Wednesday: International Islanders Throwback Day

Welcome to the Wednesday post, a throwback Wednesday post, if you will.

Here is the latest Wheeling Nailers Competition Entry:

Remember to get your entries in before the deadline, this Friday @ Noon EST. That gives you less than two days. Remember to check out the contest page for a full list of rules!

COTW votes are due at the same time! If you haven't already, get your vote in now!

On with today's Islanders throwback concepts, seeing as this is normally Phil's post, let's honour the beasts of the east, the door hinge of orange, the team that won 4 Stanley Cups in a row that one time, the team that plays Barclays like it was supposed to be a hockey area, the New York Islanders.

Don't forget that HJC has been around since 2009, and I've been reading since March 2011, so I've seen A LOT of concepts. Let's go through some Islanders concepts!

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New York Islanders Concepts (By: Arthur D.) From August 2011

 This was a time I like to call HJC's growing pains, a lot of concepts came in, but they weren't to the quality you'd see today. This was actually one of the better ones and by the standards of the time was pretty good. Trying to blend the old school Islanders with the yoke outline of the original edge jerseys is an...interesting idea. for the most part it works within the era, but nothing I'd ever like to see attempted today. Also not a fan of the introducing the Fisherman logo set. The orange jersey is an interesting idea, particularly the cursive letters, but not the name bar. Some things here haven't aged well like the front numbers. Furthermore the execution needs a lot of work, like stoping the stitching at the hem stripes, oversized logos and not centred numbers on the orange jerseys. Furthermore, THANK GOODNESS THEY DON'T USE THE VECTOR LOGOS anymore.

Overall, it's hard to review something this old, and there's a lot to like, but the execution would need a lot of work to get up to today's standards. Still nice to look back on HJC's early days. 6/10

New York Islanders Concept (By: Kyle C.) From February 2013

During the days of the original black Islanders alternate, people didn't recognize its true greatness, and wanted the Islanders to go back to an orange alternate. One thing this concept nails is the white and blue stripes, similar to the British Columbia provincial flag or any sort of maritime style pattern. There's also a subtle wave pattern on the hem stripes that works well with the edge template. The concept isn't perfect though. The modern numbers aren't fantastic here, and would benefit from being something a little more traditional, and infant would look better and stand out more if they were white with a blue outline. I will also say in the last few years, this is another case where a concept hasn't aged well, but because the Oilers went and made this their identity. Also, blank helmets, never a good idea!

Not the greatest Islanders orange concept ever, but at the time it certainly was one of the better ones, and holds up surprisingly well 6 years later! 8/10

Back in November of 2013, we had a New York Islanders Fisherman Redesign competition, with many great entries. You can see the winning concept in the Past Concept Winners tab on the side of the blog. My entry I think, was pretty solid, but Tristan M. blew everyone out of the water with this gorgeous entry. 

New York Islanders Concept (By Tristan M.) From November 2013

The recolouring on the logo is fantastic, it makes it look much more presentable in the modern era and adds some much needed colour to it. The striping is a more traditional version of the popular 2014 Stadium Series jersey, that I think was actually unveiled not too far after, making this a nice case of an unitencitonal prediction. I, like TC, don't like when Islanders overtly rock the 4 stripes, but having it on the inside of the collar that also resembles maritime rope striping, it really works. It would have bene nice to see the yoke removed or maybe a little less white, but as is, this holds up really well and might actually work in the Adizero era

One of the best Islanders concepts to date. 9/10 

This wouldn't be a Jets96 Islanders post without some black Islanders concepts, so here's a personal favourite of mine 

New York Islanders Concept (By: Jamie R.) From September 2015

As mentioned many times before, one of the reasons I love the Islanders script alternate so much is that it uses every colour in the Islanders colour scheme and grey. This concept does the same, but includes the popular NY logo, that I think works best on a black background. The striping balances the colours well, but might benefit from losing the bottom white hem and instead ending it like the arm stripes and not continuing down to the end of the hem. The logo choices are solid, and the subtle detail on the collar works. I do believe though that the orange on the logo is slightly different than that anywhere else

Black Islanders concepts are usually a winner with me, and this is no exception. 8.5/10

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