Logo Controversy: History of 49ers Logo

It is always embarrassing to the management and designers to come up with a design for a logo for it to be rejected by the fans or brand followers. Such a rejection will in most cases compel the concerned parties to go back to the drawing board and come up with a design that will be accepted by the majority or simply retain the original design. Even though it is not possible to please every fan or follower with every new logo, the new design should at least not upset the majority of them. This is especially true if the venture is a sports team that relies on the support of their fans for continued sustenance. A typical scenario of such a rejection was when the 49ers changed their logo and the fan revolted due to the new design.

The logo redesign by the sports team was considered as a generational blunder and probably the biggest logo related disaster ever witnessed in Bay Area Sports history. The design of the new logo was awful and it was mocked by every newspaper and new agency in the region. It never went down well with the fans and they literally revolted, prompting he owner to revert back to the old design. It happened 25 years ago and here is the story of one of the greatest logo controversies in the sport’s history.

The logo controversy was sparked off when the supposed to be new logo was unveiled in the Chronicle and every local television station. Once the fans saw the horrible design of the helmet, it became an immediate story. The Chronicle began receiving lots of letters while the team started to get lots of phone calls from fans complaining just how horrible the new design was. The majority of the fans had the opinion that the initial logo was classier than the new design which looked plain and simply annoying.

With all the funfair created, the major media outlets picked up the story and started writing articles about it. Two days after the logo was unveiled at the press conference, a writer for The Chronicles did a cover story where he interviewed the irate fans about their feelings on the new logo. Most of the fans expressed their anger and disappointment at the new design given that the 49ers were considered among the greatest dynasties in the history of sports.

The fans, therefore, expected something that would reflect this status other than a goofy looking design which could be easily mistaken for a signage advertising onions for sale at .49 cents. The logo lacked the character as well as the tradition that was associated with the old 49ers logo. It meant that using it will make the sports team lose their visual identity which was now permanently etched in the minds of the fans.

It was not just the graphical presentation used on the logo that made the fans mad. Even the choice of fonts was a total failure. One fan compared the font to the fonts used on a New Kids on the Block album or container of sugary cereal breakfast meal. More damage was inflicted on the new logo by the decision to unveil it side by side the old logo in a televised press conference. This allowed the fans to compare instantly the two, and it emerged immediately that the older one was the outright favorite.

So horrible was the logo that it was suggested that other than the NFL officials and 49ers executives, only two people approved the new design. This was a complete flop compared to the enormous support the football team had. The new design immediately became the Gary of Cherone of logos, and this prompted the owner of the team to admit that the new logo was a mistake on the part of their organization and he had no option but to revert to the initial logo.

This was considered a good move since it illustrated the fact that the fans are very important part of the team and the team has an obligation to please them in every way possible. If you can lose the support of the fans, then being in business would not be possible in such competitive sports.

Once the old logo was adopted, all the rhetoric toned down, and fans were pleased once again to have their beloved team’s logo. The failure of this attempted rebrand left the team’s executives with crucial lessons to learn. Perhaps the major one is that wide consultation is paramount when you need to embark on such a branding that will affect thousands of the team’s supporters. If only the 49ers executives had expended some resources for thorough research before the logo was designed, maybe the reception would have been a bit different, or they would have come up with another design that the fans would have loved just as they did for the old logo.

Check out our impressions of the LA 2024 logo here.