The Salt Lake Bees are the LA Angels’ Triple A affiliate, and the team have unveiled new logos and uniforms for 2025. Not only did they undertake a complete redesign, the team will be moving to the new Daybreak Field in 2025.
Ashley Havili, VP of Marketing and Merchandise for the Salt Lake Bees, describes the new look thusly, “It’s a refresh, not a rebrand. We would say it’s an evolution, not a revolution. The Bees name has a long and storied history in baseball, going back to Utah’s first Pacific Coast League team in 1915. We feel that the changes honor the history of the Bees while allowing for growth of the brand to a new audience.”
The redesign could have been a wholesale rebrand. A little more than a year and a half ago, the team’s front office and ownership began considering making major changes to the Bees identity. But less than 20 years ago (2006), the Bees did a full rebrand, when they moved away from their previous identity as the Salt Lake Stingers.
“The question was, do we want to take the Bees to the new ballpark and is it time to rebrand into something else? Or what the Bees become at the new ballpark?” said Havili. After much internal discussion, the Bees opted to remain the Bees, as the team felt is had already built up a lot of brand equity, and wanted to keep that identity in tact for the move to their new digs.
The result is the new look will still look largely the same, with the team’s familiar mascot Bee logo, and signature black, white, and gold colors sticking around. So, what’s new? The Salt Lake Bees will be adding “a splash” of Los Angeles Angels red and a new color called Salt Lake Bees natural.
Let’s first take a look at the new logos. The team has very helpfully provided a bit of storytelling to show what’s new.
As noted, the Bees color palette remains predominantly black and gold, with the addition of an “Angels red” accent color that appears on the sleeve patch as well as the sleeve trim of a cream colored alternate uniform. A new custom primary script, black with yellow accents, is displayed on the home and black alternate jerseys. The primary logo features the Bees mascot, Bumble.
The team has also unveiled four redesigned uniforms as well as several different caps which can be mixed and matched with the new uniforms. The Bees will have a home white and road gray uniform set, as well as a black and gold alternate jersey which can be paired with the home white or road gray pants. Also introduced is a new cream uniform, which definitely harkens back to an older California Angels look.
Six different caps have also been unveiled.
The historical references in the new designs run deep, with references to franchise history and Salt Lake City’s baseball legacy. The interlocking SL ligature references is based the look of the original Bees teams of the early 20th century. It simultaneously pays tribute to Salt Lake’s ’70s and ’80s era Gulls and Trappers teams.
Additionally, the “flat bee” secondary mark, (the logo which shows a baseball inside a bee’s body, with a hive for its lower section) is similarly a nod to the original Bees teams. A logo featuring Bees script running diagonally through an outline of the state of Utah is based on a design used by the California Angels from 1971-85.
“The uniforms play into the new colors,” Havili said, noting the red trim and numbering in the cream-colored second alternate uniform. “I think it brings the Angels and the Bees together in a really nice, cohesive way.”
And there was one more reason behind the redesign. The SL Bees are an affiliate of the Angels, but their previous uniforms bore more than a passing resemblance to those worn by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Not just the colors (black and gold), but the wordmark, numbers and uniforms themselves.
Looks like the new designs will avoid any future “confusion” between the Bees and the Pirates.
These new uniforms are solid, and should be a great new look for the team as it begins play in a new ballpark next spring.
The Bees will open their 2025 season on the road in El Paso on March 28, with the first game at Daybreak Field scheduled for April 8.
What do you think of the redesigns?
Glad to see a minor league rebrand getting a headline.
Nice job. Also appreciate them keeping the team name. Local appeal without being silly or stupid. Way too many minor league teams try way too hard to be cutesy or clever in an attempt to sell more merch. Ends up being a bit embarrassing.
I don’t mind the silly one-offs or the regional “fun” names like Flying Chanclas de San Antonio or Binghamton Rumble Ponies. It gives MiLB a unique feel.
What bores me to death is when minor league teams have the same name as their MLB affiliates: Worcester Red Sox, Iowa Cubs, Syracuse Mets, etc.
I live in Utah, so I watch a lot of Bees games, I am sad that they are getting rid of the Yellow Jerseys. Those just work so well with both the white and gray pants.
Glad they kept their primary logo, it is a great one. The rebrand is very solid.
Absolutely love it, except I do think having the same hate twice, but just changing the bill, is redundant. I’d lose 2 of those hats, I think for the Bee logo it goes better with the yellow bill, for the yellow SL logo, keep the black bill. Only complaint but not even a big deal at all. Otherwise fantastic.
My assumption is that Salt Lake will get one of the expansion teams when MLB does expand, the city and state govs are 100% on board, they have a proven and well funded ownership group, it seems like it’s a foregone conclusion. That ownership group also happens to own the Bees right now, which brings me to my point, when that does happen, I hope the MLB team keeps the Bees branding. I understand they’ll probably use the Utah moniker, but I hope they’re the Utah Bees (which funny enough, the Miller family trademarked).
I don’t think it’s a safe assumption thinking SLC will get an expansion team. It would be one of the smaller markets in the league and sits well behind a few other places, like Portland, Nashville and Charlotte.
