NHL ꓘƆAᗺ IN TIME - 32/32 (Toronto/1924 Toronto Granites)

[Edubdesign]

Welcome to my next project, the NHL ꓘƆAᗺ IN TIME series - think Reverse Retros on steroids.

 

We're going way past that to provide an all-out history lesson on what hockey is for each NHL city and franchise. With these designs, every jersey sold would come along with a small booklet and scannable QR code, detailing the city's hockey history and bringing some credit to names and figures who would otherwise be lost to time.

 

The designs share similarities with the Reverse Retro uniforms, but the eras they go back to vary much more, ranging from the 1900s to as late as the mid-2000s. Many of the designs don't throw back to eras within each franchise - most of the designs are meant to pay tribute to teams that went away long ago, showing respect to those who paved the way for today's franchises.

 

We'll start with the Arizona Coyotes and the teams of the Central division. This uniform throws back to the first major pro hockey franchise in Arizona, the Phoenix Roadrunners, who debuted in the WHA in the mid-1970s. The design features the 'Yotes current colours and an altered primary logo, featuring the team's colours and an Arizona state silhouette in the background, like the Roadrunners' initial logo.

 

[Karnage84]

21 minutes ago, Edubdesign said:

Welcome to my next project, the NHL ꓘƆAᗺ IN TIME series - think Reverse Retros on steroids.

 

We're going way past that to provide an all-out history lesson on what hockey is for each NHL city and franchise. With these designs, every jersey sold would come along with a small booklet and scannable QR code, detailing the city's hockey history and bringing some credit to names and figures who would otherwise be lost to time.

 

The designs share similarities with the Reverse Retro uniforms, but the eras they go back to vary much more, ranging from the 1900s to as late as the mid-2000s. Many of the designs don't throw back to eras within each franchise - most of the designs are meant to pay tribute to teams that went away long ago, showing respect to those who paved the way for today's franchises.

 

We'll start with the Arizona Coyotes and the teams of the Central division. This uniform throws back to the first major pro hockey franchise in Arizona, the Phoenix Roadrunners, who debuted in the WHA in the mid-1970s. The design features the 'Yotes current colours and an altered primary logo, featuring the team's colours and, like the Roadrunners' initial logo, has an Arizona state silhouette in the background.

 

Great start to the series. Will you include any links to references/inspiration? I'm intrigued to see where you've gotten some of your ideas and how they differ in your final product. 

[JerseyJimmy]

oh man this is gonna be good. that green works surprisingly well with the Coyotes' brick-red color scheme.

[Edubdesign]

48 minutes ago, Karnage84 said:

Great start to the series. Will you include any links to references/inspiration? I'm intrigued to see where you've gotten some of your ideas and how they differ in your final product. 

I could probably do that. For instance, here's the Roadrunners uni I based this on. Verrrry similar to the Blues from around that era - one of the things I wanted to do is ensure there were enough differences between this and St. Louis that it could still work, even if St. Louis doesn't look much like this in this series.

 

[Section30]

Love the idea for this series and it's off to a great start

 

The Yotes look great, I love that stripe style for them and the AZ silhouette behind the logo looks nice

[edjb93]

"Reverse Retros on steroids". That's already enough to make this topic interesting.

 

I looked upon other pictures of your inspiration behind your Coyotes uniform, and I just learned that the white version is essentially the vintage design for the Blues. This design is good, but if you want, you can make changes to the stripes by making the outer stripes green-black-sand-black-green, though the green could be overpowered by the brick red. Emphasize on "if you want".

 

Anyhoo, keep it up! 

[Edubdesign]

Next team up is Chicago. This time, we're throwing it back to when the Black Hawks (yes, back when they still had the space between Black and Hawks) won their first Stanley Cup. They did so wearing their exclusively black and white uniforms, similar to what they wore at the Winter Classic a few years back.

 

I've switched that up by making the base red instead of black (something the Hawks didn't actually do until 1955) and alternating the stripe colours between black and white, instead of only white.

