms.

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    • This post is such a disaster I don’t know what to say. I guess I’ll just respond to the first sentence, people do it cause for them making the design is fun, I highly doubt that they think it will actually be taken into account.

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      • Why disaster? I think byob has good points about nycfc and the other teams. Look at timbers crest, it got f*ck up and their fans had better crest and uniform ideas. Same thing with sounders crest and uniform design. Then you have galaxy that with becks arrival, they got new crest and unis. MLS should learn from SKCs stadium and rebranding, since many MLS team owners dont want to take their team to the next level, like columbus, new england, san jose, chivas usa, chicago fire, dc, fc dallas.

        Thats why if MLS believes in parity, then tell all owners to soend like red bull, galaxy, sounders and even impact.

      • To sounds like Red Bulls? Aka the team that sold its soul for some money and are named after a sportdrink? Alright then. The post is a disaster because expecting over half the league to completely rebrand is unrealistic and some of his ideas were very out there.

      • Calm down, the league is young and teams still have time to get their sh*t together Mr.Travis. So why do teams get new owners and if you follow American sport leagues like NBA,NFL,NHL,MLB, they are always getting new crest and names and even relocating. Do you live under a rock or have you been abused by your partner? JK……. but Mr.Travis, you do remember Dallas Burn, metrostars and now NASL team names making a comeback, then why not new names and crest. So if your wife cheats on you, half way through your life? you wont get another girl, kinda same thing sir.

      • Same city but not same IP or human blood. His my cousin 🙂 gotta represent el paso texas. The hidden gem of west texas and total southwest. Ill be here if anyone ones a drink in el paso tx n watch a game.

  7. cool, i think the crest should be a little more smooth than that. i like the idea of combining the yankees and old man city (iron cross) symbols..

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  8. Oh that badge is ugly. Honestly, why not just transplant the eagle/shield/ship design with NYCFC on it instead of MCFC. I’d rather see that with a change in color scheme.

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    • Why? It’s a great opportunity to globalize an American team, and it presents an opportunity for homegrown players to move up to better professional leagues.

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      • As long as man city gives full creative and directive control to guys in nyc and as long as it they do not pull schemes to make people hate nycfc, i have no problem with it. Their problem going in their first season will be trying to win over fans who hate man city. But as I said, as long as their not obviously controlling over nycfc (uniforms, color schemes, sponsors, etc.) then they’ll avoid a big amount of problems. I would’ve preferred the cosmos but we’ll see where this goes.

  9. I like the idea of that logo.. a little more detailed but not bad for a random guys guess.. if the team gets the marketing of the logo right it could be pretty big

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  10. Ugh — I’m tired of hearing about this. This isn’t even official — it’s just the idea of some guy with no connection to the organization. What’s next — some random architect’s proposed design for a stadium at a non-existent site?

    City should just open up an apparel section at the Yankees’ stadium shops and we could all be done with this.

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  11. I think it’s should be a blue or black w pinstripes to pay homage to city and the Yankees w a crown crest for the 5 Burroughs or an Statue of Liberty torch crest but that’s still far away

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  12. So it has to be sky blue then, eh? Doesn’t Sporting KC already have that? Teams should try to use a unique color. Way too much red, white & blue jersey colors in MLS. Nothing iconic, except Seattle’s who you can tell just at a glance. Salt Lake you can also tell at a glance, but that’s because they are butt ugly.

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    • Jerseys are generally a certain number of basic colors because they are easier to brand and market–and also teams generally have at least 1 white jersey as a neutral color for color-conflicted matches. Lots of considerations go into a jersey color beyond what looks nice.

      In some cases you manage to meld those all together for special marketing purposes (e.g. regionalism)–people think of Seattle green, but the official sounders color is sounder blue for the pugent sound waves. the green represents the vast forest areas and they come together to represent the physical landscape of the northwest, which as we’ve all seen is wildly regionalistic.

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    • I’d say Dynamo’s Orange is really quite distinct, and Columbus’ yellow is pretty unique, at least in the MLS

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    • I guarantee that Manchester City owns the international trademark on that color jersey–they sell them in the United States already–and the IP would have been vetted extensively given our IP laws before production and sale occurred within our borders.

      For legal reasons–it would be the same color. Columbia would have no case.

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  13. On the jersey: not bad at all. They look nice.

    On the designer putting the Adidas logo on a jersey and releasing it to the public? Cease and desist coming soon to your door.

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      • It’s a mock-up designed to advertise for his company — he’s a freelance designer and you can contact him for work on the bottom of the page.

        It’s an open and shut case–his mock up is an advertisement for his business and thus does not fall under the artistic exceptions clauses of our IP laws. He’d be toast if they took him to court.

    • They won’t because this designer isn’t selling anything, its purely a mock up, and a very well done one at that.

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    • He made his disclaimer saying all logos are property of their respective owners….he is making it know those are NOT his logos so he is not trying to say it is his idea of logo, just his idea of what the design of THIS uniform would look like….and the logos are simply placed on it as they normally would since Adidas has a long term contract with MLS

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      • I don’t know why people think disclaiming ownership of the trademark will absolve them of committing an intellectual property crime. He could argue fair use but admitting you dont own the trademark doesnt matter. Its not his and except for limited purposes he cannot use it.

  14. So much for this club trying to distinguish itself as anything but Manchester City West (or not alienating the Manchester United fans).

    I personally don’t mind and actually like them it but that’s completely contradictory of what they said.

    Reply

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