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Uni Watch

Hockey TimE

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Islanders_Logo_2

By Phil Hecken, with Tim E. O’Brien

Back again with our NHL tweaker/concepter-extraodinaire, Tim E. O’Brien, who has some grandiose NHL concepts that we’ve already seen, and has a few more in the bag. Previously, he basically created a ‘pro combat’ template for hockey, did up some nifty concepts for a good number of NHL teams, and resurrected some “defunct” clubs (and I’m hoping I can talk him into concepting some more defunct teams as well as some national teams for the 2014 Winter Olympics). But for today, he pretty much concludes the NHL. I especially like that he (and a concepter, which follows this article) have attempted to right the wrong that is the new Islanders third uni. So, you know the set up — here’s Tim:

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Calgary: HOME | ROAD | THIRD

These unis are a combo of throwback and current designs. All the unis feature some black but the main striping patterns come from the era of the Flames singular Cup win.

For the captaincy patch, I use the Calgary Flaming C logo and for the alternate captains, I use the Atlanta Flames Flaming A logo.

Colorado: HOME | ROAD | THIRD

A more mountainous feel on the unis (and pants) that evokes earlier, happier times in Colorado. I also removed the black helmet and pants and eliminated gray except for on the crest.

The third is inverted Home colors, which some have said is almost indistinguishable from the Home uni, but I say, what’s so wrong with that?

Detroit: HOME | ROAD | THIRD

No change, home or road. The Third is a ‘heritage’ design that honors elements of past uniforms while incorporating some modern and all new elements.

I’ve always really enjoyed the Red Wing’s wordmarks, so I tried to highlight them in the Third jersey.

New Jersey: HOME | ROAD | THIRD

The Devils don’t need too many changes. I did very minor stuff on the home and road, but I bring back the old green jersey from Jersey’s first 11 seasons and bring it back as the permanent third. It’s classic uni that deserves to be seen at least a few times a year.

New York Islanders: HOME | ROAD | THIRD

Well, the Islanders decided to shit all over good design with their third jersey so I decided it was time to work on the Isles.

With the home and road, I return the look that won four Stanley Cups, a classic and simple uni.

As for the third, I used the current home uni striping and add my new secondary logo (inspired from the Whalers’ old logo) to the chest.

