NHL Reverse Retro Redo -- Choosing a different jersey from each team's history (new jerseys for TBL, CBJ, ARI, plus minor revisions)

[johne9109]

Oh man do I actually like this. When I first saw it I was taken a back, but it actually does look good and like you said fits the Stars branding right now. I do wonder though; how it would look with the white and green swapping places in the striping and logo?

[WLD42]

On 7/15/2021 at 9:08 AM, johne9109 said:

Oh man do I actually like this. When I first saw it I was taken a back, but it actually does look good and like you said fits the Stars branding right now. I do wonder though; how it would look with the white and green swapping places in the striping and logo?

 

Thanks! It was definitely a swing-for-the-fences decision, so I'm glad I'm at least not the only one who likes it. My instinct was to have green as the secondary color and white as the tertiary in the striping, for more contrast with the gold and because green is the stronger link to the Stars' identity, but I'm intrigued enough to try it, and swapping the logo colors could definitely be onto something.

 

Philadelphia Flyers

 

Philly truly has had very few jerseys in their history, and they definitely went with the strongest choice for their real-life Reverse Retro, so while I've stayed away from Edge-era jerseys for everyone else, 2007-'10 was sort of the only remaining option for the Flyers. The only other options would have been the 2002-'07 third jersey, but I just wasn't feeling it, or the 2012 Winter Classic that was promoted to 2014-'16 third jersey, which felt too recent to be Retro. I suppose I also could have done a black version of their current design, but that would've felt boring and lazy, not to mention the Flyers have always looked better in orange than in black.

 

So I took the only Flyers primary jersey that's never had an orange edition, and rectified that, reversing it from black to orange. (Isn't there a TV show about that?) In addition to black to orange, white becomes black, and orange becomes white, for another of those three-way rotations that I seem to like so much. Adapting this truly unique Reebok Edge design onto the Adizero template required a bit of approximation, but it's undeniably recognizable, and I think it would realistically be able to be constructed; the introduction of piping cutting through the shoulder yoke instead of bordering it is the only real wild card.

[WLD42]

Detroit Red Wings

 

As I mentioned when I posted Toronto's concept, the Red Wings were in much the same boat, but I'm here to prove that they at least had better options than what they ended up doing. Unlike the Leafs, the Red Wings' jerseys have been remarkably consistent since the franchise started using that nickname, but as shown with the NHL 75th jersey and the 2009 Winter Classic jersey, they do have other looks from the Cougars era that are throwback options. (There's also the one Falcons jersey that's there as well, but they've yet to use that as inspiration for anything, and neither did I for this.)

 

I've taken the other remaining Detroit Cougars jersey that they haven't yet used as a throwback (although it did inspire the Centennial Classic jersey), worn in the 1928-'29 season, and reversed it from a white jersey to a red jersey. The arm stripes remain as spread-out as the Adizero template allows (unlike the Centennial Classic jersey, which compressed them for a more modern look), and the original logo of the cougar head with arched "DETROIT" text is replaced by the fauxback-style Red Wings logo and arched text used on the 2014 Winter Classic jersey, now in plain white instead of "vintage white." The only artistic license I took was the addition of one hem stripe, which felt aesthetically necessary (maybe not "necessary," but I thought it looked better) now that that jersey is the same color as the pants, to avoid too much of a monochrome look. And even though the tip of the logo's wing isn't in the way anymore, I still kept the captain's patch on the right side to honor that Red Wings tradition.

[johne9109]

Now that's how you do a Reverse Retro of your uniforms Detroit; take note

[WLD42]

Thanks! Glad you like it.

 

Ottawa Senators

 

Maybe it's just me and the age I was when they were wearing it, but the 2000-'07 third jersey with the laurel leaf striping has always felt like an iconic part of the Sens' jersey history to me (so much so that in my mind, I'd thought it had been a primary jersey, not just a third). So I've taken it and done an incredibly straightforward swap of black and red (excluding the black pattern within the stripes). There's honestly not a whole lot else to say about it; hope you like it!

