NWHL Concepts

[raysox]

 Hey everyone,

So a bit of a background on this project. The NWHL is a upstart women's hockey league, I think they just wrapped up their 2nd season, and are mostly based in the northeast. The CWHL is a 5 team league with Canadian teams, plus a team in Boston. Super talented leagues, made up mostly of USA and Canadian national team players, which you could imagine are both very very good at hockey.

 

But the issue is that they aren't exactly making too much money. The NWHL dropped their minimum wage for players, and the CWHL doesn't currently pay their players. As you can imagine, the athletes have other jobs during the season.

 

I got thinking about different ways to improve the quality of life in the leagues because my sport management degree brain won't let me rest. I don't want to be some white knight coming out saying they should be completely ran by the NHL and be absorbed and lose their identities. That would be the easy way out. The leagues don't have ties to the NHL, which is cool. It seems like some teams have loose ties. If you're trying to be successful in Montreal, it doesn't exactly hurt to mirror your jerseys like the Habs. 

 

So while I bore you with some reorganizing, feel free to scroll down and look at concepts. I'm an artist not a cop. Just for the sake of confusion, I merged the leagues. I was going to keep them separate, but went to a divisional format rather than conferences to minimize travel cost. I have a 14 team league, which is probably too many because you want 9 really deep teams than a big league with some watered down teams(like men's leagues). These NHL teams are building insane practice rinks with top of the line locker rooms and smaller seating capacities. I propose some sort of partnership to teams playing in those arenas, to get the top facilities, share sponsorship, and possibly get a discount on rent. Do practises on weeknights with open ice, games on Friday and Saturdays. Do specials like girls under 14 get in free, or whatever. Hell, with a strong partnership they could hypothetically play before an NHL game for fans who want to upgrade their ticket. Partnerships wouldn't be required, much like how the WNBA functions. Connecticut and Brampton would be teams that fit this category.

 

College sports have travel partners that do weekend trips and swap opponents to minimize on the trips. Each team has one, depending on the closest team in their division. I have a 4 team western division, a 6 team central division, and a 4 team eastern division. I did the math and an even schedule can be made with 32 games played. I can get to those later but feel like I'm rambling.

 

Here are the first 7 teams. Just one jersey concept for each. I used an Adidas template as a future NHL partner. They'd have more freedom than they would with the NHL. I put some small ads on the jersey as another form of income. All the ones there are just simple ones that might carry over, or in Connecticut's case, already exist. I started out mirroring NHL teams closely, and my friend Lexi made a good point. Basically she said AHL teams' jerseys are inspired but not carbon copies and so should these. Great point, and I tried my best to design as such. 

 

Buffalo Beauts (NWHL)

  Connecticut Whale (NWHL)

 Detroit Sirens (Expansion)

I originally was going to put them in Grand Rapids, but decided the brand new Red Wings practice facility would be a better home.

Edmonton Vixens (Expansion)

A V as the center hem with a cool fox logo I made that would share the orange heavy uniform set.

  New Jersey Riveters (NWHL)

I didn't like the places the Rangers and Islanders practice, but the New York Riveters play out of the small arena inside the Devils building. I kept the bad ass logo and swapped navy for black.

  Pittsburgh Blades (CWHL)

So this was the CWHL Boston team that I relocated 100% based on the fact I liked the Boston Pride's logo more. They were black and yellow so Pittsburgh seemed like a good fit in a hockey hub. The Penguins rink looks really nice.

  Toronto Furies (CWHL)

I've got 7 left to do. I want to make some friends design teams, so not sure when this is getting done, but I've had these done for a month and finally got around to posting them.

 

Thanks!

[Toronto206]

Pittsburgh doesn't seem to work; it isn't displayed. Other than that I love this, especially the Beauts. 

[FlyingLamprey]

Fantastic, all around!  Any reason why Buffalo/Toronto/Pittsburgh don't have the adidas stripes on the side, or is that just an error?  Beyond that, no complaints.  The new logos you made are sleek (especially Detroit! Wow!) and the sponsors are all understated enough that it's not an eyesore like the WNBA or the European hockey leagues.  Well done, class designs all around!  Excited for the last few!

[JMtexan09]

This would make alot of sense putting them with alot of affordable driving distances to each other without having setting up one in far west. No offense, Far Western people! But seriously these uniforms are nice. I am wondering if Beauts could use old Black/Red/Silver which Sabres used to have? I am loving Sirens alot. It fits the idea! Winnipeg and Ottawa are other ideal locations for teams to be honest.

