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Raising CANE(S): Carolina Gets New Road Sweater

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[Editor’s Note: Paul is on his annual August break from site. Deputy editor Phil Hecken is in charge from now through the end of the month, although Paul may be popping up here occasionally.]

By Phil Hecken

The Carolina HurriCanes introduced a new road uniform yesterday, featuring a very handsome white jersey with thin black/thick red/thin black stripes on the sleeves, “CANES” written in a block diagonal font across the front, and the return of the “hurricane flag” pattern near the hem. The sweater will be paired with solid red breezers and white socks, which feature the same thin black/thick red/thin black pattern as seen on the jersey sleeves. I like it a lot — with the possible exception of the shortened (Hurri)Canes wordmark on the front (let’s leave that to the Lightning) … and let’s leave the diagonal wordmark to the Rangers. But other than that, this is a gorgeous looking uniform.

Here’s a look at the full kit:

There’s several small, but important details, on the sweater. I draw your attention first to the shoulders, where the team has added their “Hurricane Warning” flags on a hockey stick logo, which is quite brilliant:

You see, it’s not just a couple flags on a stick — take a look at that again. Check out the negative space between the two flags. See anything?

Yep — that’s the outline of the State of North Carolina. This isn’t a new logo (it’s the logo worn on the current third sweater) — but I’ve loved it since it was introduced. Maybe not quite as great as the FedEx arrow, or the Hartford Whalers hidden H, but it’s pretty great.

There’s another easter egg: contained within the “C” of the “CANES” wordmark are the two nautical flags that constitute a hurricane warning.

The stripe towards the hem also features the return of the repeating storm warning flag(s) in dark red and light red. This element an element of the uniforms from the team’s inception, and appeared on the red, black and white jerseys through 2012-2013. It was removed from the red and white sweaters for the 2013-14 season, but remained on the black sweater through 2017. When adidas took over uni manufacturing from Reebok in 2017, it was removed from the white jerseys entirely. Now it’s back (it did return to the red jersey with their current set):

The biggest change to the uni is of course, the “CANES” wordmark. Why Canes? According to the team,

We are proud of our new word marks that were introduced prior to last season. Our “Canes” nickname is how the vast majority of our fans affectionately refer to us and we want to bring a piece of our fans with us on the road by featuring it as the crest logo.

The team now features three jerseys with completely disparate wordmarks/logos, yet each seems to work well:

Here’s how the team describes the new white jersey fitting with the current set:

This uniform is intended to be a modern take on our classic road jersey by incorporating many updated elements from the 1997 – 2013 models as well as a similar striping pattern to the 2013 – 2019 model. We wanted to create a cleaner look off the most recent iteration with more white showing, a return to red numbers/letters with a black outline, as well as inclusion of some of our most recognizable brand features such as the warning flag pattern in the waistline as well as the reintroduction of shoulder patches featuring our new secondary logo.

The Hurricanes will wear white helmets with this uniform. They feature a 3-D logo (a first for the team, but not the NHL):

This gives the Hurricanes four uniforms now (if you count the Whalers throwback worn last season). While the team hasn’t officially announced its return this year, their publicist hints at a return:

We feel that we now have the most diverse uniform set in the NHL with three uniforms that utilize three different brand assets as crest logos (primary logo, secondary logo, word mark), not to mention a fourth uniform when you factor in our Whalers set. … We’ve released four new uniforms in the last two calendar years which is a high number for hockey standards and, with the exception of the Whalers uniform, we’re really proud that our internal graphic design team has taken the lead on these to ideate and design them all in-house.

Ideate? OK, so it’s press release-speak. I’ve been there. But that sure sounds as if the Whale will make a return to the ice this season. And that’s a good thing.

The back of the jersey features red NOB outlined in black, red numbers (also outlined in black), as well as TV numbers with the same pattern.

All in all, a very nice new uniform, at least in my opinion. I don’t love the truncated (Hurri)CANES wordmark or the diagonal pattern, but other than that, it’s fantastic.

Well done. Readers? What say you?

Hornets Unveil New Purple Pinstripe Uni

Yesterday afternoon the Charlotte Hornets added a new purple pinstripe uniform to their rotation, mimicking the teal and white versions from the last two seasons. Like the teal and white, the new purple uniform harkens back to the design worn by the original Charlotte Hornets.

