2021-2022 NHL Jersey Changes

[B-mer]

I’ve seen that Pacific tribal logo before. Think a tshirt design but I think it’s pretty cool. 

[andrewharrington]

On 10/23/2021 at 10:41 AM, IceCap said:

Disney has a streaming service, needs content, and we're at the point in the nostalgia timeline where a 90s revival is about due. Seems about the right time to dust off that franchise. 

The new show doesn't even use the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim logo. 

 

I'm not sure about that. If it's true then it's got a pretty big asterisk after it. Go to the more hockey-crazed parts of the world (where the NHL just so happens to have teams) and I'm not certain the Mighty Ducks logo is more recognized than a classic NHL logo. 

 

I don't buy that, sorry.

 

Yes, the logo was designed for the NHL team, but it's not so clear cut. Eisner wore a D-5 Ducks jersey from the first movie to the announcement for the team and the team in the movies wore the NHL uniforms for the first and second movies. 

 

While the duck goalie mask and sticks logo was designed for the NHL team there's very clearly some strong corporate synergy going on between the movies and team branding, and there was from day one until the day Disney sold the team. 

Denying that very clear fact because of a fear that some other fan will make fun of your team from "coming from a Disney movie" is dumb. They're going to do that anyway. Lean into it, don't deny the obvious. 

 

Hey, if Disney wants to try a revival series out on their streaming platform because they need content and this is an IP they own, all the power to them. 

 

The problem I have with this "the Mighty Ducks logo is one of the most iconic logos in all of hockey" talk is that it mostly comes from my generation- the people who were kids who watched the original movies, were marketed to by the NHL team with the demographically-aimed unis, and maybe even watched the 90s cartoon (their agent is a dead ringer for ECW-era Paul Heyman). 

And this putting of this pop culture logo up on a pedestal just rings a bit like the general arrested development of my generation, where so many of us can't quite let go of what we were enamoured by as kids.

 

I'm hardly one to talk, I have a SEGA Genesis and a few shelves worth of games for it. I'm not immune to nostalgia.

But be it comic book movies rehashing the same stuff, the purveyors of plastic knack trying to sell us early 30-somethings a cheap statue of some character from some franchise we're obsessed with, or just a general cultural stagnation where if it's not a BRAND it's not worth growing in literature, tv, or film... I donno. Someone in my generation gushing about the Mighty Ducks logo because it was in a movie they liked when we were all ten just rubs me the wrong way. 

Again, not saying it’s a great logo or the general populace’s perpetual infatuation with 20-30 year old fashion is a good thing, but you’re kidding yourself if you don’t think it’s iconic to a huge number of people. I specified “continentally, if not globally” because I knew you’d bring up the international angle.  

 

On 10/23/2021 at 8:00 PM, the admiral said:

 

So was the Duck Mask. Have both not endured?

The duck mask has appeared on a third jersey, an anniversary jersey, and a Reverse Retro jersey in the past five years. It’s not retired.

 

I’d also argue the Indians’ brand transcends Major League because of how established it was by the time the movie came out.

[Ridleylash]

Honestly, I think another good chunk of the reason there's such a push for the duck mask logo is just that the Ducks have...basically never had a look since then that has generally surpassed it in the court of fan and public opinion. You see that often in teams with mediocre branding, the desire to see a past look because of the memories tied to it.

 

The '07 jerseys, despite winning a Cup with them, are pretty generally regarded as boring overall; not bad, but not inspiring, either. Their current look would be better for the stronger use of orange, but they're like the Kings in that they've clung to the Edge design too long; just that unlike them, the Ducks don't have Cups in that look, so it doesn't have that pedigree and comes off as stale more than anything, especially with teams like Ottawa ditching their own Edge holdover designs.

 

The closest thing the Ducks have had for a while to a truly iconic and well-liked jersey currently is the orange alternate...that has the duck mask logo front and center and the Webbed D relegated to the shoulders. And even that has not been able to supplant the eggplant and jade look, despite being pretty damn popular itself.

 

90's teams are slowly but surely embracing that side of themselves; the Coyotes went back to the Kachina and brought the Peyote back, the Sens went back to their 90's look, the Sharks have done multiple 90's throwbacks, the Panthers have also dabbled in 90's throwbacks with the RR, and even the Ducks themselves were comfortable enough to put out a friggin' Wild Wing in 2021 despite how notorious that jersey was for being considered among the ugliest of all time.

[The_Admiral]

56 minutes ago, andrewharrington said:

The duck mask has appeared on a third jersey, an anniversary jersey, and a Reverse Retro jersey in the past five years. It’s not retired.

 

I’d also argue the Indians’ brand transcends Major League because of how established it was by the time the movie came out.

