Starting on November 1, 2025, a sizeable group of optional license plate designs started becoming available in Washington, adding to the already-voluminous offering of plates that Washingtons can choose for their cars.

In the spring of 2025, the state legislature passed Senate Bill 5444, which authorized this large batch of special license plates, while at the same time addressing officials’ concerns about the special plate program being too extensive. All special design plates require legislation to be created, and far too many sell in such small volumes that the cost and burden of administrating them was deemed too high.

As a result, these brand-new plates may be the last new offerings for the next four years; SB 5444 placed a moratorium of new designs until 2029 and directed the Department of Licensing to study changes to the processes.

Below are the designs that will be phased in starting November 1. Some of these are certain to be big sellers, while others probably destined to be small-volume designs seldom seem on the roads.

Historical Throwback

Calling this design a “historical throwback” is a bit of a stretch. Washington state only had a white and black license plate once, and that was for one year during the First World War.

In reality, this “throwback” is just a backdoor justification for a “blackout” license plate. And it’s likely to be enormously popular.

“Blackout” license plates are so hot right now. They’ve become bestsellers in places that offer them as optional designs, such as Iowa, Colorado, and Minnesota. The first successful instance was California’s “throwback” license plate with a plain yellow on black design that resembles the state’s iconic 1963 issue.

So popular, in fact, are these types that many people have found ways to custom-wrap their regular state-issued license plates to turn them into blackouts. It’s not been uncommon to find “blackout” plates on the roads of Washington state for the past seven or eight years.

Is this legal? Heck no!

The introduction of a state-issued blackout option should just about eliminate the business of the unofficial blackout providers, and provide the state with a good source of revenue.

Keep Washington Evergreen

It is far more correct to call this design a “Historical Throwback” given that it’s an homage to the green-and-white, state-name-at-top-left license plates that were issued for about 20 years, and were prominent on the roads from 1968 until 2000.

Sales from these will fund electric car charging stations, making them “green” in multiple ways.

Smokey Bear

This will surely be another top-seller given its popularity to the south.

Oregon began offering a Smokey Bear plate honor of Smokey’s 75th anniversary in August 2019, and its sales spread like…..wildfire. It was such a striking design, in fact, that it was awarded the 2019 Best Plate Award by the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association (ALPCA). More than 90,000 are currently on the roads (dramatically exceeding the volumes of any of Washington’s current special-issue licenses).

Sales of the new design will support the Washington Department of Natural Resources’s fire prevention efforts. Will Washington’s Smokey match Oregon’s Smokey for popularity? Probably not in the same numbers, but it will probably become quite common on the roads.

Honeybees and Pollinators

Similarly following in Oregon’s footsteps is the Honeybees and Pollinators plate, which debuted as a popular option in the Beaver State in 2023.

The Washington State Beekeepers Association will benefit from the funds on these plates.

State Sport: Pickleball

Pickleball, which has been well-known to elementary school students in Washington state for decades, has become more than a niche sport in recent years. Given its current trendiness, this plate will probably sell a bit better than other “sports” plates in Washington (the extremely low-volume Tennis and Wrestling issues), but is most certainly not destined to be a best-seller.

The sport was invented on Bainbridge Island in 1965, and was designed Washington’s State Sport in 2022. The license plates support the Seattle Metro Pickleball Association, which advocates for facilities.

LeMay – America’s Car Museum

Another blackout plate!

This plate supports LeMay – America’s Car Museum, home of a world-class car collection housed in Tacoma’s second-most iconic piece of I-5-adjacent architecture. The museum was founded from the collection of the late Harold LeMay, which was recognized as the largest in the world (he accumulated more than a few license plates along the way, too).

The original design proposal made this blackout option a true throwback, by displaying the original Centennial Celebration state name font and positioning, which was how all Washington plates looked (with the Mt. Rainier design instead of a black background) from 1987 until 1998. State requirements for uniform design prevent this from appearing on the final version.

Car enthusiasts care more about license plates than normal average people, and as stated above, blackout license plates are extremely popular, so this will probably sell in high numbers. But two competing blackout plates?

Update:

On December 2, the LeMay museum unveiled its final approved design on its website, giving some background on why the design changed.

As many of you know, our originally proposed black-and-white “throwback” design was ultimately adopted by the State for its own retro plate series and therefore is not associated with ACM. Because that design is now owned by the State, we were required to create a fully new concept that met their detailed specifications—including color palette, layout, and mandatory design elements.

The final design is in line with a backout color scheme, and is arguably more interesting than the original proposal.

Celebrating car culture is a worthy cause for a special license plate!

Moratorium on New Plates

Washington’s optional design license plates have proliferated wildly in the last twenty years. Many designs sell in miniscule numbers and fail to raise enough revenue to cover the costs.

According to the Department of Licensing’s 2024 Report to the Legislature (covering 2023 data), there were 19 designs that had fewer than 1,000 units on the road that year, including five that never broke 200.

By contrast, the top five designs (Washington State University, Seattle Seahawks, Law Enforcement Memorial, Washington’s National Parks, and the University of Washington, in that order), all have in excess of 10,000 active registrations.

Relative to the numbers sold by other states, even Washington’s top sellers aren’t that impressive. As a nearby example, Oregon’s full-graphic optional offerings, which generally feature top-notch designs, all sell tens of thousands of examples. Oregon’s Smokey Bear plate in particular has more than 90,000 on the road in the six years it’s been offered.

Designs Pending Approval

2025’s special license plate legislation paused new design applications for almost four years, but it does allow for the creation of the following plates IF the sponsoring organizations receive enough sign-ups:

• Working Forests
• Nautical Northwest
• Donate Life
• Firefighter Memorial
• Naval Academy
• Seattle Reign FC
• Mt. St. Helens

Many of these will likely make their debuts in the coming months.