REPORT - Blackhawks AHL Officially Changed Their Logo & It's Drawing Controversy

It was not shaming body images, the Rockford Ice Hogs stated they found a opportunity to make Hammy more interactive and and theatrical, says Scott Powers, a Blackhawks writer for the athletic.

Fans were not happy whatsoever, there is a petition which has 3,650 plus signatures that is growing every day to bring back the old mascot Hammy.

The Ice Hogs expected some backlash, but this much:

''Everyone we had spoken with about changing a mascot, introducing a mascot, whatever it might be, they gave us the playbook for it from the standpoint of right from the reaction.''

''This is probably how it's gonna go down," said IceHogs vice president of marketing, content and operations Mike Peck, who has been with the organization since 2001. "And the reaction has followed that script, if you will, to an exact 'T?' So, we're not surprised by that. We're not having fun with it, and fans are warming up to the new-look Hammy.''

The Ice Hogs have also changed their teams logo, which has been the same for the past 23 years dating back to 1999, but why?

"I think the logo that we had was very reminiscent of the late '90s, early 2000s, when a lot of minor-league logos in particular were developed. And they were very busy. It's not that we didn't like the logo. We just felt it was tempting to kind of modernize it a little bit." Said the Ice Hogs vice president.

The logo change can be seen below:

''I wanted it to be very minimal because I didn't want it to overpower the IceHogs' branding and overpower the Hammy head,'' Toltzman said. "So in analyzing where I could have a minimal impact and minimal influence on the overall design, that glint in Hammy's eye, I thought could be something that I could use as a callback to the Blackhawks. So that small glint in Hammy's eye, I guess right eye as you're looking at it, I experimented with a couple of the different Blackhawks colors, which you know their color palettes is pretty wide. But I really settled on Black Hawk's skin tone, is something that I thought really looks good with the red and with the black.

''And since Black Hawk's skin tone is really the predominant color you see in that logo, I thought it was a good fit as just sort of a subtle nod to the Blackhawks' partnership and ownership.''

Source: Scott Powers, The Athletic.