Yeah, but my point was that was briefly retired in 2006 as they tried to commit to the new identity but kept selling throwback merchandise. The Indians took their logo out of circulation as well but kept selling throwback merchandise with that as well. They're both logos that people recognize. I'm not sure why you're quibbling with me over semantics other than that's just what we do here.

[monkeypower]

1 hour ago, andrewharrington said:

The duck mask has appeared on a third jersey, an anniversary jersey, and a Reverse Retro jersey in the past five years. It’s not retired.

 

It's longer than five years actually. It's been a shoulder patch, in an oval, since 2010 and has only not been in use for four (06/07-09/10) of the Ducks 28 seasons (including this season right now). It was gone with the change in 2006 and then brought back as the shoulder patch on the then-alternate-now-home jerseys in 2010.

 

However, I would say the prominent reemergence of the logo didn't happen until a couple seasons later during the Ducks 20th anniversary in 2013-14. Prior to that season, I don't think the logo ever really existed all that much outside of the shoulder patch on that alternate jersey.  It started, obviously, with them wearing the Mighty Ducks jerseys again and having retro merchandise for the anniversary, but then the retro merchandise never left and the new version of the Mighty Ducks logo became more of a full fledged alternate logo, appearing on more merchandise and in more general branding efforts, as the alternate jersey was promoted to primary the following season. Then the orange alternate was introduced the season after that in 2015-16.

 

45 minutes ago, Ridleylash said:

The '07 jerseys, despite winning a Cup with them, are pretty generally regarded as boring overall; not bad, but not inspiring, either. Their current look would be better for the stronger use of orange, but they're like the Kings in that they've clung to the Edge design too long; just that unlike them, the Ducks don't have Cups in that look, so it doesn't have that pedigree and comes off as stale more than anything, especially with teams like Ottawa ditching their own Edge holdover designs.

 

Remember, the current set is the Ducks second EDGE design.

 

I've always found their original EDGE jerseys to be a bit of an enigma. It made the 2007 set worse, but they weren't a bad "hockey jersey" and are much less of an "EDGE jersey" than what they have now. However, I don't really know, outside of replacing the script with the webbed-D (which is what that jersey striping angle follows), how to go about fixing those 2007/original EDGE jerseys.

[ManillaToad]

57 minutes ago, Ridleylash said:

The '07 jerseys, despite winning a Cup with them, are pretty generally regarded as boring overall; not bad, but not inspiring, either.

 

They were definitely bad

[The_Admiral]

Early on, they refused to acknowledge the Webbed D as a standalone logo and used the wordmark for everything everywhere. It looked ridiculous. If they had used that all along, the uniforms may have been a little better, but they were still pretty dull, and intentionally so.

[Kevin W.]

On 10/23/2021 at 10:41 AM, IceCap said:

Yes, the logo was designed for the NHL team, but it's not so clear cut. Eisner wore a D-5 Ducks jersey from the first movie to the announcement for the team and the team in the movies wore the NHL uniforms for the first and second movies. 

Second and third, actually.

[nash61]

On 10/30/2021 at 1:15 AM, the admiral said:

Early on, they refused to acknowledge the Webbed D as a standalone logo and used the wordmark for everything everywhere. It looked ridiculous. If they had used that all along, the uniforms may have been a little better, but they were still pretty dull, and intentionally so.

And also used this logo in small applications for some reason.

[Bayne]

I can't really explain it, but I always had a slight soft spot for the Ducks wordmark and the uniforms they were used on. I mean I never loved it, but maybe it was because I was a supporter of them moving away from the Disney identity at the time, I liked seeing the Ducks look a bit more serious and mean (maybe I still am). It's definitely not a great 'logo', but I don't think it's awful. I remember being really onboard for them to just finally use the webbed D by itself, thinking that the decision would possibly cement the non-Disney identity as something quite solid and respectable for the franchise. However by that stage I probably started realising that the logo itself was a bit lacking, and removing 'ucks' wasn't really going to suddenly propel it into the top 10 logos in the league. In fact, I started disliking it, and now I honestly think the webbed D is probably the weakest logo in the league.  Funny how opinions change over time.

[Morgan33]

The current uniforms have too much orange, needless piping and a dated, Edge template that can't decide whether it wants to be modern or traditional.   The Gold or "Champagne" also looked a lot better when they used the 'Shimmer' material.  Right now, it almost looks like Khaki and I've never understood why they did this.

If the team insists on keeping the Post-Disney colours, they should embrace the pinnacle of the franchise...
 

 

[wildwing64]

The D and the shoulder patches would certainly have been improvements, but the rest of that uniform was still boring to look at. They pushed for representing Orange County yet all it amounted to was a thin strip that faded into the black base.

 

The only way I'd want that brought back would be for another Reverse Retro jersey; eggplant and jade replacing black and orange, and metallic silver in place of the gold, to celebrate the "mightiest" Ducks.

