Thursday: Time for a Redesign...for Real This Time

Hello guys and welcome back to another Thursday post!

Yesterday Dylan covered all of the logos and uniform news that happened so I'm just going to give my thoughts. For the pictures (aside from a few extra screenshots of the Gulls' uniforms) then go scroll down to his post!

Screenshots from EASHL trailer

As you can see the uniforms are Flames/Ducks hybrid uniforms. As much as I dislike copycat AHL teams, these would have been much better if they were just Ducks copies instead of these hybrids.

St John's: Classic uniforms but again unoriginal copies. I think going with last years version as opposed to the more classic version they're using this year (adding laces and using one color collar) was the better option for their AHL affiliate.

Winter Classic: The logos look great and I'm really looking forward to what we get uniform wise. My prediction for at least the Habs is their regular unis (possibly a different collar) with that logo on it, and hopefully they'll use canvas pants as well for accuracy.

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So this week we have the final round of the HJC open with Colin and Christian and both giving us some great concepts for this final round, so go leave your vote for that, it'll be a tough one to pick. And while you're at it just move your mouse to the side of the page and vote for COTW as well. It's that simple!

HJC Open Final entries (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

COTW July 19-25 vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

So as the title says I have finished my thing about the NHL teams who need a redesign...sort of. I did numbers 5-10 and the top 5 teams will be up next week. The order has changed slightly but none of teams themselves have, so my listing from last week is somewhat accurate. Anyways enough rambling, here it is! (contained in a spoiler tag since I now know how to do two in one post)

So there are a lot of teams in the NHL that are in need of a redesign after Reebok came in and completely ruined so many teams' looks with the Edge redesign, usually with a templatey type of look. Today we are here to look at my top 10 teams that , in my opinion, need redesigns, mainly because of the Edge takeover, with 6 of these teams having not changed their uniforms since Reebok Edge took over.

10: Carolina Hurricanes

Photos from: Charlotte Observer, Bleacher Report

When Carolina redesigned their uniforms in 2013 they took all of the uniqueness out of their uniforms. They went from an incredibly unique design to a very bland design that could be used by any team (the home looks like a red Leafs jersey too). This design isn't bad at all honestly, it just has the potential to be so much more unique than it is now, like the previous ones were. The only unique aspect of this set is the yoke/nameplate combo on the road jersey. I would say the best (or at least most simple) solution is to add some warning flag striping somewhere on this uniform, maybe just the pants or the hem stripes or something, but only that one place in order to not overdo it.

9. San Jose Sharks

Photos from: Bleacher Report, Teal Crunch

These uniforms really aren't incredibly terrible and they're ALMOST an improvement over the last. The main things to change here would be to add hem stripes and get rid of the chest numbers. I'm personally not a fan of the orange as well so changing that to silver or dropping it would look nice, but whether or not you like the orange is completely personal opinion, although I guess anything with your taste in uniforms is really just personal opinion as well.

8: Buffalo Sabres

Photos from: Sabres 101, Hockeyland Canada

In 2006 the Sabres switched over to their most infamous (or possibly second most infamous) jersey, the "Buffaslug". The fans wanted to kill the slug and go back to their original uniforms, so they did...kind of. They added gray to the logo and piping and accents throughout the design, along with a darker blue and chest numbers...and that ruins the look completely. Another simple solution to this one is to remove the gray and possibly lighten the blue again as well, but I don't see a lighter blue necessary to have this be a good design.

7. Arizona Coyotes

Photo from: Arizona Coyotes

The Yotes unveiled their new uniforms not long before the draft this year, and they missed the mark for sure. The uniforms just look like a mish mash of ideas thrown together and passed of as one uniform. The most simple fix for this one would to be just swap the white and brick colors on the arms of the home jersey, add hem stripes to match, and also change the socks to match. They went in the right direction for uniforms but they didn't go all that far in the right direction.

6. Columbus Blue Jackets

Photos from: Time, Wikipedia

The Jackets are another team whose uniforms aren't incredibly bad or anything, but they're just plain, especially the home. The main thing to fix these would be to change the hem trim to hem stripes. The arms of the home jersey still might be a bit plain so maybe using black inside the yoke could help, and wouldn't be a necessary color to transfer to the road, but it would also make no sense to use so I'm not really sure where to go, and I think red would stand out too much. I could be wrong but those are my thoughts.