It’s going to be Nashville OR Charlotte, and SLC OR Portland. Right now SLC has by far the best conditions, deep pocketed ownership group and a state gov that has already committed $900m of public money to a ballpark + district. Also already have a site. It’s shovel ready and funded.
Nashville likely has the second best organization right now but SLC is way out in front. MLB insiders say it’s a matter of when, not if.
The new Portland mayor us ballpark friendly but so far just words. As for Charlotte, no ownership group, no gov interest. Just speculation based on size and geography.
Personally my prediction based on what’s happening today in Nov of 2024, Rays re-locate to Nashville, SLC gets an NL team, Portland gets an AL team.
The only miss for me is the road uniform, and it’s so close. Use the script Salt Lake and Use the black cap with the yellow SL and it’s perfect.
This is a proper logo and uniform set. Well done.
“Looks like the new designs will avoid any future “confusion” between the Bees and the Pirates.”
The new unis and branding are nice, but they definitely don’t move the team away from looking like the Pirates. Lateral move at best just from that standpoint.
I like the SL interlock, but nothing beats the old SL Trappers logo where they dropped the “t” from the St Louis Cardinals logo
I wish these people were in charge of Cleveland’s rebrand.
The hive patch and beehive logo are clearly inspired by the new Utah stage flag. Which is a win.
Love the overall look, and saw someone say SLC isn’t a lock for expansion – beg to differ. Utah passed a billion dollar bill to build a new stadium for MLB if/when it comes this year, which is far more a legit and serious commitment than almost any other market, state, or city have done – like Tampa. Also, the speed at which the move of the Coyotes to Utah was unprecedented in all major sports, and is already a huge success and without doubt MLB is taking notice. Utah is aggressive right now and people should look at its growth trajectory, which is in line with Colorado’s in the 90’s to present. They don’t just look at current market size when they factor these things in. SLC may not be a lock, but it’s without doubt in the top 3 right now.
The “SL” logo really messes with my head, it keeps telling me it needs a little “t” in there to make a Cardinals logo.
But seriously these are great, love the logos, and the uniforms are great as well.
I love these. I don’t think they do much to get away from the Pirates, but that’s fine. They are appropriately “minor league” without trying to be zany. My only complaint is that they could afford to trim the number of hats and logos, particularly the honeycomb logo which looks like a brewery.
Very nice! I would probably not use the road cap and replace it with an all black SL or Bee. Although I mostly like caps with a white front, I don’t like them with some colors, black being one of them. All in all a very solid set better than most MLB teams as the are minus the hideous City Connects. Well thought out design with the use of the beehives etc
Thanks for this! I love love love minor league baseball news!
Love the script on these, especially the “Bees” across the front of the primary home. Nice improvement over the old block lettering.
I like the hex motif for them, and I’d like to see them lean into that a bit more.
More red on the Alt-2 than I’d like, but still a really nice set.
That is a really awesome rebrand. I can’t really find fault with any of it
I don’t see an ad or a Nike logo, so I approve. One thing I wondered about: is the Angels logo patch rendered in red, yellow and black? Because the Angels use a navy blue outline instead of black. Makes for a unique patch design if navy is swapped out for black.
That looks like the same font as the Minnesota Twins. Interesting how it’s getting popular. I love the font, personally.
Is there a reason why there is a never a yellow/gold cap?
I think a gold cap with that Bee alternate logo would look fantastic.
Mudhens ought to have a yellow cap as well.
I had never heard of the team, don’t root for their major league team, and have never been to Salt Lake, but I need some merch because the logos are so nice. Take my money!
Good rebrand, nice logos and fonts. Uniforms are solid but a bit bland: they could have done something distinguishing with contrasting sleeves, pinstripes or other touches to move it away from the Pirates identity. Also too many hats but at least it all looks very nice.
An excellent identity update in almost all respects. My only beef is with the hats. A pet peeve of mine is when teams pair team-name jerseys with mascot caps and city-name jerseys with city initial caps. We know you’re the bees! It says “Bees” in big, beautiful letters on your chest. Put the Salt Lake initials on your cap. And on the road, we know you’re from Salt Lake – it says so right thee on your jersey. Put the cartoon bee on your head. Also, the ghosted black-on-black SL cap is ugly even for a fan-only fashion cap. It has no business being the primary road cap. Nothing else about the identity suggests that ghosted black-on-black is an appropriate cap logo treatment.
This article mentions the similarities the old jerseys had to the Pittsburgh Pirates. I just wanted to take a moment to let people know that’s because the 2006-2024 jerseys were based on the jerseys of the Salt Lake City Bees that played in the PCL from 1958 to 1965, and from 1958 to 1960 they were the top affiliate of the Pirates. If you Google “1959 Salt Lake City Bees jersey” one of the first results is a picture of the jersey they wore during that time period. The jersey font and bee logo are very similar.
Overall, I like the “refresh” as they call it. Incorporates a lot more Utah baseball history into the logos and jerseys, while still keeping what the fans like.