Everyone could sense that it was time for the Orlando Magic to refresh its look. After more than 15 years with the same jersey set and logo, the team seemed due for a change. Everyone was hungry for a new look.
Magic CEO Alex Martins said the process of changing the team's brand and logo began officially four years ago in 2021. Fans were both apprehensive and excited for the opportunity, ready for a change themselves.
The team started by asking the fans what they wanted to see. As the team moved into a new era on the court, they kept hearing the same thing about what they should look like.
The wave of nostalgia that came from the 35th anniversary season only added to the clear call for the Magic to return to something similar to their branding and look from the original jersey and that run.
The Magic's rebrand and new jersey were about something more than just giving the team a refreshed look. It was about connecting to the fans in a new way again. It was about re-engaging the fans and giving them what they want.
For any complaints that might linger over the new logo, jersey, font and wordmarks, no one could argue that the Magic did not listen to the fans. The overwhelmingly positive response to the new look showed that the fans felt they were heard.
Their influence was something the Magic sought and made part of the way they pushed the team's look forward.
"It was listening to fan feedback, sentiment on socials, a number of different focus groups with our fans and with our staff members, talking to the family," Magic board member Ryan DeVos said at the jersey and logo reveal event Tuesday. "The family has been around this thing for a long time now. What's their take and impression of the Magic brand, and how do we take that forward?
"Magic is, if you don't want to do the rabbit out of a hat, a somewhat nebulous concept. You kind of have to look back at 36 years of Magic history and try to take some of that and move that to the future. That is what the process looked like."
It did not take a deep focus group to understand the elements fans wanted to see in a new jersey or logo. There was always a call to just wear the original pinstripe uniforms again or return to the original logo.
The proof of all that demand was in the Magic's own video unveiling their new look and jersey:
To most Magic fans -- and probably even most of the NBA world -- the Magic's original jersey set was perfect. It was a cultural touchstone around the league as the teams Shaquille O'Neal and Anfernee Hardaway led not only guided the magic to their first NBA Finals but were a true national sensation.
Whenever Orlando cracks out the original pinstripe jerseys for throwback nights, they are received with enthusiasm. The Magic estimate their hardwood classics gear accounts for 14 percent of their total retail sales. Anything with their original look sells quickly and becomes super popular.
The Magic have tried to touch into that in several instances.
The jersey redesign in 2008 brought a different form of pinstripes back into the jerseys as a nod to that past. The team's 2021 and 2022 City Edition jerseys directly called back to the original jerseys with the team's original font and pinstripes -- just in orange as part of the theming for that jersey.
No matter which direction the team turned, it could see how popular and beloved the original jerseys were. The Magic understood the instinct to reach back into that bag.
"It really is a bit of back to the future, which is great," Magic CEO Alex Martins said at the jersey reveal event. "Bringing back certainly the iconic elements of Orlando Magic branding from the early years, the broad pinstripes, the star in the name, the trailing stars on the ball, all the elements that our fans told us through our research process that they really felt those were the best brands of our time of the history of the organization and they wanted to see them back. It really is a modernization of those original logos and something they told us they really wanted."
Undoubtedly, this is an important moment to get this right.
Interest in the team is as high as it has been since Dwight Howard's departure in 2012. The team with two young budding stars in Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner feels as close to a breakthrough out of the first round and into contention.
Fan engagement on something like this only shows how engaged they are with the current product. And giving them something familiar to connect to can bridge a generational gap as the team creates new memories.
There are a lot of good reasons to be a Magic fan right now.
"It's the identity a fan connects with the team," Martins said at the jersey reveal event. "And the pride that they show wearing a jersey, or wearing a t-shirt or wearing a hat or any sort of logoed merchandise. It's their pride and their connection to the team. . . . Hopefully, our fans are happy and proud of it. Based on the feedback that we got from them during the process. I think we delivered something they asked us for."
Certainly, part of the appeal of this new jersey is the nostalgia. The Magic hope the connection is clear. It is what the fans wanted, and the headline from this new look is the callback to the team's original branding. It is still so popular.
Martins said it would not have been the right decision to go back strictly to that look. The team needs to evolve. And that is what the Magic at least attempted to do here.
But the impetus for this was what the fans wanted. And they seemed to get what they wanted in this rebrand.