Wednesday: UPDATES

Not many updates on the hockey front, rather updates on my computer. My brother let me use his in the meantime, so here I am with an update for you.

NEWS: Something VERY interesting was posted in the Toronto Maple Leafs subreddit:

The Toronto Maple Leafs look like they will have a specialty jersey in addition to their Stadium Series jersey this year, honoring the Toronto Arenas. Here's the original post from Reddit user K_Cushman:

"I work at a Sports Excellence, so my boss gets emails to order NHL gear pretty often. Yesterday, he was talking to me about the Stadium Series order form he got, which peaked my interest because the Leafs are playing the Capitals at the Naval Academy this year.
Anyways, as usual the jerseys are blacked out because they haven't been revealed/made yet. However, something caught my eye when I was looking over the hat order form.
Under Maple Leafs, there was a whole section devoted to Toronto Arenas gear. With no alternates this year, that leads me to believe that the Leafs could be using an Arenas jersey at the Stadium Series.
They are also doing a mid afternoon game to commemorate the Arenas first game, where they could also use the jersey.
I don't know if any info about this is already out, just thought I'd share it with everyone here."

Could it be the same jersey for both, or maybe separate jerseys for each event? Either way, I am excited. Even though I've made it quite clear how much I hate the Leafs.


COMPETITIONS: The Hockey Card competition is still going, but only until noon Friday so hurry!


VOTES: Concept of the Week only. I've already yelled at you guys once for slacking, don't make me do it again.


REMINDERS:

 COTW July 28-August 3 vote (ends Friday @ noon EST) 

 Hockey Card Comp (entries due Friday @ noon EST) 

ON TO THE CONCEPTS!


Conary C: Tampa Bay Lightning Concept

A simple concept to fit with their simple branding, as well as call back to their original branding as well, between the patterns and the victory stripes, or pit stains as rivals may refer to them as. The thing I don't like about this concept is back with the Reebok edge system, Any existing designs applied to the new Reebok template were referred to as Edge-ified. Adidas-fied doesn't exactly have the same ring to it, but it applies here. NOTE TO WRITERS: If you figure out a better term than "Adidas-fied, let me know so I can use it.

Rating: 70%


Joe D: Detroit Red Wings Concept

 
I like the idea of this concept but I think just a little bit more could be done to perfect it. 1) lower that sock stripe so that it sits 1/4 of the way up from the bottom of the sock. 2) Move the shoulder patches closer to the collar of the jersey so that it isn't sitting directly on the edge of the yoke. 3) This concept would get a true Red Wings feel with an arched nameplate. 4) The Red Wings have a nice wordmark logo that fits better on the helmets than what you put there. Otherwise we have a winner here.

Rating: 77%


Lucas D: Dallas Stars Concept

 
I see what you are doing here. And [expetive] it's working**. Take one genius concept, get it nominated for COTW, make a matching away jersey for it, and try again the next week*. It takes the recent rebrand and links it to the original Dallas Stars jerseys, with a slight striping change. I think it would look better with green, but purely from a standpoint of relating it back in history, it works.

*NOTE: Key to the plan Lucas may or may not have here is to make a killer concept or else plan fails.
**NOTE: Plan? Maybe. Coincidence? Most likely.

Rating: 92%


Lucas D: New York Rangers/Chicago Blackhawks Identity Swap Concept

 
Honestly the Blackhawks jersey patterns look great in red, white and blue, despite my hatred for the Rangers. This Lady Liberty logo does a good job in drawing inspiration from the Hawks primary logo while keeping the New York look. However I'm not fully sold on this. Honestly, if you alter colors, this would not be a bad logo concept for the WNBA's New York Liberty. The crossed torches are the underrated piece of this concept. Side note, the white jersey should have blue cuffs to be consistent with the Blackhawks branding.

Rating: 87%


Noah B: San Jose Sharks/San Francisco 49ers (NFL) Concept

 
Here's another concept that tries to blend identities, this time, between only the Bay Area, yet with multiple sports. The Niners branding on the field is a red and white jersey with gold pants and a gold helmet. White the Red helmet looks better on this concept, I think gold pants could work with the red jersey at minimum, especially when Noah accounted for the Sharks' lack of hem stripe. The black looks awkward but I think that's only because the logo appears nowhere on an actual 49ers jersey, so they don't need black (Personally I'm a fan of the old Niners jersey from when T.O. was playing, which had a black shadow effect on the stripes and numbers, as well as black trim on the pant and helmet stripes)

Rating: 80%


The WINNER of my Concept of the Week Nomination is:

 LUCAS D 

 DALLAS STARS CONCEPT 

By the time this goes live, my computer will probably still be updating, so hopefully I won't have this issue next week. Until then, I'll see you around!