 

As a bonus of sorts, I did make a version that's the same jersey, but with the Edge-era 3/4-turn logo that was just retired with the recent rebrand. The actual logo that's on the version above definitely looks a bit dated, so I wonder if Ottawa might pretend it doesn't exist and go for more of an era-combining look if this were a real-life situation.

Spoiler

 

[Karnage84]

1 hour ago, WLD42 said:

Thanks! Glad you like it.

 

Ottawa Senators

 

Maybe it's just me and the age I was when they were wearing it, but the 2000-'07 third jersey with the laurel leaf striping has always felt like an iconic part of the Sens' jersey history to me (so much so that in my mind, I'd thought it had been a primary jersey, not just a third). So I've taken it and done an incredibly straightforward swap of black and red (excluding the black pattern within the stripes). There's honestly not a whole lot else to say about it; hope you like it!

 

As a bonus of sorts, I did make a version that's the same jersey, but with the Edge-era 3/4-turn logo that was just retired with the recent rebrand. The actual logo that's on the version above definitely looks a bit dated, so I wonder if Ottawa might pretend it doesn't exist and go for more of an era-combining look if this were a real-life situation.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Other than the logo (which is no fault of your own), I think this looks tremendous. Really like what you've done here - bringing gold back into the colour scheme without overpowering it. 

[WLD42]

From one Canadian team's 2000s third jersey to another's:

 

Edmonton Oilers

 

The Oilers have played around a lot with variations on their classic jersey design in all different colors, with the striping remaining more or less intact throughout both the blue-and-orange era(s) and the navy-and-bronze era (Edge design excepted), with changes basically amounting to the removal of the shoulder yoke and the addition of red accents on the navy-and-bronze jerseys. So with the classic design being pretty well covered by the team already, not to mention the basis for the real Reverse Retro, I picked a jersey that I know I've seen a lot of people wish for, the navy-and-silver Oil Drop third jersey, and swapped it into the blue-and-orange palette, logo and all.

 

I didn't think just swapping a jersey that was originally navy into blue would make enough of a statement, and I didn't really want to do another orange jersey now that they've made that their primary color, so white it is, which I do think has the benefit of really making the recolored logo pop. The white stripes become blue, and the silver borders become orange. The same silver to orange scheme carries over to the logo as well, but the navy elements simply become the modern shade of blue. Is the new color scheme of the logo realistic? No. Does it need to be? No, it's a Reverse Retro, go a little wild! And there is indeed a subtly different second, darker shade of orange, just as the original navy-and-silver logo had two shades of silver. Finally, as long as the pants are different than what they wear with their regular uniforms, I went all in and used the navy-and-bronze era logo, which had an additional red outline that's not on other versions of the logo; that red is now orange. It's a tiny detail, but I'm going for authenticity here!

[johne9109]

15 minutes ago, WLD42 said:

From one Canadian team's 2000s third jersey to another's:

 

Edmonton Oilers

 

The Oilers have played around a lot with variations on their classic jersey design in all different colors, with the striping remaining more or less intact throughout both the blue-and-orange era(s) and the navy-and-bronze era (Edge design excepted), with changes basically amounting to the removal of the shoulder yoke and the addition of red accents on the navy-and-bronze jerseys. So with the classic design being pretty well covered by the team already, not to mention the basis for the real Reverse Retro, I picked a jersey that I know I've seen a lot of people wish for, the navy-and-silver Oil Drop third jersey, and swapped it into the blue-and-orange palette, logo and all.

 

I didn't think just swapping a jersey that was originally navy into blue would make enough of a statement, and I didn't really want to do another orange jersey now that they've made that their primary color, so white it is, which I do think has the benefit of really making the recolored logo pop. The white stripes become blue, and the silver borders become orange. The same silver to orange scheme carries over to the logo as well, but the navy elements simply become the modern shade of blue. Is the new color scheme of the logo realistic? No. Does it need to be? No, it's a Reverse Retro, go a little wild! And there is indeed a subtly different second, darker shade of orange, just as the original navy-and-silver logo had two shades of silver. Finally, as long as the pants are different than what they wear with their regular uniforms, I went all in and used the navy-and-bronze era logo, which had an additional red outline that's not on other versions of the logo; that red is now orange. It's a tiny detail, but I'm going for authenticity here!

