Mizuno Logo Evolution - Which One Will Appear on Lazio's Kits?

Following the official announcement of the deal between Lazio and Mizuno, we take a look at the evolution of the Mizuno logo over the years and the different possible logos that Mizuno could use on the Italian club’s shirts.

The History of Mizuno's Logo in Football - J. League beginnings

The image below shows every logo used by Mizuno since their inception in 1906.

When the Japanese brand first started making football kits for the J. League teams in the early 90s, they used the capital M logo on all their shirts, like these Tokyo Verdy and Yokahama F. Marinos jerseys show. The logo would of course have been very recognisable in their home country.

Tokyo Verdy away 1993, Cerezo Osaka home 94-95, Yokohama F. Marinos home 1993

When producing kits for Steinhousemuir FC of Scotland in the 94-95 season, they opted to incorporate the Mizuno name into the logo, placing the lettering under the capital M, probably to gain more visibility and recognition in a new international market. Other UK club kits around this time featured the same logo.

Steinhousemuir away 94-95, Reading home 97-98

International Recognition

This trend continued for much of the 90s, seemingly using different logos for the domestic and international markets, but towards the end of the decade, they started to use both logos on international club kits.

Watford home 97-98

In their sole season as technical sponsor of Marseille in 95-96, they dropped the M logo and just used the Mizuno name logo, this time with a central placing on the shirt.

Marseille home 95-96

The Runbird Era

Although they adopted the Runbird logo in 1993, it wasn’t until the 98-99 season that we saw it used for the first time on football kits, appearing on Scunthorpe’s kits with Mizuno lettering underneath. This became the norm for the years that followed, appearing on the shirts of Fiorentina in the 01-02 season and many other clubs across the world.

Fiorentina away and home 01-02, Scunthorpe home 98-99

Although occasionally in the early 2000s the old M logo was seen, the Runbird with Mizuno lettering underneath took hold and was used on the vast majority of the brand’s jerseys until 2019, when they dropped their name from the logo.

Ho Chi Minh City home 2018, the last year to use this version of the logo

We have seen many brands and even clubs changing their visual brand image to something more minimal in recent years, with Adidas being the latest to follow in Mizuno’s footsteps in this sense, just as Macron did before them in 2018, also dropping their name and using a simple logo free of lettering.

Citadella third 21-22, Nagoya Grampus home 2021, Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo home 2022

Return to the Big Stage in Europe

Based on their designs over the last few years, including for some clubs in Italy, it is most likely that Lazio’s kits will feature the Runbird without any lettering underneath, but given brands’ love for nostalgia and drawing inspiration from their archives, don’t rule out seeing another variation on some of their kits in the coming years.

Which logo would you like to see used on Lazio’s kits next season? Let us know in the comments.