Tuesday: Tank You For Stopping By!

     Hello HJC'ers! Another glorious day to view some hockey jersey concepts (or HJC's). Some on today's post may be yours or they may not be, either way we have a lot in store. Before we get there though I'd like to vent about something this hockey season.

     I'm not really venting though. In fact I'm very happy about this hockey season so far. Mostly because my favorite team is in last place and is showing no signs of leaving the basement. Years and years of Buffalo sports we've been missing the opportunities. We've always been mediocre enough to get 'meh' draft picks in both major sports. We've always missed out on great QB drafts when we need one. We always fall short of a top five pick in the NHL which for the record is always a safe bet pick. This is the year. The year where we can finally make a ringer in the draft. Yes I know they lottery doesn't guarantee us the first pick, but finishing 30th guarantees a top 2 pick which potentially can be a generational player. Sure it's not that fun not watching too many hockey games anymore but I know it's for the better.

     I see a lot of teams joining in the 'tank' now and wanting to place last, or close to it. I don't blame them, but they are late to the party. Also just a side note we (Sabres) are not losing on purpose, we are just a very bad team. Our genius GM Tim Murray made great moves in the off-season to have the look that we are going to progress..but he knew..he knew the moves he made would provide no actual help. We are just one terrible team that couldn't win a game even if we tried.

Enough with me bragging about losing. Whether you agree with cheering for your team to lose or not, it's time to view these concepts.

COTW Jan. 25 - 31 vote (ends Friday at 11:59 pm Eastern)

COTW Feb 1 - 7 vote (ends Friday at 11:59 pm Eastern)

World Cup Top 3 Teams vote (ends Friday at 11:59 Eastern)

Don't forget to vote. Sign up for the reminder so you don't forget! 

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St. Louis Blues - Dylan Nowak

     I guess I will start the reviews with my old concept. Over time the logo on this concept has really bugged me. I personally believe just the note logo would make this look a lot better. I always refer to this concept when I want to see execution well done on a photorealistic template. I know, I know, I sound conceited but I was really pleased how this concept turned out. Some bugs here and there but this stands as one of my favorite concepts just because of how I worked on the details of an actual jersey. Granted there are some mistakes I see now but I'm not too worried about it. Jersey itself I think looks nice. Maybe a bit too bright but as a third jersey I think it could work.

Rating: 11/10 

Pittsburgh Penguins - Jack K.

     Jack, you are lucky that your name was on the file. How was I ..or anyone supposed to know who made this concept? Remember folks, putting ID on your photo not only betters us to recognize it but it also betters you. 

     Anyways, the design really goes out of it's way to become it's own thing. And I really like that. The front and back jersey design is pretty interesting. It kind of fits the old Pirates theme and I like seeing the RoboPen back! I would scrap the text in the logo, not needed. Also I would make the logo larger..maybe even going over the triangular striping. Same goes for the number on the back.

     The rest of the jersey I feel does not fit with the main design you have. Rounded yoke seems to break the unity and the traditional Bruins-esqu striping doesn't go along with what you have for anything else. I always like to have a rule of thumb when having a concept. When you have colors touching..and other colors not touching I like to keep that unified for the whole jersey. You have gold and black touching on the yoke and front and back design but have them separated on the stripes. To be honest, this jersey is all over the place and needs work. It's a bit two faced right now. Pick what you want. A traditional grounded jersey or a crazy awesome out of the box design. Maybe you were trying to tame the wild design on the front but instead of trying to equalize the traditional look and out of the box look just embrace one and stick with it. Trust me, you will enjoy the outcome a lot more. Keep on working and you will keep on progressing!

Rating: 4/10

Nashville Predators - Scott T.

     Don't think I've ever seen a Scott T. on HJC, welcome! You have a style that really represents Stephen T. I guess that's just a weird coincidence. Any who, we have a very nice Nashville Predators design. Almost nice enough to see it on the ice for real! Although...don't we? Aside form the color changes for the blue jersey the gold jersey is basically the exact same thing Nashville wears. And the blue jersey is a remake of that with some color changes. I'll just be commenting on the blue jersey for this. I think on the yoke design you don't bring back the 'fang' type of color under the piping near the collar. I think that's an element that should definitely be there. If anything I think you should eliminate the piping and just leave that yoke design. Color placement is fine. Really, that's all this 'concept' is..it's fine. Nothing special, nothing out of the norm. 

Rating: 7/10

Dallas Stars - Ryan H.

     The supreme leader of HJC grants us a black alternate jersey for Dallas which I believe will be coming in the next season or two. Ryan keeps the nice traditional design to go along with a nice and simple main jersey set. I always love the white and gray striping next to each other on a black jersey, I think it's a very sharp look and with the nice victory green by the side it makes it look even classier. For the most part, I'm a fan of this jersey. The design is simple enough to fit with the rest of their set and it doesn't look bad. At the same time though it doesn't look amazing to me or really scream out anything. It's nice and would like to see it made into an actual jersey so I could see what it would look like. If you were to ask me what changes I would make I wouldn't know what to say. The idea is there and is executed very well. Maybe potentially a colored yoke? Then I feel it would be making the jersey too crowded because white would be too plain. For green you would need a type of outline of white or gray..or both. What can I say? It's a nicely done jersey that looks pretty darn good. Nice.

