New Louisville Slugger Design

[PwKw13]

Re: New Louisville Slugger Design

It looks strangely similar to this Nike bat...

[yanks12025]

Re: New Louisville Slugger Design

I think it's so ugly, I may just stick to pre 2013 bats then.

[1929tudor]

Re: New Louisville Slugger Design

The worst part on the barrel is the facsimilie autograph. As crappy as these players sign anymore how the heck are you supposed to tell who's bat it is. Only way to narrow it down is they put the team name there and you'll have to guess. What a way to destroy a 100 year old history and tradition to make a bat that looks like that. Every thing changes over time I guess.

[GoTigers]

Re: New Louisville Slugger Design

The more I look at it the less I like it. The 4 lines of text at the sig block are in 4 different font sizes, and a couple different fonts. The changes in size, direction, and font are distracting and hard to read.

I barely notice the centerbrand because the sig block is such a mess. I do not like that they dropped the 125 and "Powerized". The centerbrand is almost over-simplified and the barrel branding is a jumbled mess. However, I do like the construction keys on the reverse.

I agree, an iconic brand should be tweeked, not transformed. Any other bat brand would give an arm and a leg to have the brand recognition that Louisville Slugger enjoys, and it seems they are throwing that out the window.

You'd think with all the new comers to the bat industry, Louisville Slugger would want a design that tells the story.. that they've been around for 100+ years.. From Honus Wagner to the new top draft picks.. and that they'll be around for another 100+ years.

I have designed hundreds of retail products for very large international companies.. from bedroom furniture to truck bodies, so I have a small idea of good design. If anyone at Louisville Slugger wants to take another look at this,, I'd love to do some pro bono work

[GoTigers]

Re: New Louisville Slugger Design

So, they are doing away with the 125 in the centerbrand? are there other things we need to look for now to tell the difference between retail and pro model?

Like the others have said, I'm not a fan of the new sig block. Louisville Slugger is iconic. It should be tweaked, not transformed. I think this will be short lived.

[HawaiiSportsNut]

Re: New Louisville Slugger Design

[HawaiiSportsNut]

Re: New Louisville Slugger Design

I wonder if the marketing people at LVS were smart enough to take a survey of the players who uses their bats? If they did I am pretty sure that the players would say "HECK NO!", I surely would.

[joelsabi]

Re: New Louisville Slugger Design

An iconic brand like Louisville Slugger should maintain a traditional look with only minor tweaks. The Yankees have been pretty successful going that route.

one thing they kept is the center brand look so there is some consistency over time. i agree. why fix it if it aint broken.

the end brand looks different and may grow on me. other bat companies may copy them. at least LVS are the first with the look. When Reynolds said it looked like a baseball card, the first thing that came to my mind was the card companies are going to cut the entire end brand off and put it on a baseball card.

the "dot on the handle" and compression explanation was really interesting.

Prices of Posey and Longoria bats may go up based on the statement made on the video.

[PwKw13]

Re: New Louisville Slugger Design

An iconic brand like Louisville Slugger should maintain a traditional look with only minor tweaks. The Yankees have been pretty successful going that route.

[chakes89]

Re: New Louisville Slugger Design

What the heck is that crap?

[rdeversole]

Re: New Louisville Slugger Design

I think it's hideous and unfortunate. The "Genuine Major League Baseball" line is completely unnecessary. It's more of a defacing than a rebranding...

[emann]

Re: New Louisville Slugger Design

Coming from a designer who does product branding, I think this design was a step backwards and sad to see. They remind me of the "Turn Ahead the Clock" uniforms... and not in a good way.

The old LVS had tradition, this looks like it's aping the worst features of the competition... It would have been a creative goldmine to rework these bats for the future while retaining the long LVS tradition and this is what they came up with?

These look like a cross between a commemorative bat and some of the modern bats (like Trinity or X-Bat) that haven't really found a specific branding look yet and are just bland. Also, nothing looks burned-in, I'm assuming it's all foil stamped or screened on now...

I like the idea of the icons showing what the bat specs are, but think this should have been on the knob or the barrel end, no reason to emphasize these.

It seems like they're making these unnaturally futuristic with the icons and the overall framed look. I'm assuming someone made a comment that the old bats looked too old or outdated and LVS went too far in the other direction.

[justinwc80]

Re: New Louisville Slugger Design

Is this real? Would LS really change this radically? Wow not a fan

[brianborsch]

Re: New Louisville Slugger Design

Yeah, the retail bats on ebay look the same. But the retail versions were out before hand....

[flota89]

Re: New Louisville Slugger Design

I hate to see them change things this much. Not a big fan of the framed signature.