Penguins Winter Classic Preview
The Pittsburgh Penguins are preparing to unveil their brand new 2011 Winter Classic sweater, according to the Tribune-Review.
An article published this morning goes into little detail about the new threads, except to say that they're blue and the scarf-wearing penguin will finally see its way onto a sweater. The story is more of a retrospective on Bob Gessner, the man who created that original Pens logo.
First, the good bits in a quote box:
A new blue-colored alternate uniform is soon to be unveiled by the team. It will debut at the outdoor game against Washington, and the Penguins plan to adopt it next season as a "third" uniform. Also, the first day of 2011 will mark the first appearance of the Penguins' original logo on a uniform.
If you managed to catch my radio interview last weekend, you heard me make a bold prediction I didn't have much basis for. That being, my guess is the Penguins will go with a mish-mash jersey, like the Bruins did at the last Winter Classic.
Rather than recreating a past look, I wouldn't be surprised if they combined elements of several looks and got a little creative with it. Based on this article's assertion that the 1967 scarfed penguin will be on the jersey, it sounds like I could be right. How rare.
There's no date set for the unveiling, but the story does say the new sweater will "resemble uniforms worn by Mario Lemieux's son's local youth team." If anyone reading is involved with that team, maybe you have a photo or two you could provide to give us an idea of what to expect.
For the record, a quick Google search turns up this photo of Austin Lemieux's team in action from February 2008. They are wearing the Pens' current third jersey — which debuted in the NHL just a month earlier at the 2008 Winter Classic. Perhaps they've redesigned their uniforms since?
Anyway, this post is already getting long so I won't harp on the last bit. If you want the inside scoop on the design of the Penguins' logo, you should really read the rest of the article. Gessner says he never liked the scarfed penguin and he doesn't think he'll be impressed with the new sweater.
Chris
After this post went up, I got an interesting email from Icethetics reader Jeff S. who tells me a site called NHL Snipers posted what it claims will be the 2011 Winter Classic jerseys — for both the Penguins and the Capitals.
Penguins' Winter Classic jersey?The post featuring these images gives no details as to where they came from, who designed them or even whether they're believed to be real or not. Still, I can't help but feel like there's an inkling of plausibility to the designs.
Perhaps I'm leaning in that direction because they fit my predictions perfectly. This powder blue Pens sweater borrows from a number of eras in team history. And it comes together spectacularly.
The sleeve stripes and shoulder number placement call back to the black-and-gold look of the 1980s. The dark blue in the uniform was part of the 70s design. And the numbers match the original sweater worn in 1967.
Capitals' Winter Classic jersey?The Washington Capitals will officially unveil their Winter Classic sweater a week from today. There is no one who thinks it will look like anything but this design.
It's the Caps' original sweater from 1974. And seeing Alex Ovechkin wearing it will be surreal. It's littered with red and blue stars and features the retro logo previously unveiled at the announcement of the 2011 Winter Classic.
The only real question is whether the players will sport the criminally hilarious white pants for the game.
Anyway, these drawings are all well and good to give us an idea of what we might expect on New Year's Day, but it doesn't really matter until we see photos of the actual uniform.
Remember, the Caps unveil theirs a week from today. The Pens... "soon." Maybe we'll get theirs in the next week or two as well.
Reader Comments (14)
As a life long Caps fan, I loathe the penguins. However, I would love to see the classic 80's design black & gold vs the classic Caps red, white & blue with stars. These uniforms are the classic Caps vs pens battles I grew up with.
The Caps jerseys look really good. The numbers on the Pens sweaters look dorky.
The Red Wings skipped the white pants when they should have worn them, and the caps will probably do the same. The winter classic, if nothing else, has provided teams with an opportunity to edit.
I want to see white pants. I want to see criminally ugly barberpole uniforms. I want to see leather colored pants and gloves where they would be appropriate to the uniform set. So often, retro uniforms are made even more awesome when they own up to past design mistakes.
Uniwatchblog suggested it would be morel like this one
Dear Washinton Capitals,
Ditch the abominations you've been wearing since '08 and bring back this jersey. Minus the white pants. Thank you.
The Blackhawks also skipped the tan pants, although they did adopt the striping with the triangle panels - they just flipped the colors around. Seems the Flames are the only team thus far going with light pants...
As far as the Caps go, apparently they only wore the white pants with the red sweater, so going white with white wouldn't be historically accurate anyhow. They could go with the red pants they wore part-time in 74-75...
Exactly right Jeff, a retro looks much better when not tweaked. Though, the pens concept should go with block numbers not those, they don't fit the jersey at all.
The penguins never used the penguin with a scarf logo on their game worn jerseys but "replica" jerseys were sold in stores with the penguin with a scarf logo.
My dad had a jersey with the penguin with a scarf logo. The jersey pattern matched pittsburgh's 1968-73 layout, but had a rubberized penguin with a scarf crest on it. Think my mom bought it for him in the 1970's or early 80's - possibly from Eatons or Sears?? maybe somewhere else.
His jersey didn't look anything like the 'NHL Snipers' one you have pictured as a possibility for the winter classic - which looks like it has the font from the 1967-68 season jersey, and a jersey itself looks something like the layout of something that would fit in with some of the ones the penguins used in the mid-late 70s.
I miss the blue Eagle jersey.
I hope those aren't the Pens' jerseys, they look far too much like the new Panther jersey and not enough like anything remotely classicly Penguin. Why the NHL let the Panthers change their color scheme to trendy powder blue in the first place is the real travesty. The annual "new look" for every team is way out of control and not good for the sport. The Steelers, Packers, Yankees and Dodgers don't change color schemes just to sell jerseys because it destroys the brand. Duh.
Having said that, the best Winter Classic proposal I've seen is the one designed by Jared posted in concepts on Aug. 4. THAT is a sweet jersey that marries some truly classic elements.
The caps wore the white pants with the red sweaters. So there is no worry of that happening this year. Maybe in 2013 when the classic is in Washington. Unless the NHL goes back to home whites by then (please).
I agree with exileindc's comment, the Aug. 4th concept posted by Jared is by far the best Pens third jersey concept out there.
They won't be able to beat the existing powder blue third jersey so they might as well use another color from the Penguins' past and create an amazing jersey like Jared has come up with.
NHL Snipers is not a reputable blog...
These were made by me at HockeyJerseyConcepts.com
http://hockeyjerseyconcepts.blogspot.com/2010/07/2011-winter-classic.html