Florida Marlins Logos History

The Florida Marlins began life on June 10, 1991 claiming a spot in the National League for the 1993 season. MLB suggested the club pursue teal, the new "hot" colour in sports, as a primary team colour instead of the pink "Flamingos" identity the club favoured. "Florida" was selected over "Miami" or "South Florida" despite 88% of fans polled wanting "Miami". Correctly predicting another Florida team was an eventuality, they went with the state name in the hope they would win those fans before a new team could be born. "Florida Marlins" was announced as the team name on July 5, 1991 beating out the overwhelming fan favourite, "Miami Manatees". The logo was designed by Boston-based design firm Midnight Oil and designer Jamie Styles who were taking orders from owner Wayne Huizenga's fishingboat captain nephew Ray, the logo was introduced on July 18, 1991.

Teal was slowly phased out over the next ten years, going from everywhere to a secondary colour in 1996 and finally to nothing more than a trim colour by 2003. Orange started to make its way into team marketing in 2004 never appearing on the uniforms, this was a sign of things to come. When the Marlins got their new ballpark in Miami, part of the deal was re-naming the team the Miami Marlins starting with the new stadium opening in 2012. An entirely new logo and colour scheme (which was orange heavy) accompanied the new name.