Portland Trail Blazers - Name and Branding

Name and Branding

The team has been known as the "Trail Blazers" throughout its history. Two weeks after the NBA awarded Portland an expansion franchise in 1970, team management held a contest to select the team's name and received more than 10,000 entries. The most popular choice was "Pioneers," but that name was excluded from consideration as it was already used by sports teams at Portland's Lewis and Clark College. The name "Trail Blazers" received 172 entries, and was selected as the name.

The team's colors are red, white, black, and silver, which was added in 2002. The team's "pinwheel" logo, originally designed by the cousin of former Blazer executive Harry Glickman, is a graphic interpretation of two five-on-five basketball teams lined up against each other. One side of the pinwheel is red; the other side is silver (formerly black or white). The logo has gone from a vertical alignment to a slanted one starting in the 1991 season, creating a straight edge along the top

Portland's home uniforms are white in color, with red, black, and silver accents; the primary road uniform is black, with red, white, and silver accents. The alternate road uniform is red with white, silver, and black accents. From 1970 to the 1977–78 season, the team wore red road uniforms, switching to black in that year. The team again wore red from 1979–85, switching back to black road jerseys after that. In 2002, the team reintroduced red jerseys. The team's uniforms have virtually remained the same since the 1977–78 season, featuring a "blaze" strip diagonal down the jersey and into the shorts. Notable alterations include the change from lowercase lettering to uppercase in 1991–92, tapered ends on the letters and silver trim in 2002–03, and the return of the city name to the black road jerseys in 2005–06. In the 2009–10 NBA season they introduced a special jersey commemorating the Blazers' "Rip City" nickname, borrowing elements from their old and current logos. For the 2012–13 NBA season, the red jerseys were slightly altered, featuring a straightened "Portland" wordmark and black lettering with silver trim, along with a modified "blaze" striping, "Rip City" shorts wordmark and pinwheel logo in front of the uniform.

The team's mascot is Blaze the Trail Cat, a two-tone silver-colored mountain lion, which has been the team's official mascot since 2002. Prior to Blaze's debut, the Trail Blazers never had any official mascot. A popular unofficial mascot was the late Bill "The Beerman" Scott, a Seattle beer vendor/cheerleader who worked for numerous pro teams, including the Trail Blazers, the Seattle Seahawks, and the Seattle Mariners. Scott worked for the Trail Blazers from 1981 through 1985.