“After having had teal and white Classic Edition uniforms the last two seasons, it is only right that we complete the set with the purple one this year,” said Hornets President & Vice Chairman Fred Whitfield. “With this season being the 25th anniversary of the purple uniform’s introduction in 1994, this is the perfect time to bring back a Classic Edition version.”

The 2019-20 season marks the 25th anniversary of the debut of the purple uniforms during the 1994-95 season.

Here’s some additional looks:

As you can see, it’s basically the purple version (which is another harkback) of the previously released white and teal kits, with four thick multi-colored (light blue, royal blue, green and teal) vertical stripes on front and back. “CHARLOTTE” is vertically arched across the chest in white letters, outlined in teal. Numbers (front and back) follow the same pattern. The shorts are solid purple, with white, purple and teal trim as the original, on the hem. There’s also the Hornets logo on the waistband.

With the new purple addition, here’s a look at the three Classic harkback unis:

The team also supplied a handy-dandy infographic (vomit inducing at worst, hilarious at best):

There’s a couple additional photos here showing more detail.

PRIDE of the Yankees

Normally, MiLB promotions and one-game jerseys warrant only a ticker mention, but this one deserves more space than that.

On August 30, the Staten Island Yankees will again host their annual “Pride Night.” During the game, the team will wear home replica jerseys featuring multi-colored pinstripes as represented in the Pride flag. You Can Play is sponsoring the jerseys, and MiLB Pride “uses the game of baseball to bring communities together and proactively engage and embrace the LGBTQ community with a focus on creating an environment where everyone feels welcome.”

That’s awesome in and of itself, but the real gem here is the jersey: the iconic Yankee pinstripes rendered in the colors of the Pride flag. We NEVER see the pinstripes in anything but navy (unless you go back to 1915). According to Sarah Kogod, who represents You Can Play, “As far as I know, this is only the second time in history the Yankees pinstripes will be seen outside of the navy.”

The jerseys were her brainchild.

“In a brainstorm with the Staten Island Yankees earlier this season, I asked if we could create Pride jerseys with the Yankees pinstripes in rainbow instead of the iconic navy,” she states. “I was aiming high and never thought I’d get a yes, but Will Smith (SI Yankees President and Operating Partner) immediately said yes.”

You can read a bit more about the game here.

Should be a fun evening and great opportunity to see the revered pinstripes in all the colors of the rainbow.

And now a few words from Paul: Hi again. Some quick reminders for today:

1. HQ Sports reminder: I’ll be appearing on a uniform-themed episode of the app-driven trivia game HQ Sports tonight at 8pm Eastern. They’ve told me I have to wear a suit and tie, so I’ll be dressed all fancy and everything. (There was talk of having me wear a Uni Watch Tequila Sunrise Deluxe shirt, which would’ve been fun, but they said I can’t wear anything green because of the green screen. Too bad.)

2. Cycling jersey reminder: You have one more week to get your pre-order in for the first-ever Uni Watch cycling jersey, which you can customize with your choice of number and NOB. The pre-order window will close next Wednesday, Aug. 28, so move fast. Full details here.

3. Anniversary patch price drop reminder: The Uni Watch 20th-Anniversary Patch, which was originally priced at $9.99, can now be yours for only $6.99. Full ordering details here.

4. ITEM! New magnets: Three new Uni Watch logo magnets — our round logo, and the stand-alone winged stirrup with and without a gold border — are now available from StickerYou. You can see them toward the bottom of this page. (Those same three logos are also available as die-cut strickers from StickerYou and also from Teespring.)

That’s it for today. Again, I’m not reading the comments this month, so if you have a question about any of this, feel free to email me.

Now back to Phil with the rest of today’s content. (And please join me in giving him a standing O for the great job he’s doing this month!)

Griffins Jersey Design Contest Update

I wanted to update you quickly on the Griffins Jersey Design Contest.

I received 87 submissions for this contest. As in the past, we’re breaking the designs into four groups, and the first set of submissions will run tomorrow, followed by three more groups to run Friday, Monday and Tuesday. Each group will contain 22 entrants, with the final group having 21.

Readers will be permitted to vote on as many entries as they like, but YOU WILL ONLY BE PERMITTED TO VOTE ONCE. We introduced a new polling mechanism last year, manned by the Great Larry Torrez, and who will be back again this year to monitor it as well. Any suspected cheating and multiple votes will be stricken, so as to ensure fairness for all contestants. Also, like last year, the contestants were randomly placed into four different groups (alphabetized within each group, but chosen randomly), so as to ensure fairness as well.

