A new hockey season is approaching, and teams of professionals and juniors, fans, and others are preparing. Everyone strives to enter it fully prepared, not only physically. On July 21, 2021, the Mitchell Hawks junior hockey club announced the creation of a new team emblem, which it will use to compete in the PJHL championship during the upcoming season.
The team informed their fans about their changes back on July 20, posting a couple of tweets on their page. The familiar image of an Indian warrior resembling the emblem of the Chicago Blackhawks was replaced by the image of a bird, a hawk, corresponding to the team’s name. This decision was taken under pressure from the indigenous peoples of America, violently protesting against the use of their historical and spiritual heritage, images of faces, and national clothing for advertising purposes, especially on the logos of sports teams. Today, the rejection of offensive elements in indigenous symbolism is evident across business, sports, and advertising in America and Canada. In Ontario, the process accelerated significantly following the consideration of the Commission on Human Rights issue. She discovered real violations and issued appropriate decisions requiring several sports teams and associations to amend their emblems. Among them are the Washington NFL team, the Edmonton CFL team, and the Cleveland Major League Baseball team.
The design of the new logo was entrusted to Tom Fanson, a leading branding designer. In agreement with team members, staff, and fans, it was decided to keep the logo’s traditional color scheme, which used red, white, green, and shades of yellow. The image of the hawk very closely repeated the head of the Indian, right down to the elements of war paint, which were made in the form of red strokes on the beak, under the eyes, and above the eyebrows of the bird. At the same time, the arrangement of feathers on the head and even a stylized hair clip duplicate the combat headgear from the image on the old emblem. The team name is written below the image, with the first word in a smaller, black font and the second in bold, slightly curved white type, each letter outlined in contrasting black, making the font especially noticeable against the red background of the logo.