I have always HATED the McFarlane jersey, mainly due to the dull and drab colors it used. You putting the orange into the logo makes it enjoyable. Great job!

[WLD42]

On 7/23/2021 at 9:09 AM, johne9109 said:

I have always HATED the McFarlane jersey, mainly due to the dull and drab colors it used. You putting the orange into the logo makes it enjoyable. Great job!

 

Yeah, it's not necessarily a bad design, and I've always thought the logo was strong (at least as an alternate logo), but only using white and silver striping on a dark navy blue jersey is not exactly a recipe for success. Including that era's bronze somehow would have been a massive improvement to the original, even if it meant reworking the stripes to have an additional color.

 

New York Rangers

 

The Rangers have obviously never really had a multitude of different looks throughout their history; other than the ill-advised 1976-'78 attempted redesign, their primary jerseys have been consistent throughout the club's entire history, with only minor tweaks over the years. The Lady Liberty thirds were of course used for the real Reverse Retro (intention, A+; execution... B-? C?), the 2010-'17 alternate that died with the switch to Adizero are too recent for a Reverse Retro in my mind (not to mention, while I do like them a lot, they're a bit unexciting for this purpose), and I've not been wanting to use "specialty" jerseys for any teams' Reverse Retros (i.e. Winter Classic/Stadium Series designs), just "permanent" home/away/alternates.

 

So I went the route that the Canadiens did in real life, and simply took their current but long-standing design and reversed it. I've always loved the Rangers' white jerseys, which have remained unchanged across manufacturers and templates ever since they were first introduced in 1951 to comply with the league's new two-jersey requirement; the shoulder design is unique and has a ton of personality. Swapping blue and white, resulting in a white shoulder yoke and white cuffs, somehow ends up creating an eye-catching, almost modern aesthetic, in my opinion, something that, no, I wouldn't want to see on a regular basis, but that I think works really well for a Reverse Retro that ought to turn a few heads. I did keep the crest/numbers/NOB from the real blue jerseys, rather than continuing the blue-white swap, which would have resulted in white numbers and letters with red outlining; it didn't seem beneficial to make that drastic of a change.

[AFirestormToPurify]

On 7/25/2021 at 8:40 AM, WLD42 said:

I did keep the crest/numbers/NOB from the real blue jerseys, rather than continuing the blue-white swap, which would have resulted in white numbers and letters with red outlining; it didn't seem beneficial to make that drastic of a change

I think it would look great

[WLD42]

12 hours ago, AFirestormToPurify said:

I think it would look great

 

I'll give it a try, then; why not! I've been in a really busy stretch for the last few weeks, so I haven't had any real free time to spend on actually designing concepts, just enough to keep up with posting in this thread. But there's light at the end of the tunnel, so once I've finished posting all 32 teams, I'll start posting some of the ideas and suggestions that have been thrown my way throughout the series (like that TBL storm jersey!).

 

Florida Panthers

 

The Panthers' real-life Reverse Retro is one of my favorites, just as a jersey, but it's also a fair criticism that updating a blue, red, and yellow design by replacing the yellow with the currently-used more muted gold, and slightly increasing the amount of white in the striping, isn't exactly a huge change; it's really just that it was always a great-looking jersey design from the start, coupled with the obvious nostalgia factor. But, the jersey already had variants in every color except yellow, so there wasn't a whole lot of reversing that could be done to create something original. (I tried a yellow version early in the design process, and it didn't really feel like it was ever going to work.)

 

Other than the team's original design, and the uninspiring, piping-covered Edge-era jerseys (which also came in all three colors, blue, red, and white), the only other "Retro" option in the Panthers' history is the jersey I used, the much-maligned "Jet Blue" third jersey. Personally, I think it's a decent jersey design, but it was let down by the colors, and even then, mostly just because the double-blue isn't right for this specific team. (If it were a Toronto Argos hockey jersey? Then we might be talking.)

