Road Warriors' New Third Mimics Rangers
Tuesday · Nov 13 · 2012 | 11:28 AM PST
Photo from Greenville Road Warriors (Facebook page)
The ECHL's Greenville Road Warriors unveiled their new third jersey earlier this month and it's practically identical to that of their NHL affiliate, the New York Rangers. The sweater debuted Sun., Nov. 4 to a 4-3 Warriors win over the Florida Everblades.
Here's what the team is saying about its new threads:
“We wanted these jerseys to reflect the strong partnership we’ve built with our NHL affiliate the New York Rangers. We’d like to thank the Rangers organization for their help and support in the development of these new jerseys,” said Chris Lewis, Road Warriors Executive Vice President and General Manager.
“The Rangers’ jersey has become iconic in the hockey world. It evokes a rich history of one of the NHL’s storied franchises and we are proud to celebrate our affiliation by wearing these jerseys this season.”
The alternate uniform will be used for each of Greenville's Sunday home games this season.
The Rangers and Road Warriors have had an affiliation agreement since the club's relocation to Greenville in 2010. (Until then, they had been the Johnstown Chiefs, a founding member of the ECHL in 1988.)
What do you think? Do you like when minor league teams emulate their NHL partners? Or is it like giving the players the chance to wear the big league's uniforms before they've earned it?
Reader Comments (11)
"What do you think? Do you like when minor league teams emulate their NHL partners?"
I hate when they emulate their NHL affiliate...im a jersey fan, so i'd rather see a unique jersey rather then a copy of an NHL jersey.
looks like this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HC_Kladno
Think you mean the other way around, Mike. Road Warriors logo came first.
I think if you can ntie in your affiliation, it can only help connect the dots with players and their hopeful movement up the ladder. It's not like they wear this every game, so once a month to help sell a couple jerseys....why not?
But their normal colours are blue and copper. This doesn't make sense to me.
i prefer when the affiliates have some references to their big league club but aren't so blatant about it. for instance the los angeles kings. kings, monarchs, reign. the names are all related. several of the colors are used by all three (which allows call-ups to use their same equipment). each use a lot of shields and crown in there various logos. that's how it should be done.
clubs are creating a brand identity and that identity extends to all those under it's umbrella. that being said a distinction between parts in the system allows for individuality and more jersey sales.
Nothing original there. I like it better when a team has their own identity which includes their jerseys.
I like it!
I like it! I don't mind minor teams using the same colour set, as it keeps the costs down for promotions and demotions. Players can get comfortable with their equipment, and only have to worry about the jersey and helmet changing.
I also like the logo, and would like to see the NYR lady liberty given the traditional red-white-blue treatment (as opposed to the navy and deep red that was used for that jersey)
I much prefer it when the minor league teams draw from the major league look, honestly. They shouldn't be carbon copies (and this particular jersey kind of straddles that line for me. I'd like something to be just a bit more different, maybe the text and numbers being red with a blue drop-shadow or something), but just from the outside, I feel like there's an element of organizational pride that comes from looking at your uniform and seeing a reflection of the one that someday you hope to be wearing.
NY Raiders meets NY Rangers. Not a huge fan of the logo by itself but I like this one overall. I do like seeing minor league teams in the same design as the parent club with their own logo, but sometimes, like the Hartford Wolfpack for example, they evolve and make a winner out of their own jersey style. (Too bad they took a thousand steps back with CT Whale.)
And instead of that fictional heritage jersey the Rangers have been wearing the last few seasons (the 1991-92 version is a million times better and more authentic), the Rangers should trade off on NY hockey history and wear the Raiders jersey and that famous super stripey NY Americans jersey, with the Rangers name substituted on the shirt. Just once would be cool.