Odell Beckham Jr’s new logo has been getting a lot of flak on the Twitter-sphere since it was leaked. Designed by Nike, the new logo draws inspiration from the Old English style of black letter typography, often associated with newspapers and tattoos.

The logo contains Odell’s initials, OBJ, albeit many Twitter users claim that they were not able to spot the letters very easily, which is understandable. Without knowing that the logo is supposed to say ‘OBJ’ before seeing it, spotting the initials is a bit of a stretch. That being said, not being able to instantly recognize the letters isn’t necessarily a deal breaker. Logos often have hidden meanings/shapes, and sometimes the “aha” moment is a nice addition that gives viewers a shot of dopamine and a sense of accomplishment.

While I think Twitter is generally being too harsh on OBJ’s new logo, we can see where they’re coming from. When it comes to athletes, there is a certain aesthetic that people have come to expect. They want their favorite athlete’s logo to reflect the sport they play and the way they play it: bold, fierce, and intimidating.

Nike decided to go the opposite direction with this logo design, going with an unexpected direction that attempts to be more “lifestyle” than “sports”. We always appreciate when designers try to break the mold, and if there’s any athlete in the NFL that’s popular enough outside the sport to create a lifestyle brand around it’s Odell. Unfortunately, it looks like the general public wasn’t quite ready for the radical attempt and now it’s backfiring.

Luckily for Nike and Odell Beckham, the logo hasn’t been made official yet. The story broke when a Twitter user saw Nike’s copyright of the logo rather than via an official press release, so Nike may still have time to backpedal a bit and make some revisions to the logo. Who knows, maybe this was an intentional leak by Nike in order to gauge the public’s feedback before releasing the identity, knowing that it was a risky move.

So, if Nike were to redesign #13’s logo in a way that’s more inline with other athletic logos, how would it look? This is our take.