Beijing 2022 Hockey Rebrand (11-12-13/13 - ROC/Finland/Canada added)

[Edubdesign]

"It's the mooooooooost wonderful tiiiiiiiiime of the yeaaaaaar..."

I love me some international hockey and I love me the Winter Olympics - even without any NHL player in the mix on the men's side and the women's side looking predictably lopsided, I'm still all-in on Winter Olympic hockey.

 

For the past four Winter Olympiads now, dating back to Vancouver 2010, I've redesigned the uniforms for all participating nations as a "screw it, why not" project. I've done it again now, and it looks like I'll be expanding it later to include every IIHF team (as a second "screw it, why not" project perhaps)

 

In the meantime, I'll be posting those designs here, in reverse order of IIHF men's team rankings. These uniforms are meant to be worn by the mens', womens' and para hockey teams playing this season in Beijing. Each team, when applicable, will be modelled with the names and numbers of a mens' team player, a womens' team player and a para hockey player (since para hockey players have different types of equipment based on physical handicap and I didn't want to have to render every possible harness, limb or gear combination, those will just include the jerseys from the back.)

 

Let's start with the lowest team of the bunch, the hosts - China.

China doesn’t have much of a hockey heritage – this is only their fourth Olympics on the women’s side and their debut for the men. This uniform draws on Chinese traditional patterns for the striping pattern and an original wordmark logo, featuring the nation’s familiar five star emblem. The third is more or less the same, but with a maroon base and the five stars front and centre.

 

Next is Japan. Only Japan’s women’s team is playing in Beijing. The team has usually used a black base for their uniforms, especially in the past decade, so that continues in a way – the black is replaced with a very dark grey. The big feature is a giant Hinomaru red disc on the front of all three uniforms, along with some kanji script spelling out the country’s name on the home and away. The third is a throwback to the country’s return to the Olympics in 1998, when the country played on home ice.

[johne9109]

China looks great

[Edubdesign]

Continuing on here with the Danes. Denmark has a great logo and a great flag. This design puts both front and centre, with collarbone and arm stripes showing the flag and the lion passant on the front. This concept includes an off-centre lion, nation name and number combo on the alternate, combined with basic striping – something unique and modern for a fairly upstart program in their first Olympics.

 

 

And next here is Latvia. I've added a pale golden colour to the maroon and white. The arm and waist stripes for both home and away see two gold stripes framing a Latvian flag. The logo features Latvian symbols past and present – the three stars and sun from the country’s coat of arms, two flourishes on the side that form Latvian flags and that make up a large Dziviba, the ancient pagan Latvian symbol for life. The third jersey is a throwback to the sweaters the nation wore when it debuted in the top tier of the World Championships.

All three jerseys feature an “80” on the collarbone – a memorial patch for team member Matiss Kivlenieks, who died in a tragic accident last summer. If NHLers were going to these Olympics, Kivlenieks would have almost certainly made the team.

 

[Edubdesign]

Two more teams now. First is Slovakia.

 

Hyper-modern here for a country in need of a refresh. A new logo featuring an “S” and the Slovak double cross shows up, along with a brighter blue and vibrant red. The single piping on the chest and arms comes from the country’s gold medal uniforms at the 2002 World Championships. The traditional logo appears on the alternate, which is a throwback to a uniform worn in 1939, pre-Czechoslovakia.

Second team here is Switzerland.

 

Big and bold stripes for the Swiss, looking both modern and old-school. There won’t be any mistaking which country is on the ice when the Swiss arrive. The third throws back to the Swiss’ most important legacy in international hockey – when it hosted the first major international tournament at Les Avants in 1911, hosting teams from Germany, Belgium, Canada and the U.K.

[Edubdesign]

Up next we have team Sweden, ranked seventh in the men's world rankings (which seems kinda low? I don't know)

It’s hard to screw up the Swedes. Blue, gold, crowns – next. This design includes redesigned crowns, double stripes on both the shoulders and arms with crown points on the sleeves and those same bright colours we’ve come to know and love. A throwback third appears, going back to 1994 and the gold medal won by Peter Forsberg in the shootout, the country’s first gold.

And here is the next one up, the Czechs.
 

The “CZECH” on the butt is back from the country’s biggest hockey achievement, Olympic gold in Nagano 1998. Otherwise, the arms feature Czech flags shooting down the sleeves, with the red and white slightly darkened to stand out against jerseys with the same colour base. The alternate is based on the uniforms the Czechoslovak national team wore in 1947, when the team won its first World Championship gold – with a “CESKO” replacing the Communist-era logo on the front.

[Edubdesign]

Let's keep going up the pecking order - but first, a quick shoutout to Icethetics, who featured this whole project in a post yesterday. Big thanks to Chris for posting my stuff and sharing it with a much wider audience. You can find that post here.

 

Anyway, on to the world's number five and fourth-ranked men's teams - the Germans and them damn yankees.

Germany’s look is distinctive and bold – why fiddle around too much with it? The flag is seen around the upper shoulders and collarbone area, making a set of big, bold stripes. The alternate is based on when the nation won the Olympic bronze medal in the 1976 Olympics – back then, playing as West Germany. That showing was the nation’s best result until its silver medal in 2018.

Oh say, can you see? Lots of stars and stripes here – two stars on each shoulder to represent the country’s pair of gold medals in both the men’s and women’s tourneys (or, for the para hockey teams, four stars for their own collection of golds). with a new eagle logo to centre things. The alternate features a modern take on the stars and stripes – this time, as asymmetrical stripes on the chest, arms and legs. Also, it has two stars on the front (for the two golds in both mens' and womens' play).

 

Just three teams left - Finland, the Artists Formerly Known As Russia and Canada. Those will be posted later this week.

[Edubdesign]

Last update here - all three remaining teams. Here's the uni for I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Russia, the ROC.

 

The Notorious R O C comes out in sweaters that pay tribute to the Big Red Machine – country/team acronym on the chest, simple striping as used by the Soviet teams way back when, with a diamond stripe in the arm stripes as was used back in the 1980s. The alternate calls back to another time when Definitely Not Russia won gold under a different name – 1992, when the Unified Team won gold with the “CCCP” stripped from the front of their uniforms, leaving a conspicuous gap in the front stripe.

 

Next up is world #2 and newly-crowned Olympic gold medallist Finland. 

 

My favourite jersey Finland ever wore was their white uni in Sochi, where they literally draped the players in the country’s flag. I love that idea and wanted to make something like it, within being a direct copy. The flag is flipped to form a vertical stripe/hem stripe combo, with the Finnish lion offcentre on the front and two shades of blue giving some icy contrast. The alternate is a Olympic homage of a different type – it’s based on the uniform worn by the Flying Finn, Paavo Nurmi, the nation’s most decorated athlete, 22-time world record holder and nine-time gold medallist.

 

 

Here is #1 ranked Canada. 

Inspiration for this should be pretty obvious – this set commemorates the 50^th anniversary of the Summit Series. It may not be Canadian hockey’s most proud moment, but it is one of the most significant pieces of international hockey history, one that deserves to be remembered.

The design includes a few small modernizations – a slightly redesigned leaf, for instance.

The third jersey is a remixed version of the home/away, but with a black base and with an Indigenous feather motif, based on Ojibwe artist Patrick Hunter’s feather treatment on Marc-Andre Fleury’s mask this year, forming a rough maple leaf on the front. If produced, proceeds from this jersey’s sale would go to a number of Indigenous and reconciliation-focused charities.