The Richmond Kickers, the region’s professional men’s soccer team, have a new logo and brand identity leading into their 2025 season.
Team Chairman and CEO Rob Ukrop said the club has been working on the rebrand for the past eight months. He said the effort was prompted in part by a desire to create some separation between its brand and that of local youth soccer league Richmond Kickers Youth.
The pro team was previously owned by the youth club until a Ukrop-led group purchased it in 2018. The two sides have since operated separately but shared the same logo in a deal that involved the pro team leasing the intellectual property to the youth club.
The lease was up, which led Kickers pro to consider a rebrand, Ukrop said.
“There’s a little bit of confusion in the marketplace,” he said. “We thought we needed to refresh this.”
While the Kickers’ previous logo featured a red-and-white soccer ball graphic forming a K, the new logo features a red roundel with an interlocked white R and K monogram.
“The R is the bigger of the two letters, it’s anchoring the thing … you can’t have the Kickers without Richmond,” Ukrop said of the new logo.
The flowing legs of the new R and K are meant to represent the falls of the James River. The logo also features a 93 to represent the 1993 founding of the club.
As for the color of the new logo, the Kickers kept the team’s well-known red and white and added navy blue to the outside of the crest, returning to the colors scheme the team used during its 1995 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup victory 30 years ago.
The Kickers previously had a crest from their founding in 1993 to 2011 with the original colors. The logo changed in 2012 to the one Richmonders are familiar with today.
Ukrop said the Kickers want to infuse some of their history into the club’s new logo and rebrand.
“We thought it was time to go back to our roots a little bit with the history,” he said. “We wanted to add something that was kind of traditional and shows our history and evolution.”
The Kickers also released a host of secondary logos Wednesday, most being different colored versions of the club’s new monogram and word mark. But the Kickers also introduced a new, silhouetted version of their kangaroo mascot Kickeroo.
Richmond Kickers’ director of branding and marketing, Alyn Carr, worked alongside Alex Kocher, creative director of Richmond-based consulting firm Easy Friday Co., on the rebrand.
Kocher previously worked on the brand identity of the pre-professional women’s team the Richmond Ivy, who were formed out of Richmond’s United Soccer League women’s team in March of last year.
Ukrop’s 22 Holdings LLC purchased a majority stake of the Kickers pro team six years ago from Kickers Youth, who had previously owned the team since 2009. Ukrop was formerly president of the Kickers Youth board of directors before becoming the pro team’s chairman and CEO.
Kickers Youth recently merged with fellow youth club Richmond Strikers to form a new club, Richmond United.
Ukrop said that while the Kickers knew the two youth clubs were working on a new brand launch, the decision for the Kickers logo change had nothing to do with the merger.
“I wasn’t part of the most recent Richmond Kickers Youth club and Richmond Strikers conversation, but they knew we were working on a new brand launch,” he said. “We are separate, but we do work together and support one another.”
The Richmond Kickers are one of the two longest consecutively operating professional soccer clubs in the United States, along with the Charleston Battery in Charleston, South Carolina.
The Richmond Kickers, the region’s professional men’s soccer team, have a new logo and brand identity leading into their 2025 season.
Team Chairman and CEO Rob Ukrop said the club has been working on the rebrand for the past eight months. He said the effort was prompted in part by a desire to create some separation between its brand and that of local youth soccer league Richmond Kickers Youth.
The pro team was previously owned by the youth club until a Ukrop-led group purchased it in 2018. The two sides have since operated separately but shared the same logo in a deal that involved the pro team leasing the intellectual property to the youth club.
The lease was up, which led Kickers pro to consider a rebrand, Ukrop said.
“There’s a little bit of confusion in the marketplace,” he said. “We thought we needed to refresh this.”
While the Kickers’ previous logo featured a red-and-white soccer ball graphic forming a K, the new logo features a red roundel with an interlocked white R and K monogram.
“The R is the bigger of the two letters, it’s anchoring the thing … you can’t have the Kickers without Richmond,” Ukrop said of the new logo.
The flowing legs of the new R and K are meant to represent the falls of the James River. The logo also features a 93 to represent the 1993 founding of the club.
As for the color of the new logo, the Kickers kept the team’s well-known red and white and added navy blue to the outside of the crest, returning to the colors scheme the team used during its 1995 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup victory 30 years ago.
The Kickers previously had a crest from their founding in 1993 to 2011 with the original colors. The logo changed in 2012 to the one Richmonders are familiar with today.
Ukrop said the Kickers want to infuse some of their history into the club’s new logo and rebrand.
“We thought it was time to go back to our roots a little bit with the history,” he said. “We wanted to add something that was kind of traditional and shows our history and evolution.”
The Kickers also released a host of secondary logos Wednesday, most being different colored versions of the club’s new monogram and word mark. But the Kickers also introduced a new, silhouetted version of their kangaroo mascot Kickeroo.
Richmond Kickers’ director of branding and marketing, Alyn Carr, worked alongside Alex Kocher, creative director of Richmond-based consulting firm Easy Friday Co., on the rebrand.
Kocher previously worked on the brand identity of the pre-professional women’s team the Richmond Ivy, who were formed out of Richmond’s United Soccer League women’s team in March of last year.
Ukrop’s 22 Holdings LLC purchased a majority stake of the Kickers pro team six years ago from Kickers Youth, who had previously owned the team since 2009. Ukrop was formerly president of the Kickers Youth board of directors before becoming the pro team’s chairman and CEO.
Kickers Youth recently merged with fellow youth club Richmond Strikers to form a new club, Richmond United.
Ukrop said that while the Kickers knew the two youth clubs were working on a new brand launch, the decision for the Kickers logo change had nothing to do with the merger.
“I wasn’t part of the most recent Richmond Kickers Youth club and Richmond Strikers conversation, but they knew we were working on a new brand launch,” he said. “We are separate, but we do work together and support one another.”
The Richmond Kickers are one of the two longest consecutively operating professional soccer clubs in the United States, along with the Charleston Battery in Charleston, South Carolina.
“There’s a little bit of confusion in the marketplace…” There is nothing more confused than football in Richmond. Just last week, the Richmond Kickers youth team announced that they merged with the Richmond Strikers under their former, ahem, co-managed elite brand “Richmond United”. If the youth team ceased to exist, why pin the need for a rebrand on them? Most professional clubs, at least successful ones, the world over, including the U.S. have a youth/farm/quarry component that not only provides development of players for the professional team, but an income component for the club when said player’s rights are sold.… Read more »
The confusion was one of the issues listed, but it was very early 90’s and was well overdue for a change. Keep in mind, soccer in the US is not soccer in the rest of the world, the money just isn’t there. The professional club is actually well entrenched in the youth clubs, from the top leadership down to the coaches, you’ll find the professional team employees actively involved. There are more players now from the youth side than ever before. While the MLS clubs have more cash, it’s not a good program for player development, unless you are actually… Read more »