Sabres Debut New Uniforms!
Saturday · Sep 18 · 2010 | 11:41 AM PDT
The Buffalo Sabres introduce new home, road and alternate jerseys today
It's official. Years of work have paid off for the guys at Sabres Not Slugs — a hardcore group of fans on a mission to rid their team of the infamous "Buffaslug" logo, instituted in 2006.
Today, the Buffalo Sabres unveiled new home, road and alternate jerseys for the 2010-11 season — and the old logo is nowhere to be found. In fact, the new sweaters show a shift by the team back to its original identity.
Thomas Vanek #26Where to start... First, the previous third jersey, introduced in 2008, is the new standard home sweater. No surprise, and it's a welcome change as this is a spectacular hockey uniform. Even better, the Sabres will double up on this solid design by wearing a white version for road games.
Some fans have bemoaned the heavy use of navy blue, but let's be honest: this is 2010, not 1980. Bright colors are better in small doses. And that makes the new alternate sweater perfect. The bright colors are a great change of pace and superb tribute to the past.
And BUFFALO across the front, an homage to the town's original pro hockey club, couldn't be better suited. After years of new logos that have failed to catch on with fans, this was exactly the right play for the Sabres. Celebrate the city, its hockey history, and stop trying to reinvent the wheel.
In a single day, one of the NHL's worst-dressed clubs has become one of the best. It's an outstanding set of sweaters. Most teams would be lucky to look this good.
Unique features on the back of the thirdA release on the Sabres website details some interesting facts about new third jersey:
- The royal blue color of the third jersey reflects the original Sabres jersey that debuted in 1970.
- The “Buffalo” script wordmark was inspired by the old Buffalo Bisons “bottlecap” logo.
- The choice of an off-white color for the Buffalo script was to give the jersey a vintage feel.
- There are four stripes on the sleeves, socks and around the waist that represent 40 years of Sabres hockey.
- A commemorative 40th anniversary “1970” logo sits below the Buffalo script.
- The faux felt numbers have a unique cross stitched pattern in reference to early pro hockey jerseys.
The new third jersey will be worn for 12 home games this season, including its debut on Oct. 9 for the Sabres' season opener when they host the New York Rangers at HSBC Arena. Seems 10/9/10 is going to be the night for retro sweaters in the NHL.
According to the Sabres' website, "the design for both jerseys was a collaborative effort between the Sabres and Reebok International." By the way, they also have a complete photo gallery of today's unveiling for your enjoyment.
Reader Comments (67)
i was at the unveiling and i gotta say i love these jerseys. we have our look back. one thing i found interesting is that the blue stitching in the numbers on the 3rds, seems to change color. when they first came out on the ice it looked yellow. (not just me either, alot of people around me thought it was too) but when i got a close look it was blue. i saw a guy going up the escalator w/a pominville jersey on. at the bottom the stitching was blue, by the time he hit the top, it looked yellow again. could be a combo of the lighting and vintage white color, but i love the jerseys. i cant wait to get my white one.
Nice jerseys, but why doesn't the road jerseys get the laces?
I think a lot of people here have either forgotten or just don't know about the history of that wordmark on the front. That's a throwback to the old Buffalo Bisons AHL team, which had a bottlecap logo on the front (which looked an awful lot like a Pepsi cap) and the word "BUFFALO" stylized across it. It's that word which has been transferred over to the new 3rd jersey, and it's a great way to honour that which came before (the Bisons ceased operations when the NHL awarded Buffalo a franchise). They went with white, as the original "BUFFALO" was red and blue, which would
look pretty awful on a yellow and blue jersey.
I'm pretty sure Chris mentioned something about this earlier, but just a recap in case people don't know why it is the way it is. I'm still dealing with the yellow namebar, myself...
@SPUD the road jersey have laces. If it is the neck tie one's you are speaking of, they just blend in because they are white.
@ the blackhawks fan talking crap on the subject, stop hating, we now have probably the best set of jersey's in the league now. Far superior to the blackhawks by any means.
The bright colours in small doses thing SPOT ON!! The Islanders are making a mistake going to that sweater full time. The one they've been wearing since the lockout is crap, obviously. But The original royal blue is kind of dated. Somewhere between the super bright royal that the Isles will be wearing this season (also present with the Oilers retro unis and the new Sabres thirds) and the crazy dark navy the Canucks wore for about 10 years is where these teams should be. I think the current Canucks jerseys are spot on.... but I am biased. The Sabres home uni could be a little lighter, but not as light as the third. Ultimately, like you said, from worst to (or at least near to) first.
Oh. And they need white loops on their helmets.
The third jerseys look beautiful!
Usually the script doesnt work (like Ottawa, Atlanta and Dallas), but on these ones, it works brilliantly!
Only things that need fixing....
1. Take the numbers off the chest!
2. Use the royal blue of the third jersey on all three of them! Why must every team in North American professional sports insist on using dark colours like black, navy blue or forest green? Lets see some royal blue and kelly green in this league for heaven's sake!!
Good for Buffalo. That slug was ridiculous. The third isn't bad, just wish everything was moved down a bit. The upper half is awefully crowded with the laces, "C", Name, logo. I am glad that the numbers aren't on the front, and I wish they did away with them on their regular jerseys. I HATE when teams do that.
I just noticed something while taking a look at the Hockey Uniform Database (nhluniforms.com)... the way the stripes are spaced on the new third matches the stripes on the blue socks that the HUD has for the Sabres from 1978-80. Of course, the third's socks match these as well...
Now, if they can only find a way to bring back a second set of stripes on the socks... they only had one set on the WC kit (and it was the sleeve arrangement, with the gold stripe in the center), so I don't know if it'd work with the Edge socks.
Oh, and nice job on the radio last night, Chris! I listened in online, and it was nice to hear some good uni-talk! We don't get much of that in Detroit, but then again, the Red Wings have made so few changes, all relatively minor tweaks, in my lifetime; the last major change (the red sleeves) came in 1956, long before I was born!
The striping on the alternate is hideous. The stitching on the numbers is god-awful. I don't mind the wordmark though, but I feel they really dropped the ball with the third. Then again, I liked the Slug
Quick question...why do the sabres and other teams wear white as their away...the whites used to be the home...and the sabres looked awsome in those whites at home.
CN, they changed this in 2003. A big factor was the fact that aside from Toronto, everybody else that had a third jersey had a colored third. Apparently, though, it was also to try to drive sales of the regular colored jerseys, because the argument goes that the white jerseys were more popular (I do know that I like the Red Wings' white jersey a little better than the red one).
I dont know if anyone has said this yet, but on nhl.com the links to the team sites at the top for the sabres has finally changed from the slug to the circle logo.
If you don't like the new 3rd jersey, you have no idea what you're talking about. It makes complete sense. Just because you have no sense of design or history doesn't mean it's a bad jersey.
BEST JERSEYS IN THE LEAGUE. PERIOD.
I don't like the numbers on the upper right chest, otherwise pretty good!
personally the numbers on the front are not bad the sharks also have it and it doesn't look bad. The third jersey is vintage yet modern at the same time. I also think every team in the winter classic should make there jerseys a third, home or away jersey.
these uniforms are awsome as are the sabers. im glad the slug is dead that thing was uglyyyyyy. good luck buffalo