Hawks Convention Yields News
The Blackhawks are holding a big hockey convention this weekend to, I suppose, intensify the city's interest in the team and the sport. As part of the event, Saturday at noon there was a panel discussing the Winter Classic set for New Year's Day at Wrigley Field. Hawks president John McDonough and defenseman Brian Campbell were on hand along side the NHL's marketing director, Brian Jennings.
According to an email I received summarizing the event, there was a discussion about whether the Blackhawks and Red Wings would be wearing vintage jerseys like the Penguins and Sabres did last season. McDonough said they would be and suggested it may be styled after a 1930s sweater, like the one seen below.
credit: Andrew @ NHLUniforms.com
According to this same email, Jennings spoke about the selection process for last year's Winter Classic sweaters. He apparently said the Penguins liked theirs so much they'll be unveiling a similar powder blue design as their third jersey this season. This isn't really news but it's coming straight from the Director of Marketing at the NHL so I felt like it was worth mentioning.
As with anything, I can't vouch for the veracity of this info as it comes by way of a reader email and not any official channels. B But what's the point of lying? Thanks to Brent for the info!
blackhawks, jerseys, news, penguins, thirds 
Reader Comments (15)
I normally don't like too many stripes.. and I don't here. There are too many red stripes at the bottom; I could live with one red/white/red stripe. But this is just too excessive. Although I'm glad it'd only be a one-and-done.
I do like the stripes trailing behind the crest though. Very Montreal Canadien-ish. I don't like other teams borrowing elements from other team's jerseys, but I could see that working for the Hawks if they went to that circular logo on their jersey (not full-time though, again just something I'd like to see once or twice so as not to make it too boring to see all the time).
I was at the convention this weekend and I was at the Winter Classic panel and I can vouch for this info. John McDonough, Blackhawks Team President and the NHL exec (i've since forgotten his name), but they confirmed that the Hawks would wear a retro sweater just for the Winter Classic and would most likely be styled after the 1930s sweater.
http://www.nhluniforms.com/
Check out the jerseys from the 1935-36 season. Those sweaters would be perfect, both are distinct from what the teams wear now, and they go easy on the crazy stripes.
I love the crazy stripes in every way. I'll buy that jersey, even as a Caps fan, if it's released. I'll probably do Lang or a Bondra though :D
These stripes aren't "crazy", however much we love them and call them that for all the right reasons. As some one one noted above with an incredible amount of visual examples, these stripes were the norm back in the day.
I think these stripes betrays hockey's roots as a game first organized within athletic clubs. The striped sweaters are reminiscent of rugby and soccer club shirts. The most obvious example of this would be the Sens' original shirt. All one needs to do is put a collar on their old bold stripes and you could be a rugger.
No shirt is going to win over every fan (I'm a critic of most items we see on this site, for example). But if an established team like CHI is going to mess around a great logo, sweater, and brand, they need to do it in a manner that doesn't dilute their brand at all. Buffalo can switch to the slug, for instance, because their brand is worthless compared to an O6 team. Chicago's move to an vintage shirt for their alternate, just like other 06 teams, not only brings change, but also reinforces their brand by working on nostalgia. Hats off to them.
(Compare this to the Leafs' shoulder stripe, or NYR's own shoulder stripe through the 1970s and 80s. Very few people want these O6 teams to return to that era. These teams try to replicate something for the early years of the NHL for a reason. Few of us were actually around in 1932; but we all long for it anyway.)
(and really, it could be a flying duck, so it's all good in the end.)
bondra isnt even on the hawks anymore
I like the '35-'36 jersey, but this one definitely says vintage/way-old-school more. Unfortunately, unless you go back to the Detroit Falcons uniforms, you won't get anything distinct for the Redwings. Of course, since the new owners (back then) switched the name due to poor performance -- kind of a change-your-luck type move -- I doubt they will go back to those.
@blackhawks - Don't really care. He finished his career there, no? And I never really got that much behind Lang. It's hard to come up with players who I really like who were also Hawks, and so I named the first two I could think of.
just making sure you knew, what about toews and kane
i just hope the pens' new thirds keep the yellow in the triangle of the logo instead of "modernizing" it with the vegas gold.
"you won't get anything distinct for the Redwings. "
The logo from the 36 jersey looks considerably different to what it does now, to say nothing of the omission of the red sleeves. There have also been years when the winged wheel's colours were reversed.
"these stripes were the norm back in the day."
Anti-Semitism was 'the norm back in the day', should we revive that for the vintage factor? Not everything that's 'old' is 'good'.
Matthew... you said:
"these stripes were the norm back in the day."
Anti-Semitism was 'the norm back in the day', should we revive that for the vintage factor? Not everything that's 'old' is 'good'.
I say: RELAX! Liitle harsh and irrelevant with your analogy. Speaking of what we should and should not do... how about pick apart and whine about something you have no control over... like what friggin jersey a team is going to wear. LOL
This is why Gary Bettman is still commissioner, because isn't dead yet.
oops, hockey isn't dead yetd