What’s in a sticker?

If you've read my previous posts (of course you have!) you’ll know my love for cricket bats. I love the look and feel and the different shapes and sizes but above all I love the branding and stickers.

Cricket bat branding has come a long way back from when it was a simple 1 colour sticker with the brand name on it, now there are embossed stickers with images embedded behind the main logo, spot foiled stickers with highlights of silver or gold as well as clear printed stickers to enhance that minimal look.

So, having done my research, which is basically just spending hours looking at bats on the old interweb, I’d noticed there were a few trends which lots of manufacturers were following which I thought I’d share.

Shapes - Ribbons, Angles and Capital Letters

Ribbons  

Some manufacturers have always used a ribbon in their branding; it normally runs down the bat and contains the manufacturer's logo with the model name contained below and It works particularly well on the back of the blade as it draws the eye down the bat. Some brands have always had this a as part of their logo whilst other have only recently incorporated in.

Gunn & Moore, Gray Nicholls, Newbury and Salix have long used a ribbon shapes in their stickers and modern companies such as B3, Viking and Focus are all excellent examples of using ribbons in branding.

Capital Letters  

Favoured by most of the brands in India and Pakistan as they have abbreviated letters for their brand names you’re most likely to see SS/TON or maybe SF or CA at your local ground. Big and bold, the letters are normally in a single block colour and are often rotated 90 degrees to run up the bat.

As  these brands are increasingly putting their money into sponsorship, you’ll also see more of them on TV with names such as Eoin Morgan, Michael Carberry and Hashim Amla all using such brands.

One addition to this category are the Indian tyre manufacturers who had the foresight to sponsor their superstars. MRF (Madras Rubber Factory) sponsored Sachin Tendulkar back in the early 2000’s and have now become as recognised across the globe for their red lettered bats as much as their tyres. With Virat Kohli, AB De Villiers and Shikhar Dhawan currently using their bats they will only become more popular in the village game.

Angled shapes

This is the biggest trend of the moment and a go-to look for most new brands out there.

It has the square sticker angled off at the bottom somewhere between 30 and 45 degrees. Often the angle is going up from left to right as you look at the front of the blade and will then be mirrored on the back of the bat. The main logo is contained within the shape and the bat type or grading is often below the main shape in a smaller block.

Kookaburra, New Balance, Puma, Hunts County, Hell 4 Leather and Helygen and all brands that use these shapes well on their bats and the angle draws the eye across and helps blend the front and back stickers together.

Looking at these trends got me thinking about what I’d do for my own bat. Would I follow one of these formats or try to do something different?

Next blog post - Finding the One