Rowan Kavner
PLAYA VISTA, Calif. – From owner Steve Ballmer handing out free cupcakes at Sprinkles to head coach Doc Rivers handing out T-shirts as Clippers fans received free Pink’s Hot Dogs, the Clippers took to the streets Thursday throughout Los Angeles to launch their new brand identity and redesigned logos.
Logo launch day included more than 32 locations where T-shirts were handed out to fans depicting the Clippers’ new look. Clippers president of business operations Gillian Zucker, who handed out shirts at Los Angeles’ Union Station, said every location needed more shirts delivered with more people showing up than expected.
“I’ve had the most amazing day in the whole world,” Zucker said. “It has been unbelievable, the number of people we’ve touched and how excited they’ve been. You run into commuters at Union Station and you start handing out free T-shirts and telling them it’s the Clippers’ new look, and people are yelling into cameras, ‘Gear up, LA!’ Just a lot of excitement.”
Ballmer said the most important feedback he got from fans back when he bought the team was that change was necessary. As he went about getting started on that change, he said a couple things needed to happen.
“No. 1, I had to get a president on board,” Ballmer said.
The Clippers did that by hiring Zucker in November. Ballmer credited Zucker for the Clippers launching the new look throughout the city.
“Gillian came up with the idea and said, ‘Look, we’re doing this largely in response to fan input, fan feedback,’” Ballmer said while at the downtown Sprinkles Cupcakes location. “I love the fact we’ve got cupcakes here at Sprinkles with the Clippers logo on it, but it’s a chance to get out and connect during the offseason and tell people we care about them and we’re hard at work.”
From Sprinkles, to Pink’s, to the L.A. Metro trains, to Stauffer Middle School, to the American Airlines Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport, to Universal Studios and the Santa Monica Pier, there were numerous locations to receive thousands of free T-shirts throughout the city. Whether they were coming from Rivers, Ballmer, Zucker, Clippers alumni or other Clippers staff members, fans showed up in droves for the new apparel.
It was important to Zucker that the Clippers embraced the fans and offered a welcoming environment. She said the Clippers want to be accessible and want each person to feel he or she can be a Clippers fan. She added that while photos of the logos and uniforms were leaked prior, she wanted launch day to explain why the uniforms were selected and what the features stood for, and then it was important to bring the look to the people of Los Angeles.
Ballmer did that while on hand at Sprinkles.
“You’ve got kind of the themes,” Ballmer said. “You get the ‘C’ of Clippers wrapping around and embracing ‘LA” – probably really important for me as a Seattle guy to make sure people know we love LA and we’re here for the long run. You get the nautical theme, the ocean, harkening back to the Clippers and where we came from. You have silver around every one of the letters, the silver lining and the Clipper cloud as we look to tomorrow and the bright future that we hold.
“And we put black in as another color, because I think most people think black is kind of a hip, modern color. We’ll be having the black uniforms we’ll play in on some Sundays. I know the players kind of loved it, thought it looked pretty cool.”
Ballmer said Chris Paul helped pick out the specific black uniform. He also said the changes give the Clippers a chance to communicate something new.
“For me, and in a way for Doc, remember this is Doc’s third offseason,” Ballmer said. “The first one, he didn’t get the whole thing in and he had, let’s just call it yesterday’s things to deal with. Last summer, there was no real owner in place, and while Doc runs the basketball side, he doesn’t know what he’s working with or what he’s got. He and I couldn’t talk about that stuff.
“So this, in a sense, Doc’s first real, let me call it ‘fully functional’ offseason as the general manager. He’s in control, he’s got an owner, his job is to drive the team, my job is to kind of question him and challenge him and support him. We have a chance to do that on the business side to really say who we are, what we stand for, signal our new era. It’s all coming together.”
After Ballmer bought the team and decided on a new president, he said the second part was to start coming up with the changes. But he found out that couldn’t happen swiftly when it comes to logos, colors and names.
“The league doesn’t allow it for a lot of good reasons,” Ballmer said. “I decided I didn’t want to change the name because I thought the name ‘Clippers’ came to represent a team that battled, a team that battled through adversity, really.”
So the name would stick.
But a change in the logo was still bound to happen. While he wanted the new identity to launch before the 2014-15 season, he had to wait until it was over. The Clippers elected to go with a formal launch day this week to display the new look starting in the 2015-16 season, and it drew sizable crowds.
The line at Pink’s to get a hot dog and see Rivers and Ralph Lawler went down the street. That was unexpected for Rivers, who went through the line one-by-one to greet all the fans and give them shirts.
“The fans know we’re there and we’re close, and I think they’re excited,” Rivers said.
Rivers has seen almost everything as a head coach in the league, but a logo change was something new.
“What I like most is Steve Ballmer’s the new owner, and now he has a logo,” Rivers said. “I think that’s neat. I think it’s good.”
Everyone around Los Angeles was invited to #GearUpLA, and the fans appreciated the way the Clippers chose to spread the logo throughout the area.
“This is cool to have something like this,” said Alex Huitink, one of the fans in line at Sprinkles. “I’ve been a Clippers fan over 20 years, and I don’t ever remember anything happening like this. So to come out in the morning, get a cupcake, meet the owner of the team, this is definitely a cool event. It’s good to see people out here. It makes me feel proud after about 25 years of being a Clippers fan.”
It meant a lot to the fans, who chanted Ballmer’s name, see a figure such as the owner of the team being a part of the festivities and interacting with the people of Los Angeles.
“When do you ever get to meet a guy like that?” said Andrew Huitink, who was also in line with Alex. “This guy is one not only a genius, but two, he owns the team I love.”