Modernized Bears

It's always a fun day when a team announces a new look and uniform. We've seen a number of NHL teams do it with Buffalo's return to royal blue being the most recent, but we rarely see major changes from the KHL as Dinamo Riga simply updated their logo as opposed to making major uniform changes. Recently, following Riga's example, Traktor Chelyabinsk decided that the logo shown to the left wasn't going to work for them any longer as the Traktor squad moves from a cartoonish logo to one that feels more like it belongs in a museum of modern art. Honestly, I can't tell you whether I like the new logo or not, so let's get into looking at it.

In looking at the bear logo that the team used, I always felt that it misrepresented polar bears entirely as maniacal carnivores who would bite through wooden sticks in an effort to get at their opposition. While I understand the aggressive nature in most hockey logos, the polar bear on Traktor's jerseys seemed a little over-the-top aggressive in its nature. I've seen polar bears, and I've never seen them with the wild eyes portrayed on this logo nor have I ever seen them chew through a hockey stick when hungry and/or angry. In my view, this logo update might have been overdue.

The history of the logo shows that it was actually created for the Spengler Cup, according to the Traktor Chelyabinsk website. On it, the team writes,

In August 1993, a decision was made on a new emblem on the Traktor uniform, created specifically for the Spengler Cup. From the 1995/1996 season to the present, the "polar bear" has been the club's permanent logo. "Traktor" became a pioneer of the "animal" style in the top division of Russian hockey, but the illustration is drawn in a rather childish style, and the logo lacked rigor and seriousness. From a vector point of view, the logo has an abundance of small details. This is already an outdated work on a small scale, thicknesses not in dimensional logic make the logo non-technical and chaotic by the standards of 2020.

It seems that Traktor itself had already thought the logo was too "childish", wanting a better logo that worked with vectors for rendering the logo across all media better. This is forward thinking from the club in working with the Quberten design studio, and it seems that Quberten has been involved in a number of logo redesigns for teams across a number of sports.

Before we check out the new logo, I will say that the design that Quberten came up with doesn't look bad. I struggled with their reasons and design elements in terms of why they had to cram so much stuff into the new logo, but that's why they're paid to design logos and I'm not. In the end, I believe the new logo works, but it feels like they're trying too hard.

Quberten explains the logo design in the following manner:

"The logo combines the letter T, industrial stripes and a triangular layout, referring to the historical sub-logo of HC 'Traktor', the 'ChTZ' logo to the 40th anniversary of the plant, as well as the lettering of the 90s. The logo has a derivative version in a more familiar for 'Traktor' round frame, plus there is a version in the cog. The letter T is also supported by the main lettering, kept untouched, while the rest of the letters follow the general angle and character. The writing and logo create a tightly-knit pair which don't conflict with each other. In the centre of the idea of the 'Traktor' style is the letter T. This is also present in the mascot version (bear) of the logo. The angles of the bear are obeyed to octagonal logic and have multiple rhymes and conjugations."

Um... ok? The logo that Quberten designed based on the "historical sub-logo of HC 'Traktor', the 'ChTZ' logo to the 40th anniversary of the plant, as well as the lettering of the 90s" is completely foreign to me when they finally put everything together. This "T-emblem", as they're calling it, looks nothing like a "T", and the elements seem to get lost when looking for them. I don't see the "historical sub-logo". I don't see the 'ChTZ' logo. All I see is a stylized "M" which, in Cyrillic, is the letter used for the English "T". In standard Russian, the name "Traktor" would be spelled with a "T" as well, so it's important to understand the historical element used here where referencing the Cyrillic lettering as it appears that Quberten is honouring the legacy of the Traktor Chelyabinsk team and the connection to the heavy machinery plant in Chelyabinsk.

With that explained, the new polar bear logo sort of makes more sense, but I'm firmly in the "Keep It Simple, Stupid" boat on logos. As you can see, it kind of looks like a polar bear, but it's not quite a polar bear? The bear's snout should be longer, in my opinion, but I guess this short-nosed polar bear fits the "octagonal logic" and "multiple rhymes and conjugations" that Quberten was wanting. As you can see in the lower left of the bear's face, the Cyrillic "M" is present to represent Traktor and the bear's mouth makes a "C" formation to possibly represent Chelyabinsk, but I don't believe that was intentional as per the explanation on the Traktor website. Either way, this is Traktor Chelyabinsk's new logo!

So what do the jerseys look like with this redesign?

They're fairly simple, and the warning sign-like striping as you'd find on tractors and heavy machinery is actually a nice touch. Traktor will keep their normal black-and-white colour scheme that they've traditionally had, so no major changes there. Overall, though, the uniforms look pretty good from further away as some of the style elements of the logo fall from prominence in the overall aesthetic.

Do I like the rebrand? It's solid. It's not the best, but it's not the worst I've seen either. I am concerned with the new logo in how it became two logos mashed into one logo, but the short-snout polar bear is now officially the logo for Traktor Chelyabinsk of the KHL.

What do you think? Sound off in the comments if you have a thought or two because I'm curious what people think of rebrands in non-North American leagues. They're always a little different, but maybe you like the new look more than the old one? Let me hear what you think!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!