PHOENIX -- For the first time since the team's inception in 1997, the Phoenix Mercury rolled out a rebranded image Monday with new uniforms and logos that pay homage to their storied history.
The new logo and uniforms, two of which come out Tuesday, were revealed during a private event in Phoenix on Friday night. The goal was to modernize a logo that the organization believed was true to the 1990s and limiting in what the franchise could do with it, Mercury president Vince Kozar told ESPN.
"We wound up really being guided by this idea of wanting to modernize it instead of just come off the top rope out of left field with something different," he said.
When the team took a hard look at its original logos, it realized it had only two that could be used along with a script wordmark. That made it hard, Kozar said, with merchandise, especially.
The rebrand has 14 logos, marks and wordmarks. The team also designed its own font for letters and numbers.
Kozar said the Mercury looked at how the New York Liberty (2020) and Seattle Storm (2021) modernized their logos as guides for what could be done.
One of the biggest changes was to incorporate more purple -- the team's primary color -- into the logo. From there, the team brought the logo into the 21st century thanks to two in-house designers, Kelly Streeter and Jaden Guilford.
Phoenix updated its "M" logo, which will be used as its primary mark, Kozar said. He described it as a modernized version of the original M, which had rings around it. The "M" logo is on top of the planet Mercury, as opposed to it being mostly below it in the original logo.
"The modernized M comes from wanting fans new and old to be able to see the old brand in the new one," Kozar said. "You should be able to recognize us in the new one."
Throughout the Mercury's redesign, there are small details that call back to the franchise's past.
In both the primary "M" logo and the global logo, which incorporates lines and the M, the M's are set at a 19.97-degree angle, a tribute to the organization's inaugural season. The point, also set at a 19.97-degree angle, represents the momentum of the team and the league, Kozar said.
In the global logo, the eight lines have two historical functions. It's a hat tip to the rings in the original logo and symbolic of the Mercury being one of the eight original WNBA teams. Kozar explained that the team's wordmarks are set to an 8-degree horizon, which signifies the same thing.
Phoenix also kept its "PHX" logo, which was created by Nike in 2021, because players and fans have responded to it so well, Kozar said. He added that he believes it's the first logo that pays tribute to a team's fan base, which Phoenix calls the "X Factor."
The Mercury's new marks incorporate the outline of the state of Arizona, and the team also rolled out a logo with the word "Merc" on it because, Kozar said, that's how fans and employees have been referring to the team for three decades.
Kozar said the redesign and rebrand was "a convergence of a lot of things."
The team started brainstorming a rebrand leading into its 25th season, but the COVID-19 pandemic put those plans on hold, Kozar said. Once the world emerged from the pandemic, Kozar said the Mercury targeted their 30th season as a new goal.
"I'd love to say we knew that we'd be coming off of a [WNBA] Finals trip when we did it, but that part's more coincidence," he said. "But the rest is super intentional."
From start to finish, the rebrand took about 2 years, Kozar said. The team used an outside agency to help it focus on "exactly who we are, what we're about" and to research fans' perception of the previous logos, he said. But then Phoenix took the design completely in house for six "hardcore" months of going through "dozens and dozens" of logos and revisions.