 

So I took the jersey and put it into traditional Florida Panthers colors, specifically the team's original color palette with the brighter yellow. The jersey's original dark blue base has obviously become red, and I replaced the light blue with the Panthers' traditional shade of blue, and white with yellow. I kept the crest as-is (even with the tiny stroke of light blue), because the Panthers' branding history does have a precedent of using different shades between the logo and the jerseys, and kept the numbers white so that the crest and shoulder patches aren't the only instances of white on the entire jersey (plus, the Panthers have always used white numbers on their dark jerseys, and it does provide better contrast for legibility than yellow would). Personally, I really like the way this one came out, and I think that using the team's proper color palette gives this forgotten jersey a chance to actually shine.

[johne9109]

10 minutes ago, WLD42 said:

 

I'll give it a try, then; why not! I've been in a really busy stretch for the last few weeks, so I haven't had any real free time to spend on actually designing concepts, just enough to keep up with posting in this thread. But there's light at the end of the tunnel, so once I've finished posting all 32 teams, I'll start posting some of the ideas and suggestions that have been thrown my way throughout the series (like that TBL storm jersey!).

 

Florida Panthers

 

The Panthers' real-life Reverse Retro is one of my favorites, just as a jersey, but it's also a fair criticism that updating a blue, red, and yellow design by replacing the yellow with the currently-used more muted gold, and slightly increasing the amount of white in the striping, isn't exactly a huge change; it's really just that it was always a great-looking jersey design from the start, coupled with the obvious nostalgia factor. But, the jersey already had variants in every color except yellow, so there wasn't a whole lot of reversing that could be done to create something original. (I tried a yellow version early in the design process, and it didn't really feel like it was ever going to work.)

 

Other than the team's original design, and the uninspiring, piping-covered Edge-era jerseys (which also came in all three colors, blue, red, and white), the only other "Retro" option in the Panthers' history is the jersey I used, the much-maligned "Jet Blue" third jersey. Personally, I think it's a decent jersey design, but it was let down by the colors, and even then, mostly just because the double-blue isn't right for this specific team. (If it were a Toronto Argos hockey jersey? Then we might be talking.)

 

So I took the jersey and put it into traditional Florida Panthers colors, specifically the team's original color palette with the brighter yellow. The jersey's original dark blue base has obviously become red, and I replaced the light blue with the Panthers' traditional shade of blue, and white with yellow. I kept the crest as-is (even with the tiny stroke of light blue), because the Panthers' branding history does have a precedent of using different shades between the logo and the jerseys, and kept the numbers white so that the crest and shoulder patches aren't the only instances of white on the entire jersey (plus, the Panthers have always used white numbers on their dark jerseys, and it does provide better contrast for legibility than yellow would). Personally, I really like the way this one came out, and I think that using the team's proper color palette gives this forgotten jersey a chance to actually shine.

I really like this. I hope they do something like this in real life. This original uniform is easily their worst ever and reversing it with their classic colors makes it an awesome uniform. 

[AFirestormToPurify]

7 hours ago, WLD42 said:

 

 I'll start posting some of the ideas and suggestions that have been thrown my way throughout the series (like that TBL storm jersey!).

 

Funny, I'm not sure if you said that because you remembered my comment but I'm the one who requested the storm jersey ahah

I love that Panthers concept by the way. They should have never switched to beige imo. Blue and red with yellow as a tertiary/trim color is such an underrated combo

[WLD42]

2 hours ago, AFirestormToPurify said:

Funny, I'm not sure if you said that because you remembered my comment but I'm the one who requested the storm jersey ahah

I love that Panthers concept by the way. They should have never switched to beige imo. Blue and red with yellow as a tertiary/trim color is such an underrated combo

 

A bit of both; I did remember it being your suggestion, but it was also the one I mentioned as an example simply because it's the biggest one on my to-do list, being a whole new design rather than a revision. But I'm really excited by the idea of it, so I'll be making it happen one way or another. (I actually had a good chunk of the design traced out on the Adizero template when my computer decided it was time to update and restart without my permission while I'd stepped away, so that was fun. And that was about the last time I had any free time to work on things, so it's back to square one next time I get a chance.)

