Monday: 2018-19 is the new 2016-17

Hello everyone and welcome back to another Monday post! Just as the week before we've seen quite a few new jerseys unveiled, including the Flames, Sharks (an actual unveiling), and the Capitals. Two more throwbacks to things we saw before the Adidas takeover. Fantastic.

You can read my little rant on this throwback trend on my news post for the Flames jerseys right here, but a TL;DR for my thoughts is summed up pretty well in a comment on that post by our own Ben:

"I'm not sure how to feel about these throwbacks anymore. If this had dropped at the draft, I would have loved it and commended Calgary for not screwing it up. But now my only reaction is "oh, great, another one?"

Individually, these designs are good designs, and good moves on the team's part to bring them back, but it's just getting tiring having almost all of them be throwbacks. At the very least, I wish these throwbacks were something that wasn't worn as a throwback before the Adidas takeover as well, like Calgary using the horsehead instead, which is something else I touched on a bit on my news post.

Anyways, let's move on with the regular post.
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This week in voting we have the COTW as always, as well as the voting for our Utah Grizzlies competition. Also, check out the podcast, as we'll be recording every Monday now provided nothing comes up to prevent it.

COTW September 14-20 vote (ends Friday @ noon ET)

Utah Grizzlies Top 3 vote (ends Friday @ noon ET)

Jersey Nerds Podcast (new episode every Tuesday)

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Adam G. - Portland Trail Blazers

I’ll be referencing the Trail Blazer’s basketball uniforms a few times throughout the review, so here they are for reference:

Black

White

Red

+You sure don’t shy away from going out of the box a bit. The NHL could sure use some of that attitude.

+While it is a bit close to being a direct translation from their basketball counterparts, you did a good job of translating them over into hockey jerseys. You handled the diagonal hem stripes very well to keep them from crossing over the logo too much.

•Not really a negative or positive honestly, but I wonder how a sash design going through the logo would have worked instead.

-Ditch the half collar and never look back.

+I really appreciate the attention to detail with showing the very end of the diagonal stripes on the front inside hem...

-However, you have them on the wrong side.

+I really like that alternate uniform, and really like your choice to keep the hem straight, and even the wordmark. It gives the whole thing a throwback vibe.

-Considering that, I cant help but feel there’s a missed opportunity by not going all out with that ascetic. Double up that arm stripe and/or maybe even switch over to a block font. 

-The collar on this one is better than on the primaries, but it’s still not great.

Overall: 8.5/10 and my COTW nomination

Ben S. - Laval Rocket

+As I think most AHL teams should do, you do a good job here of connecting the team’s brand to their parent club, without outright copying their jerseys.

+Using the Habs chest stripe pattern on the arms and hems was a good, simple way to have the Rocket connect without outright copying them.

+It would have been too simple if you did only that, though, so the decision to use the Habs red jersey’s hem striping on the bottom of the arms was a great move. Gives the Rocket a very unique look.

+I also like the decision the use that as shoulder striping as well. Really cements the traditional style of this one.

+Another underrated detail that you did utilize here is matching the pants (and assuringly gloves) to the parent club. I think most AHL teams do this, and it helps players more easily move between the AHL and NHL.

-While I think it works decently, I’m not huge on the script “LAVAL” on the alternate jersey. Their primary logo may really fit a chest stripe well, so I’d like to see how that would work.

-While I understand that idea at least, the one decision I can’t even understand is your placement of the Habs logo. With that placement, it looks very small and cramped and out of place. I’d stick to keeping it on the shoulder.

Overall: 8.5/10

Brooks F. - Steinbach Pistons

+So I Googled this team’s name to see what they currently look like and, good god is their current logo horrendous. It looks like they did a Google image search and stuck it in a roundel. So while you didn't have too high of a bar to surpass, yours looks nice, and, much much better.

+On the topic of logos, I also like your secondary logo/shoulder patch.

-Well, I like what I can see of it anyways. I would have liked to see a flat, clear version of it, because it's hard to see the details when it's small and cut in half.

+At first, I wasn't huge on the striping layout I'll admit, but the more I see it the more it's growing on me. The inconsistency especially threw me off at first, but then I noticed that it's actually inconsistently consistent. And it really works.

+The color balance is handled well as well.

-A minor nitpick, but I think the back number and name font should be a bit taller (the TV numbers are fine). It's a minor detail that I've only noticed relatively recently, but many NHL teams have different TV numbers from the back numbers. The same font, but the back numbers are taller than the TV numbers. The names are also a very condensed font. This makes sure there isn't an abnormal amount of empty space on the jerseys and that the TV numbers aren't too small, and so that the name can be made big enough to be legible without being so big that the names can't fit. I think the number font you have here is great for TV numbers, but could use to be taller for the back, same with the name. If you do this, though, please DO NOT just stretch the text.

Overall: 8/10

Lucas D. - Kansas City Royals

+I suppose this wasn't entirely your choice, but god is that color scheme beautiful. I'm glad that you decided to use double blue on these jerseys rather than just a single blue like their regular jerseys.

+A lot of your concepts use the design style of having the stripes be exactly the same, down to the color, on both jersey sets (if I recall correctly), but this one is one of the better ones.

+The color balancing on this one was great. Especially with the gold. It's there as a nice supporting color, but not so prominent that it competes.

-One big problem with the color: the white outlines on the blue jersey do not work at all. On the numbers they're okay, but on the smaller name and even the TV numbers, it just makes the name especially illegible at smaller sizes. 

-The logo and TV numbers on the flat layout look very small, especially compared to the size of it on the realistic layout.

Overall: 8/10

TC Moore - New York Giants

+In a vacuum, this look is pretty decent. The chest stripe fits well with that wordmark.

-However, in a similar comment to the one I made on Ben's concept earlier, I think their logo would work pretty well on a chest stripe.

-The blue on red vibrates a bit, and the name and numbers on the home jersey especially could use to be white for some additional contrast.

-Excuse my lack of knowledge of football design history here, because I may be wrong, but I think my biggest problem, however, is that this doesn't really seem to have many ties to their football design. Ignore this if your intention was to make hockey jerseys for them with an entirely new look, but I think it would have been nice to see some ties to their football uniforms translated over, specifically: the very plain and simple design of the jerseys (though not quite as plain as they are on the field), and the color balancing changing from primarily blue on the home to primarily red on the road.

-While I completely understand your inspiration for that alternate design, it just doesn't work on a hockey jersey. Not at all. Maybe if you change that blue into a hem stripe or something, but it just doesn't work as plain blocks of color as a full arm yoke and side paneling.

+I do like the full arm white yoke though in general. I think that would be a great foundation to work off of.

Overall: 7.5/10

TC Moore - Baltimore Ravens

+A nice, traditionally modern uniform design.

+This design seems to tie in with the Raven's brand more than the Giants concept did, though it's less disconnected. The sentiment here is pretty much the same as the last one.

-One simple change that I think would really help is changing the striping on the dark jersey to be white-black-gold like the numbers, instead of black-white-gold.

-This design also suffers from a similar problem that the Sharks original edge jerseys do for me, in that the yoke just makes the jersey look a little too busy. It just adds a little too much.

+The black jersey is a little too much black for my personal tastes, but aside from that it really works. I like the logo choice there instead of just sticking with the same thing.

+Also, as an example for the point I made about the primaries, this looks much better without the yoke.

Overall: 7.5/10

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And that's all for today! I hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for reading, and I'll see you again next week.