r/washingtonwizards • u/TheAthletic • 1d ago
[Robins] Washington Wizards fans are dreaming up a rebrand, and the franchise is all ears
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7677666/2026/10/13/washington-wizards-rebrand-new-uniforms-logo-nba/?unlocked_article_code=1.IVE.AcO6.dsvVo1fGW48G&source=emp_shared_article&smid=re-share-taJustin Larson has loved the Washington Wizards his entire life.
Watching the team’s games remains one of his favorite pastimes. But over the past six months, he has developed a related hobby that he considers a passion project. Larson has designed new Wizards uniforms in the hope that team officials will rebrand the franchise. He shares his designs on X, and he attempts to catch the attention of some players and team executives by including their social media handles in his posts.
Larson regards the Wizards’ red, white and blue color scheme for their primary home and away jerseys, adopted in 2011 and based on the Washington Bullets’ uniforms of the 1970s and early ’80s, as outdated and unoriginal.
“I’m determined to keep pushing,” Larson said. “I realize that none of my designs may be used, but if I can get any input into that, I would love to do that. As a fan, I want us to have good-looking uniforms and logos that you’d actually want to rock and look good and you’d wear in different states and different areas of the U.S.”
Many Wizards fans share Larson’s opinion. They want a rebrand with new primary uniforms, a new logo and, perhaps, even a new name. For the first time since the backcourt tandem of John Wall and Bradley Beal powered Washington to the Eastern Conference semifinals, the franchise has hope, with a young nucleus headed by reigning No. 1 pick AJ Dybantsa and supplemented by four-time All-Star Trae Young and 10-time All-Star Anthony Davis. The argument goes like this: A long-awaited new era for Wizards basketball should include a novel, distinctive look.
“Fans want that fresh new look, and they want something that is a little more bolder and a little more modern,” said Lee Newman, who operates a Wizards fan account on X and monitors trends within the fanbase.
The fan push for a rebrand is well known to executives within Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), the company that owns and operates the Wizards, the WNBA’s Washington Mystics, the NHL’s Washington Capitals, the G League’s Capital City Go-Go, the NBA 2K League’s Wizards District Gaming and Monumental Sports Network.
MSE president of business operations and chief commercial officer Jim Van Stone, MSE chief marketing officer Hunter Lochmann and their colleagues have learned about fans’ hopes for a rebrand through customer surveys, social media feedback and occasional conversations at games. Van Stone and Lochmann, in an interview with The Athletic, said they are open to new approaches that would go beyond the annual unveiling of new alternate jerseys for the league’s 30 teams.
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u/reubensandwich 1d ago
Honestly shocked the athletic wrote this. Yes we want a rebrand but a guy is doing this with ChatGPT and gives conflicting messages. He wants new uniforms to be modern and also timeless. This is exactly the kind of thinking that got us into the current branding mess. I get the passion and the tools are there to make mock ups easy but these do nothing for me. The h on the first one looks weird as heck with the hands coming out of it.
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u/dontlikemirrors 1d ago
Not even gonna lie, I love every one of those jerseys. They look absolutely sick. I especially like the 2nd white and gold jersey and the bottom left gold. I do hope they do something like this.
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u/darthfracas Hey Bub 1d ago
Give me that blue in the top left. Love the combination of the blue and bronze with the classic Bullets raised hands.
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u/dgvhjiiuyttrrffcvbjj 1d ago
“I know a lot of our fans, they want instant change, and it’s not as easy,” Lochmann said. “You have to raise your hand for certain jerseys, and there’s a slotting process. It’s more cumbersome than you’d think. … We are definitely aiming towards that ’27-28 (season) in that timing. So, if we’re raising our hands, that’s when we’re raising our hands.”
Van Stone and Lochmann indicated that a major change to the Wizards’ logo will not occur within at least the next year, but they said the team will emphasize at least one of its tertiary logos: a “W” that roughly approximates the Wu-Tang Clan’s logo.
A name change from “Wizards” is not being considered, Van Stone and Lochmann said.
So no major rebrand next year.
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u/Fast_Stick_1593 Wizards Bed 1d ago
Just make the Statement and Icon jerseys pictured in the article the colour scheme.
The Black and Gold looks sick and it looks way more Wizard like than the Red, White and Blue stuff.
Even the Blue and Gold is better than the Red, White and Blue
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u/happyflappypancakes John Wall 1d ago
Im not saying we necessarily need it but if we did do it then now is certainly the time.
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u/aboysmokingintherain 1d ago
Can we make the cherry blossoms more part of the branding? They look awesome every time they use them and it will actually just be a fun branding. The Warriors use a silhouette of San Francisco. Why can't the Wizards use DC iconography over a shitty mascot?
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u/Coolcat127 1d ago
I've said it before and I'll say it again: switching to pink and white as the primary color scheme would be sick. Obvious cherry blossom connection fits with the city, wizards are supposed to be colorful so easy to fit into the branding, and no other NBA team uses pink.
