Connecticut Whale Jerseys

[omnivore]

yawn. It does look minor league, though.

[Brass]

Just got back from the Connecticut Whale's first game, and I gotta say....the jerseys looked terrific in action!

[tommytimp]

Much like the primary logo, this jersey is an awful idea, executed awfully.

Not content with just having plain, straight stripes, Howard Baldwin and the Associates of Delusion (and if you're starting up a prog-rock band, feel free to use that name) decided to reach back into the late nineties and pull out a sublimated pattern, apparently meant to evoke waves, choppy water, yarrr, the sea, or something along those lines. But the pattern lacks the peaks, depth, and detail necessary to properly illustrate a rough sea, unlike the Tampa Bay Lightning's Stormfront jersey. The finished product ends up looking like a cross between the outlines of puffy clouds and someone attempting to freehand-draw a straight line while on a particularly bumpy car ride. The goofy Nike neckline all but seals the look as outdated and lazy, though doing names and numbers in Arial would be a surefire clincher.

But we all got it. We ALL GOT it. Yarr. We all know it's supposed to be waves 'cause there's a big logo of a whale, plus the word "Whale," on the jersey, so, which, maritime, yes? Anyone who doesn't get it from a distance will see it when they see the jerseys up close. And I'm sure that management won't mind people getting a second third look at the merchandise.

Honestly. The pros on this board have fine and valid opinions, but sometimes it's like we're to be taken to school on nothing.

[bosox]

Mid-season names change. Unbelievable.

[Sodboy13]

Speaking as a person of no discernible artistic talents, I could draw you an illustration of a choppy sea in 15 seconds in Paint, or with pad and pencil in Pictionary. You'd get it, but that still wouldn't make such a thing an acceptable-looking or aesthetically pleasing aspect of a pro sports team's identity. If it were, Lee would be living comfortably off of royalties from Wyoming Marinerzz merchandise sales by now.

If that's what they want to do here, fine. But they could have done it a whole lot better. And I find myself repeating that last sentence a lot ever since Howard Baldwin came back to town.

Also, why develop a custom font for your identity, or go with a standard block, when you can just "borrow" a custom font from another team in your league?

At least they didn't snatch the Moose's font, I guess.

[Brass]

I'd rather have a team "borrow" a font than "borrow" an entire jersey style. I'm looking at you, Pittsburgh, Ottawa and Tampa Bay.

[omnivore]

I guess after seeing them in action, if you look fast enough...they give that "oh wait, is that the Whalers" look but you know it's not.

[philly97flyer]

It looks like they also "borrowed" the Canucks pants, and they definately should have went with green helmets.

[Sodboy13]

I'd rather have a team "borrow" a font than "borrow" an entire jersey style. I'm looking at you, Pittsburgh, Ottawa and Tampa Bay.

If you're talking about their current primary Edge styles, then you're talking about three identical uniform styles from a click-and-fill template that all came out at the same time. Poor and lazy design, to be certain, but a far different offense than what's going on here. In that case, you have three teams that lazily and concurrently went along with whatever Reebok pitched them. In this case, the Admirals have been using that font, a font which was designed specifically for them and appears in their official team wordmarks, for four years. Then along comes the Hartford Parade of Aesthetic Half-Assery, which looks at the Ads' custom font and decides, "Hey, that looks cool, we'll take that."

[Gothamite]

It's not a custom font - pretty sure it's a standard Mac font.

[Lights Out]

It is - it's called Techno and I'm pretty sure both teams are using it as-is.

[Morgan33]

a sublimated pattern, apparently meant to evoke waves, choppy water, yarrr, the sea, or something along those lines. But the pattern lacks the peaks, depth, and detail necessary to properly illustrate a rough sea, unlike the Tampa Bay Lightning's Stormfront jersey. The finished product ends up looking like a cross between the outlines of puffy clouds and someone attempting to freehand-draw a straight line while on a particularly bumpy car ride.

I'll take a dye sublimated pattern over a futuristic mess of vertical stripes and piping anyday. Im just glad it has horizontal stripes (as every hockey jersey should). Would it look better without the wave pattern? Sure. But it could have been much worse.

The goofy Nike neckline all but seals the look as outdated and lazy, though doing names and numbers in Arial would be a surefire clincher.

Exactly how is the neckline goofy? Before the switch to Reebok Edge, the Phoenix Coyotes, Minnesota Wild and Toronto Maple Leafs all used that neckline on classy, traditional jerseys. It didn't even look bad on the Comtemporary design the Sharks had either. I'll take that neckline over the tapered, flimsy necklines adorning most Edge jerseys.

