2015-16 NHL Uniform and Logo Changes

[Morgan33]

Yes the mountain range design wouldn't translate into the early versions of the Edge uniform system... Not sure why people think it could, especially considering every team with angular stripes was forced to ditch them. Flames, Stars, Penguins, Capitals, etc...

[Gothamite]

Reportedly, at more than one press conference it was stressed that teams could have kept their old patterns. They just fell for Reebok's marketing bull .

[B-mer]

I think the mountain design could have easily worked. I made it happen with this... Basically using the same template as what they've had.

I also find the thought of certain things "not being possible" funny, and I get caught in that sometimes too. They can do whatever they want if they really want to. They "discovered" how to do the pointed yokes for the Coyotes' throwback.

[Morgan33]

Theres no question it could be done now, the Mighty Ducks throwbacks proved it. But when the uniform system was first unveiled and they had 29 other teams to design under a tight deadline? I find that very hard to believe. I remember reading somewhere that the Avalanche wanted to keep their uniforms as is, and the current mess is what they were given. Given Reeboks ineptitude for design, I wouldn't be surprised at all.

[Gothamite]

You remember one thing, others remember something directly opposite.

You don't happen to have a link, do you?

[AnPheitseog]

Sublimnation would have solved everything. No piping, so the cuts and fits wouldnt matter at all. Just dye the material and you can do whatever you want

[hockey week]

They also refused to do the Ottawa 67s barber pole because they didn't think they could line it up. It's one of the few times that the team went without it. Reebok didn't trust its process early on, and I think they were ok with that because it was a great excuse to drop hemline stripes and modernize

[IceCap]

You remember one thing, others remember something directly opposite.

You don't happen to have a link, do you?

Pretty much. I'm sure if I looked hard enough I could find a link in the old Edge unveiling thread. Problem is that thing is MASSIVE. Maybe over the holidays.

I distinctly remember someone (either an Avs or Reebok rep) saying that they had the option to use the traditional mountain range striping but they opted for the generic Edge template. My guess is that they did it to sell more gear. A new sweater, however ugly and unoriginal, is going to sell. Replicating the pre-Edge mountain stripes onto the new Edge sweaters wouldn't have resulted in as many new sales.

Honest question. What's so special about the 1990s? It seems like such a random cutoff point.

"Every team founded on or before 1989 can look traditional, but teams founded from 1990 onward need to embrace every modern trend that comes along."

As I said. I would rather keep the good 1990s looks because they're good. And ditch the bad 1990s looks because they're bad. And not worry about what a team founded between 1990 and 1999 *should* be wearing.

The 90's were special for the following innovations...

1) New colours.

Just like the second six produced unique looking teams by adding colours like green, orange, purple and powder blue, the 90's did the same with teal, jade, eggplant, forest green and burgundy. Since the league expanded from 21 to 28 teams, I would say these colours were necessary to make new teams in non-traditional markets stand out. San Jose colouring a classic uniform in teal was a revelation, as was the creativity of Anaheim's and Colorado's palettes.

2) Metallic embroidery

While the new colours I mentioned above increased variety, the use of metallic colours that started in 1991 with the Stars, allowed for even more options. Not only did they make for some great looking crests that really stood out on the ice, they allowed new teams to forge an identity around them. Take the expansion class of 1992/93... Without metallic gold and silver, the Lightning and Senators would have entered the league looking like a thousand other identities. Kind of like how Tampa looks now and how Ottawa looks when they wear their boring, overrated heritage jerseys.

3) Angular striping

Around 1991/92 every team was essentially wearing a classic hockey template when angular striping allowed for more variety and options. Pittsburgh's use of it complimented their triangular logo perfectly, The avalanche ingeniously used it to represent their topography, Florida and Phoenix adopted angular shoulders that were modern without going too over the top and the ducks forged some of the best looking uniforms ever created around it.

