By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews
If you wandered into the Washington Commanders team store this week, you might have done a double take. Sitting alongside Jayden Daniels jerseys and burgundy-and-gold spirit wear is a new T-shirt collection bearing the “Redskins” name and old logo — the branding the franchise formally retired back in 2020.
WUSA9 Chief Investigative Reporter Eric Flack broke the story on August 25, 2026, walking out of the team store with a shirt carrying the old logo on the front and the “Washington Redskins” name on the back. The team’s explanation, given directly to WUSA9, is blunt: this isn’t nostalgia marketing for its own sake, and it isn’t a signal that “Redskins” is coming back. According to a Commanders spokesperson, they’re doing it because trademark law essentially requires it — though not everyone is buying that as the full story.
The Legal Mechanism: “Use It or Lose It”
Trademark rights in the U.S. aren’t permanent just because you own a registration. Federal trademark law operates on a “use it or lose it” principle — if a company stops actively using a mark in commerce, that mark becomes vulnerable to being declared abandoned. Once a trademark is abandoned, anyone else can potentially register and use it, including on cheap knockoff merchandise the original owner has no control over.
The Commanders franchise still legally owns the trademarks tied to the Redskins name and its old spear/feather logo. Team officials have said plainly that continuing to sell some officially licensed “Redskins” gear through the team’s own channels is about keeping those marks “under franchise control” — a direct hedge against losing the legal right to police who else uses the name and logo commercially.
In other words: selling a limited run of retro gear yourself is a way of proving, on paper, that you’re still using the mark — which keeps counterfeiters, bootleggers, and opportunistic third parties from being able to claim it’s been abandoned and free for the taking.
This Isn’t a New Concern for the Franchise
This isn’t the first time trademark law has shaped how Washington’s NFL franchise handles its old identity. Back in 2014, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office actually canceled the team’s Redskins trademark registrations, ruling the name violated a provision of federal law barring registration of disparaging marks. That cancellation was ultimately mooted in 2017, when the Supreme Court decided Matal v. Tam — a case that didn’t involve the Redskins at all, but rather an Asian-American rock band, The Slants, seeking to trademark its own name. The Court struck down the disparagement clause as an unconstitutional restriction on free speech, which effectively ended the Native American petitioners’ long-running challenge to the Redskins trademarks, since the legal tool behind it no longer existed. The episode made clear just how much was potentially at stake if the team’s grip on those marks ever slipped.
The team fully retired “Redskins” in July 2020 amid mounting pressure from sponsors — most notably FedEx and Nike — and renewed public criticism following the murder of George Floyd, playing two seasons as the placeholder “Washington Football Team” before unveiling “Commanders” in 2022. But retiring a name for on-field use and giving up all commercial rights to it are two different things — and the organization has continued renewing and defending trademarks tied to the old branding ever since.
Not a Full Throwback Line — A Tribute Collection
It’s worth being precise about what’s actually for sale. This isn’t a broad relaunch of Redskins-branded merchandise. The collection reportedly honors three franchise legends from the pre-2020 era: Art Monk, Darrell Green, and Sean Taylor. The shirts pair the old name and logo with a tribute to specific Hall of Fame–caliber players rather than presenting the branding as a standalone product line. The team told WUSA9 this kind of usage is occasional and tied to honoring former players — not a signal that broader Redskins gear is returning to shelves.
Not Everyone Is Satisfied With the Explanation
The move has drawn public criticism. The Association on American Indian Affairs, a Native American advocacy group headquartered in Maryland, condemned the sale in a statement to WUSA9, calling out the use of “the former racist team name and Native imagery” and closing with a pointed line: “We are not your mascot.”
There’s also skepticism from within the sports media world about whether trademark maintenance is really the whole explanation. NBC Sports’ Pro Football Talk noted the apparent contradiction: if the Commanders are truly never going back to the old name and logo, it’s fair to ask why they’d bother spending effort protecting trademark rights to branding they insist they’ll never use again. That column raised the possibility — without confirming it — that preserving the trademarks keeps a door open, even if the team has no current plans to walk through it.
Will “Redskins” Ever Come Back?
The Commanders say no. Team officials — under ownership by Josh Harris, who bought the franchise in 2023 — have repeatedly and explicitly ruled out reviving the name, and they reiterated to Flack that their position hasn’t changed. Still, as the NBC Sports critique points out, the mere fact that a company is legally shoring up rights to a discarded brand is at least a rational hedge against ever needing it again — whether or not that’s the plan today.
How Long Will It Stick Around?
There’s no announced end date. Because the stated rationale is legal — maintaining active commercial use to avoid trademark abandonment — expect the team to keep rolling out small, occasional batches of Redskins-branded product tied to specific tributes rather than a full product line. If the organization ever concluded the old trademarks weren’t worth defending, letting this kind of merchandise disappear entirely would be one way to signal that. Until then, fans can expect the old name and logo to resurface every so often in the team store — just not on a current game-day jersey.
This story is based on original reporting by WUSA9 (Washington, D.C.), with additional coverage from Yahoo Sports and NBC Sports.
Keep MDBayNews Reporting Free
MDBayNews exists to help Marylanders understand decisions made by state and local leaders — especially when those decisions affect daily life, rights, and public services.
If this article helped clarify what’s happening or why it matters, reader support makes it possible to keep publishing clear, independent reporting like this.
Have a tip or documents to share?
We review submissions carefully and confidentially. Anonymous tips are welcome when appropriate.
Discover more from Maryland Bay News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.