The Louisville Bats, a Minor League Baseball team and the Triple-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, have unveiled a new logo for 2025 which both bridges the history of the franchise and also honors their hometown. The Bats nickname references the animal as well baseball bats — manufactured locally under the Louisville Slugger brand.
The Bats history in Louisville dates to 1982, when the club began play as the Louisville Redbirds. The Redbirds rebranded as the Louisville RiverBats in 1999; this was shortened to Bats in 2002, and the team has played as the Louisville Bats since that time.
The Bats introduced this logo in 2002, which they kept until 2015:
The team would redesign both their uniforms and logos for the 2016 season. The logo also reflected the team’s new color scheme, going from black, gold and purple, to red, white and blue.
The redesign was done by SME New York, and produced numerous secondary logos as well, such as a bat holding a bat. (The bat is nicknamed “Buddy”.)
After nine seasons with that logo, the team has now unveiled a new secondary logo for 2025. Check it out:
It’s quite a clever logo with not one, but two, hidden Easter eggs. Take a good look at the logo above and see if you can spot them.
The first one is probably the most obvious. The logo contains an outline of the state of Kentucky within the negative space of Buddy’s wing and the baseball bat below:
The second hidden image is perhaps a bit harder to ascertain. It is a fleur de lis, hidden in the bat’s claws; the fleur-de-lis is the part of the official seal of the City of Louisville. (You may recall an excellent piece done by Walter Helfer, who examined the use of the fleur-de-lis in many a flag and coat of arms.) The fleur-de-lis became city’s official seal because it was the symbol of Louisville’s namesake, King Louis XVI of France.
Here’s a closer look:
Very clever!
Is it a little too clever? I don’t think so. I love everything about the new look with its pair of Easter eggs!
What do you guys think?
It’s funny, I noticed the fleur de lis immediately, but didn’t notice the Kentucky shape until it was pointed out as “the obvious” easter egg haha.
p.s. Behance isn’t a design firm, it’s a portfolio site for designers to share their work.
Ditto.
I think the fleur is a little forced and obvious if you are familiar them. But I still like it.
Magnifique!
Forced. -C.
The wings look like shark fins? That bright white highlight with a slight bend gives off the impression that the wings are curved over the top and “wet.”
Major upgrade over past designs. Not overly cute, not overly angry. Well done.
Muchas gracias for the shout-out, Phil. There’s more going on there than I care to see, were it the major leagues. For MiLB this is fine.
The fleur-de-lis is definitely forced. I’ll try to explain…
The right “petal” of the flower is obviously the bat’s left talon. However, the bat’s right talon does not wrap around the bat-it just disappears into the fleur which does not conform to any other part of the bat. So part of the symbol is integrated into the mascot and the other part is there to be there.
But it is still a solid B/B- upgrade.
Like Tim, I noticed the fleur-de-lis first, probably because it was in my mind’s eye as I was thinking about the mentioned Louisville Redbirds’ logo. If I remember correctly, that featured the Cardinals’ batting bird with a circle behind it and the fleur-de-lis in the upper right of the circle. My parents had good friends in Louisville, and when we went to visit them in 1984 (part of a larger trip that included the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Pro Football Hall of Fame), I picked up a Redbirds sticker. It remained attached to my single-years dresser mirror.
Very cleverly done on both Easter eggs by the designers; I wonder whose idea(s) became such a fun, multifaceted creation.
Great call on that. link
Here’s a bit more on it: link
First link does not work for me
It was just link to the logo shown in the link below it.
link
Yessir, that’s it; thank you, Phil!
“Behance” is the name of the website that the images are shared on. It is just a portfolio site owned by Adobe. It looks like it was actually done by “SME New York”…which doesn’t seem to be a thing anymore…?
Ah. Thank you!
Text now adjusted.
How is the bat not nicknamed Slugger?
I don’t think Louisville Slugger would let them use it, but I may be misremembering.
When they first rebranded from RiverBats, the tried to change to Louisville Sluggers, but Hillerich & Bradsby would not allow it.
Not a fan of this logo overall, but I’m always glad to see MiLB coverage on this site.
I’d rather see a state outline and fleur de lis that isn’t hidden. Several things about the mascot depiction that I’m not wild about.
On the other hand, it’s a secondary logo so it’s not a big deal. Those can be a little more experimental.
pretty sure the face is from the inaugural riverbats design as well
It is! I’m suprised that it wasn’t mentioned here.
link
This picture shows the similarities between the old logo and the new one
Also, the oval on the bat (which is part of the fleur-de-lis) is also a reference to the classic Louisville Slugger logo branded on wood bats.
link
Are we going to get a big MLB uniform preview post before the season?
That is my plan, yes.
It is very similar to their original logo when the team colors were purple and green.
As a Carolina Hurricanes fan, I’ve been seasoned to look for negative space shenanigans since the Canes brought out their new secondary logo. I do like easter eggs but I think I still prefer the outgoing logo. This one as a secondary logo would be perfect.
It *is* a secondary logo.
I open my big mouth here once a year maybe. Both times foot in mouth. My b.
Wow, I saw the fleur-d-whatever immediately but didn’t see the State of Kentucky at all.
It doesn’t help that it looks more like Virginia than Kentucky.
Awesome logo! I love how it bridges both sides of the bat’s identity.
I think it’s actually a pretty great logo. Even without pointing to the Easter eggs, I give it an A-.
The “LB” logo seems like a rip off of Long Beach State.
Eh. There are more than enough differences in the two.
The problem with it is that it looks more like Virginia than Kentucky
Nice logo, but is Buddy holding the bat or perching on it like a Redbird?
“Bats” is such a great name for a baseball team.
It is, but red white and blue is not a good color scheme for the name.
I like it
I’m from New Orleans and I love Quebec, so I saw the fleur-de-lis fairly quickly. I didn’t know it’s a relevant symbol for Louisville, Ky., but it makes sense, because everything is named after King Louis XVI! But I immediately saw the Kentucky outline.
As a bonus third Easter egg, I see the oval on the bat that couldn’t be anything else except the Louisville Slugger logo. It’s really supposed to be on the barrel, but I’ll allow this artistic liberty for two reasons. (1) It needs to tie in with the fleur-de-lis, and it has to be where a flying animal could grab the object with its talons. (2) Louisville Slugger are such iconic bats, and the oval is so iconic, even if you don’t know baseball super well, maybe you think all bats have the oval. Kind of like how a cartoon character might have high-tops with a circle at the ankle…it’s Chuck Taylor and everybody knows it, wink wink. Take the oval and slightly move it, everybody still knows what it is, but the bat company can’t or won’t shut down the whole logo just because the bat in the logo has a geometric shape somewhere in it.
Supremely well done!
Hey, Kevin P, you got me to internetting and it seems the RiverBats were sold from Hillerich & Bradsby to Wilson Sporting Goods in 2015.
Very interesting that a Cincinatti, OH (Reds) affiliate formerly named the Redbirds based in Louisville, KY is sold to a Chicago, IL company, changes colors to RWB from GBP, but doesn’t go back to RedBirds.
And I’m guessing that it was Wilson that blocked the change to “Sluggers” in 2015…?
Would have liked to see how the logos looked on their Uniforms….