4) Patterned striping

Two teams come to mind with this one, Phoenix and Carolina. Both the 'Hurricane warning' and 'kachina' striping were ingenious ways of letting two non-traditional markets stand out while representing areas that had yet to see an NHL franchise.

So there are four innovations that improved hockey aesthetics originating in the 90's. What's this decades claim to fame? Hanger effects?

This decade's claim to fame will be a reaction against the 90s. The 90s started trends that lasted until the mid 2000s. Like all trends they came to an end. And people wanted something else after it was all said and done. The 90s trends emphasised modern design, so the pendulum swung back to hyper-traditional afterwards.

We're probably going to see a few progressive designs in a few years once people tire of the traditional angle. You already see it in MLB with Arizona's redesign. That will run its course for a decade and a half or so before people want more traditional looks back again. It's just how design trends work.

And it's no surprise that the more beloved uniforms are the ones that remain unchanged and resist the urge to give into whatever new trends come along. The Canucks seem to change with each major shift. The Canadiens have remained unchanged for decades. Which set is more iconic?

As for the 90s innovations...I'll say it again. The good designs from the era should be brought back or retained because they're good. The bad designs should be ditched because they're bad. The decade itself is not reason enough to keep or ditch anything.

I"ll wire you $100 if it's better than their 1994 look.

It doesn't have to be better than the 1994 look to be good. And that's a terrible bet anyway. Who decides if it's "better"? I'm inclined to suggest that we use merchandise sales as a judge, because those always go up after a redesign. Even if the design is terrible

I would say that the Lightning, Hurricanes, and Panthers all started with modern yet restrained looks, yes. And I would say that they all looked better at their respective peaks then they do now. I'm not defending the Lightning or the Hurricanes' new looks.

No but you're advocating that the Avalanche do essentially the same thing.

No, I'm not. The Lightning and the Hurricanes aped the looks of Original Six teams. The Panthers could be doing that. What Original Six team does the Avs' new alternate emulate? You may not like it, and that's fine. To accuse it of having the same failings as Tampa and Carolina's current identities though? It's a false equivalency.

I can't believe Reebok is getting a free pass on these boards for the 2007/08 debacle... 90% of the designs were so awful, it's insulting to think people were actually paid for them. As I recall, teams like the Rangers, Devils had to really fight for basic elements like straight sleeve stripes.... I recall Detroit having to really fight to keep their uniforms intact as well, as original plans called for the addition of black and reflective piping.

As Sodboy said, no one is giving Reebok a free pass on anything. Almost everyone agrees that most of the Edge designs were garbage. We're just saying the blame falls on the teams for signing off on those designs.

The Leafs could have gone modern, but told Reebok to keep it traditional.

The Rangers and Devils got their wish regarding straight sleeve stripes.

The Wings ultimately prevailed and got the black and silver additions ditched, and retained their traditional pre-Edge look.

The examples you provide only proves out point. The teams did have a say. They had the final say.

And as for the Reebox? The roots of that go back to the CCM/Koho days when the NHL moved the manufacturing branding from the hem to above the nameplate. That was going to happen regardless of who ended up with the contract. It's not on Reebok. Or CCM. Or Koho. It was the NHL's call.

[Morgan33]

Like all trends they came to an end.

If you were a team with even a slightly less than traditional template, and wanted to keep your pre-edge look, you were SOL... These uniforms did not organically get phased out because they overstayed their welcome, they were butchered and bastardized to the point where anything would be a welcome replacement. Is it merely a coincidence that every team with angular stripes ended up on a bib template with the colours and logos intact? That probably is Reebok's idea of accommodating those designs. I remember hearing that the Flames uniforms weren't going to major changes, outside the shoulder patches, and look what we got...

Does anyone really think the Avalanche had any hope of retaining their 'mountain range' striping when looking at these images? Can this all be the fault of the teams? I blame Reebok.

Kudos to the Blues for bringing back their best design (with a few small tweaks) and not giving into the retro fad. Wish the other teams pictured here would do the same, save Dallas.

