Thursday: Throwback Thursday

Happy Thursday, Ladies and Gents.

As you've seen the past two days, it's throwback week here at HJC, so I'm throwing it back to my days this past semester in university and starting this post at 11:30. As such, we're keeping it short and sweet with today's intro.

Pretty short and sweet with voting this week, seeing as all we've got is the regular COTW vote. Don't forget to send those Wheeling Nailers Comp entries in before tomorrow's deadline.

NO NEW ENTRIES as of this posting, so be sure to take advantage of the wide open field in this last 24-hour stretch.

REMINDERS:

 COTW Vote April 27- May 3 (ends Friday @ noon EST) 

 Wheeling Nailers Competition (entries due Friday @ noon EST) 

On to the concepts!

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Lucas D.- Anaheim Ducks (2017)

Back in 2017, on a day rife with beautifully done concepts, Lucas D's fell to the wayside; an unfortunate occurrence, in my opinion. Lucas harkens to the days of old by bringing back the eggplant and jade scheme and returning the Wild Wing mask to the shoulders. While returning the old, Lucas also keeps the look current with the addition of the Duck's current primary and gold color to the look. Overall, these two schemes mesh well and fit  nicely on the curved striping of old. My main (and pretty much only) issue with this set comes in the color balancing with the logo. Although looking alright on the dark jersey, the gold crest clashes a bit with the jade that dominates the rest of the look.

Overall Rating: 9.0/10

Great in 2017, Great in 2018.

Taylor R.- Team Sweden (2016)

Sweden made many of us at HJC proud this year by bucking the trend of Nike's Olympic jerseys and staying (mostly) with tradition, but back in 2016 Taylor envisioned what a shift from tradition could offer. Sweden's simple blue and yellow scheme always looks beautiful and Taylor lets it work to the best of its ability here with the prevalent striping up and down the arms. While I was initially bothered by the fact that all aspects of this jersey had 3 stripes (which would be certain to make Adidas happy) except the arms, which employ 2, I see now that the yoke stripes fix this by offering a third stripe to the arm pattern. My one negative here would be that the font used on the back of the jersey doesn't mesh well with the classic tre kronor on the front and the traditional striping pattern that characterizes this set.

  

Overall Rating: 9.75/10

3 crowns, 3 stripes, 3 (out of 3) stars.

David P.- Ontario Reign (2015)

Now we kick it back to 2015 when Friend of the Show BPoe was still a writer on May 10th. On a day filled with overzealous concepts, David's Reign look sticks out for the sheer fact that it wouldn't typically stick out.For a team that copies the Kings in both their home and road looks, the Reign could really use a look of their own. Though I prefer this as an alternate to supplement their current sets, I'm confident it could also work as a full time home. The unique Reign wordmark across the chest is complemented nicely by the simple thick striping and the stripped down color pallet, providing a simple look that's so simple it actually works. Unfortunately, what does make this jersey stick out among even the most daring are a handful of execution errors that are still helpful to point out even 3 years after the fact. 1) I assume the hem striping is intended to be the same thickness as the arms (although that may just be an ill-advised design choice), 2) the #OB is a touch too close together with the 4 almost eclipsing the 9 as is, and 3) the TV numbers are small as well

  

Overall Rating: 8.0/10

As design technology improves and we get more and more ambitious with our design attempts, David's look from 2015 that there's nothing wrong with going back to the basics as long as you do it well.

Stephen T.- Stadium Series (2014)

Say what you will, but I'm a sucker for the 2014 Stadium Series jerseys (still looking to add a Small Pens Stadium Series jersey to my collection to this day), so I'd though we'd throw it back to Stephen's attempt from 2014. As much as I hate templates jerseys for tournaments like the Olympics, I really appreciated it for this first series of outdoor games, so I like that Stephen follows a similar approach here. I've ranted many a time about how grey is an unnecessary color for the Sabres, but it's nice as the base of a set here and that's due in no small part to the elimination of white, which classes heavily with the grey on the current set. Recolored goat head works great for a game like this and I love the amount of blue on the cuffs. Sen's look is solid as well but suffers heavily from YOWS in the striping. The thing that really brings this concept down are the hem treatments with the main pattern cut off at the side panels in favor of a single solid stripe spanning the length of the hem. This decision just makes no sense to me and clutters up the look unnecessarily. I'm split on my opinion of the arm stripes where Ottawa's seem cutoff without purpose, but Buffalo's serve to provide a unique look that I actually really enjoy.

  

Overall Rating: 8.0/10

While not the hottest concept of it's day, this look from Stephen aged about as well as one could hope seeing it again 4 years down the line

That's all for today folks. 

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