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The long-struggling New York Jets today are unveiling a new uniform set that draws inspiration from a period of relative glory for the team — the 1980s “New York Sack Exchange.”
The change brings back the team’s “jet” helmet logo for the first time since 1997, along with a uniform design based on the set first introduced in 1978. The graphic makeover, which also includes a new set of symbols and bespoke fonts, will distinguish the Jets among fans and brand partners, recruit new fans including in overseas markets, and sell more branded merchandise, team officials say.
The new uniform arrives while nostalgia marketing is hot — and sports teams get more strategic about using their on-field looks as a branding element. Part of that is timing the drop ahead of the NFL Draft on April 25, when incoming players are spotlighted with team jerseys and branded caps. In addition to the Jets, the Detroit Lions (April 18), Denver Broncos (April 22) and Houston Texans (April 23) are to reveal new looks in the coming weeks.
Jets officials say their new look, known as the legacy collection, represents a modern interpretation of a classic design that can restore some luster to a brand that’s been thrown for a loss in recent years. It was designed in-house with cooperation from the NFL.
“The biggest representation of a team’s brand is the uniform they wear,” said Tim Kemp, vice president of marketing for the Jets, said in an interview. “And I think what we’re really excited about is when the stadium is filled with 82,000 people, and there are millions watching around the world, this uniform distinctly looks like the New York Jets. We feel that’s really going to amplify our brand, not only domestically but internationally as well.”
The Jets have local marketing rights in the U.K. and Ireland through the NFL’s Global Markets program. They last played in the U.K. in 2021. While the NFL full schedule won’t be announced until May 11, two of the Jets’ road-game opponents in 2024 — the Jacksonville Jaguars and Minnesota Vikings — have been designated as the home teams for games to be held in London this year.
Throwback
As the Jets look into the past for inspiration, the team is also acknowledging a future-forward rebrand introduced in 2019 wasn’t entirely successful. The “Take Flight” look introduced a new color palette, a new logo and a futuristic uniform distinguished by a pointy shoulder stripe that wrapped to the front of the jersey, an effect some critics dismissed as “Arena League.”
NFL rules require teams to retain their uniform looks for a minimum of five years — and the Jets won’t be a day late. In fact, the team was at work on what would become the successor to the “Take Flight” look as early as 2021, when team officials first discussed a Sack Exchange throwback as an alternate look. The NFL permits teams to have three uniforms — a primary home and away look and an alternate uniform it may wear no more than twice a year. Last week it was announced teams rebranding this year could have three helmets; the collection the Jets are sharing has two — green and black.
One goal of the new rebranding is make it last beyond the league’s five-year minimum. It’s a lesson the Jets absorbed from their New York sports neighbors. “The Yankees don’t change their uniform, they lean into their history. The Mets have had some deviations over the years but they’ve leaned into their history. Same thing with the Rangers and Knicks,” Hymie Elhai, president of the Jets, said in an interview.
The Jets intended to introduce the new look in 2022, but production timing delayed the unveiling to last year when the “legacy white” throwback served as the Jets’ alternate. Fans clamored for its return on a full-time basis.
“I think we realized we consider ourselves an iconic team, and iconic teams have iconic uniforms,” Elhai said. “This uniform resonates in design and aesthetic, to our fan base, and our long history going back to when we played in Shea Stadium [through 1984] …. I think this logo has historic resonance with our fans, and we’d shifted away from it over the past 20-plus years.”
Metallic brightness
The “Sack Exchange” was a nickname given to the defensive line of the Jets — Mark Gastineau, Joe Klecko, Marty Lyons and Abdul Salaam — in 1981. The hard-hitting pass-rushers helped the Jets lead the NFL in sacks in 1981, and cut a personality off the field, with Gastineau emerging as the Jets’ most colorful personality since Joe Namath. The 1981 Jets made the playoffs for the first time in 11 years, starting a prosperous stretch of four playoff appearances in six years.
Those teams played in uniforms that were introduced in 1978, with a helmet logo incorporating the word “Jets” with an airplane flying off the top of the J. The look, with slight modifications over the years, was worn by the team through 1997.
The legacy interpretation makes tweaks big and small to that look, including retaining what worked from the most recent “Take Flight” look — its pearlescent green helmet and a black alternate that was a winner at retail. Subtle changes include a white facemask on the green helmet. This look assures the throwback nature isn’t stuck in the past, said Elhai.
“I think there’s something symbolic about the metallic brightness of the helmet; it’s what we feel the future can be, while also leaning into history,” Elhai said.
The addition of black jerseys has resonated with New Yorkers for whom black is “default fashion,” said Chris Pierce, VP of fan commerce for the Jets, adding that black was a big seller among fans. “Black is an iconic fashion color, and fashion is one of the iconic industries of New York.”
A funky airplane
The Jets wouldn’t have a logo to resurrect were it not for a video-room employee named Jim Pons, who designed the 1978-1997 Jets logo. He came to work for the Jets in the 1970s after his first career as the bass player for rock bands including The Turtles and The Mothers of Invention. Now 81 and retired, Pons recalled being inspired to create his own logo for the team after spotting a submission from a Manhattan graphic design firm with a $50,000 price tag.
