Entries in lethbridge hurricanes (4)

Sunday
Jun162013

Lethbridge Hurricanes Unveil New Logo

WHL team forced to rebrand by Washington Capitals

Back in March, we learned the WHL's Lethbridge Hurricanes would need to come up with a new logo. The NHL's Washington Capitals decided the Lethbridge logo was too similar to their own to continue being used.

That report came from CTV reporter Darrell Romuld, who then said that the Hurricanes would simply promote the logo being used on their alternate jersey at the time. That look was created by former IceHL GM and CanesCast founder Joshua Schroeder.

However, it seems that was not the case as Lethbridge unveiled an entirely new logo at a special event on Thursday. You can see it at the top of this post.

Photo by Patrick Burles (via Twitter)

Despite dumping the Caps-style wordmark, the Hurricanes will still basically be wearing Caps jerseys. This is probably a Reebok thing. The new logo has two variations. The stylized H is in blue on the red jersey and red on the white one, as you can see below.

The Hurricanes have struggled with identity issues for as long as I've known them. This logo is an improvement on the ugly wordmarks they've used in the past. It's simple and bold. And original. Well, mostly original. Some readers have claimed similarity to the Hilton Hotels brand, but I think they're really just reaching.

The Hurricanes posted another article on their website about AKQA creative director Chris Polychronopoulos, who I'm assuming led the rebranding efforts for Lethbridge — assuming because article doesn't say so specifically. And all it really is is a bio. It outlines his credentials.

Photos from Lethbridge Hurricanes

Anyway, if you want to see more photos of Lethbridge's new look, a number of people were tweeting from the unveiling event, including Cody Nickolet (WHL From Above), Joshua Schroeder (CanesCast) and Patrick Burles (Country 95 News).

What's your take? Is this an upgrade for the Lethbridge Hurricanes or not? (Head over to this post to see the original logo.)

Wednesday
Mar272013

Lethbridge Forced to Change Logo

Starting next season, the WHL's Lethbridge Hurricanes will have a new logo and uniforms. The change comes after the Washington Capitals told the junior club their current logo and uniforms were a bit to similar to the NHL club's.

CTV reporter Darrell Romuld tweeted this last week: 

He followed up by pointing out that the logo currently used on the Canes' third jersey would be promoted to "full time" use next season. It's the logo you saw at the top of this post. The real story is in how this new logo came to be and its designer's connection to Icethetics.

But first, we should compare the offending logo with that of the Capitals.

The Hurricanes made this their primary logo in 2011. At first, it looked like a bad mix between two Southeast Division NHL teams. But after two seasons, the Caps have had enough.

We all know what their logo looks like. The similarities are obvious but, to be honest, the Lethbridge logo is just a poorly-designed rip-off. No one should be disappointed to see it go.

The new one, however, is a breath of fresh air. It was designed by Joshua Schroeder, who was named GM of IceHL's Calgary Cavalry in the fantasy league's inaugural season in 2010. He departed last summer. But his connection to the Hurricanes is what's interesting here.

Photo courtesy Joshua Schroeder

Josh writes:

I've got a bit of a history with the Hurricanes, starting in 1999 when I was invited to training their training camp. That's me sitting on the boards in the middle. As you can see, we were wearing an old set of the team's jerseys. I was on my way home by the time the veterans reported to camp.

The Hurricanes' actual logo at the time was the infamous Tasmanian devil, or "Twister" logo, since that's the name of our Tasmanian devil mascot. (Yeah... twister, hurricane... apparently we're pretty confused about weather around here.)

Fair enough. Speaking of which — here's that "infamous" logo.

Josh tells me he moved to Lethbridge a few years later to attend college. He stuck around, became a season ticket holder, then founded CanesCast, the official social media partner of the Hurricanes. He bemoaned the bad logos the team endured over the years. And in 2010, he got inspired.

In March 2011, the Hurricanes launched a design contest for the team's 2012-13 alternate jersey — which was more than a year away at the time. So he started putting together a concept.

