Toyama Reveals Logo and Uniforms

Fresh Togs Capture Past While Moving Into the Future

October 29, 2022: Toyama, Japan — Today fans of the Toyama Wind Dancers were given an early Christmas present in the form of a new logo and insight into the uniforms their team will be wearing as 2024 rolls into play.

“We are excited to present to you the base logo of the franchise,” said Adriana Gutierrez, a one-time Miss Columbia and now the new spokesmodel of the club at the unveiling party. “We think the designers have done a wonderful job of capturing the cultural relevance of the Kaze no bon, baseball, and the local flavor of where the team is from.”  She then went on to present the base logo, which consists of a Kaze no bon dancer transposed over a baseball. The kanji for “Wind Dancer” decorates the baseball on either side of the dancer. A secondary and tertiary version of the logo was also noted, primarily for use in various merchandising venues where the baseball background may not be as useful.

“I just love the imagery,” Gutierrez said as she went on to explain that the club might use this base in several different fashions. “The Toyama leadership, for example, wants to correct a wrong. So for the first year of the team’s existence we will use the image in a shield that celebrates the club’s very important victory in taking the last Neo-Tokyo Cup.”

The team had received grumbles from the fan base at times as having been focused too heavily on the transition to the global stage of the PEBA, and essentially ignoring the highest achievement in Japanese baseball.

The shield will include the Toyama logo over an antique-y home plate, with NEO-TOKYO CUP CHAMPIONS – 2020 emblazoned over it.

Gutierrez went on to say that the shield would be replaced after one season because “the team also understands that while we honor the past, baseball is a forward moving stream.”

NEW UNIFORMS “SNAZZY”

The session then turned to a fashion show, with the club presenting four models, including the Samson twins, who wore the team’s new home and away uniforms, complete with fresh two-toned ball caps.

“We’ve put a lot of care into this effort,” general manager Ron Collins said afterward. “It was important that every element work in ways we want them to work.” If early returns hold true, it would seem that the club has accomplished this effort.

“They look cool,” said Okai Tsumata, the unofficial leader of the Toyama Baseball Fans, one of the more outspoken critics of the club over the past year. Tsumata and several other key fan oendan leaders attended the event as the guest of the club’s front office.

“Snazzy,” said Elise Okaya, a reporter for ESPN-J.

In line with Collins’s comments, Gutierrez reported that the club gave its designers several goals in the pre-design meetings, and given the result, it’s clear the process worked.

Colors Mature

The team’s colors, for instance will change from the vivid chartreuse, crimson, and pink, to a more understated pairing of an old gold tone with a deeper red. The combination, Gutierrez explained as the models spun on the catwalk, represents a maturation of the club as a whole. “We wanted the world to know we’ve put away the neon glare of our organization’s childhood, and taken a position at the big people’s table.” Yet the red and gold were retained also because “no matter how you grow up, you always carry the roots of your past with you.”

The team’s away uniforms will include pinstripes, and the city’s name bent over the base Wind Dancer logo placed over the heartside breast.

Sleeve Flair Links to the Past

Of particular notice are the uniform sleeve decorations, which will be included on both the team’s home and away jerseys. The left sleeve will be adorned by the familiar Lupin head that has been the team’s icon since their inception. The right sleeve will carry a black patch with the initials “JK” embroidered in the club’s newer old gold.

The Lupin head needs no great explanation, but Gutierrez spent considerable time discussing the fact that “JK” stood for Jim Konopka, the team’s first general manager. “Jim brought this team out of a difficult past, and left his position just as the organization was ready to step forward. Without his efforts, there is every likelihood that the Wind Dancers would not even exist,” Gutierrez said. “We wanted to reflect this in our uniform.”

FRONT OFFICE TURNS ATTENTION TO 2023

“We’re pleased with the results of the conversion,” said Collins. “And we wouldn’t have done it any other way. But I admit that it’s taken some of our focus the past month, and now we’ve got to get back to work.”

The PEBA season, it should be noted, is in the last stages of its post season. After that will come critical arbitration decisions, and the always interesting Winter Meeting frenzy. Throughout it all, the club will be looking at the free agent market, and trying to find ways to move forward. It will have to answer interesting questions like “how much of the team’s stumble was merely due to the horrific rash of injuries it suffered, and how much was due to inherent weakness?” It will have to explore its finances—a step that may be made a bit simple if rumors are true that owner Paul Walker is considering loosening the purse-strings a bit in light of the profit his sub-.500 ball club has been generating.

And the fans?

Well, the fans turn themselves to the hot stove league, which as we all know is a world where anything is possible, and all teams are above average.