Buffalo Sabres Return to Royal, Unveil New Logo and Uniforms

[SFGiants58]

If they had a bolder block font than the “thin NHL” one, single-layer numbers would look better. A font like the one the Islanders, Stars, Blackhawks, Sharks, and Blues use would be best for them to do single-layer.

[AnPheitseog]

So, this is the first Sabres jersey of this style that has no ties and no shoulder patches. Started with no patches/ with ties, to patches/no ties, to the one off WC with patches AND ties, and the recent ones with no patches/with ties.

[jdavidev]

Wait, are there no secondary shoulder logos?  The Sabres have so many decent to good ones to use...

[spartacat_12]

I guess this means the official end of the front number experiment in hockey. It's also another team that's realized how bad the Adidas collars are and has opted to minimize them as much as possible.

 

2 hours ago, Ridleylash said:

I disagree with this; I think it's the application of white that's been messed up. Making sure both jerseys have a consistent striping pattern (something like y/w/y on the home and b/y/b on the road) would've been a nice upgrade on an already fantastic set. As it is, it feels like they're clinging to some design elements from the navy uniforms that really shouldn't have been clung to.

 

Single-color numbers only really work for teams with a very limited color selection in my opinion; your Torontos, Detroits and such.

 

The single colour numbers look great on the Rams throwback jerseys.

 

[VancouverFan69]

Beautiful uniforms. Great job, Sabres. CONGRATULATIONS to ALL Sabres fans.⚔ I don't mind the white accents so much on the blues, however it makes no sense to remove the white bordering from the pants' yellow-gold stripes. It looks very incomplete. Nevertheless, the 3D detailing on the buffalo is simply gorgeous.

 

[AnPheitseog]

26 minutes ago, jdavidev said:

Wait, are there no secondary shoulder logos?  The Sabres have so many decent to good ones to use...

Thankfully not. In this case, less is more. (Also true when it comes to the white stripes on the blue, but they failed to follow that there)

 

Also: while I wish that the collar was yellow, I’m glad they avoided the problem of the adidas collar by going blue. Hope that’s a change once normal collars happen again. 

 

[Ridleylash]

9 minutes ago, _J_ said:

Thankfully not. In this case, less is more. (Also true when it comes to the white stripes on the blue, but they failed to follow that there)

 

Also: while I wish that the collar was yellow, I’m glad they avoided the problem of the adidas collar by going blue. Hope that’s a change once normal collars happen again. 

 

I would've liked to see the B-Sabre as a secondary, but these are massive improvements on the Reebok holdovers they were using beforehand. I just don't care for those stupid mini-stripes cluttering the main three. Should've just made the outer stripes white if you wanted to mess with the striping on the jersey as a reason to say they didn't completely revert.

[~Bear]

Vast improvement. I don't know how I feel about the white stripes on the royal jersey. They aren't bad but maybe it'd look better without them? Regardless, both jerseys are beautiful, no doubt about that.

 

Glad the Sabres went this route. The NHL continues to extend it's lead as the best-looking of the Big 4 leagues in North America. 

[CDunn]

I don't hate the white stripes. Don't love them, they're not necessary, but don't hate them. And the idea for adding them coming in late from some marketing EVPs at the Sabres ownership group rather than from the Adidas designers is *chef kiss*

 

I don't like the mismatched sleeve and bottom hem stripes on the road. Most Sabres fans (except me I guess) would've bemoaned that they still didn't get the jersey right if they matched them, so whatever.

 

As far as the numbers, I wish they didn't have an outline. It's a pet peeve of mine when the numbers have an outline, but the surname letters are the same color as the number only without an outline. Makes it look like the names forgot a layer. No white in the numbers or sleeve stripes on the home would've really let that beautiful crest pop. Only problem is the Sabres numbers are pretty thin, so they would've had to beef them up a little.

 

--Oh, and the slightly thicker than normal yellow braiding around the shoulder yoke is an under appreciated detail. Looks way better than if it were piping-thin.

[BBTV]

3 hours ago, CDunn said:

As far as the numbers, I wish they didn't have an outline. It's a pet peeve of mine when the numbers have an outline, but the surname letters are the same color as the number only without an outline. Makes it look like the names forgot a layer.

 

My "rule" is that if the number has an outline but the NOB is single color, then the single color should match the outline of the number, therefore avoiding the situation you just noted (which is also a peeve of mine.)

 

Like any rule, there's exceptions, and yellow-white is one of them.  I generally don't like it when yellow and white touch, but I think it's fine here - and obviously the NOB can't be yellow on the white jersey, so my rule has to be broken and the NOB is blue.  I also think that while a white NOB on the blue jersey would comply with my rule, it just wouldn't look right, so I'll grant an exception there too.

