We have a sockingly different winner for Best New Logo/Branding in the 2021 Ballpark Digest Awards: The Appalachian League’s Burlington Sock Puppets, who turned some lemons into lemonade after losing its MLB affiliation.
Sock Puppets Owner and President Ryan Keur and GM Anderson Rathbun sat down with Ballpark Digest's Jesse Goldberg-Strassler and Kevin Reichard to discuss the events leading up to the rebranding, the story behind the logo, and how the new logo/branding was used. Yes, outré branding has been a hallmark of minor-league baseball for many years, but the Burlington Sock Puppets ended up being something both familiar--Burlington is often hailed as a center for hosiery and textile manufacturing--and extensible as all heck, leading to the team to embrace a Sesame Street vibe. Keur and Rathbun discuss how the community embraced the branding and what plans they have for 2022 and beyond.
Jesse Goldberg-Strassler is Voice of the Lansing Lugnuts and author of The Baseball Thesaurus and the upcoming second edition of The Football Thesaurus, both from August Publications. Kevin Reichard is editor of Ballpark Digest and founder/publisher at August Publications.