_____

Well, that’s it for now, until next time, happy tweaking.

~~~

Thanks Tim. And I know for a fact that Mr. O’Brien is hard at work on those Olympics & Defunct unis, so we’ll be seeing those down the road. Readers? What say you?

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gold_maroon_400h

Au revoir, Gofair…

It was only a matter of time — the Minnesota Golden Gophers have gotten the new combat treatment from the swoosh. Or, as Nike puts it, “The fully-integrated uniform system incorporates the latest in performance innovation and design. The redesigned base layer facilitates the uniform’s overall innovation, delivering the ultimate in lightweight protection for maximum speed. Strategically placed seams, pads and cooling zones also help minimize distraction and optimize protective coverage.” We’ve heard this all before, but perhaps now that the Gophers have finally gotten “space age” uniforms, their on-field performance will improve. Or, perhaps not.

Let’s go to the video tape…

OK — that’s actually not too bad. And by “not too bad” I mean, “in comparison to last years uniforms.” The new uniforms will have some funky fonts, but other than that, they are relatively spartan (no offense, Michigan State fans). And it looks like they’ll have the full nine combinations available. In fact, about the splashiest thing about these uniforms is the rather odd, seemingly superfluous “bricklike” striping pattern on the numbers. But I happen to like them (so far). The bold gold meshes well with the muted maroon (ooh, I rhymed and alliterated in the same sentence). About the only downside appears to be a creeping in of some black on the helmet in the form of the facemask and rear bumper. I would have preferred a gray facemask, but the black isn’t overwhelming — as long as other parts of the uniform don’t contain any BFBS.

But are those fonts just some randomly computer-generated thing swooshie came up with? And what about the brick pattern? Is there any rhyme or reason? Why, yes. Once again, Nike’s spin-meister press guy supplies our answers: “Brick patterns and texture are also prominent in some of the design elements. Jersey numbering and lettering on the white and gold jerseys will be printed with a brick pattern, which was taken directly from one of the walls of Memorial Stadium, which is on display at the McNamara Alumni Center. Meanwhile, the finish of the new helmets was designed to simulate the look of brick.” OK. No, really, I kind of think these are a nice touch. And what about that gold jersey? That’s for special games, like homecoming. Just don’t schedule the North Dakota State Bison for that one.

Wanna see more? OK here ya go:

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Benchies Header

Benchies

by Rick Pearson

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A reprise (because it’s USPHC Weekend)…

1-21-12 d-Pond Color

And, of course, the full-size.

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all sport uni tweaks

Uni Tweaks Concepts

We have another new set of tweaks, er…concepts today. After discussion with a number of readers, it’s probably more apropos to call most of the reader submissions “concepts” rather than tweaks. So that’s that.

So if you’ve concept for any sport, or just a tweak or wholesale revision, send them my way.

Please do try to keep your descriptions to ~50 words (give or take) per image — if you have three uniform concepts in one image, then obviously, you can go a little over, but no novels, OK? OK!. You guys have usually been good with keeping the descriptions pretty short, and I thank you for that.

And so, lets begin:

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We start with Charles Molgat, who has a tweak for the Jets crest:

Hi Phil,

Chuck Molgat here in Toronto. Finally got around to crafting the non-military version of the new Winnipeg Jets logo that’s been bouncing around in my head for awhile. And just in time for Christmas. Ha! Anyway, please let me know what you think when you get a chance. I like the fact it ends up looking like a peace symbol, which wasn’t the original idea but fits with the whole idea of Jets fans being unhappy with the militarization of the team’s uniforms. The jet on this one is taken from the old WHA crest from 1973 that made the jump to the NHL and then was replaced in 1990.

Love the site. All the best,
-Chuck

~~~

Next up is Shane Bua, who has a new Canucks concept:

Hey Phil,

I was talking with friends the other day about the V sweaters that the Nucks wore in the 80s, and decided to modernize the look a little. First time ever using gimp, but I don’t think it came out too bad.

I haven’t been able to decide on a sleeve logo. I can’t stand the orca, and stick-in-rink just doesn’t scream sleeves to me.

Shane

~~~

And we close with Walter Helfer, who has a new concept for the Islanders:

Dear Phil,

Obviously the Isles need all the help they can get, designwise. I’m unsure how vital an orange jersey is to their interests, since their enemies, the Flyers, already have one. But it *did* create the opportunity to furnish an orange helmet, which would be unique. The block “I” on the nautical flag is a theme I’ve kicked around; the aim was to find a suitable Islander identity without adding baroque and excessive detail.

Walter

And that’s it for today. Back next time with more.

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OK folks, that’s it for today. Tomorrow is the real great day in sports — the NFL conference championship games (one of the greatest days on the sports calendar — and way better than Super Bowl Sunday). I’ll be off the boards for a large part of today, so all you guys play nice, OK?

~~~

“Most design sucks, most art sucks, most music sucks, most movies suck, most food sucks, most books suck, most TV sucks. Hell, most people suck. That’s part of why good things are so special.” — Paul Lukas

 
  
 
Comments (100)

    The COTD goes SO FREAKING HARD!!!

    Oh, and the Gopher font was created by taking the “4” off of the 1940 (I think) National Champion uniform, and just going from there. See this bit:

    (link)

    I had to stop watching a few seconds in when the Gophers’ equipment manager talked glowingly about how his guy at Nike led them in researching the school’s traditions. Fail. The Gophers staff should already know that; that’s what they should bring to the table with any designer.

    Still, for Nike, these are not bad at all. The only glaring misstep is the black helmet elements.

