NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The Tennessee Titans unveiled a complete rebrand Thursday night at the Pinnacle in Nashville in front of a crowd of 2,500 fans.
The new uniforms replace the ones the team has worn since 2018 while the new logo replaces the fireball logo that has been in place in some form or fashion since the team changed its name from the Oilers to the Titans ahead of the 1999 season.
The changes come ahead of the Titans final season in the original Nissan Stadium, the team’s home since 1999. The new Nissan Stadium, built at a projected cost of $2.1 billion, is set to open in time for the 2027 season. The team hopes the rebrand, like the stadium, will usher in a new era of Titans football with a timeless look and feel.
“We want to represent the best we’ve always been,” Titans President and CEO Burke Nihill said. “But we also look to represent Nashville and Tennessee in an authentic way that will stand the test of time.”
Here are some details about the new look:
How did this concept come about?
As the Titans begin exploring options around the renovation of their existing stadium or a new stadium, they saw an opportunity to make significant and meaningful changes in a rebrand that would help usher in a new era of the team.
The team used focus groups of fans and former players to try to determine what parts of the team’s identity were truly important to them. One thing that became clear is that fans of the Titans were very proud of living in Nashville and Tennessee, and that any rebrand needed to be true to that fact.
They also heard a desire for the team to use the Titans blue color that is unique to the team more prominently in future uniforms. Response to the team’s use of the Oilers throwback uniforms during the 2024 season was overwhelmingly positive. Even players spoke of how much they preferred them to the regular jerseys.
The Titans went to Nike, the NFL’s uniform and branding partner, with a direction to honor the team’s storied past but in a distinctly Tennessee way. After multiple years of work and thousands of models of logos, trademarks and uniforms, a committee of marketing and branding people within the organization and, ultimately, controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk signed off on the new look.
What’s different about the new uniforms?
The shift back towards Titans blue and away from navy began last season with the Titans using the lighter blue uniforms as their primary home jersey. The new uniforms further emphasize that by pairing the team’s color palette from six colors down to just four and using navy as predominantly an accent color along with red. The two different shades of gray featured on the old uniforms have been removed.
The Titans new uniforms come in a set of Titans blue and white uniforms and pants. The primary home uniform will be the Titans blue top and white pants while the team will primarily wear the white jerseys with either the white or blue pants on the road.
The uniforms have a traditional feel that harken back to the Oilers uniforms, but with the new shield logo on a white helmet with white facemasks and a few Tennessee themed twists to the uniforms.
“The Oilers have arguably one of the best uniforms in all of sports,” Nihill said about the look closely resembling the one from the franchise’s Texas roots. “But these uniforms are distinctly ours.”
So what makes these uniforms distinctly Tennessee?
For starters, the uniforms have the word Titans on the breast plate of the home blue jersey and the word Tennessee on the chest of the white uniforms.
“We are Titans when we are at home, but we’re always from Tennessee even when we’re away,” said Titans Senior Vice President for Marketing Erin Swartz. “Little details like that matter.”
The Tennessee theme continues with the stripes on the helmet, shoulder sleeves and pants including a six-string design similar to a guitar. The look combines the stripe from the team’s iconic look of the past with an ode to Nashville’s deep roots in music.
The sides of the uniform and collar also have the Tennessee Tri-Star logo in navy as well as an inside collar tag with the word “We” as a nod to the team’s “We Over Me” mentality.
The size and the font of the uniform numbers revert to the same font and size of the old Oilers uniforms, which should make them much easier to read than the old uniforms which had numbers that had to actually be thickened after the first season to make them easier to read.
What happened to the fireball?
The new logo featured prominently on the white helmet is a shield that features the Tennessee Tri-Star around a T on a Titans blue background encircled by a white and red outline. The controversial fireball is no more. The Titans believe the new shield is a cleaner look that remains recognizable to the team’s first 26 years as the Titans but also will last for years to come.
“The old logo will become one of best retro logos in sports and will continue to exist in team store,” Nihill said. “Some people loved the fireball, but references to the flaming thumbtack (were) not positive.”
The points on the T have been trimmed to more closely align with the team’s new word marks, but still maintain a look the team believes is uniquely theirs.
“We went around the world to get across the street,” Swartz said of the new logo after decision makers saw “thousands” of logos of all kinds from Nike designers. “This was classic and timeless.”
The Titans also have a new secondary logo that is a football with the Tri-Star on top of an intertwined T and N.
Does the Titans rebrand still have a Greek theme?
Yes, but not as much and the team thinks that’s okay. In fact, late owner Bud Adams believed that naming the team the Titans was also supposed to represent the great strength and power of Tennesseans, including icons like Pat Summitt and Dolly Parton.
How soon will rebranded uniforms and gear go on sale?
It is on sale now in the Titans online store. The team store will open at 10 a.m. Friday and continue regular business hours.
How soon will rebranded imagery be noticeable at the team facility and at the stadium?
In some cases as soon as Friday morning. The Titans have been preparing for this rebrand for many years and will make quick changes, though the process to update all team logos and word marks could take some time.
Specifically, the Titans do not plan to change all the logos and imagery at the old Nissan Stadium as part of an homage to their history in the team’s final season there before the move to the new stadium.
Nihill said the team initially looked at unveiling the rebrand and the new stadium all at once, but decided it flowed better to roll everything out this way and that there is synergy in debuting the new look this season before the move across the street.
What about the rivalry uniforms the Titans are supposed to have this year?
They are still happening and unrelated to the rebrand. The AFC South is one of the divisions Nike plans to feature with its rivalry uniform series this season. Those uniforms will be unveiled later this summer, and Titans officials say they are very excited about those jerseys as well.
These uniforms seem a lot like the old Oilers uniforms and a pretty big departure from the Titans’ primary looks since 1999. Are they trying to be the Oilers again?
No. The Titans believe these uniforms better tie the team’s storied past with its present and what it believes its future can be in Tennessee. They also bring back a piece of one of the best uniform combinations in NFL history, but with distinctly Tennessee and Titans tweaks that make this a uniform for the future.
It’s a uniform that pays homage to Earl Campbell and Warren Moon along with Eddie George and Steve McNair and is ready for Cam Ward and Jeffery Simmons to pave the way for the next great Titans era.