 

It's challenging to make something new with this - if you simply make a throwback, you make a uni that's the same as one the Hawks have recently worn, if you go red/black then you don't get contrast, if you go red/white you look like Detroit - and every Hawks fan knows Detroit sucks.

 

[Edubdesign]

Next up are the Colorado Avalanche. For the first time in this series (and first of only two) , we're going to college for this.

 

The first major hockey team in Colorado was the Denver Pioneers college team, which started play in 1949. That team has gone on to be one of the US' most successful college programs - they've won eight national titles. Only Michigan and North Dakota have won as many - only Michigan has won more.

 

Here's the inaugural Pioneers hockey team.

 

 

And here is the resulting uniform.

 

 

 

[Edubdesign]

Next team up is the Dallas Stars. We're going back to 1941 and the Dallas Texans with this one. The Texans were the first team to really make waves in the Lone Star State.

 

 

And if you want to see the inspiration for this up close and personal, here you go.

[Edubdesign]

Back to the Central for the Minnesota Wild - we're heading back to 1947 and the Minneapolis Millers, one of the country's top amateur and minor league teams from the early-mid 20th century.

 

And here's the design based on that - small changes all around including a logo based heavily on the Wild's existing wordmark logo.

 

[johne9109]

I really like the wild

[lat3ralus65]

Love the Wild one.  Great stuff. 

[MilSox]

The only way I could think to improve the Wild is make the numbers white so they stand out more on moving players.

[Edubdesign]

This one is pretty basic. Nashville's design goes to 1962 and the Nashville Dixie Flyers.

 

 

[Edubdesign]

Almost done the Central Division here - so let's get two out of the way, shall we?

 

First up is St. Louis. The Blues throw it all the way back to 1928, to the St. Louis Flyers in the old AHA.

 

This one features a bit of a typo on my end that I haven't had the time to fix - the sweater here is actually based on the team that played in 1935, not 1928. The team started in 1928 though, so I'm not too worried.

 

Not too many photos exist of this era, but this program cover from the time pretty much matches up with the uni, sans gloves.

 

And here is our design:

 

That's the first of our two today. The second is for my favourite team, Winnipeg.

 

This time, we're throwing back about as far as we can get, all the way back to 1904 and Winnipeg's first Stanley Cup winners, the Winnipeg Victorias.

 

The Vics wore maroon sweaters with small tan stripes and white and black monograms on the front - like this: 

 

So, here's my attempt. I made a new logo based on the old one, switching up the "VHC" text for "WHC" for "Winnipeg Hockey Club".

 

[Edubdesign]

We're moving on to the Metropolitan Division and running through the teams - here are the Carolina Hurricanes, throwing it back to 1981 and one of North Carolina's first pro hockey teams, the Carolina Thunderbirds.

 

 

And here's the uni they're based on, as modelled by this group of very cool guys, darts and shades and all:

[Edubdesign]

Up next is a real fun one - Columbus. Here, the BJ's will wear duds based on the 1994 Columbus Chill - and boy, did they have some some weird unis.

 

 

And here's the inspiration. You may need to take a breath or stop scrolling to fully appreciate the sheer 90s-ness you're about to witness.

 

http://www.johnsonsjerseys.net/hockey/people/meyers_4.jpg

[MCM0313]

24 minutes ago, Edubdesign said:

Up next is a real fun one - Columbus. Here, the BJ's will wear duds based on the 1994 Columbus Chill - and boy, did they have some some weird unis.

 

 

And here's the inspiration. You may need to take a breath or stop scrolling to fully appreciate the sheer 90s-ness you're about to witness.

 

http://www.johnsonsjerseys.net/hockey/people/meyers_4.jpg

Ah, the ‘90s - a wackier time. 

[Edubdesign]

On 10/22/2021 at 11:56 AM, MCM0313 said:

Ah, the ‘90s - a wackier time. 

Damn right they were. Possibly a more fun time, too.

 

Anything else before a new jersey for... well, the Devils?

[MCM0313]

1 hour ago, Edubdesign said:

Damn right they were. Possibly a more fun time, too.

 

Anything else before a new jersey for... well, the Devils?

A new jersey for New Jersey? Sock it to me!