The Detroit Red Wings are celebrating their 100th anniversary this season. Over the last century the team’s winged wheel logo has become iconic.

But Detroit’s hockey team isn’t the only group using the Red Wing identity. Red Wing Shoes, known for making boots, sports a logo that features similar styling cues.

Scott Deaner, from Petersburg, Michigan, asked CuriosiD if there’s any connection between the two.

“I’ve looked at the Red Wing shoe company logo several times,” says Deaner, “and I’m like, that is very similar to the Red Wings logo. Just add the wheel and it looks very similar.”

The answer to that question is no.

Red Wing Shoes was founded in 1905 in Red Wing, Minnesota. The famous boot maker takes its name from its hometown.

The Detroit Red Wings were founded in 1926, but they weren’t originally from Detroit.

Detroit hockey before the Red Wings name

They were known as the Victoria Cougars. Helene St. James covers the Wings for the Detroit Free Press.  She says the franchise moved to Detroit from British Colombia when the old Western Hockey League fell apart.

The thinking was ‘keep the name the same,” says St. James. “Let them be known as the Detroit Cougars.”

The team played under the Cougars moniker for four seasons with little success.

“They decided in 1930, they were renamed the Falcons,” she says. “But that wasn’t any better.”

The Red Wings didn’t become the “Red Wings” until 1932, after being purchased by Canadian-American businessman James Norris.

Origins of the “winged wheel”

Jeremy Dimick is director of collections and curatorial for the Detroit Historical Society. He put together an exhibit celebrating the Red Wings’ 100th anniversary that’s on display at the Detroit Historical Museum through November.

Dimick says it was Norris who came up with the now famous Winged Wheel. He says the amateur athletic club Norris played hockey for growing up in Montreal had at one point been known for bicycle racing.

“And so their club emblem became this bicycle wheel with wings on it,” says Dimick, “as like a shorthand for speed.”

That imagery stuck with Norris but the Red Wings logo isn’t exactly the same what he wore growing up.

The Montreal Amateur Athletic Associations logo featured two wings oriented vertical against the wheel. The orientation of the wing changed and the bicycle wheel was replaced with one that was a little more representative of the Motor City.

“The wheel that’s chosen is pretty darn close to a Model T wheel,” Dimick says. “And what better car to kind of represent Detroit’s auto industry.”

The color red

As for why red was selected for the Wings, that is believed to have been influenced by Norris’ business interests. Dimick says the color was associated with the Upper Lakes Shipping Company — a fleet of Great Lakes freighters that Norris owned.

“Their kind of club flag that they flew on all their ships and had on the smokestacks of all their ships,” Dimick explains, “was this bright red kind of crimson pennant with a black diamond in the middle. And that red is eerily similar to the red that ends up being the Red Wings’ red.”

Thus, the Detroit Red Wings name and emblem were born. The imagery remains pretty much the same as it is today.

While the Red Wings hockey team and the Red Wing shoe company brands share some styling cues, they arrived independently from one another.

WDET’s CuriosiD series answers your questions about everything Detroit. Subscribe to CuriosiD on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

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More CuriosiD

In this episode of CuriosiD, listener Leah Warshaw asks the question:

“How did The Old Miami get its name?”

The short answer

The first Miami on Cass was the Miami Lounge, which opened in 1947. As the neighborhood took a turn for the worse in the 60s, the bar became the site of murder, prostitution, and other crimes that marred its reputation. 

The bar switched owners several times but kept “Miami” in the name, for the most part. Shortly after The New Miami was burned down, veteran Danny Overstreet opened The Old Miami, with “Miami” standing for “missing in action Michigan”. Though it started as a place to serve veterans, it’s an inviting dive for everyone in the neighborhood today, with gems like a koi pond in its expansive backyard.

Danny’s wife, Julie, credits the use of “old” to Danny’s sense of humor. She runs the bar today. 

Manager Dena Walker adds, “I mean what would you call it—the New New Miami?”

For more details on the history of The Old Miami and what to expect from today’s laid-back atmosphere, listen to the podcast above.

WDET’s CuriosiD series answers your questions about everything Detroit. Subscribe to CuriosiD on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

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