Adidas Digital 6 Jersey Concepts: The Redefining

[FCMacbeth]

Heya, everyone! It is I, FC Macbeth, here with the first concept series done by yours truly!

Today, with the first post of the series, let me tell you a story.

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Long ago, on November 5th 2018, Adidas partnered up with EA Sports and come up with futuristic sets of uniforms for the Original 6 teams known as 'Digital 6' jerseys.

While some of them look decent enough for the majority of the people, others look down upon the designs and labelled it as 'terrible'. Questionable choices and design execution hampered what could have been an amazing idea by the Adidas design department. However, one man is determined to give the Original 6 teams an extraordinary yet beautiful look.........

Alright, end of story. Let's start off this series, shall we?

 

BOSTON BRUINS

Let's go retro for this Stanley Cup finalist by going ALL GOLD!

In fact, let's pay a tribute to the famous Kraut line that gave them two Stanley cups in 1939 and 1941.

 

 

My basis of this concept is to create an all-gold look while referencing with the past. In this case, it's the 1939 Jersey in a gold variant. All I did is simply double the stripping.for the original and apply it to the socks. The gold breaches also has a stripe on it, which is something Boston has ACTUALLY DONE from 1958 to 1965.

 

I created two versions of the same design. The one of the left is what the original source material looks like: Numbers on the front and the 'Blocked B' logo placed at where the T.V. numbers are normally placed, creating an illusion that resembled a football jersey. Personally, it's unusual compared to the other ones Boston has design and while it didn't look good in terms of its placement, I think it doesn't hurt to try.

 

The one of the right, however, is just your standard typical placement of the logo and the numbers. Not much to say, really.

 

What do you think, guys? Comments and criticisms are welcome. Just try to be civil, okay?

[FCMacbeth]

If there's no one to comment on the Bruins, let's move on to their bitter rivals......

 

MONTREAL CANADIENS

Why don't we give Montreal the 'Barca Treatment'?

If you know what I mean......

This year, Barcelona ditched their traditional vertical stripes for a Croatia-esque design. But for the sake of my series, let's not focus on their current kit and instead applied Barca's famous stripes onto the Habs', who for the most part donned bleu band on their rouge sweater. We'll concentrate on their white road jersey for now.

 

Inspired by David Parkinson's 'Barca Treatment' series, I based off the concept on Montreal's well known white road jersey which featured a simple bleu blanc rouge stripe on the bottom. I then took the striping pattern and made it horizontal just like your typical Blaugrana kit. For the sleeve stripe, it's positioned to fit in the numbers which for me are pleasing in my eyes. The globe logo as seen in front on of the jersey and on the breeches comes from their championship-tribute years in the 1924-25 season. It hadn't been used since then so why not revive this gem? And if you are wondering where the iconic 'H in the C' logo is, never fear because it's now used as a shoulder patch and a helmet sticker!

 

Also, if you didn't noticed it, I split the collar into blue (on the left side) and red (on the right side). The pentagon thingy also has a split colour, too! I think its a creative use of Adidas's 'toilet bowl' collar so there's that!

 

Just like the Boston concept, comments and criticisms are appreciated!

[FCMacbeth]

Still no one to say about my artwork, eh? Well then, why don't we go South and check out the....

 

CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS

Chicago didn't have their star on their actually jersey.

Now's a good time to stitch it......mentally.

When I first created the Blackhawks concept, the first thing it came to my mind was the star on the flag of Chicago. I took the idea of a star and ran with it. The result was a 90s-style black sweater featuring the Chicago star stitched on the sleeves, the hem line and the red breaches. Even the red glove has one star, too. Appropriately enough, Chicago's state flag has four stars so each of the jersey's white parts have four stars in them, albeit in the alternating colours of red and black (or black and white for the breaches). Of course, the classic Blackhawks' Native American head logo and tomahawk were present in here, too.

 

If the Blackhawks were announced as a featured team a Stadium Series game (which hopefully be a little longer), then consider this a potential option!

 

C&C are encouraged!

Or maybe, I'm beginning to feel desperate here.

[FCMacbeth]

Welcome to New York City, welcome to New York City

Home of your.......

NEW YORK RANGERS

If the Yankees are hated because fans get distracted by their pinstripes,

does that make the Rangers hated even more?

Just like Chicago, the first thing I know about NYC was its baseball culture; specifically the Yankees. The latter were famous for their pinstripes on their jersey, at least on their white home ones. I've seen a few concepts that attempted tie in the Rangers with them but I felt like it was missing something. As appeared above, it's a combination of the overall design of the Yankees' traditional jerseys and the ill-fated 1974-76 full yoke sweater that (to the fans) felt un-Ranger-like. Honestly, I'd like to see the Rangers revive the full yoke jersey albeit keeping with their ever-famous diagonal wordmark. Or in this case, an arched wordmark like the one from 1946.

 

Gray was now used as a primary colour with secondary ones being navy blue and white. Meanwhile, the pinstripes are located in the white yokes and the striping in the gray breaches and socks. I placed them that way so the pinstripes don't become an eyesore when seen by people (yes, that includes you). As for the logos, I could just take the classic logo and change their colour scheme to navy blue, gray and white. But since we're talking about 'Digital 6 Jerseys', I basically recoloured their modernised variant into the Yankees' colour scheme. It's located at the shoulder yoke and the breaches.