“I was pretty amazed and I thought jeez, I think I might take a shot at this,” Pons said. Finding the old Jets logo “too convoluted for my liking,” Pons went for simplicity, starting with the letters, tilting them to the right to impart movement, then extending the top of the J across the other letters, only then realizing it could resemble what he called a “goofy, funky airplane.”
Pons was compensated for his work, Jets officials said, if not at the rate pro design firms were seeking.
That logo will be working harder in the new design. The jet is now bolder, with a streamlined nose, so as to better appear across social and digital platforms and impart the notions of speed and sleekness, said Kemp. The original hand-drawn letters and spacing were also refined. “When you bring all of these elements and typography together it feels more like a logo than a wordmark, and that was important to us,” Kemp said.
A range of secondary and tertiary logos are also emerging from that redesign, including a jet independent of the wordmark that will serve as a 50-yard-line logo at MetLife Stadium. Secondary marks will be tested on a variety of hats, shirts and hoodies, said Pierce. “I want the customer to decide what logos resonate,” Pierce said. “We’re going to put them all out there and beta-test everything to see what are the logos the elicit the best response from fans.”
The revamped wordmark has also inspired a bespoke new font the Jets are calling pilot, along with companions called co-pilot and atlas, developed with the help of a typographist. These will carry the Jets’ branding to all manner of written communications and advertising.
The Jets are also planning to lean into fan contributions to their brand, embracing the “J-E-T-S” cheer popularized by longtime fan “Fireman” Ed Anzalone. “It’s the most famous cheer in sports,” said Kemp. Another slogan with fan heritage, “Jet Up,” will become the team’s new social media hashtag.
Lord of uniform updates
Every week during the football season, the uniform combination the Jets will be wearing is revealed in a post on X (formerly Twitter) from Jets owner Woody Johnson, whose X profile identifies himself as the “Lord of Uniform Updates.”
Comments from Johnson’s posts announcing the legacy look last year served as a kind of affirmation that the Jets were on the right track with their redesign, said Kemp. That the excitement over uniforms is shared by the team owner illustrates the phenomenal fascination fans have with what their favorite athletes wear.
“Regardless of who’s posting and the timing of it, fans in any sport are obsessed with uniforms, and what uniforms teams are wearing,” Kemp said. “That goes back to it being the largest extension of our brand. So social platforms like this are a repository of fan feedback, especially as it relates to uniforms.”
But the Jets have demonstrated over time that even a popular uniform change won’t necessarily lead to fan satisfaction.
The “Take Flight” era won’t be remembered for its glory. The Jets had a losing record in all five years and didn’t make the playoffs, while transitioning from one disappointing high-drafted quarterback (Sam Darnold) to another (Zach Wilson). The team hasn’t made the playoffs since 2010 while enduring occasional indignities like the Thanksgiving Day “butt fumble” in 2012.
“The one thing we’ve realized is that there an extreme level of passion for this team despite the struggles on the field, and those loyal fans aren’t going anywhere — it will pass down from generation to generation,” Elhai said.
The acquisition of veteran All-Pro signal caller Aaron Rodgers was seen as a potential momentum changer last year, but an injury kept Rodgers off the field all season. The outspoken quarterback in the meantime seemed to ramp up his contentious remarks on topics including the COVID-19 vaccine. He also reportedly drew interest as a potential running mate for fellow vaccine skeptic and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr, though he was not chosen.
Has Rogers put the Jets’ brand reputation at risk? “I think Aaron represents us extremely well,” Elhai said.
Brands and fans
Some 120 sponsors also stand to benefit from the Jets rebrand, said Kemp, as they use the Jets’ intellectual property rights to create co-branded packaging, advertisements and other platforms.
The team has been working with a handful of those partners over the last year to prepare for the launch. “We’re coming up with a lot of in-market, consumer-facing activations and packaging that amplifies and reinforces our brand,” Kemp said.
Pierce, who oversees merchandise sales for the Jets, is confident the new look will result in a boost in sales, not just because there’s new product, but because he’s confident fans will like it.
“If we make decisions that are good for the fan, those will be good decisions for commerce,” he said.
Pierce declined to disclose where the Jets ranked in merchandise sales leaguewide but said the team anticipates a “significant lift,” this year. “If you split the league into quarters, in terms of performers, I would think we’re moving. We’re going move up a quarter with this iteration.”
Fans who are in a good place emotionally tend to spend, and for the Jets that’s been a struggle as their seasons progress.
“In this business, you’re making bets, and you’re always betting that your team is going to stay intact and healthy and perform as you hope,” Pierce said. “Sometimes the universe has other plans. And sometimes you’re surprised and your team is wildly successful, and you wind up chasing business.
”What does it mean to be a Jets fan? A Jets fan is loyal. A Jets fan is passionate. They show up for us in ways that are really amazing and admirable,” Pierce continued. “And we all want the same outcome. We want to reward that passion. And I think this uniform launch is really rewarding that passion, and giving them something that they’ve been clamoring for.”
This article originally appeared in Ad Age.
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Jon Springer, Ad Age , 2024-04-15 19:03:03
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