Pace cars, trotting horses and the colours of the Indiana flag.

The Indiana Pacers were founded in 1967 as a charter member of the American Basketball Association and joined the National Basketball Association in 1976 through the ABA–NBA merger. English Wikipedia says that early in 1967 a group of six investors pooled their money to buy a franchise in the new league: the attorney Richard Tinkham, John DeVoe and Chuck DeVoe, the entrepreneur Lyn Treece, the sports agent Chuck Barnes and the Indianapolis Star sports writer Bob Collins. The club is based in Indianapolis and plays at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

The name is a piece of state history. Wikipedia says the team is named for Indiana’s connection with the pace cars of the Indianapolis 500 and with the harness racing industry. Later uniforms returned to the racing theme more than once.

The colours come from the state flag. According to Wikipedia, the Pacers’ colours today are navy blue, yellow or gold, cool grey and white, and the original blue and yellow, in a more medium shade of blue, were taken from the flag of Indiana. That pairing has stayed in place for the club’s whole history, with the shade of blue moving from medium to navy and back again on throwback and City uniforms.

The early uniforms were plain. Wikipedia says the first sets were blue and white with yellow trim and featured either the state name or the team name in block letters. The shorts originally carried contrasting side stripes with the team name written inside. The “P” logo, a capital letter with a basketball, made its debut on the white uniform in the 1970–71 season. Ahead of 1971–72 the club introduced a “double stripes” uniform with stripes running down the right side and the P logo on the left leg, and in 1974 the stripes were modified and both the team and state names switched to script lettering.

The move to the NBA in 1976 brought a simpler look. Wikipedia says the Pacers went back to a design reminiscent of their early ABA years, with side stripes running through the uniform. After one season the white uniform worked the P logo into the “PACERS” wordmark, the early 1980s brought a new typeface for the state and team names, and in 1983 the white uniform was replaced by a gold one carrying the state name.

A streaking bullet, an Olympic sprinter and a roundel.

Ownership settled in the 1980s. According to the English Wikipedia biography of Herb Simon, he and his brother Melvin Simon jointly purchased the Pacers in 1983. Wikipedia describes Herb Simon as co-owner in 2008, when he took on business roles at Pacers Sports & Entertainment, the company that runs the team.

The uniforms became bolder in the middle of the decade. Wikipedia says that in 1985 the Pacers introduced a contrasting chest stripe and a “streaking bullet” stripe across the “PACERS” wordmark. At first the numbers sat on the left chest and right leg; a year later they were centred, and the team logo replaced the number on the shorts.

The next design came from an unexpected source. Wikipedia says that midway through the 1989–90 season the Pacers introduced a uniform, worn from the following season, designed by the track and field athlete Florence Griffith Joyner. It used a darker navy blue and a deeper yellow, set the lettering in a Helvetica-like typeface with drop shadows, and ran contrasting side stripes that tapered towards the top. The P logo was updated at the same time: the outstretched hand of the original was removed and lines were added towards the yellow ball to suggest motion. The set is still known as the “FloJo” design.

A more traditional look followed in 1997. Wikipedia says block letters and contrasting side stripes returned and pinstripes were added; a yellow alternate followed in 1998–99, and all three jerseys carried the state name on the chest.

On 29 September 2005, according to Wikipedia, the club unveiled another set. The pinstripes were removed in favour of thinner stripes, the team name returned to the white uniform, and silver was added to both the logo and the uniforms. An alternate roundel logo also appeared, placing the full team name in a yellow circle with navy and silver borders around the P, and a gold alternate jersey was added for 2008–09.

The club has also used its uniforms to tell Indiana basketball stories. Wikipedia says that on 21 July 2015, working with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the Pacers unveiled maroon and gold uniforms based on the 1986 film Hoosiers, named “Hickory” after the fictional high school in the film, and wore them for several games of the 2015–16 season. The mascot is Boomer, a panther, whom Wikipedia lists as the official mascot since the 1991–92 season; a dog mascot named Bowser worked alongside him until 2009–10.

Design and documentation.

A team name is often the first piece of a basketball identity to be settled, and some clubs hand that choice to the public. A name-the-team contest or regional vote gives residents a sense of ownership before a game is played, and the shortlist usually leans on local wildlife, weather, landscape or industry so the name can be drawn as well as spoken. Once chosen, the name sets the direction for everything that follows: the animal or symbol in the primary logo, the colours and the tone of the wordmark.

Rebrands tend to arrive in cycles. A club may simplify an older, more illustrated mark into a flatter emblem that reproduces cleanly on screens, shorts and court paint, then add alternate logos, monograms and secondary badges that can stand in where space is tight. Arena names add another layer, because naming rights change hands over the years and the building’s signage, centre-court graphics and ticketing all have to follow. Colours and typefaces often stay steadier than either, carrying the identity from one logo and one arena name to the next.

Refresh: a state outline and a promise about basketball.

The current identity began with the league’s switch to Nike. Fox Sports reported on 29 July 2017 that the Pacers had unveiled new uniforms, a new on-court logo and a new brand platform at the River West StreetFest in Indianapolis. The new pieces were a white “Association” uniform and a navy “Icon” uniform, a logo featuring an outline of the state of Indiana, and the platform “We Grow Basketball Here.” Fox Sports quoted Todd Taylor, chief marketing officer of Pacers Sports & Entertainment, who said the club wanted a uniform that stayed true to its traditional roots while becoming more modern, and who described the slogan as a commitment to nurture basketball at every level across the state.

Wikipedia adds detail on the logo set. It says the roundel, an alternate since 2005, was promoted to a “Global” logo in 2017, and that the white Association, navy Icon and yellow “Statement” uniforms initially mirrored each other, with the full team name circling the number and subtle pinstripes on each side. Ahead of 2019–20 the Statement uniform was redesigned as a nod to the FloJo design of 1990 to 1997, with silver pinstripes on the right side as a nod to Indiana’s farmland and the state name on the chest.

The City uniforms have mined local themes. Wikipedia describes a first City set in navy with yellow racing flag stripes on the left side and numbers encircled in a nod to IndyCar history; a 2020–21 set that revived the ABA-era royal blue and yellow with pinstripes; a 2021–22 “mix-tape” design for the NBA’s 75th anniversary that combined the streaking bullet, the FloJo stripes and a reworked classic logo with the original outstretched arm; a 2022–23 set honouring Gainbridge Fieldhouse with black as its main colour; and a 2023–24 black set with a graffiti-style “INDY” wordmark celebrating the state’s art scene.

For a design guide, the Indiana Pacers show how a team name and a state flag can carry an identity, with racing references and blue and gold carrying the brand through every uniform change. Compare the Detroit Pistons, a neighbour in the NBA’s Central Division, and the NBA, which the Pacers joined in 1976. For this guide we use pacer navy, flag gold and cool grey with a condensed sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Indiana Pacers’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.