 

Nice works, Raysox!

[EJaws]

These all look really nice! Will Minnesota be getting a team?

[raysox]

Thanks for the overnight comments! Couple things

 

So the Adidas stripes are a case by case thing, just trying a few things.

 

Also Calgary has a team in the CWHL, so that's why I expanded west. Edmonton and Winnipeg have teams, and there is a good independent team in Minnesota called the Whitecaps I'm going to have in the next set.

Open to suggestions on Winnipeg and Chicago. Winnipeg had a team called the Maple Leafs, but that'd be a little too close for me. Both would be similar to the NHL teams

[BeerGuyJordan]

These jerseys are great. The Adidas stripes are an eyesore, and should be killed with fire, since they're dragging down otherwise stellar sweaters.

 

Detroit's logo is awesome, and now I only want to see a team, there wearing this (minus Adidas stripes, of course).

[Whittier S]

Winnipeg Valkyries--Large Scandinavian population

[Guest]

I'd buy a Sirens jersey in a heart beat, great stuff as always Mike!

[FlyingLamprey]

Glad you cleared that up on the Adidas stripes!  For names, birds came to mind - some type of bird of prey for Winnipeg? (maybe Falcons? Osprey?) And for Chicago, maybe a different type of black "bird" to differentiate from the Blackhawks?  Like maybe the Ravens or Magpies (not very black but a very unique name in the states nonetheless)?  Non-bird options could be something else military-themed for Winnipeg (Bombers? Cavalry? Battalion?) and for Chicago... maybe something mythical to play off with the Sirens (Harpies comes to mind and while it's a little on the nose it just might work).  I'm sure whatever you figure out will be great as always, though!

[raysox]

19 hours ago, Whittier S said:

Winnipeg Valkyries--Large Scandinavian population

I like this one, but saying it out loud, it's certainly a mouthful.

[AnPheitseog]

Couple things, depending on how realistic you were going for.

 

The NWHL standard is to have the player names below the numbers, as well as the player's country's flag on each sleeve.

 

Also, there is a league wide Dunkin sponsorship on all the jerseys.

[raysox]

Appreciate it! Jersey names were an aesthetic choice, and the country flag thing is dumb when you have 5 players in the 9 current teams not from the USA or Canada. Seems repetitive. Planned on having Dunkin sponsor the Boston Pride too, so that'd carry over.

 

Also I found this little nugget

 

"In March 2015, the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League entered into a resource-sharing and marketing partnership with the Stars. Team CEO Geoff Molson explained that given the Canadiens' support of minor hockey in Quebec and the growth of Women's hockey, he felt that it "[was] the right time to concretely support women who play professional hockey, and, at the same time, promote the sport among up-and-coming players". Brenda Andress, commissioner of the CWHL, also stated that the partnership "affords the CWHL an opportunity to grow women's hockey hand in hand with one of the most storied franchises in professional sport."[11][12] In September 2015, the team unveiled a new identity as Les Canadiennes, adopting the Canadiens' team colors, along with a new rounded "C" emblem alluding to the Canadiens' logo,[13] and containing a star in homage of their previous name."

 

So that but most of the league.

[nas1787]

7 hours ago, raysox said:

Appreciate it! Jersey names were an aesthetic choice,

 

I think the reason for names below the numbers is to accommodate long hair and pony tails. I agree it looks better above, but there is a practical reason for the change.

[raysox]

15 hours ago, nas1787 said:

 

I think the reason for names below the numbers is to accommodate long hair and pony tails. I agree it looks better above, but there is a practical reason for the change.

Wow yeah that's actually a great point. Will adjust.

[Whittier S]

Chicago Banshees -- Large Irish population

 

[D3 Designs]

Any chance we could get an Californian expansion team?

[dwertman]

Those are all really good, I think the Toronto one is my favorite though so far

[omnivore]

I think your expansion team looks are a lot stronger than what you had to work with re: team names and logos that already exist tbh. Especially like Edmonton and Detroit. 

[itsmb8]

Chicago Skyscrapers maybe? A bit out of the box but pays tribute to the skyline and, probably the biggest spectacle of Chicago, the sear.. I mean WILLIS, tower.