Chris Creamer
Purple will reign in Baltimore this fall. The Baltimore Ravens just announced their new alternate ‘Purple Rising’ helmet, to be worn for one game this upcoming season.
The shell is purple, with two gold stripes going down the middle and a gold facemask. The team’s wordmark is on the front bumper. On the sides is the front-facing raven head that the Ravens have used as an alternate mark for many years. The helmet will be exclusively worn with the team’s existing purple ‘Color Rush’ uniforms.
Ravens’ Senior Vice President of Marketing Brad Downs shared some of the process behind the design on “The Lounge” podcast. “We pay attention to all of that feedback from the fans, to really try to land on something they’re going to love,” Downs explained. “I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time. We know our fans have clamoured for it. They just like new stuff. But our uniforms have a nice traditional feel, and we’ve had a lot of success in them. We don’t want to be that team that changes all the time. We like the tradition that we’ve built.”
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“While we don’t use this logo a lot, the eyes are very iconic to the game day experience. Our players run out for intros under the eyes. We felt like it was time to give this logo a little shine if you will.”
The helmet includes a gold face mask and talon stripes to add a unique touch. “It wasn’t always (going to be) gold,” Downs mentioned. “We had a black facemask. We had purple facemask options with black helmets. When we landed on the ‘Color Rush,’ it made it a no-brainer to bring that gold facemask.”
The Ravens won’t say when the helmet will be worn during the 2024 NFL season, only revealing that it will be for just a single game. The exact date will be released closer to the start of the season.
This marks the first alternate helmet in Ravens history, as they have only worn a black helmet since the franchise relocated from Cleveland and rebranded in 1996.
They did, however, update their primary logo on the sides in 1999 after an amateur artist sued the franchise for copyright infringement after they used his design without credit.