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u/StopAxxinQues 1d ago
The uniforms that were generated in the main photo absolutely suck. Especially because these are just versions of the existing uniforms with slight changes.
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u/DCSports101 1d ago
They’ll never do it but I’d change the name to the Washington Monuments. Here’s why:
- monument are tall (duh)
- works well with monumental sports
- ties to dc at all (what’s a wizard got to do with anything)
- marks a new era and flushes some of the bad memory of the last 15 years
I know this won’t happen but that’s my soapbox!
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u/waskittenman With The First Pick In The 2026 NBA Draft... 1d ago
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u/boblikeshispizza Bullets 1d ago
Wizards sucks as a name, but monuments is genuinely 10 times worse.
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u/SituationKey8985 1d ago
Making the government our entire identity is why people think DC doesn’t have culture. Like why do our sports teams need to be the Capitals, Nationals, and Monuments, all with red, white, and blue color schemes?
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u/dgvhjiiuyttrrffcvbjj 1d ago edited 1d ago
100%. i can’t think of more boring and depressing identities to build sports teams around than governments and monuments. jesus christ are we trying to put people to sleep? Sports is supposed to be escapism, for the love of god, please don’t bring that shit into ball.
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u/DCSports101 1d ago
I mean it’s what we’re known for….
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u/boblikeshispizza Bullets 1d ago
I like history and politics, but for a sports team "politics and government" is not really a rallying cry. I remeber when the commanders (bad government name as well) were choosing its name, "presidents" was one of the finalists.
It's such a boring and over done theme. Like monuments, seriously? Might as well be the white houses.
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u/Thorwor Hawks 1d ago
Guy who lived in DC for a couple of years here. I've always thought the Wiz should go for a rebrand that drops "Washington" altogether. Nobody who lives there calls the city that; why should the basketball team?
The Caps are probably stuck with "Washington" now after the Cup, Ovi, etc. but there's no reason the Wiz couldn't embrace the local as part of a brand overhaul.
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u/zuckerkorn96 1d ago
What if they did the Washington Supremes or the Washington Justice. We wear black and gold and the logo is a big ass gavel. Our mascot could be a funny judge. Our court could be called the Supreme Court. Then each of our sports teams would represent the three branches of government. Our NBA team would would be the Judiciary. The Caps and Nats represent the Legislative. And the Commanders would represent the Executive (they could lean into the commander in chief thing and the spear logo they've been trotting out).
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u/neckchopman Anthony Gill 2h ago
I was thinking this for the Redskins. I wouldn't mind Senators either. It's corny, but it has history in D.C. and it makes sense.
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u/13atchelor 1d ago
Monuments actually has a shot because the ownership (monumental sports & entertainment). The only thing is what do you then do with the mystics? Which are a recent championship winner (2019) & also have a pretty big fan base?
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u/Jolly-Method-3111 Agent Zero 1d ago
Mystics, while tying into Wizards, was kind of dumb too, when you had Washington Witches right there.
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u/Downtown-Duty7492 Hopeless 1d ago
"works well with monumental sports" why would I ever give a shit for a name that ties in with monumental sports...
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u/sleeperwizards 1d ago
Just one comment as one of the people interviewed in the article and someone who has talked with multiple reps from monumental about this, the name is 110% not changing. Just revamping uniforms/fonts/etc.
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u/laflarehare Wizards 1d ago
Wizards are a good name, the team just needs to win. Those jerseys are a fresh welcome change from the red, white, and blue. Embrace the name and win and everyone will be all in.
With all disrespect intended, the Monuments is the worst suggestion I’ve seen. It’s very suspicious too that you would care about tying it to Monumental sports and network when they have robbed us from watching our local teams.
Wizards or Bullets or nothing. Just win games and give fans who have been here through all of it the support to see our team. Simple as that!
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u/mega05 1d ago
His designs are weak, and far inferior to what we have now. Much like the situation with the Redskins, the team connects better with the fans when they use the color scheme from the original name. The 90s/2000s Wiz uniforms were ugly and childish and the only people nostalgic for them are people who just happened to be impressionable little kids in that specific era. We rep DC, Red White and Blue, Bullets Forever.
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u/AnywhereOk1153 1d ago
They should absolutely do a Harry Potter theme or lord of the rings theme night, like fuck it go all in on the wizard imagery. Would be great to get to attract more local attention.
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u/2drums1cymbal 1d ago
Am I the only person that wants a name change as well? Wizards is soooo corny
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u/CaptchaCrunch Wizards Bed 1d ago
DC Go-Go
Washington Justice
Washington Swamp Hogs (better for football)
DC Mambo
Washington Founders
Washington Union
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u/GoZards18 1d ago
These are great but they still haven’t solved fact our branding doesn’t utilize Wizard imagery at all
If they’re gonna stick with monumental / dc / USA stuff they should change the team name
(But they won’t do that, so they should rebrand design and graphics kit more effectively)