Wednesday: Go Arenas Go

Welcome to another Wednesday here at HJC and once again we have big news, this time out of Toronto!

NEWS: Exactly 100 years after the franchise's first game ever, the Toronto Maple Leafs will face off against the Carolina Hurricanes wearing these threads:

(Photo via nhl.com/mapleleafs)

A pure Arenas replica adopted to the Adidas template (but they couldn't make that dopey collar solid white and need that inner blue trim?).

MapleLeafs.com

This is basically what we expected when the rumors came out a while ago, and now the team confirms said rumors for us. December 19th is the say we will look forward to so we can see these in action.

MapleLeafs.com

Also if Carolina could have modified Wanderers jerseys to play along that would be great. The Wanderers defeated the Arenas 10-9 in that first game for Toronto on December 19th, 1917.

COMPETITIONS: Every now and then we challenge you to make a new logo for either a fictional team, an existing team or HJC events like COTY and the Open. Now we want you to make one for an arena, either existing or fictional (or future like the Islanders at Belmont?). This one will take a while so you have until the 22nd to get them in.

ENTRIES SO FAR:

...Bueller? ...Bueller?


VOTES: Concept of the Week of course and now COTW-August (Insert my usual COTM title rant here)

REMINDERS:

 COTW vote Sept 1-7 (ends Friday @ noon EST) 
 COTW-AUGUST vote (ends Friday @ noon EST) 

 Stadium Logo Competition (due Sept 22 @ noon EST) 

ON TO THE CONCEPTS!


Anthony C: Saginaw Spirit (OHL) Concept

A CHL team placed in the United States, specifically Saginaw, MI, with a logo that is 100% MURICA themed should have an American feel to their uniforms. And I love how the striping pattern works with the logo. You have a pattern of four white and red stripes in the logo from left to right, with a large area of white for the eagle head. That pattern gets translated onto the jersey perfectly. The only thing I would think improves the idea is slightly raising the arm striping and having a larger area of white under it, similar to the socks.

Rating: 93%


Anthony C: Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (OHL) Concept

They greyhounds USED to have a nice identity with a two color jersey before switching to Detroit Red Wings copies. Here Anthony tries again to bring back the individualism of the team while retaining the two color look. I just don't think that this pattern looks like it matches with the Greyhounds logo and seems a little unconventional for their branding. The greyhound alone doesn't work as a standalone shoulder logo. It would also be cool to see the traditional 4 stars the Greyhounds have on their main set of jerseys, a look that has been on every primary set except for the awful cartoon logo era.

Rating: 85%


Jets96: Columbia Inferno (ECHL) Concept

The Inferno suspended operations in 2008 because of a failure to secure a lease in the new University of South Carolina multipurpose arena. Here, Monday writer Jets96 brings back the Inferno by adding a fire-ladder pattern in their striping on a Nike template. There are a couple of instances on the black jersey of Yellow-On-White Syndrome, specifically the striping and the recolored logo. Plus that ladder striping is very thin and hard to distinguish from a distance.

Rating: 75%


Jets96: Toledo Walleyes (ECHL)Concept

A solid idea for the Walleyes comp. One of the better entries in my opinion. The double blue color scheme the Walleye use helps enhance the upper shoulder motif commonly used here. The ECHL branding is not properly instituted. The logo should not be recolored and should only appear on the tail of the jersey.

Rating: 80%


Matt G: New Jersey Devils Alternate Concept

Surprisingly, a black and red minimalist color scheme works very well here, especially with the minimalist logo. The only concern is that while it does connect to your concepts yesterday, it also looks like a recolored Maple Leafs jersey, though with a matching hem pattern, so that's enough of a distinction in order to keep the rating high enough.

Rating: 85%


Matt G: New Jersey Devils Throwback Concept

There isn't much to review here. Its the Devils original jersey with Adidas branding and a squared off yoke. Nothing new here.

Rating: unrated


Stealin' T: Detroit Red Wings Bleached Concept

What is this doing here? All this is here is a recolored wings jersey so that the red isn't as bold as it should be "without bleach". And the traditional nameplate styling is altered so its a true arch instead of what the Wings normally use, a major downgrade. And to answer the question you pose of "What if the Red Wings accidentally bleached their jerseys?", the answer is that they would replace them with another set.

Rating: 5%


The WINNER of my Concept of the Week Nomination is:

 ANTHONY C 

 SAGINAW SPIRIT CONCEPT 

Not the best way to end today's post but we had a lot of quality concepts today. Get those Arena Logo Comp entries in and I will see you all next week.