Why the Houston Texans should rebrand
When the Houston Oilers moved to Tennessee, it left the NFL with two vapid structures. The Titans also have a fairly vauge and meaningless brand. What do Titans have to do with Tennesee? Not much.
Even if you do not care about sports, It’s a little sad that such a major brand can lack identity. The Houston Texans have the worst identity of any team in the league.
“Texans” .. That’s a demographic. Not a team.
A fun comparison
I want to point out why the Houston Texans in particular have horrendous branding.
Imagine if there were teams called:
- Mexico City Mexicans
- Los Angeles Californians
- New England New Englanders
- Seattle Washingtonians
- Miami Floridians
- New York New Yorkers
- Vancouver British Columbians
Those look pretty bad right? Extremely low effort?
You can see the gist of how little creativity was put into this $5.5 billion dollar brand.
Unfinished product
It’s like a fever dream of a concept team. A “fill in later” placeholder. Abstract and conceptual like an architects blueprint sketch. It feels 30% complete.
It’s honestly a corporate hollow shell with no charisma preying on the popularity of football in Texas for profit.
I imagine the design team was like “what the fuck do you mean they loved it and are rolling it out?? We’re not done yet??”
I know the city of Houston voted for it. The other options were pretty bad.
- Stallions
- Bobcats
- Texans
- Wildcatters
- Apollos
Given those options, I can see how they chose the lesser evil.
The choice they went with is so unapologetically unoffensive and safe that it kind of loses all meaning.
That being said, Texas is a proud state with a lot of beautiful history. I really think they could do better.
Conclusion
Even the bare minimum would be an improvement. Keep the colors. Keep the logo. It’s the name that needs more soul in it. Good excuse to sell more merchandise too right?
Oilers was a badass name with a charming logo. I’m sure someone from the area could draft something of that caliber.