Friday: Florida's Fresh Fiasco

Hey y'all, and welcome to another Friday post here at HJC.  Earlier today, the Florida Panthers unveiled their new 25th anniversary logo at a big event in Sunrise.  Amid much fanfare and festivities, the Panthers revealed the logo, and I must say it's not the worst one I've seen in recent years.  That being said, when shown how the patch would look on the jerseys, any good feelings I had toward it fell by the wayside.  

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That thing is monstrous.  It takes up way too much of the chest, which not only detracts from the main crest but also adds yet another patch to a jersey that's already pretty heavy on them.  Beyond just the sheer size of the thing, I can't for the life of me figure out why they changed the color of it on the home jersey.  By changing the white to red, not only does it take away from the tie in to the Florida flag, but it just makes the red cross design blend in to the background.  In summary, it's not a bad design for a logo, but it's just way too big on the jersey, and the recoloring on the home is an unnecessary downgrade.  

In voting news, we have the regular COTW vote for June 8-14, with polls closing Friday at noon EDT.  We are also in the entry period for the Pairs Competition, so be sure to get your concepts in by June 22 at noon EDT.  

 COTW June 8-14 vote (ends Friday @ noon EDT) 

 Pairs Competition (ends June 22 @ noon EDT) 

 Jersey Nerds Podcast (new episode Monday) 

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Now on to today's concepts!

Anthony C.- Kansas City Mavericks

Our first concept of the day is Anthony C.'s design for the Kansas City Mavericks of the ECHL.  The Mavericks have an interesting color scheme, but Anthony manages to play up the great contrast of the orange and light blue while working in the black without it being too much.  I really like the striping pattern, and the chest stripe is a good call with the roundel logo.  Hem stripe looks great, much better than if you'd tried to match the arm striping.  While I always hate when chest stripes don't continue onto the back, I really don't like the treatment that it's given here.  It's almost worse that it just abruptly stops at the numbers instead of at the sides.  There's better ways to work around it, so I would recommend trying something else next time.  The most glaring problem I have with this concept is the messed up arm striping on the front of the left arm on the white jersey.  That's just a sloppy mistake that could have easily been avoided.  Final verdict: a good design for the Mavericks, but execution errors really hold this one back.  7.5/10

Burkus Circus- Florida Panthers

Our next concept is the first of two from Burkus Circus today, this one an alternate for the Florida Panthers.  The Panthers haven't worn a navy jersey since 2012, which was also their last alternate jersey.  With this one, Burkus stays on brand with the large chest stripe that ends at the sides, but he seems to have thickened up the gold stripes relative to the white one.  He also has done a better job with the hem stripe, which I think is a huge upgrade.  The main logo seems to be a re-imagining of the last alternate logo, with the elimination of the wordmark around the main image.   My main issue here is that this logo is just a recoloring of the old Panther head design, and as such mixes eras when combined with the modern panther shoulder patch.  That anachronism is a huge no-no in my book.  While I'm usually not a fan of yokes used in conjunction with chest stripes, I actually don't mind it here.  Final verdict: not a bad design, but the mixing of eras really bothers me.  7/10

Burkus Circus- Los Angeles Kings

Burkus' second design of the day is another alternate jersey, this one for the LA Kings.  I really like the return of forum blue to the Kings' color scheme, the Gretzky era throwback colors just really don't have the charm they did the first time around.  The crown logo looks great as a primary, and the recolored home plate logo looks good as a shoulder patch.  I like the striping, but I wish that there was a little bit of black to break up the white and silver so they don't bleed together.  Also, I like the idea of the black on the upper arms, but not when it's combined with a yoke, especially one that goes down past the name bar.  Gear looks good, but I wish you'd made the collar silver all the way around.  Final verdict: a good looking design, but the yoke clutters it up a bit too much.  8/10

Taylor R.- Minnesota State Mavericks

Our final concept of the day is Taylor R.'s design for the Minnesota State Mavericks.  I really like the Ducks' template for this team, the swooping striping ties in really well with the logo.  The numbers are done really well, and I like the font choice.  I'm a fan of the breezer and sock striping, but I'm not quite sure that it fits with the more modern design of the jersey.  I also wish you'd put an outline around the logo on the black jersey so it didn't blend into the main body.  Final verdict: while I love the way this design looks, it's essentially just a recolor with different gear, so I can't give it too much credit.  8.5/10

Since my favorite design this week was essentially just a recolor, I don't feel right picking a COTW winner, so I'm leaving it up to y'all.

That's all for me this week, see y'all next Friday!