Sometimes, burning down your brand is nothing more than an act of arson.
I don’t blame the Chicago Fire for wanting a fresh start. With each passing year since the club abandoned Soldier Field as their home in the mid-2000s, they proceeded to slide further and further into irrelevance. With new ownership and a renewed purpose to once again endear themselves to the city of Chicago, feeling the urge to turn over a new leaf is understandable.
However, Chicago is a city that is proud of its heritage and history. The brands of Chicago’s other professional teams reflect this. The last significant rebrand by one of the city’s five storied teams occurred in 1990, when the White Sox returned to their 1949 look.
What the White Sox understood that the Fire did not is that fans want to remember you at your best. It’s no coincidence that the 1990 rebrand took cues from the previous time the White Sox won the American League Pennant (1959). The Fire could have done the same, basing their brand around the team’s initial look, when they were one of the most successful clubs in MLS.
Unfortunately, the Fire gave Chicago a brand identity more focused on burning bridges, not mending them.