 

I think single-color number would look like they forgot something.  There's too much white on the blues, and yellow on the whites to forgo an outline.  Solid numbers can look great and really make a statement, but they're hard to pull off, and look 'cheap' when used incorrectly.  This would be one of those cases.  Hockey in general doesn't lend itself to single-color numbers except for teams like Detroit and Toronto that only have one non-white color in their pallet.  Dallas looks stupid.

 

 

[daschuck77]

4 hours ago, ebod39 said:

your questions will be answered by the article
 

https://buffalonews.com/sports/sabres/inside-the-long-awaited-return-of-sabres-royal-blue-and-gold-jerseys/article_7e443a3a-db15-11ea-af95-a38620882335.html

 

 

 

 

It's funny how with all of the CLEAR fan demands, expectations, and creative inspirations already available from the 40th anniversary, 50th anniversary, and winter classic jerseys at their disposal that this uniform still came to be in the 11th hour "with not enough time to work with Adidas on alterations".  The white piping is a little bit superfluous merely for the sake of change and it's a little awkward how much the article talks about it being the final exclamation point of the royal uniform.  They sure love that piping!  I think Executive VP of Creative services Frank Cravotta's wheelhouse is more industrial design than branding a creative identity.  He's had a hand in it all from the Buffaslug to the Turd Burger.  But finally since 1996, the Sabres have the true return to Blue and Gold and it wasn't misrepresented like it was in 2006 and thankfully not botched as well!

[pepis21]

6 hours ago, ebod39 said:

your questions will be answered by the article
 

https://buffalonews.com/sports/sabres/inside-the-long-awaited-return-of-sabres-royal-blue-and-gold-jerseys/article_7e443a3a-db15-11ea-af95-a38620882335.html

 

"Adidas successfully pitched a bigger crest on the front of both jerseys and provided examples – including the textured lion logo for Poland’s national team – to sell PSE on the logo stitching that would also be used for the bison and swords on the anniversary uniform."

 

Wait, what? What lion? I think they meant Czechia, not Poland. They have a Lion on their crest, we have an Eagle.

[MCM0313]

Royal and yellow>Navy and yellow

 

By far. 

[habsfan1]

10 hours ago, Echo said:

 

 

I get what they wanted to do. They wanted to keep an extra color to the striping, just like their former navy jersey. That jersey probably sold well with casual fans.

 

Here's the thing, though. The silver outlines around the yellow waist stripes worked because it all blended well with the crest that contained at the time a couple of silver outlines of their own as well. Their new simplified upgraded version of the classic crest is much less bananas with far fewer tiny little outlines all over the place, that's why the plain yellow arm and waist stripes would have matched with the new crest better.

 

Someone wanted to add white somewhere in the striping. It could have been done better than just copying the old jersey that they just retired. Or they should have simply stuck with the duotone royal blue and gold, which would have been my choice.

 

I give these 9/10. Had they gone with the original striping, they would have gotten a 10/10. Almost, Sabres.

[VikWings]

Very nice. Love the detailing on the crest carried over from the 50th jersey..

[BBTV]

Something doesn't sound right - 

 

"However, the first prototype presented to the Pegulas had three gold and two royal stripes on each arm and the waist, much like the original royal blue jersey, but this led to the white crest “dominating a sea of royal and gold,” said Cravotta."

 

Two words here - "first" and "prototype" imply that there would be time for change.  If it's too late to change, then is it a prototype at all?  The fact that it's the first prototype implies that there would be more than one, so why couldn't it be changed?

 

 

I get that the point of a prototype is to see if it looks as good IRL as it does on paper, and that they probably didn't think the white stripes would be necessary until they saw it live, but again - I'm not understanding why the "first prototype" is the point of no return.

 

[andrewharrington]

2 hours ago, pepis21 said:

 

"Adidas successfully pitched a bigger crest on the front of both jerseys and provided examples – including the textured lion logo for Poland’s national team – to sell PSE on the logo stitching that would also be used for the bison and swords on the anniversary uniform."

 

Wait, what? What lion? I think they meant Czechia, not Poland. They have a Lion on their crest, we have an Eagle.

Whoever wrote that certainly meant “the textured lion logo for the Dutch national team,” but hey... that’s journalism these days.

 

9 hours ago, Gothamite said:

Wow, this is so very, very good.

 

I agree that the white is unnecessary on the homes.  Worse, it interferes with the interaction between royal and gold.  I love the names, unburdened with the white outline.  Without any white to blur the line and clutter the design, the two colors play off each other gloriously.

