Utah Jazz (2022)Copied

In June 2022 the Utah Jazz unveiled an entirely new colour scheme, redesigned home, road and alternate uniforms and a slightly modified logo set. SportsLogos.Net's Chris Creamer said the team then buried the lede under the revelation that it would wear its 1990s purple mountain throwback for several games, followed by a different purple alternate each season.

The team president's release led with purple, calling it the cornerstone colour, beloved by fans and at the core of the identity. Yet purple appeared nowhere in the Association, Icon or Statement uniforms, nor in the official colours. The Jazz had become a black and yellow team, a fact that, Creamer noted, the team's own article did not mention until its sixth paragraph.

The logos themselves are simple. The global logo is the familiar music note and basketball in black with UTAH JAZZ stacked beneath it; the primary icon is the note alone. There are no alternates. The team explained the white home kit's black and white as the keys of a piano, a significant element in the history of jazz, and the yellow road kit as the spotlight reserved for the greatest performers.

Creamer read the messaging as a lack of confidence, as if the club suspected it had made a mistake with a plain black and gold look, and predicted new purple uniforms within five years. He saved his praise for the courts, including a large chrome note visible against the black sidelines.

The Deseret News surveyed the response the day after the unveiling and called it negative, which it admitted was an understatement. The black kit drew the least anger and the white excited nobody, but the bright yellow was nearly universally hated, compared to highlighters, crossing guards and concert security. Fans complained that the sets looked like practice jerseys and had no tie to the team, city or state; one said they seemed copied from company letterhead. Only the returning purple mountain jerseys were broadly liked. When the throwback outshines the new look, the new look has failed.

He is right about the communication. A rebrand is a statement, and this one apologised for itself on launch day. The design is clean and modern, the note reads well in one colour, and black and yellow is undeniably striking. But fans had told the team what they loved, and it was purple.