Pensacola Ice Flyers Get Revamped!
Friday · Jul 13 · 2012 | 12:46 AM PDT
For three years, they were the team with — unquestionably — the worst logo and uniforms in all of professional hockey. That all changed on Thursday.
The Pensacola Ice Flyers unveiled a brand new identity that's millions of miles beyond the monstrosity they entered into the world upon joining the Southern Professional Hockey League in 2009.
If you're struggling to remember said monstrosity, allow me to remind you. It was terrible. Objectively terrible, if that's even possible. I'm not sure that thing could actually be considered "design" as we know it. But now it is no more, I'm happy to report.
The Florida panhandle team still has a pretty awful name, but it has meaning to the people of Pensacola and, heck, these phenomenal logos just make the "Ice Flyers" moniker look cooler, if nothing else. This is a definite win in the minor league logo design department. And it may well be the best logo in the SPHL at this point — which, to be fair, isn't exactly saying much.
I'm very excited to see this team recognize the need for a revamp and hire a pro to make it happen. Incidentally, I haven't been able to track down the name of the designer or creative firm. If anyone knows, I'd love to be able to add a link to this post.
Here's a look at the new secondary marks designed for the Ice Flyers.
Certainly playing up the Top Gun theme. I sense some specialty jersey nights in the seasons ahead. All of these elements just look great — at least in comparison to their predecessor.
Anyway, enough gushing from me. Time for you to weigh in. While you put your thoughts together on this new look, I'll leave you with Pensacola's new set of sweaters.
Reader Comments (16)
Huge improvement! Not a fan of the "P" logo, it looks off and it doesn't seem to fit in at all with the other logos. Other than that the Ice Flyers now look like a credible hockey team.
@Mark: The "P" logo look like the State of Florida sideway.. I think it is fitting and pretty cool how it turn out.. My homestate Florida does look like a P only in vertical. =)
As for the logos, I think it is a huge upgrade from those garbage they wore for 3 years... Although, I'm not solid on the grey colour on the jersey.. It look kinda icky... Let's see how it actually look on the players..
Old logo was way better.
An incredible improvement over their last set for sure.
those logos seem like rip-offs to me. the main crest is obviously Jet's influenced. the "top gun" logo is almost identical with an old Houston Aeros logo.
http://content.sportslogos.net/logos/2/503/full/50fpyyf7koo7efle4o8qsdnei.gif
Wow waking up to see the sweaters was shocking. the dark blue one is fine but the grey ones. ouch. the grey and whlte
one looks like a small sweater inside a grey sweater.
Also the top gun and wingman patches are special for season ticket holders!
http://pensacolaiceflyers.com/wingman.php
http://pensacolaiceflyers.com/benefits.php
http://pensacolaiceflyers.com/topgun.php
good old minor league ticket sales!
The "N" in the pensacola logo looks a bit off, not sure why, but over all this is a great update to that awful logo they came out with first time around!
nice! always happy to see when a team with bad design is ready to just let go of their old crap and commit to something new and better. those navy jerseys are pretty damned sharp. now can we look forward to a specialty jersey featuring val kilmer and tom cruise playing volleyball?
The real story behind the change? They moved their home arena from Pensacola to the Danger Zone
In contrast to what they had, this is one of the best logos in hockey history.
How that got accepted is beyond me!
MASSSIVE improvement! The new logo set is simply spectacular, love'em. Comparing the old logo with the new logo is like comparing dog crap to ice cream. The difference is night and day. The old logo looked sooooooo dated, it looked like something you'd see on a vintage 1970's-'80's t-shirt you'd find at Value Village.
the N looks weird cause it doesnt have a deep cut like the other letters. does that make sense? and the A at the end looks like its falling off. but its easy to be a critic. Still a good logo for unaffiliated hockey! I sure do miss the Hanger but going to Flyers games in Philly is a lot better.
@fireantzflyers: The diagonal stroke in the N is about three times thicker than any other stroke on the rest of the letters, and for no apparent reason either. So I agree it looks a bit off, and could've been executed better.
Overall it looks great, the hockey sticks inside the jet are brilliant, didn't even notice them as being sticks at first.
What's up with the hate for our name? Our owner Tim Kerr was a Philly Flyer. A very good one.
He also tried to buy back teh Ice Pilot name to no avail. I personally love the Ice Flyers name.
Now this is a great upgrade. The designers managed to preserve the colors from the previous logo and use them more craftily. Really digging the script logo, the font is quite suitable and the grey, white and dark blue go nicely together (although I'm not a huge fan of the brown - perhaps a lighter shade of gold would be better). The "P" logo can be improved as it looks kind of washed over; the jet and the letter "P" should be different colours so that one or the other pops out more.
Agreeing with Hockeyfan about this logo looking like a Jets ripoff...was still a very nice improvement though.
Love the shoulder patch "P" with the fighter jet. Really sharp.