Portland Fire unveils team branding amid mixed fan reactions

The GIST: Yesterday, Portland’s WNBA expansion team finally launched its long-awaited brand reveal, showcasing its name and logo as the Portland Fire. While there are some local criticisms about the name, Portland made this decision with significant intentionality, which may have influenced the overall positive response to the name. Burnin' up.

The brand: While the name is a callback to the original Portland Fire franchise, which played for three seasons in the early 2000s, its current iteration conveys a deep investment in local culture. The brand portfolio — designed by local creative agency Adopt — incorporates visual references to the city’s 12 bridges, nearby Mount Hood, and roses, the city’s official flower.

The critiques: Though plenty are fans of the name, some have described returning to the original name as insensitive considering the state’s recent uptick in wildfires, which burned a record 1.9M acres in Oregon last year and cost the state an estimated $132M.

• While there are many sports teams that have endured decades despite problematic branding, fielding pushback against expansion team branding is especially difficult as the team tries to win over a new market. Boston’s NWSL team experienced a disastrous brand launch that eventually resulted in a name change.

Lingering questions: It’s a tricky situation in Portland, where locals are already incredibly invested in the team — there are now almost 11K season ticket deposits to date. Can the Fire franchise count on local fan support regardless of name, or could branding issues cause a rift with fans the way it has for some in Boston?

• There’s a lot on the line with women’s sports fans, and W fans in particular, buying merch at increased rates. Shopify sales for WNBA accessories are up 101.5% YoY as of this May, while W merch sales skyrocketed 601% YoY in 2024.

• As seen with the NWSL’s Bay FC, merch can be a major revenue opportunity for an expansion team — and considering how consumers can pressure companies to revert logo changes, banking on the wrong brand identity can be a tough call for an expansion team getting its footing. So much to handle.