[CDixonDesign]

I'm still trying to figure out how a professional hockey team released an image of players sporting the new jersey, in that poor of a quality. Looks like it was taken with a Camera Barbie. Yeesh

[Bigboy1083]

These are the Whale's third jerseys. Baldwin waited until the last minute to send the designs to Reebok, and they couldn't get them done in time. These jerseys are actually made by SP, and they put Reebok logos on them. The Whale will be wearing these jerseys, home and away, until around mid-December. That is when Reebok said they will have the real home and away jerseys will be done.

[IceCap]

It's not a custom font - pretty sure it's a standard Mac font.

It was unique to the Admirals, however, before the Whale (I can't get over how stupid that name sounds) took it.

The whole Connecticut Whale identity is a half-a$$ed measure. It looks like something an early 90s hockey video game would use if they didn't have a NHL licence and had to resort to using generic, poorly designed facsimiles of NHL teams.

When the Islanders and Lightning used wave pattern striping on their horrid 90s sweaters they at least looked like waves. The pattern on these Whale sweaters utterly fail in that regard.

Here's an idea, if you want to rename the team to play up Hartford's hockey history. Just get the rights to use the name and logos of the Hartford Whalers. Lets be realistic, the Whalers are never coming back to the NHL. So why not bring them back in the AHL?

[AsM29]

These are the Whale's third jerseys. Baldwin waited until the last minute to send the designs to Reebok, and they couldn't get them done in time. These jerseys are actually made by SP, and they put Reebok logos on them. The Whale will be wearing these jerseys, home and away, until around mid-December. That is when Reebok said they will have the real home and away jerseys will be done.

This actually happens more often than you think...

[Sodboy13]

Here's an idea, if you want to rename the team to play up Hartford's hockey history. Just get the rights to use the name and logos of the Hartford Whalers. Lets be realistic, the Whalers are never coming back to the NHL. So why not bring them back in the AHL?

Because Baldwin's entire marketing effort up to this point has been based on propagating the false hope that successful AHL team --> return of NHL team.

[Gothamite]

I can't believe the NHL would let him have the name and logos, not when they've finally realized there's money to be made off them.

If the NHL had released the logos, I wonder if Baldwin would have condsidered a jersey similar to the one designed for the Pucky mascot earlier in the year (before the team was named "Whale"):

[Brian in Boston]

I can't believe the NHL would let him have the name and logos, not when they've finally realized there's money to be made off them.

As recently as October 8th of this year, on-line records for the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) showed that the Canadian trademark for the Hartford Whalers brand was held by...

HARTFORD WHALERS HOCKEY CLUB, A LIMITED PARTNERSHIP

THE GENERAL PARTNERS OF WHICH ARE HOWARD L. BALDWIN AND

HARTFORD ATTRACTIONS, INC.

Said trademark had been registered with CIPO since July 3, 1987 and amended to list Mr. Baldwin and Hartford Attractions as the sole partners on November 29, 2009. Further, said trademark was then renewed with CIPO on May 12, 2010.

As of October 13, 2010, the names of Mr. Baldwin and Hartford Attractions, Inc. were removed from CIPO on-line records relating to the still LIVE Hartford Whalers Canadian trademark.

So, the question is, was Mr. Baldwin's name listed erroneously to begin with? Highly unlikely, as the trademark registration was amended to list Mr. Baldwin and Hartford Attractions as the owners on November 29, 2009, then subsequently renewed on May 12, 2010. If Baldwin weren't one of the Canadian trademark's owners, the parties who did control said mark - while in the process of amending/renewing the trademark - would have been sure to remove Baldwin's name so as to prevent him from making a subsequent claim to it. More likely, Baldwin has recently requested that CIPO remove his name from the publicly-posted record. Why? Perhaps to conceal that he plays a still active role in the ownership status of the Hartford Whalers trademark.

[Brass]

I can't believe the NHL would let him have the name and logos, not when they've finally realized there's money to be made off them.

If the NHL had released the logos, I wonder if Baldwin would have condsidered a jersey similar to the one designed for the Pucky mascot earlier in the year (before the team was named "Whale"):

Gothamite, I'm pretty sure they realize that there's money to be made in the Whalers brand. 25% of the merchandise for sale at the XL Center is Connecticut Whale related. The other 75%? Hartford Whalers related.