[Almighty]

^^ Damn, look how they butchered those great jerseys

[IceCap]

Like all trends they came to an end.

If you were a team with even a slightly less than traditional template, and wanted to keep your pre-edge look, you were SOL... These uniforms did not organically get phased out because they overstayed their welcome, they were butchered and bastardized to the point where anything would be a welcome replacement. Is it merely a coincidence that every team with angular stripes ended up on a bib template with the colours and logos intact?

It wasn't just modern 90s designs that were butchered. The Flyers' 1980s design was done away with. The Islanders and Oilers may have been wearing 90s updates of classic looks, but the striping was still straight and traditional. Both of those were done away with. The Leafs and Coyotes had very traditional looks and both lost their hem stripes. Montreal lost straight sleeve stripes. And so on.

As for uniforms being faded out...I'm willing to bet that most of those pre-Edge looks wouldn't have lasted to the present anyway. Dallas' new ownership wanted something traditional. Colorado's ownership wanted something to capitalize on the growing popularity of Colorado state flag merchandise. Florida is getting a rebrand. The Penguins are rumoured to be going with their back to back Cup-era uniforms full time.

My point is that all of these changes are remarkably unconnected to the initial Edge uniforms. The desire to change would still be there even if the 90s uniforms were still being used without alteration today. The differences between the pre-Edge and current Panthers and Penguins looks are not so different that would have discouraged the desire for something new.

Assuming some alternate reality where all of those pre-Edge uniforms continued to be worn beyond 2007? I would say only the Blues and Flames' looks would last.

That probably is Reebok's idea of accommodating those designs. I remember hearing that the Flames uniforms weren't going to major changes, outside the shoulder patches, and look what we got...

I showed my mom the new Blue Jays cap when they rebranded back in 2012. Her reaction? "Good. The old logo looked too much like the Seattle Seahawks." She was referring to the "Black Jays" logo.

Now obviously that logo looks nothing like the Seahawks logo. To people who don't follow this sort of thing though? It could. My point is that people who aren't logo and uniform nerds like we are tend to see things differently. It's entirely possible that whoever said the Flames' Edge uniforms wouldn't change much meant it. He just saw a red uniform with a black flaming C and black, white, and gold stripes and said "eh, it looks the same."

Does anyone really think the Avalanche had any hope of retaining their 'mountain range' striping when looking at these images? Can this all be the fault of the teams? I blame Reebok.

I'm just telling you what I remember.

As for blaming Reebok? No one isn't blaming them. No one is trying to defend the terrible designs they thought up.

We're just saying that plenty of teams did tell Reebok to shove it when they tried to push their unwanted ideas on them. Which means more teams could have, if they had wanted to. So no. Reebok doesn't get all the blame here.

The Avs didn't lose the mountain range striping because Reebok is evil and/or incompetent. They lost the mountain range striping because they either didn't want it or they didn't care enough to keep it when Reebok suggested getting rid of it. Either way? The blame is on the team. Not the manufacturer.

I'm betting they didn't want it, personally. The team now has two key players from their Cup era in key management positions. And they're still going full-steam ahead with the state flag-based identity. Which tells me that the team doesn't see much value in retaining the mountain range look. They didn't back in 2007, and the don't know. Even when they have people on board who should have an attachment to it.

[wildwing64]

Yes the mountain range design wouldn't translate into the early versions of the Edge uniform system... Not sure why people think it could, especially considering every team with angular stripes was forced to ditch them. Flames, Stars, Penguins, Capitals, etc...

Almost every team. The Ducks kept theirs and even had a template specifically designed for it. Not exactly a perfect translation from the CCM version as the stripes were cut off at one side, but more or less the same as what they had before.

In theory some of those teams could easily have done the same, but at the end of the day Reebok presented designs and the teams approved them. Both parties are equally to blame for however they turned out. Again with the Ducks, they decided on keeping the wordmark logo on the front and it ended up being shrunk to fit the front of the uniform.

