Sunday: The Orange Elephant in the Room

Afternoon Folks. Steve here with the Sunday post. It's been one heck of a week. We've seen the capitals come back with the alternate that nobody except washing seems to care for, Carolina finally acknowledge that they aren't an expansion team and decided to wear Whaler's gear for one game against the former proximity rivals, the Boston Bruins. Finally (unless I'm forgetting something), We had this thing in Philly placed upon us without notice.

Sweet baby Jesus is this thing creepy. Now I'm not saying this because I'm a Penguins fan and grew up knowing the person who dons the Iceburgh costume. This thing named Gritty looks like Youppi's deranged third cousin who somehow ended up getting a job with the Flyers. I must admit that this thing fits in perfectly with Philadelphia and, from what I see, they've adopted him fairly fast so good luck to you Gritty. Just don't expect a warm welcome in Pittsburgh.

Hey folks don't forget that we have our normal COTW voting, the Buffalo Sabres redesign competition, and don't forget to listen to the jersey nerd podcast!

COTW September 21-27 vote (ends Friday @ noon ET)

Buffalo Sabres ReDesign entries (due October 12th)

Jersey Nerds Podcast (new episodes every Tuesday)

Okay let's do this

Adam G- Chicago Bulls

Positives: First of all, thank you for not copying the Blackhawks. What works for the jersey is the two stripes that give the illusion of a stripe in the negative space. It draws your attention to them. Also, fairly good use of color balance.
Negatives: Main issues I have with this are the white collar on the red jersey and how thin the stripes are. For once I think a split collar would actually work for this jersey to break up all that white and the stripes are so thin as they are that it's hard to tell that the black is there. make them a little bigger.
Overall: 6.75/10

Adam G- Cleveland Cavaliers 

Positives: You did well on the home and road jersey balancing between to little and too much on the jersey with this design. The Cavs have a nice color combo for the main set and I think you did a really good job showing that and showing off the logo on the front. As for the alternate, I like the basketball style waste and the shield logo on the front.
Negatives: I'm not entirely sure what that yellow/gold striping is on the yoke ends of the home and road jersey but it just looks unusual to me, and not in a good way. As someone who doesn't watch basketball it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. As for the Alternate, using piping as the striping wasn't the best choice. It leaves little color on an all black jersey.
Overall: 7/10

Brooks F- Vatican City 

Positives: Fun fact: The Vatican has a non FIFA member soccer team that competes against other countries made up of Vatican guards. Anyways, there's some things to like about this jersey. First, the Cross on the yokes are a nice nod to the Catholic church and the white vertical stripe down the middle of the jersey works great with that yoke and the arm striping.
Negatives: Of all things that are holy (Pun intended) why would you make the jersey just yellow and white with black only on the numbers? I could go on with the religious puns on this, but the two bright colors just makes you want to turn away from the jersey after a few seconds.
Overall: 7.5/10

Lucas D- Miami Marlins

Positives: While I preferred the Marlin's original colors, these colors do really well on a hockey jersey. The accent colors being used as dividing stripes for the arms and on the yoke were a good choice in how to use them on the jersey.
Negatives: Even though you added those colors in to the jersey, it feels more like they were put on as an effort to force them in, making the jersey look blocky and  templated. Also, why use black numbers on the orange sleeves of the black jersey? You can make them white and they'd stick out much better.
Overall: 7.5/10

Sook- Amtrak Cascades

Positives: Hi Sook. Welcome. Thank you for giving the description in the corner as I was unaware what this was in relation to. That being said, you have some good elements here. The yokes on both the dark and light jerseys work great. Also, the arm striping on both the home and road look great.
Negatives: A few things I'd like to suggest. The logo that you used on the front looks more like something that would work better on the shoulders so using a script here wouldn't be a bad alternative. The hem stripe is much smaller than the sleeves and it looks more like you thinned it to fit the logo. Work it the other way.
Overall: 6.5/10

TC M- Cleveland Browns 

Positives: Now I don't have as much distaste for the Browns as most Pittsburghers. I went to Youngstown State in Ohio, which is an area where both Steelers and Browns fans coexist. anyways, I really like the Jets' style jersey with the bulldog logo on the jersey and the "B with Negative space C" logo on the shoulders. they really help draw together the identity and play well off each other.
Negatives: Why aren't the numbers a block number with drop shadows? That's my only issue with this because Cleveland is not known for modern style numbers. Also, put the elf on the alternate. He was a much better logo.
Overall: 8.5/10 COTW NOMINEE!

TC M- Philadelphia Eagles 

Positives: What's nice about this is that you kept the design consistent with all three jersey because the Eagles color scheme lets you do that. As for the design, the white and silver on the sleeves works very well. Also, I like that you didn't keep any ofthe colors in the same area on either of the primaries.

Negatives: For goodness sake TC will you cut it with the half and half sleeve design? Yes it's nice and it does the job here but you've done enough concepts to stop going to this design pattern. Give me more range instead of stripes between two different colors on the arms.

Okay folks that's all I got for ya. Have a good rest of the week and I'll see you guys next week.