Rating 8.2/10

     

     And another post in the books. Did you like a concept on todays post? Which one was your favorite, and why? Which one was your least favorite, and why? Let us know what you think. Comment about what you think about tanking or losing on purpose, comment about whether you think cats are better than dogs (they are not). It's always nice to see a discussion in the comments. Although, let's keep it on topic and not get too hostile with each other. I mean after all we all share one same trait, we love them hockey jerseys!

Have a nice day guys and hope you come back to read more tomorrow! 

Anaheim Ducks: Current Uniforms 2006 - Present

    The Ducks, in my opinion is one team in the NHL that could look so much better than they do now. To this day I'm still not sure of the policy and the Mighty Ducks logo. Not sure if they're allowed to use it for the crest. I know theres a current logo with it on the shoulder, but that could mean something else, right? Anyways, let's move on.

Photo: nhluniforms.com

Right here is the current home and away set for the Ducks. For the most part, you could say it's a modernized version of the design for the Mighty Ducks jersey. Obviously, different colors and different logo. 

The Logo: I am a fan of word marks from time to time. But the biggest thing when using a word mark on jerseys, is to make it stand out. I think this is annoying. 'Anaheim' on the logo is so small that it is just a nuisance, and maybe it's just me, but the bronze color on the black jersey, and even the white jersey seems to just blend in with it all. I like the orange added into the teams color scheme, maybe they should have swapped spots for bronze with orange. Honestly, stick the Mighty Ducks logo on it, or even just the 'D' foot, and this looks much better.

The Color Scheme: I think it's clear I don't like the bronze in this. I just think it's dark and dull with everything else. Black, White, and Orange I think could be very sharp on it's own. I wonder what the jerseys would look like if there was no bronze, just orange in place. Would that be too much? 

Photo: OcRegister.com

Font: this is one part I truly like with this set, and I think this is a font that should continue on to future Duck sets. For some reason I just think it's original, but also goes with the Duck name. 

Jersey Design: This is the big part of the jersey. The part that brings everything together. Without it, you have a logo on  a solid color jersey. As I stated before, in a nutshell, it's a modernized striping pattern of the Mighty Ducks look, and as it should be. The curved swoops, especially on the arms, are sharp, and have a nice flow to them. One thing that could make this much better, is if they just continue the design, instead of just stopping part way through. Why did they do that? I mean, clearly I know the template didn't allow it, but why make the template like that though? That's something that always bugged me about the jersey. For the most part, It's a look that's decent. I'm not going to say it's bad, but at the same time, I wouldn't brag about this jersey, even if they won their only cup in it. 

Later on their first alternate with their new set was unveiled. 

Photo: Jeff Gross/Getty Images

To be honest, this is a design that I think should be inherited to an away version as soon as possible. I
know the side paneling is similar to that on the Islanders old black alternate, but I think it fit more 'Ducks' than 'Islanders'. And like I said, the 'D' for the crest looks great in my opinion.  My only complaint would be the numbers lack orange. They made orange the complete secondary in this, yet the numbers lack it. I think this could be made better with just an outline of orange on those numbers.

Let's wrap this up. For the most part, the current home and away are jerseys I can deal with. If they don't change them for a while, or just have small tweaks, I'd be fine with that. If there ever is a severe change, it either has to be in the direction of the Mighty Ducks, or going with something close to the alternate. I think seeing anything too traditional from the Ducks might be losing a unique jersey set that the NHL needs. 

My end scoring for the whole set is : 3.9/5 -- 7.8/10

The alternate adds a couple decimal points to it.

Did you agree with me? Do you want to add something I missed? Do you have a concept that could make the Ducks look better? Let me know below by rating their whole current set out of 5!

Beginning Of A Powerhouse

     Dylan Wonka -

     Some of you may already know me. Some of you may not. (Although most of you probably do). My name is Dylan Wonka, and Wonka is not my real last name, but I like to think of it as my artist name. So I'll just go by that. You all probably know me as a writer and a now and then artist featured on HockeyJerseyConcepts.com. There are a lot of writers and artists that have chimed in on HJC and have started their own blogs. And that's what I'm doing now.  One thing is, It won't be typically the same blog on HJC, although if you want to put in your concepts (of any sport) feel free. My e-mail is wonkadesigns97@gmail.com. I check it almost everyday. But when submitting a concept don't expect it to be on a post the day after, or week after you send it. I will post all sent in concepts, but I have a different main goal of the blog to differ from HJC.
    

      First, I will be starting with the NHL then moving onto the NFL with a team uniform set review. (Hopefully) Everyday a new team. I will start with their current uniforms, and after that is all done I will move onto past uniforms. In this case, I will be rating them. So now and then if I have a concept day, I wont be reviewing them, but I will give a brief description of what I see. Then if I can, I'll put a rating system for viewers to vote on.
     

     The main goal in this is to just have my opinions out there on uniforms. Whether you agree or not. My first post will not be until Thursday, starting with the Anaheim Ducks.
     

     As the site starts to kick up I will eventually start putting up different pages for contact information, and a little about me section. Until then, this will be a little empty, but I'm okay with that.
     Adios! And I hope to see some of you come back!