    Paul ran some photos from the Teenie Harris archive that I’d sent him in the News Ticker a while back. Just as good this time around!

    Stupid black facemask is stupid. They should have either matched the helmet color or made it yellow.

    “Ski” was a Sioux battle cry meaning “victory”, and the U-Mah was added by the students to stand for “U of M”. So Ski-U-Mah mean, “victory for the U of M”.

    Thank you, Reid.

    I imagine there are plenty of folks who also ask, “What the hell’s ‘Nittany’ got to do with anything in Pennsylvania?”

    Understandable, I suppose, because if they aren’t familiar with its history then obviously it must be something stupid.

    Or gray.

    The brick number print is subtle, stupid & unnecessary. And that funky number font makes no sense whatsoever. Just different to be different. Total butchered hack job.

    I find virtually no redeeming qualities in those new Gopher unis. Wasn’t a huge fan of their previous set, but these are a big step down from them. Very typical of Nike thinking everything they do is automatically wonderful. Also very D-3. But, then again, I suppose it’s good to emulate programs you look up to.

    I don’t think they’re a step down, Ricko, but a small step up. They’ve simplified, mostly, and that’s a good thing. You can tell it’s the Gophers. There are no swatches, half stripes, swooshes or god awful piping.

    That said, here’s what’s wrong: black facemask, dumb brick print, the weird, thick collar, Minnesota on the back, the ridiculous number of combinations.

    The reference to the 1940 is nice and I actually kind of like the font for that reason.

    So the font’s interesting. I’ll give them that (suppose I should; my uncle was on that 1940 team).

    But raving about the really nifty rear-view mirrors on a crappy car doesn’t make it a great car.

    That’s sort of Nike’s style, isn’t it. Point to a detail and say it makes the entire concept good.

    Oh, I agree, it’s total Nike BS. Still, I think the look is a little easier on the eyes than the last coupla sets they’ve worn, no?

    BTW, Ricko, do you have or are you familiar with this book?…

    link

    I’m not. But I bet it would be interesting to see the evolution (de-evolution?) of Gopher uniforms over the years. The one that I will never forget is the Tony Dungy-era metallic gold monos (’74-’75 maybe?).

    Previous set wasn’t great (especially the dumb white helmets for the hell of it), but it wasn’t trendy drab.
    Of course Nike will never use parallel stripes when left to its own devices.

    I mention that because a stripe with that brick pattern down the pantlegs might have been interesting. Would look less like generic pants we could buy at Dick’s.

    (No, haven’t seen that particular book. Seen plenty of other Gopher histories, of course.)

    Tim’s hockey mods feel more conservative than his last set, and perhaps overly so. The main exceptions being the alts, which again are for me generally just don’t succeed. The Islanders being the clearest example: It feels like the first draft of what’s meant to be a clever joke. It’d be fun to see for about the first 90 seconds, and then the rest of the game will be like a one-joke SNL skit that goes on for a full hour.

    Two exceptions to this are the Flames and Devils. For the Flames, the alt just seems to serve as an illustration of how much better the other unis are without black. That’s not a successful thing for a third jersey to do. And the Devils alt seems to serve as an illustration of how much more excellent the primary unis could be, which again is not a successful thing for a third to do.

    Which is way more negativity than Tim’s hockey mods deserve. Most of the primaries are solid, clean designs. And the Avalanche set is an excellent idea. My only quibble with the Colorado unis is that the mountain-peak pattern seems designed to work best when the sleeves are laid flat on the ground, not when worn by a person with arms. I think the pattern needs to be even less acutely angled where it hits the body/sleeve seam, even if that means the “mountain” bits front and back connect to make the sleeve primarily that color, with just a triangle of the second color at the sleeve edge. That way, the mountain-profile design will be more clearly visible when the players wear the jerseys on the ice. Still, I’m a big fan of this one.

    Also, Shane’s Canucks idea – when Vancouver gets into a Winter Classic, that should be their sweater.