As for other teams, maybe the Stars faithful will correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding with their change is that the owner at the time Tom Hicks basically didn't care. I get that impression with the Avs too, they were probably shown one similar enough to their existing look and said "Yeah that'll do". The Caps uniform happened to coincide with a complete rebrand. And who knows why the Flames picked a messy template and added flag shoulder patches.

[The_Admiral]

Kinda late here, but I think the reason people use "the '90s" as a signpost is because nothing really happened in the '80s. Offhand, I can think of the Hockey-Rockies becoming the Devils and that's just about it. Maybe some nips and tucks here and there, but I don't think anyone significantly overhauled their uniforms until the Jets went from the shoulder stripes to the really boring uniforms in 1990.

[IceCap]

The biggest innovation in the 80s was the Flyers/Kings-style full sleeve yoke.

[OnWis97]

The biggest innovation in the 80s was the Flyers/Kings-style full sleeve yoke.

Cooperalls!

I thought both of those teams improved greatly with that style. I think the Flyers should be using it now rather than their 70s look.

You really do have to stretch to come up with innovation/big changes in the 1980s.

Best I could do is:

• Death of yellow home uniforms (Kings/Canucks/Penguins alt)...and that's a step toward the "less innovative."
• The Kings. They dumped a bright/vivid scheme to adopt the Raiders colors. And it worked...(not knowing numbers but my perception) merchandise started flying off the shelves. It appeared alongside Raider gear on hip hop album covers and I think regular hockey fans embraced it too. Of course it did not hurt that it coincided with Gretzky's arrival. The other scheme was definitely associated with a meaningless franchise. The North Stars, to a lesser extent, were a contributor too. They took a basic green and yellow scheme and added black for no apparent reason. It would not be very long before you saw more black primaries (North/Dallas Stars, Sabres, etc.) and black trim (Sharks, Flames, etc.)

[hockey week]

The biggest innovation in the 80s was the Flyers/Kings-style full sleeve yoke.

Cooperalls!

I thought both of those teams improved greatly with that style. I think the Flyers should be using it now rather than their 70s look.

You really do have to stretch to come up with innovation/big changes in the 1980s.

Best I could do is:

• Death of yellow home uniforms (Kings/Canucks/Penguins alt)...and that's a step toward the "less innovative."
• The Kings. They dumped a bright/vivid scheme to adopt the Raiders colors. And it worked...(not knowing numbers but my perception) merchandise started flying off the shelves. It appeared alongside Raider gear on hip hop album covers and I think regular hockey fans embraced it too. Of course it did not hurt that it coincided with Gretzky's arrival. The other scheme was definitely associated with a meaningless franchise. The North Stars, to a lesser extent, were a contributor too. They took a basic green and yellow scheme and added black for no apparent reason. It would not be very long before you saw more black primaries (North/Dallas Stars, Sabres, etc.) and black trim (Sharks, Flames, etc.)

I think the 80s biggest contributions were on the manufacturing side of things. Fabrics changed significantly as teams moved away from the big-hole knits to dureen. Heat pressed numbers and logos were huge for a while, and were mostly replaced by 1990. A lot of the local manufacturers were consolidated to very few league manufacturers, and I think buying a team jersey as an adult entered its infancy, you don't see many examples of team jerseys for adult fans prior to that, or at least I haven't.

[OnWis97]

PS...while the 1980s were not innovative, they were beautiful.

[VikWings]

"Original 6 Dress-Up" is such a lazy complaint.

Is the design good, or not? If it's good, who cares what historical lineage it taps in to? If it's bad, why should we excuse it from a team founded in an era of bad design?

If a guy walks down the street in head-to-toe purple leather, or acid washed jeans and an Izod shirt with the collar popped up, we don't say "That looks good because he was born in the 1980s."