 

For the sake of the Yankees tie in, navy blue socks were used. Yup, here's a picture for proof.

 

You know what to do!

C&C encouraged!

[officeglenn]

I've been meaning to chime in on this for a while now, but have had to take some time to formulate my thoughts.

 

Overall, these are solid, but I feel like you're not taking enough advantage of the "digital" aspect of this. EA did a really good job of this in the original series with the Bruins, Blackhawks and Rangers, specifically, incorporating outlandish elements that would be difficult-to-impossible to do in real life with any decent quality. Yours are fairly outlandish, but maybe not quite enough given the blank slate that the digital platform allows you to start with.

 

Boston is pretty traditional, and I'd be interested to see what the front number would look like in practice. But I have a feeling I'd always default back to the B. Still, well done and sticks to their roots while also being experimental.

 

With Montreal, I like the idea of making the stripe vertical, but I'm not sure it looks as good on paper. I've never been a fan of the globe logo, though – it seems overly intricate to me – so maybe that's colouring my perception of it. I might play around with different logos and different stripe orientations (maybe a sash) and see if something comes out of it.

 

I quite like Chicago – it has a bit of an Atlanta Thrashers vibe to it. My only suggestion would be to keep all the stars red. There's enough black on the rest of the set, and the read would stand out more as well as staying true to the city flag.

 

It might be treading into dangerous territory to have a Rangers jersey that ties into one NY baseball team without acknowledging the other. But given that it's the digital platform, too many fans likely wouldn't get their shorts in too big of knots. I'm torn on the grey, because while it looks good and different in a hockey context, it's not a uniquely Yankee colour; every MLB team has a grey away jersey. I would like to see this focused more on navy and white, since those are more distinctly Yankee colours, with maybe a smattering of grey as an accent. You mentioned confining the pinstripes to the shoulder yokes to avoid them being an eyesore, but if they're done right, I don't think they would be, even if they covered the whole jersey. Thinner, navy blue pinstripes all over could work. I love the thought of bringing in the modernized variant logo, but then I would love to see the RANGERS wordmark and the numbers match up with the modern font in that logo better. Right now, it's a bit jarring to see that modern logo and its modern letterforms paired with very traditional varsity block letters and numbers.

 

Anyway, hope that helps! Keep on creating!

[FCMacbeth]

Before I go to the next team, I just wanted to say thank you to @officeglenn for posting his first constructive criticism on my concepts. Everyday  when I post concepts I always expect comments to be there because it helps me as a concept artist to furnish all the details and give them a polish over the ones where I originally created. With all my patience I have in my life, here it is! My first time I ever saw a comment with a load of advice. I would like to thank again for @officeglenn for what he did to make my day. As such, I will post modified sets of previous concepts based on your response! That is, until, I finished my series.

 

Now we got it out of our way, let's rev up the engines and drive off to Motor City as we are about to witness the......

 

DETROIT RED WINGS

For a team who hold on years of heritage,

is there anyway to combine trend and tradition?

Well, yes. Yes I can. It took me an hour to figure out how to apply the Red Wings without devoiding all of their history of uniforms. In the best way I can make, essentially I combined various parts of many jerseys from the past, including the chest band from 1927 (back when Detroit were called the Cougars), the off-centered Winged Wheel that lasted for 50 years from 1932 to 1982 and the cream colour from their 2014 Winter Classic jersey. All of those elements were combined into one new jersey that doesn't stray away from all Detroit's history.

 

Also, I saw a Red Wings colour rush concept that had a few similarities with mine. However, the main difference was my concept was a little more complicated than this artist's own version. Of course, cream was used as a primary colour for the sweater, the breaches and the socks. Beside, who would want to see teams wearing white breaches (unless it's Winnipeg, of course)?

 

C&C are appreciated!

By the way, keep the comments coming! I waiting!

[FCMacbeth]

At last, we come to the final stage of the series. At least before we get to the bonus concept.

Speaking of Winter Classic, Detroit's opponent is just as fitting as the main rival to the Big Bad Bruins. Yes, lads. We finally come full circle.

So ladies and gentlemen, I give you the......

 

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS

How could such a beautiful mask

fit well with this sweater?

For the Leafs, I was thinking about using the goalie's mask as a basis of my concept. Out of all goalies, Mike Palmateer's mask fit very well enough to turn his design into a 'Digital Six' concept. Essentially, his mask has jagged edges resembling those from the actual maple leaf. As such I took Palmateer's design and apply it on the base. The result: an extravagant Leafs jersey with jagged edges on each sides of the sleeves, complete with five tiny maple leafs going on a V formation!

 

In fact, I made two versions of this concept (just like what I did to Boston).

The one on the left has the current Leafs logo with the current font.

The one on the right, however, features the previous logo used from 1982 to 2016 with the font used during the 90s.

 

And alas, the curtains close for the Redefining of the Digital Six jerseys. However, tomorrow I will post a bonus concept along with other changes made for my previous concept jerseys as suggested by @officeglenn. See you on Saturday!

 

Oh and don't forget to the leave comment and criticism. It really helps concept artists like me!