 

I totally agree about the Panthers' colors, and I'm glad you like my concept! The beige-gold color isn't the worst (it works well enough on the Reverse Retro), but the original yellow is definitely better, and IMO the biggest loss from the rebrand was the loss of blue from the jerseys and having it relegated to the logo and equipment only, because red-blue-yellow was such a killer color palette, like you said.

[WLD42]

Next up is a team that really phoned it in with the Reverse Retro program (maybe even on purpose and out of spite, Lou?), the...

 

New York Islanders

 

If you're not going to Trust the Gorton's Fisherman, then obviously the other most logical thing for the Isles to do is to revisit the dynasty era, so I've taken the blue 1978-'84 jerseys (although with '80 designated as the RR year, because dynasty), and made it orange. The white jersey from that era is essentially the same design they still use now for both home and away jerseys, but using the blue jersey has a different striping pattern and so gives us a design that's unique from the rest of their current set. The result is a traditionally-striped, conservative jersey (to keep the GM happy), but with a twist that helps it stand out in the Islanders' set of jerseys (in keeping with the goal of the Reverse Retro program). The reversal is a straightforward blue-and-orange swap, with white remaining as-is, but I did go with the blue-outlined rather than white-outlined version of the logo, and blue rather than white numbers, because they seemed to me to look better against the orange (especially the numbers; the logo could've been either one and looked fine, so that was more of a "because why not" decision).

[JerseyJimmy]

On 7/28/2021 at 7:58 AM, WLD42 said:

Next up is a team that really phoned it in with the Reverse Retro program (maybe even on purpose and out of spite, Lou?),

 

see, you say that, but I think they should switch to their real RRs full-time. the orange dynasty jersey does rock, though.

[WLD42]

10 hours ago, JerseyJimmy said:

 

see, you say that, but I think they should switch to their real RRs full-time. the orange dynasty jersey does rock, though.

 

I can't disagree with you that they look good, but I think that's part of my problem with them: I viewed the spirit of the RR program as coming up with jerseys that use the teams' traditional colors and designs, but in an unconventional way that wouldn't be appropriate for a full-time jersey. The Isles' Reverse Retros would definitely work as a primary jersey, but that just means it felt, to me, a little too conservative for the league-wide RR program. Not that every team needed to go the same route as Anaheim, but even a beautiful RR jersey like Minnesota's is just a little bit "much" to be a permanent, primary jersey.

 

That does seem to be a perfect segue, however, to the next team...

 

Los Angeles Kings

 

If I was forced to take away Anaheim's Wild Wing RR for this "redo" series, of course I had to introduce LA's Burger King RR! We're all familiar by now with the history of this infamous third jersey from the 1995-'96 season. I've seen plenty of concepts over the years that put the king's head logo in a more natural gray color, rather than the bizarre decision to give him a purple beard like some Pokémon Gym Leader (not the least of which was the logo designer's original, intended version that later came to light). So, that was my starting point with the design process for this concept.

 

The original jersey mixed color-palette-eras by using the Kings' silver-black-and-white color scheme for the jersey, and purple-and-gold for the logo, name, and numbers (and collar). (Technically, the only black was actually in the logo, name, and numbers, but as far as the Kings' branding history, those are the color combinations that have always been used together.) So those are what I reversed: the white jersey with gray gradients becomes purple with gold gradients, and anything that was purple in the original becomes gray. In the logo, that purple-to-gray was the only swap I made, leaving the crown gold, the face white, and the shading black; for the name and numbers, however, the yellow inner stroke becomes black, and the black outer stroke becomes white. Since the Kings originally wore their regular white socks with the jersey, I continued the white-to-purple, gray-to-gold, and black-to-white color replacement there. And the shoulder patches, the silver-black-and-white "Chevy" logo, are swapped out for the purple-and-gold version that's from their real-life Reverse Retro.

