HJC Jersey Discussion

COTW Mar 5-11 Playoff Vote (ends Sunday @ 11:59pm EST)

I will start by saying that I will be a bit of a dictator on this project. I do appreciate all of your concepts and ideas and I will take them heavily into consideration. However, I will be designing the FINAL product. Sorry if that sets off anyone. This is kind of a big deal to me and seeing as I run this site, and have been for over 2 years now, I would like to be the one with the final design. Again, sorry to be a dick like that. That final design will be based on all of those comments though. So, don't think that you guys are being taken out of the equation. All of us together will be designing the HJC jersey.

When making your comments and suggestions, please break them down into the sections that I have laid out below (Must Have's, Colours, Logos, etc.). After we gather all of the ideas, we will get an idea of what the jersey should look like. At that point I will ask everyone to take those ideas and make another concept.

What I have written about other's concepts is just my opinion...not the last word.

DO YOU PLAN TO PURCHASE A HJC JERSEY?

All comments will be taken heavily into consideration, but I also need to know if you are commenting for a jersey you would like to purchase or if you are getting involved in fun conversation. Lets face it, this is going to be pretty cool!

This past summer I attempted to sell HJC t-shirts. The combined cost of the shirt and shipping scared almost everyone away. My lack of foresight really cost me, both my ego and my wallet. I still have that box of shirts sitting in storage. Life is about learning from your mistakes though. That is why these jerseys, if they are made, I will have to take names and payments before the order is confirmed to the jersey company. This will most likely be done through eBay or you can mail me a cheque. We will cross that bridge when we get to it though.

MUST HAVE'S

Here are the things that are definitely happening...

The numbers and NOB letters are as follows;

They are the New Jersey Devils numbers with the letters from the Minnesota Wild's 3rd jersey. The captain's C and A are custom. They are a bit wider than traditional captain's letters, to give them a bit of a retro look. It seems as though most companies will personalize the jerseys with your name and number.

The jersey WILL have collar laces. If this is a deal breaker between you hypothetically purchasing a jersey and not purchasing a jersey, please let me know.

The "HJC" font is called "Alexandria" and can be downloaded HERE. Anytime the letters "HJC" appear as one item in a logo, they must be in the "Alexandria" font.

PRICE

Some quick research has suggested that I will be able to sell these jerseys for $60-$75. This is not guaranteed, but I have gotten some quotes and most of them fall into this price range. I think this is a really good price, do you?

Everything else below can be discussed and changed.

JERSEY CUT

I assume that getting an Edge cut custom jersey is difficult at the moment. I might be able to re-colour an existing one, but a fully customized Edge jersey may be tough. I have no problem with a classic cut jersey. Is this something we should discuss after the final design or do you guys prefer one cut over the other?

COLOURS

The colours below MUST be used. I'm not sure how other colours would be worked into the design, but these are the main HJC colours. Give other colours a try if you wish.

Black - R:30 G:30 B:30 (Hex: 1E1E1E)

Red - R:141 G:26 B:33 (Hex: 8D1A21)

Wheat - R:221 G:211 B:175 (Hex: DDD3AF)

LOGOS

This is where we can all get creative. I made the wordmark below, but I am open to anything.

Brian made this logo a while back.

Justin made the logo on the left. I edited it on the right with the HJC font and colours. I personally think this could be quite good as a shoulder patch!

Here is a logo with the wordmark that Matt M. came up with. With the border, I like it as a shoulder patch. Without the border, I think it would be good as the primary crest.

JERSEY STRIPING

Now we get into what I think is the best part. How the jersey looks. This was my first attempt at a HJC jersey. I used a classic stripe pattern with a vintage white background.

A couple of comments were made that simpler striping might be better with teams like the Blackhawks, Bruins, and Rangers being mentioned. What do you guys think? What type of striping should be used?

With the simpler striping in mind, some people sent in some concepts. Top left comes from Matt M., right comes from Sam O., and the bottom comes from Avi.

Sam and Matt have both gone with Bruins jerseys and Avi has used the Hawks home jersey striping. Do we go with established NHL jersey striping patterns or create our own?

In this next set of concepts we take a look at two unique patterns and striping across the chest. Left: Justin / Right: Brian B. / Bottom: Stéphane.

I have thought about Stéphane's Hawks 3rd jersey design before, but with the old logo. As a Leafs fan, it would be VERY hard for me to place my website's logo on a Sens jersey. I like Brian's design, but I would want to thin out those vintage white lines and replace the COTW shoulder patches. I really like Justin's design, but would replace some of that font with HJC's font. At the same time, it looks somewhat like jerseys that Coke produces for promotional work that they do. Does it have enough character to not look like some cheap jersey in your hockey bag?

Considering the desire for "classic" striping, I put together these next four concepts using some classic NHL striping patterns.

This next concept from Jari goes a little "off the board".

It looks a lot like the old Sens' 3rd jersey, which I'm not in favour of. However, it is different from classic striping and something we need to consider. Perhaps, people could send in a concept that has "different" striping. We could then look at those concepts together and decide if we still prefer "classic" striping. Jari has provided both a home and road concept, but as of now I will only be ordering one colour (if this idea is popular enough).

This next one is just a design that I have been really liking recently. This is a "fauxback" HJC concept.

Here is another set on concepts that came in later yesterday.

Top Left: Aston / Top Right: Brandon C. / Bottom Left: Steven G. / Bottom Right: WinnipegJets96
I REALLY like Aston's concept! Add collar laces and Justin's circle logo from above as a shoulder patch and that would be ace! Brandon C's concept is a variation of the Hawks jersey, which seems to be a popular choice. It certainly does look good. Steven G's is another variation of a Hawks jersey. Again, I'd be adding collar laces and perhaps have the collar in only vintage white? Jets96 concept seems to not make use of this opportunity. He's used the Bruins 3rd jersey template, which is too plain for my tastes. Which one's do you guys like?

Feel free to get as detailed as you would like with your comments! 


EDIT
Here are a couple more concepts that came in yesterday after this was posted.

HJC Shoulder Patch concept (by Brady)

I like it, but I think the "HockeyJerseyConcepts" needs to be arched better to match the oval.

Brady then did a concept using that shoulder patch.

I like it because it's a little different from what we've seen above, but also a little retro.

Here are a series of concepts by Matt M. Options E and C are my favourites.

Here's a different look at what we could do. This comes in from Ricky.

The font that I laid out hasn't been followed entirely, but I like that it's red. Black jerseys look good too, but red is also an option.

Here are some more not so classic concepts from Dmitri.

I think the one on the bottom has the most potential. I'm not a big fan a gradients on the front of jerseys though.