Well that wraps up part one. I know my list changed slightly from what I said it was last week, but as I was writing this my opinion changed so I changed the order. That being said I'll have this finished for next week with the top 5 teams.

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Onto the concepts!

Idea: Even if the concept is bad is there still a good, creative idea at the core? 1 point

Creativity: Points will mainly be taken here if the concept is a copy of another jersey, or close to it 1 point

Execution: 2 points

Realism: Would this jersey be believable to be seen on the ice? 1 point

Pizazz: Wow factor, just something that makes the concept really stand out. It's hard to do but I don't think you can have a perfect concept without it: 1 point

Other areas: Anything else on the concept, just the overall look, regardless of the other categories: 4/5 points

If I feel that one of the categories doesn't need reviewed as much as the other ones I will exclude it from being reviewed and move the points to another one. Other areas and Execution will always be reviewed, and logically the final score will just be the individual scores added up.

Brooks F. - Reading Royals

Idea: Holy purple!(1/1)

Creativity: Definitely (1/1)

Execution: -Vertical stitching needs to stop at the chest stripe and then continue afterwards. 

-Inside of the collar should be black on both jerseys

-Otherwise solid (1.25/2)

Realism: Definitely, especially for the ECHL with all the diamonds in the stripes(1/1)

Pizazz: I can't say no but I can't completely say yes either (0.5/1)

Other areas: 

+ I love how the logo blends right into the chest stripe. It wouldn't have exactly the same effect in real life but still it would look cool 

+Good logo choice all around

-Diamond overload. Waaaay too many. Either lose some or sublimate them

-The purple jersey may be too purple. I would make the pants black, but leave them purple for the white, or use shells since an ECHL team may not be able to have 2 sets of pants.

(3/4)

Overall: (7.75/10)

Brooks F. - Utah Grizzlies

Idea: This is a crazy jersey for an ECHL team. Fits well (1/1)

Creativity: Oh definitely (1/1)

Execution: Vertical stitching needs to stop at the hem stripes and the inside hem on the front should be green. Otherwise solid (1/2)

Realism: For anywhere above the ECHL probably not, but this is the ECHL (1/1)

Pizazz: For sure (1/1)

Other areas: 

+This color scheme looks great

+The logo choice is great again as well

+Good choice leaving the pants blank

-I would flip the hand around so the nails are on the claw marks. To me right now it almost just looks like a decapitated hand

(3/4)

Overall: (8/10)

Ryan C. - Grand Rapids Griffins

Idea: Simple design and classic looking alternate (1/1)

Creativity: Creative concept (1/1)

Execution: There are a few loose white pixels near the armpit of each jersey. Otherwise solid (1.75/2)

Realism: Definitely (1/1)

Pizazz: Nope (0/1)

Other areas: 

+Good, simple design that actually reminds me somewhat of the Red Wings

+The striping pops in a good way

+The font looks great

-Nothing really

(4/4)

Overall: (8.75/10)

William B. - Las Vegas Fighting Saints (NHL Expansion)

Idea: If the NHL expands to Vegas they definitely need some jerseys(1/1)

Creativity: Creating a team is definitely creative(1/1)

Execution: TV numbers look too small, otherwise solid (1.5/2)

Realism: For a Vegas team I'm pretty sure they're sold on Black Knights, but this is definitely a realistic look regardless (1/1)

Pizazz: I think so (1/1)

Other areas:

+The custom logos look great

+I like the use of the Minnesota Fighting Saints logo

+Saints of Sin City sounds contradictory but it works really well

+Great touch adding a T-shirt design

+The wordmark on the third jersey fits well

-The arm striping should be widened to match the hem striping

-I'm not sure that logo is really enough for primary status. It looks more like a shoulder patch to me. I have no idea about your knowledge and skill of designing logos, but it's hard to do without experience.

(3/4)

Overall: (8.5/10)

Quick note on presentation: I like the presentation layout and it's pretty much the same thing I did when I used this template but the back needs to be more visible, it's very hard to see the numbers and the font from the way it's laid out now, and in my opinion the TV numbers don't really show you how it would look on the back of the jersey.

And that wraps up this post. It's hard to pick one but I'm going to nominate William B.'s Fighting Saints concept for COTW since it can be hard to create an expansion franchise and he did a pretty good job of it. Do you want to leave your opinion on redesigning, or a concept on today's post, or nominate a concept? Then leave a comment! I hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for reading, and I'll see you again next Thursday.