I agree with this to an extent, but there are some instance where a team is actually playing original 6 dress up.

Like the Lightning for example.Steve Yzerman wanted them to look like the Red Wings, I think the only reason they didn't have the contrast sleeves on the white jersey was just so it wouldn't be even more obvious. They didn't even have the bolts on the pants or black trim until the fans complained.

And I have no idea what's going on in Carolina. They traded in something unique to be the Red Leafs with completely different road design.

I don't mind with the Stars (well other than the bad logo and silver instead of gold), Jets, etc have done with traditional looks.

[The_Admiral]

And I have no idea what's going on in Carolina.

Karmanos is from Detroit and has a creepy professional rivalry with Mike Ilitch, so he wants the Hurricanes to look a lot like the Red Wings so he can pretend he bought the Red Wings after trying and failing in the '90s. This extends to his weird obsession with employing anyone connected to hockey in Michigan and taking forever to get rid of them (former Red Wings goalie Jim Rutherford, Michigan-born Chad LaRose, his old junior coach Paul Maurice, hell, anyone born in Michigan or who played for Plymouth). So they're decked out in head-to-toe red to remind him of the one that got away, the way the new New York-based Rays ownership came to town and curiously insisted upon lots of minimalist blue and white, or how the White Sox moved into their new stadium with Dodger Blue seats and Yankee-esque pinstripes, hmm, we've never seen that before.

That explains the home reds, I can't explain what they're going for with the whites.

[Morgan33]

I'm betting they didn't want it, personally. The team now has two key players from their Cup era in key management positions. And they're still going full-steam ahead with the state flag-based identity. Which tells me that the team doesn't see much value in retaining the mountain range look. They didn't back in 2007, and the don't know. Even when they have people on board who should have an attachment to it.

They made an alternate based around the flag... Lets not go nuts here. There are no plans to make a new identity based around it, check Icethetics 'Jersey Watch...' Not a mention of it. As for them not wanting to keep the mountain range striping, I remember hearing they did and were misled by reebok... But I can't find the source either.

As for uniforms being faded out...I'm willing to bet that most of those pre-Edge looks wouldn't have lasted to the present anyway. Dallas' new ownership wanted something traditional. Colorado's ownership wanted something to capitalize on the growing popularity of Colorado state flag merchandise. Florida is getting a rebrand. The Penguins are rumoured to be going with their back to back Cup-era uniforms full time.

My point is that all of these changes are remarkably unconnected to the initial Edge uniforms. The desire to change would still be there even if the 90s uniforms were still being used without alteration today. The differences between the pre-Edge and current Panthers and Penguins looks are not so different that would have discouraged the desire for something new.

Assuming some alternate reality where all of those pre-Edge uniforms continued to be worn beyond 2007? I would say only the Blues and Flames' looks would last.

I willing to bet most them would have...

The Penguins would have won a cup in uniforms that were actually good, with the added bonus of using a colour management is in favour of. That set wouldn't be going anywhere if it was still around today. The Flames won't even fix the current garbage so why would they go out of their way to trash their best look? We'd probably have blank shoulders because only Reebok has the visual illiteracy to green light something as stupid as flag shoulder patches... Blues have essentially the pre-edge look today and are one of the best looking teams for it. Florida would have likely switched back to red but would not need to fix their current awful template with a full rebrand... unless they're just incompetent. Avalanche are not going "full steam ahead" with a rebrand... There are no plans to make their alternates the new homes. They'd have the mountain range striping today, maybe with the new shoulder patch. The Stars would also have their pre-edge uniforms intact today. While I agree their new look is better, you can't discount the fact their pre-edge look represents the greatest triumph of the franchise. The current change was a reaction to the awfulocity of their edge uniforms and new owner Tom Gaglardi admitted it. He believed a hockey uniform should absolutely have a logo on the front and early prototypes show just how close the team was to adopting something similar to the cup winning look. At least as far as colours go.