[WSU151]

5 hours ago, Morgan33 said:

The current uniforms have too much orange, needless piping and a dated, Edge template that can't decide whether it wants to be modern or traditional.   The Gold or "Champagne" also looked a lot better when they used the 'Shimmer' material.  Right now, it almost looks like Khaki and I've never understood why they did this.

If the team insists on keeping the Post-Disney colours, they should embrace the pinnacle of the franchise...
 

 

 

I think the current uniforms have too much black. 

 

Take that jersey^^, make the top stripe orange, the big bottom stripe gold, and the thin stripe black, and it might look better. 

[Patchey13]

I'm of the opinion that the less the Ducks use orange, the better. That jersey is honestly perfect for me, especially with the dazzle fabric. It's honestly so good. Save the orange and go all out with it in an alt jersey.

[Bayne]

19 minutes ago, Patchey13 said:

I'm of the opinion that the less the Ducks use orange, the better. That jersey is honestly perfect for me, especially with the dazzle fabric. It's honestly so good. Save the orange and go all out with it in an alt jersey.

Yeah I agree. It's really nice -- a perfect balance.

[monkeypower]

I saw enough Ducks away games during that era to say that those white jerseys weren't "perfect" nor had a "perfect balance". That gold would often get lost in the white body from a distance and they were so drab. Heck, the homes were even more drab. It's the same thing with the Penguins of that era where the black and those pale gold shades just weren't able to come together well. I think the promotion of orange has been a great move to inject some life into the brand, though the way they promoted orange wasn't the best because the jerseys suck.

 

It's what I said earlier, those 06-14 Ducks jerseys are an enigma. They look like they should work, but don't. They don't look like a "bad" hockey jersey, but they are.

[wildwing64]

The current home jersey is almost a perfect balance for that colour scheme if they continue to insist on being a primarily black team. Too much orange isn't the problem, but it's too much extra crap those jerseys don't need, which is especially evident on the road whites. Why is there an extra black outline on the crest? Why is there a black shoulder yoke? Even the garish sidepanels wouldn't be as bad if not for the extra black stripe and orange pinstripes. The black jersey is a poorly thought out design and the white version is a lazy recolour.

 

I don't like these uniforms and yet I still kind of prefer them over the 06-14 set.

[monkeypower]

1 hour ago, wildwing64 said:

The current home jersey is almost a perfect balance for that colour scheme if they continue to insist on being a primarily black team. Too much orange isn't the problem, but it's too much extra crap those jerseys don't need, which is especially evident on the road whites. Why is there an extra black outline on the crest? Why is there a black shoulder yoke? Even the garish sidepanels wouldn't be as bad if not for the extra black stripe and orange pinstripes. The black jersey is a poorly thought out design and the white version is a lazy recolour.

 

I don't like these uniforms and yet I still kind of prefer them over the 06-14 set.

 

I don't really have an issue with the pinstripe and the black stripe, but I do agree that they didn't think too much about the corresponding white version of the jersey when they created it, because they didn't have to at the time. My issue with the white jersey is that it creates a colour balance issue where the top of the jersey is black  and then the bottom is orange. I also don't understand why the logo has that black outline because the script Ducks didn't jersey logo didn't and the logo on it's own doesn't appear to have the black outline in other on-white/non-black background applications.

 

The home socks are wrong too. They attempted to do a Mighty Ducks thing in flipping the jersey striping, but didn't flip the gold and white stripes.

 

 

The white socks are at least the right order (and complete the Mighty Ducks sock look by being the same direction of the jersey stripes).

[Sport]

I prefer the Disney logo, but I kind of like the Duck Foot as its own thing. If this is the brand they want to go with using just the D on the crests is the correct move. The decision to use the wordmark as the crests from 06-14 was so weird. It's like they were worried people wouldn't know what team they were anymore so they had to spell it out and if that's the case then don't change at all, dingdongs. 

 

If we're airing grievances against the current Ducks jerseys I HATE the thin black outline around the logo on the white jerseys.

 

 

In almost every other instance on a white background the logo doesn't have the extraneous outline and lets the gray outline touch the white background. Does anyone with access to the Ducks styleguide have an answer on this? 

 

[AFirestormToPurify]

2 hours ago, monkeypower said:

The home socks are wrong too. They attempted to do a Mighty Ducks thing in flipping the jersey striping, but didn't flip the gold and white stripes.

Funny, the mostly orange socks are one of the very few things I like about that uniform. Reminds me of when the Bruins still wore yellow socks with their black jerseys

 

2 hours ago, Sport said:

The decision to use the wordmark as the crests from 06-14 was so weird. It's like they were worried people wouldn't know what team they were anymore so they had to spell it out and if that's the case then don't change at all, dingdongs.

It was probably inspired by the 03-06 alternate with the script logo and black base which was extremely popular with the fan base and even became the default home jersey near the end of the last season and playoffs as the Mighty Ducks IIRC