The 麻豆传媒映画Canucks are bringing back one of the most popular jerseys in their 50-year history next season, reviving the skate logo that was worn during the 1994 playoff run. Now the Kalamazoo Wings, the ECHL affiliate for the Canucks and Utica Comets, are getting in on the retro skate logo fun.
The Canucks鈥� skate logo jersey to be the team鈥檚 retro jersey for the upcoming season. When the jersey itself was for the upcoming 50th-anniversary season, it was clearly the best one.
While the Canucks鈥� new home and away jerseys minus the 鈥淰ANCOUVER鈥� wordmark across the top are fine, the 鈥渧intage鈥� third jersey looks a little odd, primarily because of the lack of white stripes to go with the broad green stripes on the arms. The skate logo jersey, however, is clean and crisp. They could have tried to update it or modernize it, but instead it looks like it was ripped directly off Trevor Linden鈥檚 back after he skated off the ice in the 鈥�94 playoffs.
The K-Wings held a fan-vote of their own for a new alternate jersey with their third annual fan-designed jersey contest. The winning jersey from designer Kurt Gorecki takes inspiration from the Canucks鈥� skate logo to create a truly fantastic jersey.
Just look at it. That is gorgeous.
The jersey replaces 鈥淐ANUCKS鈥� with 鈥淲INGS鈥� as the skate blade of the logo and turns the stripes of the skate boot into the stripes of the American flag by adding the stars from the Utica Comets logo into the background. It鈥檚 a tremendously clever bit of design work from Gorecky, who goes by .
鈥淚 wanted to incorporate my favorite 麻豆传媒映画logo and thought 鈥榟ow could I make this different鈥�,鈥� said Gorecki in a . 鈥淚 wanted to give it a Kalamazoo flavor, so I thought it would be cool to add the flag to the background to honor the U.S. part of the affiliation, while adding in elements from Vancouver鈥檚 and Utica鈥檚 logo.鈥�
The jersey will be worn for one game next season on December 28th, with the jerseys auctioned off after the game to benefit the local Salvation Army. It鈥檚 such a strong design that it almost seems like a shame to only wear them for one game.
This is actually the second time Gorecki has won the fan-designed jersey contest. He won the inaugural contest with a classic-looking design that wouldn鈥檛 look out of place at an outdoor game.
The second and third-place entries from this year鈥檚 contest also had a strong Canucks connection, with both featuring a Johnny Canuck-inspired logo.
The second-place finisher played off the Canucks鈥� alternate logo introduced in 2007 that features Johnny Canucks鈥� head atop a stylized 鈥淰.鈥� Designer Brandon Lamarche placed the head atop a 鈥淜鈥� instead and added a winged helmet, like that worn by the Greek god Hermes, in place of Johnny鈥檚 toque.
The third-place jersey from David DiFalco went a different route, keeping Johnny Canucks鈥� body and toque, but replacing his bearded visage with a stylized rendition of . It鈥檚 a fun and unexpected look that also added a 鈥淜ALAMAZOO鈥� wordmark across the top, much like the Canucks鈥� jerseys of the past decade.
One of the things that separates the skate logo from these two designs is how it incorporates the K-Wings鈥� current colours, rather than using Canucks鈥� colours. It鈥檚 a smart design choice that makes it stand out specifically as a Kalamazoo jersey, despite the re-designed Canucks鈥� logo.
Overall, this seems like a very fun contest for the K-Wings and it raises the question of how a similar contest would look for the Canucks. The team has a history full of many varied jersey designs from which to draw inspiration and there鈥檚 a big community of designers in the hockey world that would lead to a lot of great submissions.
What would you do if you could design your own Canucks jersey?
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