As many as 3,000 submitted names were considered before the Colorado Springs team chose VibesVIBES
The Single-A Pioneer League Rocky Mountain Vibes unveiled their new name and logo yesterday, and the nickname is an "offshoot of brainstorming sessions" related to a proposed Happy Campers moniker, according to Benjamin Hill of MiLB.com. Vibes GM Chris Phillips said the team will "figure out ways to incorporate the name into theming out different parts" of Security Service Field in Colorado Springs. One such area will "feature fire pits so that fans can make their own s'mores, as this campfire treat is a conspicuous aspect of the Vibes' overall branding" (MiLB.com, 11/19). In Colorado Springs, Brent Briggeman cites sources as saying that the team, formerly the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, was "moving forward with Happy Campers as the probable new name" when MiLB "discovered the existence of The Happy Camper Cannabis Company" in Bailey, Colo. MiLB, with its "focus on family entertainment and looking to distance itself from any perceived endorsement of legalized marijuana, provided a roadblock to that name or at least enough discouragement" that the team decided against the moniker. In naming the s’more mascot Toasty, the team "still found a double-entendre approach to the marijuana issue" (Colorado Springs GAZETTE, 11/20). Briggeman in a front-page piece notes Phillips "sifted through 3,000 submitted names" before deciding on Vibes. Phillips: "What I came to realize after a lot of this is, I didn’t want to be a thing. I didn’t want to be an animal. I didn’t want to be a mountain. I was like, this is feeling; it’s energy and emotion" (Colorado Springs GAZETTE, 11/20).
