Phoenix Mercury unveil major rebrand ahead of 30th season

The Phoenix Mercury considered doing a major rebranding going into their 25th season in 2021.

But like with home renovations, things happen and timetables change.

The pandemic impacted resources and priorities, Mercury president Vince Kozar said, and the rebranding was tabled indefinitely but never off his radar. 

“Something of this magnitude makes the most sense at a seminal moment in the history of the franchise,” said Kozar, who has worked for the Mercury in various capacities since graduating from Arizona State in 2006. 

That moment is now, going into the Mercury’s 30th season in 2026 and coming off the team’s sixth WNBA Finals appearance. They are three-time champions. 

After more than two years of in-house work, the redesigned Mercury logos and wordmarks are being unveiled to the public Monday, also when fans can begin trading in their current Mercury/WNBA merchandise for a designated Mercury shirt with a new logo.

“Their shouldn’t be a barrier to being a fan,” Kozar said of the Merc merch swap, believed to be the first such promotion, which continues through Dec. 5 at the Mortgage Matchup Center team shop.

New merchandise choices are plentiful. Eighteen items were modeled Saturday at a private unveiling with Mercury luminaries Diana Taurasi, Cheryl Miller, Penny Taylor, Bridget Pettis and Satou Sabally among those attending.

Mercury primary, global and secondary logos were introduced with explanations behind the work from Kozar and lead designers Kelly Streeter and Jaden Guilford.

Two uniforms with the new logos will be announced Tuesday with other uniforms announced at a later date. 

“We told the (design) group come back with everything off the wall you can think of,” Kozar said. “Where we netted out was something we feel is a modernization of what we had, an evolution more than a wholesale reinvention. 

“That’s because there is something really recognizable about that M and the planet. We want the fans to be able to see the old marks in the new marks while still bringing it into the not just 2026 but the next 30 years.”

The Mercury updated their original logo in 2003 and 2011 and now again to clean up edges and “lean more into orange and purple,” Guilford said. A sharp right corner symbolizes an arrow to the future and forward momentum. 

The M in the primary and global logos are positioned at 19.97-degree angle, representing the Mercury’s inaugural season. The M on the global logo divides four rings into eight individual lines symbolizing the Mercury’s status as one of the WNBA original eight franchises. The global also includes the full Phoenix Mercury name.

“The global lives everywhere,” Kozar said. “You should have one mark no matter where you are in the world people should know your name, your brand and your city. It’ll be on courts, on merchandise, on billboards. It’s going to be super important in the transition for people to know exactly what team that’s for.”

The Mercury’s first secondary logo Is a tribute to Arizona with an outline of the state as a basketball epicenter. And to the X-factor fan base, utilizing the nickname Merc.

The rebranding also includes a revamped PHX alternate logo, first introduced in 2021 and also honoring the X-factor.

The new wordmarks are in an original typeface called Mighty Mercury and have an 8-degree arch, another intentional choice symbolizing the original franchises. Phoenix, New York and Los Angeles are the only original franchises still in the same city.

The merchandise swap (one shirt per person) is for any Mercury, WNBA or WNBA team merchandise and also includes a voucher for 20 percent off a separate new Mercury item. Apparel collected will be donated to Goodwill, a Mercury partner. New items are also available online at shop.phoenixmercury.com.

The Mercury will be showing off their new logos in a drone show over Camelback Mountain at 7:30 p.m. Friday. 

They also are teaming with Lady Luck Tattoo, a female-owned business in downtown Phoenix, to offer free tattoos of the Mercury primary logo for the first 100 to sign up at phxmerc.com/freetattoo.

Rebrand design details are available at phxmerc.com/newlook.