Nearly a month ago, Mark Cuban announced he was working to redesign the Mavericks jersey and logo for the 2015-16 season. Cuban has always been a guy at the cutting edge of fan interaction and his latest venture was to open up his jersey redesign to the fans.
During the last month, crowdSPRING has helped the Mavericks solicit and store many of the designs the organization will consider. This is a truly unique opportunity for Mavericks and NBA fans to interact with one of the league's premier franchises.
We wanted to learn more about this and so we asked crowdSPRING spokeswoman Lauren Russ about the crowdsourcing plan. Russ allowed us to share a couple of the designs that have been submitted, which are posted throughout the post and the photo above.
Philip Rossman-Reich, Crossover Chronicles: How did the relationship with Mark Cuban and the Mavericks come about? What was he looking for when he approached crowdSPRING to host this design competition?
Lauren Russ, crowdSPRING: crowdSPRING is one of the largest marketplaces in the world for crowdsourced graphic design, industrial design, naming and writing services. crowdSPRING offers 43 different categories of design, industrial design and writing projects, including clothing design.
When Mark wrote on his blog that the Mavs were re-designing their uniforms for the 2015-16 season, crowdSPRING reached out, introduced Mark to the site and offered to involve Mavs fans and the global crowdSPRING community of more than 138,000 designers and writers.
crowdSPRING has worked with athletes, sports organizations, some of the world's best brands, many of the world's best agencies, and tens of thousands of entrepreneurs and startups.
As a savvy entrepreneur, Mark wanted to see many creative entries and knew crowdSPRING could help. Mark liked the idea of the project on crowdSPRING and was looking forward to seeing the submitted designs.
Crossover Chronicles: Has crowdSPRING ever done a contest for jersey redesigns like this before?
crowdSPRING: crowdSPRING has worked on many interesting projects, including more than 400 unique clothing design projects, including the design of jerseys, t-shirts, pajamas, hoodies, yoga apparel, and other types of clothing. To illustrate just a few examples, crowdSPRING designers designed a tour t-shirt for the rock band Phantom Planet and a stage dress for the Grammy nominated Florence Welch, lead singer of the indie band Florence + The Machine.
Crossover Chronicles: What are the kinds of designs are crowdSPRING and the Mavericks are looking for? Cuban has always been off the wall, do you have a sense of whether he will want a design that is traditional or something a little more off the wall (hopefully not Rockets/Raptors of the 90s off the wall)?
crowdSPRING: We know from the creative brief Mark created, he is looking for a uniform that stays true to the current Mavs logo and at least close to their current color schemes. But Mark has always been willing to do something different, so it wouldn’t surprise us if he picks a design that truly sets the Mavs apart. The good news is that he has 772 designs to choose from in the crowdSPRING project.
Crossover Chronicles: What have been your thoughts on the jersey designs received so far?
crowdSPRING: Impressive! We have a phenomenal creative community and many talented designers in the U.S. and around the world. The powerful combination of global talent (over 138,000 designers and writers), strong community, respect for (and protection of) Intellectual Property, and world-class customer service has produced a strong and vital marketplace that offers buyers, like Mark, and incredible value and first-class creative. We’re not at all surprised to see so many great choices.
Crossover Chronicles: Do you see this sort of fan interaction catching on with future jersey designs from teams in the NBA or in other sports?
crowdSPRING: Mark has always been an innovative entrepreneur and interested in engaging with fans. By leveraging crowdSPRING, Mark is taking the fan-knows-best-approach and uniquely involving fans in the process. In today’s age of social media and the search by Brands to engage with fans, Mark is front and center in showing others how this can be done effectively.
Mark was savvy enough to see the benefits of crowdsourcing to the fans because he realizes he is leveraging what is essentially an “agency” that's bigger, cheaper and more productive than any marketing company in history. Over the last decade, many big Brands have taken notice of the way that crowdsourcing is helping to reshape the advertising and marketing industries. crowdSPRING has helped many notable brands, including Amazon, LG, Tivo, Starbucks, Barilla, Forbes and many other Fortune 500s.
Mark is the first owner in the NBA to capitalize on this trend. But he’s not alone – we’ve been hearing from other sports organizations interested in leveraging crowdsourced design for everything from signage to uniforms to mascot design.
Crossover Chronicles: Many thanks to crowdSPRING for sharing this great information and these great designs with us. We are excited to see what the final product becomes. The submission period ended on June 1, so we eagerly await what jersey Cuban and the Mavericks go with!