    I’d lose the cream collar trim on the Canucks sweater. It only seems to add clutter.

    That Islanders concept would make a good Fighting Illini set.

    I was going to go with normal white, but everyone seems to use the cream/heritage white for their Classic unis.

    I meant the thin cream piping trim that’s in the smaller green “V”. And I’d lose the gray trim on the collar, too. Tho I do wonder if cream is getting overused & if white would be better. I think maybe a sleeve patch/logo would only clutter up the look.

    This photo link doesn’t show all 9 uni combos. Where’s the yellow over yellow? Does such a uni exist? I agree with you on the facemask, should be maroon. And I like the matte finish!

    If Shane Bua is looking for a sleeve patch, try this one link The Darth Vader Canucks jersey is what got me into ice hockey back about 30 years ago, nice update on that design.

    “doesn’t show all 9 uni combos”

    ~~~

    i know

    i’m saying that with the yellow pants, the potential exists for 9…and i’d actually like to see that once and only once, just so we know it’s probably NOT a good idea

    /be interesting to see if they add a white and a gold helmet at some point

    Hey Patrick,

    I was seriously debating using the Johnny Canuck logo as a patch, but as I noted, I’m still not too up to speed with GIMP. I couldn’t figure out how to crop/cut it from one file and paste it onto the jersey.

    /sad trombone

    Well Shane, you’re much more advanced than I. I’m barely above using crayons and construction paper. Nice job, I liked the design.

    As a Flames fan, I’m a little disappointed in Tim’s Flames concepts. It’s basically the 80’s color scheme (which is currently being used as the teams current alternate/third) but with the modern name/number font. Not much there — just a mish-mash from two different eras.

    Also not a fan of the Calgary “C” logo for the captain’s C — it’s not a new concept as they did it for 1 (or 2?) years back in the late 90’s when Fleury was the captain. Too distracting to see two identical logos on the front in my opinion. Like the old Atlanta Flaming “A” for the assistant captain (which they still use) — a subtle throwback to the past (kind of like the old horsehead logo that Kipper wears on the back of his mask even though the Flames ditched that after the 06/07 season).

    P.S. When I saw the Islanders logo the first thing I thought of was the old Chico Resch mask his niece (?) painted for him (and which he actually used)

    I actually don’t mind the Minnesota uniforms so much. The number font is at least legible. I don’t need the BFBS facemask and such, but at least I could look at them and know they’re Minnesota. Now if they can just get a better team…

    As for the NHL tweaks, I like the Colorado and Detroit tweaks. I’ve never been fond of the Colorado logo being an A. I tend to think place names first, and I don’t like collective team names. That being said, I like the way you incorporated the mountain motif. Makes it unique to them and recognizable.

    My thoughts exactly with regard to the Gophers. I think uni-watchers should be pleased with this set because 1) Minnesota stuck to the school colors (albeit one small exception), 2) they used a distinctive but legible font that draws from a prominent school location rather than Nike’s design room, and 3) they aren’t playing copycat anymore. The Gophers’ old unis were a watered down version of Virginia Tech’s 2007-2009 set; now they can look like one of the big-boy Big Ten teams, even if they don’t play that way.

    It looks like Minnesota will “only” have eight uniform combos, not nine. There’s no gold/gold combo shown, which is probably not a bad thing.

    Come on… its kind of a given. Just because they don’t photograph it doesn’t mean they won’t wear it.

    Uh huh.

    I am sure that they will never wear gold-on-gold despite having the combination available. (eyeroll)

    Just wait until pictures are leaked throughout the season of a white helmet and gold helmet. Then they will add a black jersey. Then a black helmet. Then black pants.

    Minnesnowta!

    With the exception of maroon over white, I like everything I see link.

    But why use Jay Z for the intro video, when there is such a robust hip hop scene in Minneapolis? Maybe…

    link

    Or maybe even

    link

    So much for Nike’s research.

