“Sometimes, we have some circumstances where we have new ownership, we have a vision, and we can move these timelines around a little bit,” said Christopher Arena, the NBA’s vice president for apparel, sporting goods and basketball partnerships. “The Wizards were very focused and very clear where they wanted this to go and that really refined the brief and direction we wanted to go, and that creative process was really truncated in a small amount of time.”
The dramatic transition from the bearded magician to a rebrand more reminiscent of the Bullets was a collaborative effort by the Wizards, the NBA and Adidas. Adidas assigned a team of 11 designers to create a look that Leonsis said “should pay appropriate homage and respect to the past, to the tradition, and what the Pollin family built, but also have that modern twist on what we want to accomplish as a group together.”
Leon Imas, category designer for concept and identity for Adidas, said he has been involved with 71 identity projects for various sports teams but said the Wizards assignment was especially exciting for him since he grew up in Montgomery County, studied art at Albert Einstein High School and is a long-time fan of the team (Gheorghe Muresan was his favorite player growing up).
“Being from the Washington, D.C., area, this was a point of pride to be a part of this project,” said Imas, adding that when the Wizards presented their proposal to Adidas, they asked the company to “celebrate the city, celebrate the heritage and give us something fun, young and modern.”
Imas and his development team researched every uniform the team has donned for the past 50 years and traveled to Washington to do research and get some ideas. Although he is aware that some fans had hopedthe team also would change the name back to Bullets, Imas said, “I think for us, it was really about telling the story of D.C., not so much about the name. Just wanted to show that hidden symbolism that D.C. has as part of its heritage.”
The new uniforms feature horizontal stripes and lowercase letters in bright red and navy blue. The new primary logo – the letters “dc,” with a hand shooting a ball from the top of the “d” — brought back the hands that once formed the shooting “L’s” on the Bullets jerseys. “I think it does something different with the stars and bars look, and I think it still tells a great story for the Wizards,” Imas said.
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