I will post each day’s entry at 7:00 am (Eastern) when voting will begin and it will end promptly at 11:00 pm each day. The TOP THREE vote getters from each group will move on to the finals (for a total of 12 finalists). Once the 12 finalists have been chosen by you, the readers, the Grand Rapids Griffins will select a winner from those 12. The winning contestant will see his (or her) submission worn on ice by the Griffins, receive a custom-made jersey in their design, and receive tickets to the game in which the jerseys will be worn. I’ll announce the winner on Friday, August 30th.

So be sure to check back here tomorrow, Friday, Monday and Tuesday to vote for your favorite designs. I’ve seen them all and believe me, there are some AMAZING concepts you’re about to see. You won’t want to miss this one. Remember: this was a contest to design a “90s Jersey” — and our submitters did not disappoint!

The Ticker
By Lloyd Alaban

Baseball News: Reds broadcasters last night said rookie CF Nick Senzel has been wearing a pair of cleats OF Matt Kemp gave him earlier this year. Shoes have Kemp’s No. 27 on them. Senzel wears No. 15 (from our own Alex Hider). … Former Orioles IF and Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. is hosting some youth baseball tournaments at Walt Disney World starting next year. The official press photo from Disney shows Ripken and Mickey Mouse in custom Disney-themed jerseys. Mickey’s jersey includes an Old English “M” (from @ajenkinsCLE).

NFL News: Someone at Thursday’s Packers/Ravens game repurposed an old QB Matt Stover jersey and turned it into a QB Robert Griffin III jersey (from @SimplyMJ42). … The NFL rules changed this year to permit solid color socks of any color (from T Juettner). The Browns took advantage of this rule already by wearing solid white socks with their orange pants (from @TitansUni). … Also from @TitansUni: The Titans are going mono-navy for Sunday’s game against the Steelers.

College/High School Football News: The Sun Bowl is now the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl (from multiple readers). … Kansas State has painted the CFB150 logo to its field (from multiple readers). … East Carolina is bringing back their purple chrome helmets (from Stephen Igoe). … (NYT link) After a serious injury occurred during a game, a Texas high school touch football team is now requiring players to wear soft-shell helmets. … Troy is rolling out some new CARDINAL home jerseys (from Ryan Bohannon).

Hockey News: This sportswriter has ranked the NHL’s unis (from our own Phil Hecken). … Check out this sweet goalie pad set for G Abbey Levy of Minnesota State (from @Natron44).
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NBA News: For the latest in new uni number assignments throughout the NBA, check out Etienne Catalan‘s Twitter feed. … The Northern Arizona Suns, D-League affiliate of the — you guessed it — Suns, have a new court design (from Josh Pearlman).

College/High School Hoops News: New unis for George Washington men’s (from Joel Feinberg). … Northwestern is on a European tour through France and Italy, and they’ve altered the colors on their “N” logo accordingly (from Griffin Smith).

Soccer News: In major club news via Josh Hinton: Arsenal is allegedly darkening the shade of red used on their home kit next season. … Club Leon has released a 75th anniversary shirt. … Inter F Romelu Lukaku will wear No. 9 with the club, a number previously taken by fellow striker Mauro Icardi. … Get the latest on other kit news from Josh Hinton‘s Twitter feed, including the many things USL Championship clubs are doing to celebrate Supporters Week. … For even more kit news, be sure to also check out Ed Zelaski‘s feed. … Speaking of the USL: The El Paso Locomotive of the USL Championship have revealed new jerseys (from @El_LBC).

Grab Bag: NASCAR driver Corey LaJoie has revealed his Scooby Doo-themed car for the First Data 500 in October (from Myles Gallagher). … Here’s a website that goes through the history and design of every US flag (national, state, and territorial), including Pantone codes and flag proportions (from Billy Ballas).

 
  
 
Comments (71)

    Not sure if those color bars are affecting other people’s eyes but I can’t look at screen on my laptop.

    The Canes new 3rd sweater is the best one they have ever had. Not counting the old Whalers. The designers/ownership really killed it.

    Hurricanes new white jersey is good except the wordmark is so lazy and boring. It’s not as bad as the BOLTS jersey, because that whole jersey was ugly and everything else about the CANES jersey is good (especially coming back to the warning flag stripe). But leave the diagonal team name thing to the Rangers.

    Tampa Bay should sue. The wordmark ruins the whole jersey. And just like BOLTS, Canes could refer to something else besides the team. It’s dumb.

