KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — East Tennessee's minor-league baseball team is working its way to its new home stadium in downtown Knoxville. The transition came with a new name, The Knoxville Smokies, and new logos.
Artists behind the new designs said they drew inspiration from across East Tennessee, hoping to highlight locations and elements from throughout the area. Luis Lopez is the main artist and visionary behind the new logo.
"It was a challenge, but it was something we knew we could do," he said. "This is going to be displayed all around the city."
Work began on the new designs after leaders of the baseball team approached GoTeez with a chance to rebrand the logo. Lopez said he combined different parts of Knoxville together to form the new logo.
For example, the gold surrounding the word "Knoxville" in one part of the logo is meant to resemble gold from The Sunsphere. The font spelling out "Smokies" also mimics the font used at the Tennessee Theatre on Gay Street.
Jeff Shoaf is the Vice President of the Sports Division at GoTeez. He was involved in the team's previous rebrand, in 2014, and said the bear was one of the main components of the logo.
"We change the mountain scene to soften those up," he said. "It was basically the bear, the main thing [that we couldn't change].
He said usually, artists have around a year to develop a new logo for minor league baseball teams. The team at GoTeez had around three weeks and thought about adding other elements, such as Knoxville's skyline and even an angry bear. The team came up with around 20 sketches before deciding on a winner.
"You can see the different elements we tried, to come up with the final element," said Shoaf.
GoTeez and the Knoxville Smokies will continue working together. Soon, GoTeez hopes to open a retail location inside West Town Mall where they will sell Knoxville Smokies merchandise.
GoTeez is a small business in Blount County. Most MILB teams hire big companies out of state for their logos
"To be in a town with the minor league team is very rare," said Brian Johnston, president of GoTeez.