Friday: Sock Stripes

Hello folks!  Welcome to a new week on HJC.  Yes it's a new week here, even though it's only Friday.  Starting today the HJC week will run from Friday to Thursday, instead of Sunday to Saturday.  This will allow more time to for you to nominate (and second, third, etc) concepts posted on Friday for COTW.  Ryan wrote a post on the HJC Design Blog with all the important details.

To start off this new week I thought I'd give a quick sock stripe tutorial, since one of the most common execution errors I see is sock stripes being placed too high.  Let's begin by taking a look at socks in game action.

(Photo by Andy Devlin/Edmonton Oilers Hockey Club)

As you can see in this photo of Connor McDavid (taking on February 16, 2016) the sock stripes are approximately half way up to the pants, maybe a bit lower.  What we can't see in this photo is how far up underneath the pants the socks go, so we can't judge the position of the stripes in relation to the whole sock.  We would have to see the socks on their own.

Image from auction.nhl.com

Luckily for us these exact Connor McDavid socks (game worn from February 16, 2016) were up for auction on NHL.com, so we can take a look at the true position of the stripes (and no, I didn't buy them).  As you can see, the sock stripes aren't half way up the whole socks, they're only up about 30%.  That's quite a bit lower than you might expect just from looking at game photos.

Lastly, here is where the stripes should be placed on a sock template (the Reebok Edge sock from Templates page).  Hopefully this clears the sock stripe height issue up a bit, I know I've mentioned it fairly often in the past when reviewing concepts, but I've never explained in any detail before.

--------------------------------------------------

The voting for COTW May 1-7 and COTW April has already ended (the deadline changed along with the new HJC week).

COTW-April vote (has ended @ NOON Eastern)

COTW May 1-7 vote (has ended @ NOON Eastern)

However, the new COTW poll for this past week (May 8-12) is up on the side of the page, and there's still time to get your Falcons to Tucson Competition entries in.

COTW May 8-12 vote (ends Friday, May 20 @ NOON Eastern)

Falcons to Tucson Comp (ends Friday @ 10:30pm Eastern)

And now here's a reminder from Ryan...

--------------------------------------------------

HEADS UP!

Round 3 picks for the HJC Playoff Pool are due tomorrow Saturday, May 14 by 7:59pm Eastern

--------------------------------------------------

Here are the latest Falcons to Tucson Competition Entries...

by, Jay S:

by, Matt M:

--------------------------------------------------

Arizona Coyotes, by Tyler M:

Tyler starts us off today with a sand coloured alternate jersey for the Coyotes.  I like the use of their sand colour, and I also like the striping pattern (for the most part).  The chest stripe and yoke combo look great, but I'm not a fan of how thin the hem stripes are.  The logo looks good against the chest stripe, but the numbers should have an outline to help with readability.
Rating: 6/10

Oakville Blades, by Ryan C:

The Oakville Blades currently use Rangers style jerseys, Ryan gives them their own identity including a nice new logo which actually features a blade.  The numbers are probably my favourite part of this concept, I love the font and I love that their primarily red.  The striping pattern looks good too, but I think each jersey would look better if the red and silver were switched.
Rating: 8/10

NIU Huskies, by Ben S:

A quick Google search shows me that the Huskies currently wear Senators jerseys, if they were smart they'd switch to these jerseys from Ben.  I think the striping pattern is fantastic, I like how the shoulder area match the hem stripes and the lower arm stripes match the socks.  Those sock stripes are up too high though.  Also the back number could be raised slightly (and made like 8-10 pixels taller overall), but besides those minor issues the execution is good.
Rating: 8/10

Florida Panthers, by Avi S:

Next up is Avi with a prediction concept for the Panthers which is both accurate to the rumours and looks good.  I especially like the blue cuffs and hem stripes because they balance out the whole uniform colour wise, hopefully they'll be on the actual jerseys.  The new secondary logo Avi created also looks good, although I think the stick and palm tree should be simplified since their details get lost when shrunk down.

The road jersey is nearly the same as the home (with red and white swapped of course), but there are two noteworthy changes.  First of all the logo now says "Florida" instead of "Panthers" which is a smart move for the road jersey.  The numbers are also a single colour (two if you count the white outline), which I think looks great and they're easy to read against the stripe.
Rating: 8/10

Les Canadiennes Montreal, by Fernando M:

Fernando continues his unified Women's National Hockey League series with this Les Canadiennes concept.  The red jersey is based off of the NHL's Canadiens jersey, just without the chest stripe, and I think that's a good decision.  For the white jersey Fernando does my favourite thing, he creates a matching jersey which isn't simply colour swapped.  The only thing I dislike is the cut-off pant stripe, but that's a very minor complaint.
Rating: 8/10

Pittsburgh Penguins, by Alan H:

This concept is a double update, it's not only an update of the Penguins old Robo-Penguin jersey, it's also an update of Alan's first concept on HJC (from way back in 2011).  I like how this concept features more yellow than the original jersey.  The addition of a hem stripe and the slightly different yoke shape also look good to me.  However, I'd prefer the blank pants from the original uniform over these.
Rating: 8/10

Team Europe,by Taylor R:

Taylor ditches the half-and-half idea for Team Europe, and gives us a much tamer set of jerseys.  I won't deny that this concept looks much better than their actual jerseys, but part of me does prefer the uniqueness of the real jerseys.  I do like how there is more teal on this home jersey, and I love the number font.  I don't think the Adidas pant stripes look good though, and I don't think it's realistic since players wear pants from different manufactures (unless the players end up wearing pant covers).
Rating: 8/10

Team Czech Republic, by Taylor R:

This next concept from Taylor would actually be illegal if it were real, unfortunately this logo isn't allowed.  Luckily this striping pattern isn't illegal, because it looks great.  I like the double arm stripes, and I especially like how the hem stripes are the same on both jerseys but look different because of the base colour.  The number font is also a good choice.
Rating: 9/10

Tampereen Tappara, by Jake M:

We'll finish up today with Jake's Tappara concept.  The first thing that catches my eye is how unexpectedly awesome the orange pants look.  They actually wear orange pants in real life but without a stripe, and the stripe makes them look much better in my opinion.  I like the jerseys striping pattern as well, the orange shoulders work well with the orange pants.  The presentation of this concept is wonderful, it looks very professional.
Rating: 9/10 and my COTW nomination!

--------------------------------------------------

See you next week!