    No background knowledge.
    Limited research.
    Present something lame and call it forward-thinking.
    Employ copious quantities of hyperbole and pseudo-esoterica.

    Nike reminds me of the time-honored tradition of bullshitting your way through an essay test.

    (Makes ’em perfect for college, I guess, huh.)

    That’s awesome. Sims and Cecil Otter would obviously be great choices as well. What do you do? I’m afraid I’m not familiar with your background.

    Most of the Doomtree crowd is playing a show here in Pittsburgh in February, and I’m super pumped about it. I’ve never seen any of them live except for P.O.S.

    If you’re talkin’ Minnesota and style, there’s only one song you need. Ladies and gentlemen, presenting link

    The brick in the Gopher’s numbers is homage to the brick the exterior that covers the exterior. This picture shows it a little, but you get the idea. It is a brick-heavy stadium.

    link

    Shane Bua, I love your Canucks concept. That V uniform is so maligned, but to me it remains iconic and revolutionary. What you’ve done is simplify it–for the better–and implemented the appropriate colors. It’s breathtakingly clean and bold. Quite an achievement.

    The Canucks got it right with their original uniforms, there was no need to change. But to their credit, when they changed to the V they REALLY changed. From that point on it’s been years of miscalculations. Shane’s concept, finally, captures the essence of the team. Make the third jersey the original stick-in-rink look and the Canucks are set.

    Thanks man! It’s weird making a ‘Nucks jersey, being a Bruins fan and all, but the idea seemed way too good not to mock it up.

    Thanks for the love. I tip my hat to Tim O’Brien, who for all his good ideas, still respects branding and the importance of continuity in the business of sports. As an artist, the first impulse is to throw the baby out with the bathwater, and I had to have that drummed out of me as a professional designer.

    I’m crazy about his Calgary Flames design, with the lone exception of the two “C”s on the captain’s uniform. The solution would be to change their monogram to a flaming “F”. I don’t think I want to go back to the flaming horsehead.

    -Walter

    Actually, the solution is just to have a regular old C and a regular old A. No flaming logos. If there is one element in the uniform world that is good and stupid at the same time, its the flaming Atlanta A on two of the Flames’ sweaters.
    Yes, the A is history, but it almost isn’t. The Flames recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, confirming that the franchise reset its clock upon moving to Calgary. These plans were commemorated with a special patch, and the old school reproduction jersey, which was a “special occasional home jersey to welcome the Canadian visitors” jersey before it became a full alternate. If you want another piece of proof that the Atlanta days have been deleted, realize that the Flames have nothing special for this year, while their expansion brothers, the NY Islanders, have a 40th season patch.
    For every person who argues that the A is a historical and clever logo for the assistant captains, I’d love to agree. But for every person who sees the A as a random defunct logo that nobody cares about, I hate that I can’t disagree too strongly. Fact is, why would you want your A patch to overpower your captain’s C, and draw attention away from the crest? You don’t want that. There’s a reason every other team gets it right.

    I didn’t reckon on the block capital “I” being so closely identified with the University of Illinois.

    -Walter

    btw, Stephenson was a Northwestern grad, and wanted to wear an NU sweater. But, purple is such a bitch to get right and consiste on film (too easily goes wrong, usually to blue) that producers switched it to Illinois

    They”re playing an outdoor AHL game this afternoon (Ho hum). Toronto Marilies at the Hamilton Bulldogs. Probably the most notable thing to mention, this might be the sunniest outdoor game I’ve seen, not a cloud in the sky. Hamilton (who is Montreal Canadiens primary farm team) is wearing some psuedo retro look. Toronto did not bother.

    Ricko, how much attention did the Crushed Ice event held in your fair city get?

    Lots. Most news broadcasts have reports filed from on-site all three days. Some are live, some pre-recorded.

    Supposed to be sunny and 30 tomorrow (16 and sunny right now), and they’re expecting a couple thousand onlookers…which is huge for something like Pond Hockey.

