The Chicago Red Stars came under new ownership last September when Laura Ricketts, co-owner of the city’s Cubs in MLB, completed a deal valued at $60 million. At the time, there were more pressing issues top of mind than a rebrand — the fact they finished 12th out of 12 teams in the 2023 NWSL table, making sure their superstar Mal Swanson got re-signed, and finding a new head coach to guide the team out of the pit.
Now, with Chicago having qualified for next month’s title playoffs under the guidance of head coach Lorne Donaldson and Swanson contracted to 2028, the club has had the time to focus more long-term, with a new(ish) name and crest.
Announcing: The Chicago Stars Football Club.
“It was something that Laura had been thinking about when she originally purchased the Red Stars about a year ago.” Chicago’s chief marketing officer Kay Bradley tells The Athletic. “So the wheels were turning, but obviously we didn’t want to rush it.
“This is a really big inflection point as we think about the course of the last 12 months of the club. It felt like the right time to signify the future, and all we believe that’s ahead of us from a progress perspective.”
Chicago will keep the existing name and crest through the remainder of this season and then begin the changeover in the offseason to be fully transitioned for 2025’s kick-off in the spring.
The new logo will keep one red star, but will no longer be quite so close to the Chicago city flag, with those four red stars in the background. The top of the crest also includes a curved marquee shape as a homage to the many theaters in Chicago, as well as the classic marquee of the Cubs’ Wrigley Field stadium. The blues in the crest symbolize the meeting of Lake Michigan, on the shore of which Chicago sits, and the night sky, according to the team.
The current Red Stars crest was a redesign from 2017, after the club initially launched in NWSL four years earlier (having played the five previous seasons in other leagues) with a boxier shield and more stylized font. This latest crest and wordmark were designed by Rabe & Birch, who have also worked with the NBA’s Indiana Pacers.
“It’s been over six months in the making,” says Bradley. “Talking to players, fans, staff, leadership, stakeholders, collaborators, getting out in the marketplace and understanding not only what makes our club unique, but also, and as importantly, what makes Chicago unique.”
The club spoke to players to understand what made them feel connected to the crest, and they spoke to fans, including supporters’ group Chicago Local 134, to hear their motivations and what has driven — or failed to drive — interest in the Red Stars until now.
“There’s a massive sports legacy here. There are tons of teams (across many sports). You can go to three different professional sporting events in one day in Chicago,” says Bradley. “It’s really important for us that we are creating something that we think is going to be even more distinctive, even more ownable to the club, and help us drive the awareness and the familiarity of the team, but also ensuring that we are not straying too far away from where we’ve been, knowing that we have a really strong history.”
Bradley said elements that repeatedly came up in their discussions were Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods and the city’s working-class attitude and history, down to the union-inspired name of Local 134. “We talked a lot about excellence, and that Chicago has, like, a unique version of excellence,” she says. “It’s this humble excellence that’s built on this relentless and relentless work ethic, and this grit and this kind of perseverance.”
While there aren’t any big-swing design elements in the new crest, that also means it is unlikely to end up looking dated in a few years.
“We don’t want something that’s going to be a flash in the bucket, here and gone tomorrow,” Bradley says. “So making sure that we’re really intentional about: how do we create something evergreen, that feels like it represents a next chapter and a new chapter for our club, but that also we can have into the future?”
A more modern crest and a new name might also help drive some consumer behaviors the club would like to see, while strengthening its presence in a very crowded sports brand landscape. When seeing the crest or highlights of its elements, everyone in Chicago should be able to identify the team. Hence the inclusion of a soccer ball, as obvious as that might seem, as well as the addition of “Football Club” to the name.
“How do we connect this club more closely to the city, if not in proximity, but in ethos and find that emotional connection?” Bradley says. “That was also the rationale for pulling stars out (of the last crest), pulling ‘Red’ out of the logo. Often people shorten our name to ‘Red Stars’, and then the ‘Chicago’ goes away. So by removing ‘Red’ from the name, the short version will be ‘Chicago Stars’, so that we keep that connection with our city.”
With greater awareness, the hope is that greater merchandise sales will follow. Bradley says they have seen overall growth in this area in the current season relative to 2023, although she says she can’t disclose exact figures. But they have seen growth, especially within the broader landscape of NWSL and the wider American women’s sports landscape. Included in the redesign are wordmarks they will mix and match on apparel and other merchandise to try to keep those sales on an upward trajectory.
“We’re doing some collabs this year as well,” says Bradley, “and we’ll be doing more into the future that connect us with other local Chicago organizations moving forward.”
(Top photo: Chicago Red Stars)
