The Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders launched a new era with the unveiling of an identity that pays tribute to the early days of their parent club, as well as the landscape of northeastern Pennsylvania.
The franchise rebranded as the Highlanders, the same name the New York Yankees used from 1903 to 1912. According to designer Dan Simon of Studio Simon, the suite of logos intentionally references the franchise’s parent club through design elements like pinstripes and the use of navy blue as a prominent color.
The nickname also references the mountainous landscape surrounding the team’s hometown, which is neither Scranton nor Wilkes-Barre, but rather Moosic, Pennsylvania. Moosic sits at just over 800 feet above sea level, but the nearby Appalachian Mountains reach 2,000 feet of elevation—the sort of place where an immortal blacksmith could settle down and live out eternity with his best gal.
The identity centers around a navy blue bear striding purposefully in hiking boots and carrying a baseball bat and a backpack. The choice of the bear ties directly to the rolling hills where the ballpark is located.
“Beyond the outfield wall there are these hills,” Dan Simon said. “They do have black bears there. It made for a good choice for the character to be a bear.”
Additional marks include a bear head, two different hiking bears, an interlocking SWB that the team carried over from its previous identity, and the blue flames of a campfire burning two baseball bat logs. Blue is not the first color one might associate with a campfire, but to coin a phrase, you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.
“Knowing the colors I had available to me for that flame, my first thought was, I don’t know this is going to work,” Simon said. “When I tried it, I was pleasantly surprised that it worked perfectly well.”
One alternate mark in the cap is meant to evoke a patch that a scout or camper might wear. The dotted line mimics the stitching one might find on a patch sewed on to a vest or jacket.
The Highlanders brand replaces the RailRiders, which the franchise had used since 2013. The RailRiders identity, which celebrated a local endemic animal as well as the region’s railroad heritage, featured a porcupine riding train tracks as though it were a locomotive.
The Highlanders will make their on-field debut when the Triple-A International League season begins March 26, 2027.
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