    Sorry, you asked about Crushed.

    It, too, got lots of attention. Mayor of St. Paul even skated part of the course.

    HUGE crowds. Between a concert at the X and Crushed, an estimated 100,000 were in downtown St. Paul that night.

    On NBC at the top of the hour (2 ET), btw.

    Yeah, Crashed Ice as opposed to Crushed Ice makes more sense. In a odd way – it’s sort of the modern day equivalent of the barrel jumping competitions of the 1960’s – there was a great E60 piece on that.

    My dad says there used to be backwards speed-skating; now that seems like an extreme sport!

    -Walter

    I like the islander 3rd, the only change I would make would be to drop the letter and keep the “headless” island logo. Maybe add the Lighthouse logo on the yoke.

    It upset me the first time they took the white cuffs off the blue Islander sweaters; perhaps they were hard to keep clean. But ever since they began throwing back to the 1972 uniforms, that is the first detail I check.

    -Walter

    For the Flames alternate, they tried the black lettering on the red jersey when they first introduced the black C jersey (03-04) and fans complained they couldn’t read the names, so they switched to the current white lettering in November of that year.

    link

    It was worse in person than that picture makes it out to be – you couldn’t read the names in the lower deck.

    I went to several games at the Dome that year, but I don’t think I went to any before they switched it. I’m not positive but I think the first game with the lettering flipped was the first game with Kipper.

    Dude, using the Calgary and Atlanta logos for the Flames’ captaincy patches is probably one of the coolest ideas I’ve seen in a while. I saw it on the picture, and I just figured it was a cool font, but then I saw the logo on the nhluniforms.com site and read your writeup and realized what you did. Brilliant move, mate. Brilliant move.

    Solid uni set for Minnesota. I like some combos more than others, but it’s cool they have the options. I don’t really need to see a gold over gold (Bernard would agree with me!).

    One of the things I like about this set is that they’re actually a bit understated. I think a lot of us have this preconceived notion that when Nike (or anyone) is doing a redesign with multiple combinations we think the worst as far as far out designs, etc.

    Gold over gold? I’d wear that. And it would look great in a Minneapolis snowstorm.

    Agreed, though – this is a solid set.

    I’ve got the opening game of soccer’s Africa Cup of Nations on in the background and the number fonts on the back of Libya’s jerseys are inconsistent from player to player. #16 even seems to have a different font for his “1” and his “6”.

    Minnesota Twin Trevor Plouffe retweeted a fan’s pic of this “patriotic” shirt. link I think the flag could’ve been bigger.

    As opposed the really great looking Pro Bowl gear (including the ridiculous pedal pushers) that’s passed for “great design” in the past few years?

    Thankfully, the players didn’t have decals from all manner of schools plastered all over their helmets. Could actually recognize them, or at least keep track of them.

    The quote of the day is perfect, by the way. Keeping it in mind (a) helps you see through the bullcrap in this age when every minor thing is hyped as the most brilliant thing ever and (b) really makes you appreciate things when something or someone awesome comes along.

    link

    Ah, yes, everything’s good enough to hang on the refrigerator, isn’t it.

    Because it’s a Participation Trophy World.

    Um, not.

    A picture from today’s outdoor AHL game (Toronto at Hamilton) – because of it being a picture perfect winter’s day and that we had a little fresh snow last night, esthetically the game was interesting, although as I mentioned earlier the Toronto Marlies, did nothing to mark the invent in way of uniforms

    link

    My UC Santa Barbara Gauchos looking sharp in their homes against Long Beach State on ESPN U channel.

    Our court, on the other hand, is a mess. That’s what you get when you share it with the volleyball team.

    Hey Tim E. ,

    Nice work!!! Are you currently working for a design firm, or are you freelancing?

    Anybody see that Gopher helmet in person? Is it possible that the “black” elements are simply a glossy maroon that comes off darker than the matte?

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