I’m sure many of you are already well-aware that the proposed designs for the new MMSD high school logos are far from pleasing to the eye. Heck, art professor and West alumni Jeff Butler—who designed the current West logo for free—was quoted in an article by Arman Rahman as saying “it’s not unique, it’s clip art,” and you would be hard pressed to find someone who disagrees. I agree with a lot of the logic behind changing the logos—we can have something that better represents the community and have full legal ownership of the logo—and even if I don’t completely agree with the idea that a school needs a brand, I can acknowledge that apparel sales, which are inherently connected to our nebulous brand, are a real source of income for the district. Seeking to make something a little more cohesive and a little more legally under our control is perfectly understandable. What’s less understandable is the idea that the tentative logo designs even come close to accurately representing our school. MMSD Athletic Director Jeremy Schlitz has noted that the images presented in the recent survey weren’t intended to be final designs, but I still find that the quality of those drafts—and their utter disconnection from our already established school identity—bodes ill for our future.

Despite their humble appearances, however, a real, actual company was paid to design these. A real, profit-motivated company who isn’t exactly known for quality design work. A real, national company who seems to think it can create something that represents MMSD schools better than our own students and alumni. Its name? BSN Sports.

BSN Sports is owned by Varsity Brands, Inc.—the same company that owns Varsity Spirit, which is otherwise known as the beast that turned competitive cheerleading into a highly acrobatic, ridiculously dangerous, and largely unregulated (i.e., one wherein unchecked abuse and overwork of athletes can occur) sport. For more information on this, I recommend reading the New York Times article that first brought the issue to my attention, How Cheerleading Became So Acrobatic, Dangerous and Popular by David Gauvey Herbert. It’s a chilling read, one that provokes a creeping sense of horror as you slowly realize the true extent of the grip Varsity Spirit has over the entirety of cheer. They control the gyms that athletes practice in, the uniforms they wear, the competitions they injure themselves in, the fact that cheerleading isn’t officially considered a sport in many places—something they’ve lobbied aggressively for (despite promoting an objectively athletic vision of the sport) because the regulations that would come with the recognition would also be placed on the off-season competitions they run and profit from. This allows Varsity Spirits to keep extracting the maximum amount of money from the families of cheerleaders, as well as allowing all that rampant, abusive overwork I mentioned earlier. They’ve also been faced with and had to settle antitrust lawsuits as recently as 2024. Additionally, Varsity Brands is owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, one of the largest private equity firms in the world. Which are, to be clear, are the things that destroyed Toys R’ Us. 

All this is to say that I’m not exactly thrilled about this company being the one the district has chosen to represent us, and I think that MMSD should think very carefully about how it wants to handle its relations with a private equity-owned business that has already violated antitrust laws in the past. Frankly, the only good thing I’ve been able to find about this deal is the price. I reached out to Mr. Schlitz to clarify some questions I had about the cost of the rebranding, and he did confirm over email that BSN Sports “is a $0 contract to become the preferred vendor with schools entering their subsequent requisitions.” Additionally, the rebranding isn’t planned to take place all at once, so gear bearing the new logos will be purchased within normal, previously established replacement cycles. Essentially, we’re getting these logos for free so long as we continue buying equipment and merchandise from BSN Sports.

Well, we got what we paid for. BSN Sports gave their best-while-still-being-free shot at representing us, and thus far the resounding answer has been that they failed. I’m not exactly surprised, after all, how can we expect a company to represent us? How can we expect someone who hasn’t gone to our schools, been a part of our communities—how can we expect someone who isn’t one of us to design such an integral representation of our school’s culture? If these new logos are part of an effort to put our best foot forward following the renovations, why should the step be taken by a company based in Texas than one of our own? Why are we letting BSN Sports define us when all they know about us is our colors and a handful of buzzwords? I’m a simple guy, when it comes to graphic design. I only really want one thing—something that I know I can feel proud of. Something that I can feel confident wearing as an emblem of a community that I am so grateful to be a part of. Something that has some Spartan freaking Spirit, which BSN Sports is, unsurprisingly, utterly lacking in.

Personally, I see no harm or foul in just admitting that it isn’t working out with BSN Sports, and exploring some other cost-effective options, such as the four fantastic art departments MMSD has at its disposal. After all, between all the high schools we have hundreds of incredibly talented students, alumni, and teachers who would be perfectly willing to make new, cohesive logos. We could be hosting competitions, engaging in more community voting, holding student design workshops—this rebranding was a huge opportunity to give students a stake in their schools and strengthen our identities, and I was sorely disappointed when I heard that MMSD had let it pass by in favor of contracting with BSN Sports.

But I believe that it’s not yet too late for MMSD to change course. Why bother with bargain-bin branding? We don’t need BSN Sports to tell us who we are, because we already know. We are Madison Metropolitan, with all the weird history and unique cultures it has to offer, and frankly, we deserve better than the generic slop that BSN Sports has handed us. We can make better. We will make better. We are better. All MMSD has to do is give us the chance to prove it.