Team officials stand with the new logos at Thursday’s unveiling. (Images provided by the South Bend Cubs)

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Christmas came early for baseball fans in northern Indiana today.

The South Bend Cubs unveiled new logos, colors and team apparel, including a new home jersey today during a press event held in the Upper Deck at Four Winds Field in downtown South Bend.

The new team logo and four complementary logos that were unveiled at the same time, integrate a classic typeset that was associated for many decades with the former Studebaker Automotive Company founded in South Bend, Indiana. “This was an important feature to us,” said Joe Hart, President of the South Bend Cubs. “We’re incredibly excited about bringing the Cubs to South Bend, but we’ll never lose that connection to our local heritage. And I think it’s really good to know that the Chicago Cubs like this design that integrates some of our Studebaker heritage as much as we do.”

“The designs we’ve come up with are especially important because they represent more than a professional baseball team. They represent everyone who lives in this region and one of the most storied brands in baseball history,” said Andrew Berlin, owner of the South Bend Cubs. “The people of this region who have supported the team deserve the best. The Chicago Cubs deserve the best. We feel that this is the perfect blend of Cubs and South Bend-two things that our local fans have told us that they feel very strongly about.”

The new team colors, logos and uniforms are highly reminiscent of the Chicago team by design. “The Chicago Cubs are one the most iconic brands in the world-not just in the sports world, but in the entire world,” added Berlin. “We’re going to make sure that their players and also the fans in this region see the connection very clearly-this is a Cubs team-South Bend Cubs to be sure, but Cubs, no question about it.” The team’s primary colors will now be the same royal blue, light blue, red and tan as the Chicago team.

The South Bend team signed a historic four-year player development agreement with the Chicago Cubs in September. Under the current agreement, the teams will be aligned through 2018. “We don’t take anything for granted,” added Berlin. “We started working on earning a renewal of the PDA (player development agreement), the day we signed the first one. We expect this to be a long term and mutually beneficial relationship with the Cubs.”

New team apparel was also unveiled for the media. The new apparel, including shirts, hats and jerseys was modeled for the media by mannequins. “This is a sample of what our new team apparel will look like next spring,” said Hart. “What you see here is on sale right now in the team store during regular business hours and online 24 hours a day at SouthBendCubs.com. These are all great holiday gifts.”