    Bolts could also refer to, … bolts

    How about some of our graphic experts show logos for Bolts ( I prefer hex ) and Canes (not candy cane, maybe a distinguished walking cane)

    I can’t wait to see the New York Yankees wear rainbow stripes someday! How cool!

    That Hurricanes alternate logo is better than the original disc-shaped logo. I always got what they were going for with it but it wasn’t well-executed. The stick, the 2 tattered flags, the hidden NC outline… this is perfect. I wish they would make that the primary logo and make the warning flag trim accurate again (black on red instead of deep red on red).

    Ripken tournaments at Disney looks like a way to use the baseball complex as the Braves have moved out.

    RE flags…..

    I never really thought about if there was a name to the shape of the Ohio state flag, but now I know it is a swallow-tailed burgee.

    cool

    I don’t think I could play flag football if I had to wear one of those helmets. Not in an *Antonio Brown* sort of way; I just think they look too ridiculous.

    I HATE nickname wordmarks. They just look all around stupid. I have always felt that if you have a team name that is what you roll with (on a jersey), regardless of what shortened name the fans give. Canes, Bolts, Sens, Mavs, Cavs, Sixers etc. They just look so much more polished with the actual name or logo. Hockey is true to that especially. The only team that the name on the sweater works for is the Rangers, and that is a classic. A total missed opportunity to put the hurricane flags on the white sweater to really make them pop. I love all the elements of that new sweater other than that. I just wish they wouldn’t have that dumb wordmark. They can now be the Candy Canes

    There is no major league team called the Metropolitans though, so your point is moot.
    If the official name of the team was Carolina ‘Canes, that’d be equivalent. But its not.

    Thanks
    Lee

    May 8, 1961 – New York’s National League club announces that the team nickname will be “Mets,” a natural shortening of the corporate name (“New York Metropolitan Baseball Club, Inc.”)

    link

    On the one hand I agree, but on the other hand all team names are nicknames. Even the most venerable names in sports – Reds, Red Sox, Tigers, Cardinals, other Cardinals, Pirates, Phillies, Athletics, etc – began as press or public nicknames for the teams. So my personal yuck at “Canes” or “Sens” or “Bolts” isn’t actually defensible on any rational grounds.

    Everyone here hated that “Seventy Sixers” 70-71 throwback that was recently featured.

    Was that the only time the full team name was featured on their jersey?

    Even when the franchise was the Syracuse Nationals, they used a shortened version of the team name.

    Carolina Candy Canes…thats the first thing i thought of when i saw these…with all that red and white…if youre going this route, the full hurricanes wordmark wouldve been a better choice i think

    To be fair, the Penguins has a nice sash-script jersey, first in inaugural baby blue and then in black and gold, starting in 1994 along with the robo-pigeon. They’ll always be Rangers imitators, but I’m willing to give sash-scripts a chance when they pop up.
    I NEVER like informal headline nicknames on the jersey. Canes and Bolts are equally bad in that regard. But I acknowledge the flags built into the C as a relatively new logo. My tweak if I were Paul’s deputy uniform czar tasked with overseeing the NHL: change the word mark from Canes to Carolina. They can keep the special C and lose the truncation, it’s a win win.
    All in all a pretty good jersey, but it’s like getting a B+ despite getting the easiest question on the test wrong whereas that was the difference between a B+ and an A-.

    That company has been advertising part-time on Fords for several years (I believe exclusively with GoFas Racing…a team member may have a relationship with the advertiser’s ownership).
    Maybe apples and oranges, but it’s sort of like Manchester United being sponsored by Chevrolet; GM’s are a rare breed on UK roads.

    Being a road jersey, you’d think they’d have gone with “Carolina.”

    On a related note, maybe we’ll see the Florida Panthers drop a diagonal “PANTS” jersey next year.

    I like the Canes 3rd jersey, but there’s at least one too many iterations of the hurricane warning flags. Remove the flags from the letter C and I think the whole thing would be improved.

    Don’t forget the XFL is unveiling their team names and logos today at 12:30 Eastern, 11:30 Central.

    You can see the eight team names and logos here:

    link

    Without getting too deeply into it, the good news is that the nicknames and logos are definitely more dignified (less “extreme” than the original XFL’s were. I really like “Battlehawks” and “Defenders” as examples of unique nicknames that still sound pretty cool.