 

Enjoy!

[FCMacbeth]

1 hour ago, WLD42 said:

 

I can't disagree with you that they look good, but I think that's part of my problem with them: I viewed the spirit of the RR program as coming up with jerseys that use the teams' traditional colors and designs, but in an unconventional way that wouldn't be appropriate for a full-time jersey. The Isles' Reverse Retros would definitely work as a primary jersey, but that just means it felt, to me, a little too conservative for the league-wide RR program. Not that every team needed to go the same route as Anaheim, but even a beautiful RR jersey like Minnesota's is just a little bit "much" to be a permanent, primary jersey.

 

That does seem to be a perfect segue, however, to the next team...

 

Los Angeles Kings

 

If I was forced to take away Anaheim's Wild Wing RR for this "redo" series, of course I had to introduce LA's Burger King RR! We're all familiar by now with the history of this infamous third jersey from the 1995-'96 season. I've seen plenty of concepts over the years that put the king's head logo in a more natural gray color, rather than the bizarre decision to give him a purple beard like some Pokémon Gym Leader (not the least of which was the logo designer's original, intended version that later came to light). So, that was my starting point with the design process for this concept.

 

The original jersey mixed color-palette-eras by using the Kings' silver-black-and-white color scheme for the jersey, and purple-and-gold for the logo, name, and numbers (and collar). (Technically, the only black was actually in the logo, name, and numbers, but as far as the Kings' branding history, those are the color combinations that have always been used together.) So those are what I reversed: the white jersey with gray gradients becomes purple with gold gradients, and anything that was purple in the original becomes gray. In the logo, that purple-to-gray was the only swap I made, leaving the crown gold, the face white, and the shading black; for the name and numbers, however, the yellow inner stroke becomes black, and the black outer stroke becomes white. Since the Kings originally wore their regular white socks with the jersey, I continued the white-to-purple, gray-to-gold, and black-to-white color replacement there. And the shoulder patches, the silver-black-and-white "Chevy" logo, are swapped out for the purple-and-gold version that's from their real-life Reverse Retro.

 

Enjoy!

Oh lord. The font number and player name are butchered beyond belief.

[WLD42]

1 hour ago, Friedrich Stuart Macbeth said:

Oh lord. The font number and player name are butchered beyond belief.

 

It doesn't scale down particularly well, but I thought it was passable when I viewed the image at 100% size.  I'm used to working with the "pixel-art" .png font sheets that are over at the Paint User's Paradise thread, rather than installing font files and actually typing with them, so whenever there's a unique font I typically trace over a real-life image in Paint and do my best. Your criticism is fair, though; I admit it's not my strong suit.

[WLD42]

New Jersey Devils

 

I really like the Devils' IRL Reverse Retro; reviving the original red-and-green jersey and reversing it to be green is a great look and 100% in line with the spirit of Reverse Retro. So I took much the same path, and applied that red-and-green coloring to the team's only other jersey they've ever worn, the jersey they won their three Stanley Cups in and seemed destined to wear forever until the change-for-change's-sake Adizero redesign. The biggest thing that I miss from the 1992-2017 design, even more than the waist stripes, is the subtly unique shape of the shoulder yoke; that was the iconic identifier that immediately said "New Jersey Devils" to me when I looked at a jersey. And since the white version of the red-and-green jersey is still in use as a Heritage Jersey, this would put all three of their jersey designs, past and present, in use at the same time.

 

The color reversal is pretty straightforward, as to be expected: Replace black with green, and then swap it with red while leaving white in place. The red-and-green version of the logo is used without any changes, because it never has had any and never should; seeing the NJ logo not in red would be sacrilege (perhaps an ironic word choice for the Devils, but it's undeniably true). Not to mention reversing it to be primarily green with red accents would throw off the color balance of the whole uniform, in my opinion.