 

 

I know that teams feel the need to add a number outline to make the jerseys look less "cheap" or some such nonsense, but in this case gold numbers by themselves would have been so much stronger.

 

9 hours ago, Bayne said:

 

I agree with this. The white serves no real purpose other than to differentiate itself with previous iterations. The blue and gold contrast with each other perfectly and is what makes that colour scheme so strong. White only blurs that edge and gets in the way a bit. I can sort of see how the inclusion of white in the striping could be justified by saying that it unifies the white in the logo with the rest of the jersey but.. that's not really essential and I think it might slightly hinder it more than it aids it.

 

In saying that, I won't be losing any sleep over it.

 

After some initial attempts to modernize the classics to a greater degree, it became clear the club’s intent was to bring them back ostensibly as they were (plus the improved crest, obviously), so it’s not accurate to say they added white just to make them “different” from the originals. I mean, they would have also changed the white version if that was the strategy. Note: that wasn’t directed to either of you; I’ve just seen that unfounded critique pop up a few times already.

 

It was purely a design issue for them. After seeing their sample of the classic design, they felt (like I always have) that the concentration of white in the crest was too dominant within a uniform that’s almost completely blue and gold. To make the crest less dominant, you essentially have to find a way to make something else more dominant to better balance the the crest (solid gold numbers wouldn’t have solved that problem for them, but [in my opinion] solid white numbers would have).

 

Obviously, they instead chose to make the striping more vibrant by adding the white trim, and while it’s not the path I would have taken, I don’t think it’s fair to say it “serves no real purpose,” either, because it clearly does, bringing design cues from the numbers, which were previously a bit of an an outlier, into the rest of the uniform.

 

It’s not what I would call “perfect,” but I do think it’s an improvement that brings more cohesion to the uniform. If I was the one wielding the approval pen, I think I would have taken just one or two more steps to complete the transformation from “pure vintage” to “contemporary classic.” I think this set currently sits somewhere in the middle.

[andrewharrington]

45 minutes ago, BringBackTheVet said:

Something doesn't sound right - 

 

"However, the first prototype presented to the Pegulas had three gold and two royal stripes on each arm and the waist, much like the original royal blue jersey, but this led to the white crest “dominating a sea of royal and gold,” said Cravotta."

 

Two words here - "first" and "prototype" imply that there would be time for change.  If it's too late to change, then is it a prototype at all?  The fact that it's the first prototype implies that there would be more than one, so why couldn't it be changed?

 

 

I get that the point of a prototype is to see if it looks as good IRL as it does on paper, and that they probably didn't think the white stripes would be necessary until they saw it live, but again - I'm not understanding why the "first prototype" is the point of no return.

 

Most often, it’s design process/timeline vs. production calendar. If everything goes right, it’s standard practice to do a first prototype (or multiple if a team wants to see more than one design in physical form to make a decision), and then a second prototype based on feedback from the first (these sessions are where you put it on a model/form, check spacing, sizing, construction, quality, color, material, etc.). If there are any delays in direction, design, or feedback, however, the calendar starts shrinking and concessions often have to be made to stay on time.

 

Essentially, what the article is saying is, “it was too late to get new samples to physically evaluate the different options with added white, so we had to make do with digital mockups, make a D.I.Y. prototype to confirm, and press go to get it in the production queue on time.”

[ebod39]

2 hours ago, pepis21 said:

 

"Adidas successfully pitched a bigger crest on the front of both jerseys and provided examples – including the textured lion logo for Poland’s national team – to sell PSE on the logo stitching that would also be used for the bison and swords on the anniversary uniform."

 

Wait, what? What lion? I think they meant Czechia, not Poland. They have a Lion on their crest, we have an Eagle.

It was Netherlands 

[Ridleylash]

1 hour ago, andrewharrington said:

Obviously, they instead chose to make the striping more vibrant by adding the white trim, and while it’s not the path I would have taken, I don’t think it’s fair to say it “serves no real purpose,” either, because it clearly does, bringing design cues from the numbers, which were previously a bit of an an outlier, into the rest of the uniform.

 

It’s not what I would call “perfect,” but I do think it’s an improvement that brings more cohesion to the uniform. If I was the one wielding the approval pen, I think I would have taken just one or two more steps to complete the transformation from “pure vintage” to “contemporary classic.” I think this set currently sits somewhere in the middle.

I feel like just copying the away pattern and making it white/gold/white on the homes may have been a possible option, honestly. I think that if they wanted the white trim, they should've trimmed both sides of the striping with white; just the inside makes it look a little weird.