    Best logo is probably the Houston Roughnecks’…

    What’s with the NBA’s inability to make a throwback uniform as accurate as possible (uniform cut, manufacturer and sponsor logos notwithstanding)? The back of the Hornets’ classic uniform had the name rendered in generic serif block lettering (as opposed to the originals which used Rockwell Condensed, the same font as the Charlotte wordmark). Same with the Rockets throwbacks (the originals had the names in Cooper Black lettering). Also, the current Nike uniforms no longer have trim colors on the names at the back unlike before. It seems Nike is making NBA uniforms too generic for them sell at this point.

    You really did a great job with everything today, Phil. Thank you.

    As soon as I saw that SI Yanks pride jersey, I thought of the 1915 pinstripes. I’m glad you picked up on that as well.

    Waiting for a “we’re doing too many pride jerseys” comment from Phil/Paul. Won’t hold my breath.

    The NFL will allow solid socks of ANY color? Or solid socks that are either white or (insert team color)? For instance, a Packers player could wear all white or all green? Or could they wear yellow socks…..or pink socks? Please tell me its all white or all the top sock color the teams normally wear.

    Yeah, I hope they meant white, black or team colors. But yeah, I’m afraid its going to be literally ANY color that the whole team can agree on.

    Ugh.

    Lee

    I’d rather they went full on college with no socks than BFBS or some random color to fit in with whatever “NFL Supports (insert pandering cause) Month” color.

    I always love seeing that 1915 Yankees ‘candy stripe’ jersey.

    Didn’t the Giants have a purple checkerboard thing happening back then, too?

    I imagine they were as wild in their day as Charlie Finley’s 60s creations.

    Wow…that’s almost a lilac or lavender shade!

    It took a real man to wear that uni in 1916!

    And if you went back to the 19th century I’m sure you’d find many more colorful examples throughout baseball. Lack of color photography really hurts our research there.

    The jersey that Ripken is wearing can be purchase at Walt Disney World… so I don’t know if it is technically a custom jersey.

    The use of diagonal names has been used so extensively throughout the history of hockey at every level it’s long since become a classic design not limited to any one team.

    The kid who wrote the NHL uniform ranking is an intern. I don’t think he’ll be working his way up to a full time job by putting the Canadiens at 15th.

    Has it been mentioned anywhere that the pinstripes on these Hornets “harkback” uniforms are thicker than the originals? Makes it very hard to read the numbers and names during games. I wish they had’ve been more accurate with them.

    Here’s hoping the new sock rule will allow the Jets to wear white socks with the green pants.

    And that they don’t decide to wear black socks with the black pants ever.

    Many hockey teams use the diagonal name mark, not just the Rangers.

    Unlike some uniform elements associated strongly with one team, personally I wouldn’t think of it as ripping off the Rangers.

    Is it just me or does the Staten Island jersey look like Judge Smails hat from Caddy Shack? When Rodney Dangerfield says ” Oh, that’s the worst looking hat I ever saw. What I bet you buy this and you get a free bowl of soup!”

    Looks good on you though!

    Is it just me or does the Staten Island jersey look like Judge Smails hat from Caddy Shack?

    Looks good on you though!

    “The Carolina —–Canes introduced a new road uniform yesterday, featuring a very handsome white jersey with thin black/thick red/thin black stripes on the sleeves”

    Be thankful it doesn’t feature Preston Brooks, I guess.

    Phil,

    FWIW, the Carolina Hurricanes removed the warning flags from the white sweaters when they were, um, re-designed prior to the 2013-14 season.

    They were taken off both the red and white sweaters, and left on the black alts. They were restored to the red sweaters when Adidas took over for the 2017-18 seasons, and now they’ll be restored to the white sweaters this season. Obviously, when the team altered the black sweaters, they removed them, though the flags are the secondary logo.

    Excellent analysis otherwise … merely a clarification.

    I assume the dallas renegades logo was intentionally made into the shape of Texas – it’s a nice touch

    I remember when the “marketing genius” tried to rebrand the Blue Jays into just Jays. They introduced BFBS uniforms. A leech looking J and stating literally their target was younger hip hop crowd. Us old Blue Jay fans were left in the dark. The team struggled, attendance was down and sales of the hip hop merchandise was nil. I’m stating this with regards to the Hurricanes new half name road jersey.
    Hometown nickname on a road jersey seems weird. Maybe they think the whites are still the home jersey. Marketing genius ahoy!

    I forgot to add to add Blue Jays have a much deeper history and fan base than the young Hurricanes so it may work in carolina

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