The Winged Stirrup

Uni Watch’s “winged stirrup” logo has an interesting backstory. In 2017, as designer Bryan Molloy (the same guy who I collaborated with in 2015 on the Uni Watch T-Shirt Club) prepared to create a shirt design for Purple Amnesty Day, he took some inspiration from the old New York Athletic Club logo:

That logo is one of many sports graphics to employ a winged foot, an idea based on the Roman god Mercury, whose winged feet supposedly made him very fast. (That’s why he’s famously shown in the FTD Florists’ logo, because he can deliver your flowers so speedily!) Since Uni Watch has always been obsessed with stirrups, Bryan decided to create a winged stirrup concept for that year’s Purp Walk shirt.

*The 2017 Purple Amnesty Day shirt marked the first appearance of the winged stirrup. Note that this early version had* two wings — you can faintly see the back wing behind the front wing. (Photo by Paul)

That shirt was such a hit that Bryan and I decided that winged stirrup shouldn’t be restricted to Purp Walk. So we created a new shirt in Uni Watch colors, and Bry even riffed a bit more on the New York Athletic Club inspiration by creating an imaginary Uni Watch Aesthetic Club.

*Front and back graphics of the “Uni Watch Aesthetic Club” shirt, from 2017. The stirrup still had two wings at this point. (Photos by Paul)*

*The shirt came with a hang tag (left) that owed an obvious stylistic debt to the New York Athletic Club logo. (Logo at left by Bryan Molloy; logo at right from nyac.org)*

I eventually decided that the winged stirrup should be Uni Watch’s logo. Bryan simplified it by removing the second wing, eliminating the shading, and so on, creating a simple, timeless mark.

The winged stirrup got a suitably garish treatment when we did a “turn ahead the clock” shirt in 2019. That year was Uni Watch’s 20th anniversary and also marked 20 years since the original TATC promotion — hence the uni number on the back. (Mock-ups by Bryan Molloy)

Since then, the winged stirrup has appeared on T-shirts, stickers, caps, magnets, coasters, pins, chain-stitched patches, baseball bats, cycling jerseys, cufflinks, key rings, mini-helmets, gumball helmets, and I’m sure a bunch of other things I’m forgetting. It’s a very flexible, durable icon, and I can’t imagine ever needing, or wanting, to change it.