New Hampshire Fisher Cats

When I saw the headline proclaiming that the New Hampshire Fisher Cats had changed their logos, I got a little excited. Could they possibly come to their senses and allow the New Hampshire Primaries to be set free? Sadly, it was not to be. They are still the Fisher Cats, but now they are Fisher Cats that have lost my respect.

Why? That has to be the question that you ask when thinking about this identity change. Other than the fact that they weren't the Primaries, I found virtually nothing wrong with their old logos. There were small things I didn't like and they weren't necessarily my style, but they were well done and logos that a team could be proud of for a very long time.

But the Fisher Cats have been lured to the dark side in search of a temporary increase in merchandising dollars. This identity set is incredible in it's trendiness.

First of all, the eye logo above that follows in the steps of the Lake Elsinore Storm originally (the best selling cap in baseball for a few years running) and the Orem Owlz last season. Thankfully, this logo isn't actually being used as one of their caps yet, but I'd be willing to bet that it's only because they know that they will sell a bunch of caps this season because of the identity change even without resorting to using this logo. But next season, when sales lag, it'll be slapped on a cap and peddled like crazy.


Secondly, the primary logo shown above. What is going on with this trend of having the mascot peer over a name or around something? The New Britain Rock Cats already has the Eastern League peering covered, not to mention the tail and the silver animal. In fact, I'm not convinced that the Fisher Cat isn't really the Rock Cat. Or maybe a twin? Separated at birth? Clone? Whatever, they are definitely related.


Thirdly, the cap/alternate logos. As much as I hate the eyes logo, they might actually be better than any of these wretched logos. You got your severed paw logo, your illegible and unproportionally itty-bitty"F" logo, and your "NM" or "NN" or, oh...that's supposed to be an "H" logo. Disasters all around.

And I haven't even mentioned this early 90's color scheme. To go from a simple and classy green and black to the same color scheme sported by the Sacramento Surge in 1991 dumbfounds me. I thought that this teal-ish, emerald green and yellow was something that we would never have to see again, but it rears it's ugly head in New Hampshire and I can't figure out why.

This set is an abject failure, in my opinion. It was a change that was totally unwarranted and unneeded and because it wasn't even executed well, it is completely unloved here at The Sports Logo Pundit.


Team: New Hampshire Fisher Cats
League: Eastern League
Location: Manchester, New Hampshire
Stadium: Merchantsauto.com Stadium