My Whalers Fantasy Alternate is done!

[spyboy1]

My Hartford Whalers Fantasy Alternate is finished!

It arrived yesterday, and I'm thrilled with how well it turned out.

I had it lettered by http://exclusivepro.com/ . I just sent them a blank jersey purchased from http://icejerseys.com/ thanks to a tip from fellow board member OMMF. The nice thing about icejerseys.com is that they will sell you a single blank, where many places have minimum orders of 5 or even 10.

I did not know it at the time, but this jersey comes from the Plymouth Whalers. It uses the color scheme of the Hartford Whalers starting in 1992-93 when they changed over to a blue road jersey, added silver to the color set and dropped the traditional green jersey.

My concept was to create an alternate jersey for this set.

The main crest was easily found on ebay, and I actually had my choice of styles (three color or the old two color ones). I was fortunate to get embroidered "Pucky" the Whale patches off of ebay as well. I really, really wanted to bring back Pucky, who had been dropped by the team some time before changing away from the green jerseys. I also liked the idea of the throwback Pucky patches along with the tie-neck style that the Whalers never did use.

I then played around with the color scheme of the numbers a bit to decide on the correct order before settling on the White trimmed with blue and outlined in silver. Many teams seem to use the pattern of lightest color for numbers/darkest for trim/middle tone of the color set for the outline.

After seeking input from the board on who's name and number to go with, http://boards.sportslogos.net/index.php?sh...=37506&st=0 I chose #10 Ron Francis and then made up an info sheet for exclusivepro to show them the fonts I wanted for the name and numbers. They are awesome at following directions and getting all the details right.

After that all I had to do was mail it off and wait for it to come back.

JeffB

[Sodboy13]

Hot damn, that looks magnificent. I've also got all the fixins for this jersey (green blank, crest, and whales,) but I've been dragging my feet on getting it done after the fiasco I encountered at City Sports. Now I know where to go to get it right. I think I might make mine slightly different than yours, though... I'm thinking of adding a grey tackle-twill outline for Pucky, and possibly going with a different font. But it's definitely going to be Ronnie Franchise.

[shiznit1083]

Absolutely amazing. I love it.

All over, former Whaler fans rejoice!

[youcan'tseeme]

it looks amazing man, great work.

[Jezus_Ghoti]

Makes me wish the Whalers were still around so they could wear that.

[Chazberg]

That's frickin sweet man! How did you get the blank from icejerseys, through their custom team section?

And yeah, Exclusive Pro Sports is IMHO the end-all best place to get lettering done, period. From my experience, they do flawless work in any league.

[jOkeR]

That looks awesome. Great jersey.

[Francis10]

I'm Francis10, and I approve this jersey.

[Brass]

Fantastic jersey! How much did it run you in total if you don't mind me asking.

[bulldogbarks55]

Looks like a REAL HOCKEY SWEATER. Not like the upcoming abominations the NHL will wear next season. That having been said- Don't you fear that Bettman's trademark/copyright infringement Gestapo will secret you and your beautiful sweater away some night, never to be seen again? Unfortunately, I feel the NHL would be that petty. Just wondering...

[FlyersHockey1967]

Are you sure that's a FANTASY alternate? That looks good enough to have been used by the Whalers!

[Francis10]

Looks like a REAL HOCKEY SWEATER. Not like the upcoming abominations the NHL will wear next season. That having been said- Don't you fear that Bettman's trademark/copyright infringement Gestapo will secret you and your beautiful sweater away some night, never to be seen again? Unfortunately, I feel the NHL would be that petty. Just wondering...

The NHL doesn't own the rights to the Whalers logo, wordmarks, or identity. In the terms of the deal that negotiated their departure from Hartford, the complete team identity was sold to the Connecticut Development Authority. That is why you don't see Whalers-branded throwbacks in the NHL Vintage collection, and authentic Whalers merchandise is nigh-impossible to find.

[Snazel]

Nifty jersey, congratulations.

Dear Whaler Fans:

What year did the Whalers have their best squad ever?

I chose the 86/87 team, (their only division winner I believe). However, maybe a more skilled Whaler fan could direct to me a better squad in their history. I pit some of the best teams in NHL history, in a TCG/simulation game, its why I ask.

The 85/86 team that nearly went all the way? A WHA version of the Whalers maybe?

[zer0dotcom]

I always liked them better in the green than the blue, but they were never as crisp as this in the blue ones.

Awesome sweater spyboy, makes me want one

[oddball]

Nice sweater. The only thing that I don't like about this sweater is that 0 looks very very wide. I'm glad you chose 10 and not 20 or some other number with a 0 because it doesn't look like you could fit two numbers on there and look good with that 0.

[Discrim]

heh, like my boy Chuck used to say, I LOOOVE IT! heh, if I wasn't so backed up already I'd add it to my to-make list, for real. eh well, someday.

[ebod39]

unflippin-believable how cool and professional that is. Amzing what you can do with

eBay and a dream. Hope I get to see that in person someday.

[griffelh]

Very VERY nice

[Eye]

I'm Francis10, and I approve this jersey.

Hahaha, I actually got a laugh out of that. That jersey is tight, what a beautiful sweater. I think this would have made a great alt (or primary for that matter) when the Whalers switched to blue and silver on their roads in the early 90's. Great pickup, Spyboy.

-E.A.R.

[NorthStar74]

Oh dang... that jersey is way way cooler... ohh man.. I like that look..but as for that small 0 on the arm sectoin, that looks so wide.. eh.. but I really love the look of that jersey!!! Very cool!!