Artwork and photo courtesy Joshua Schroeder

Josh explains:

I also put together a full proposal package explaining the symbolism that was worked into the design and sent that off to the Hurricanes.

Right around the time I learned that my design had been selected, the new Winnipeg Jets logo was leaked. Another hockey team logo with an aircraft in an RCAF emblem-inspired design. I was a little discouraged at that point, since I figured that by the time my jersey was unveiled it would look like I had just copied the Jets (who, remember, were still the Thrashers when I created my logo).

I got over it, and I still like that I managed to work the symbolism into my logo a little more subtly than the Jets did.

Artwork courtesy Joshua Schroeder

As you can see, Josh put a lot of thought and research into this design. Never has one team worn so much meaning and history on their uniforms. Great to see it will be getting full time use starting next fall.

Photo courtesy Joshua SchroederMore from Josh:

Anyhow, that's pretty much where my involvement ended. I'd been told I'd won, but couldn't make it public knowledge.

The next summer I got a sneak peek at the jersey, and again had to keep it a secret. Unfortunately, the final design the team went with abandoned the striping pattern from my concept, which again was a bit disappointing, but it still looked good.

Early in the 2012-13 season the logo was leaked on our veteran goalie's new mask, and finally (FINALLY!) we got to unveil it in November.

I was able to talk about it and enjoy doing the media rounds for a couple of days. And of course, as winner of the contest, I got my own customized jersey, presented to me at centre ice by captain Graham Hood (photo above).

Sounds like any hockey concept artist's dream!

Josh said a handful of the jerseys were made available in the team store and — despite a higher price — sold out in two nights.

I'd heard a rumour earlier this season about the current Capitals-style jerseys needing to be replaced.

While it sounds like they haven't made a decision on what to wear next year, the indications point toward them adopting the Hawker Hurricane logo full time. The third jerseys were in heavy rotation by the end of the season.

And check out the carpet in the locker room (even Curtis Joseph thinks it's awesome!).

CTV Lethbridge has speculated that the team will add a blue version of the jersey and promote the third jerseys to full time use. As you can imagine, that would suit me just fine. I do work pretty closely with some of the Hurricanes' front office staff on game days now, so they know where to find me if they wanted to get me involved with the design process again.

To this point, though, I haven't been invited to be part of the process.

I know that's a lot of information to digest, but if you're interested in even more background on the forthcoming changes to the Lethbridge Hurricanes branding, I've got a couple more links.

Pat Siedlecki, the play-by-play voice of the Hurricanes, talked on his blog about how this will be the team's fourth primary logo in seven years. (He even used an old graphic I made for NHLToL years ago.) And on Yahoo! Sports' Buzzing the Net blog, Cam Charron compares the looks of other junior teams to NHL clubs. (Those pesky Reebok templates are generally to blame for this.)

Hope you found all this as interesting as I did. And I hope it makes up for both the lack of posts recently and the lack of posts to come while I'm busy moving to a new place this week.

Wednesday
Feb022011

Junior Jerseys You Should Know About

Amidst all the recent NHL news, Icethetics readers have been emailing in to let us all know about some rather fascinating specialty jerseys hitting the ice in the Canadian Hockey League. And these you need to see.

Nuclear Night jersey / John AllenOver the weekend, the WHL's Tri-City Americans, based out of eastern Washington, held a special theme night which required special sweaters.

Friday, Jan. 28 was Nuclear Night in Kennewick, Wash. And they wore some rather radioactive uniforms to mark the occasion. Just look at them.

Full graphic rendering of jersey

I don't know what to say about that. Except that it's awesome! (We're supposed to think it's awesome, right?) I mean just look at all the colors... electric green, fuchsia, to name a few. 

Nuclear Night jersey (back) / John AllenThe event was announced Thursday on the team's website and that all of the jerseys would be auctioned off following Friday's game.

A special website was set up to take bids. (So if you have to have one of these, you know where to go.) It says the proceeds will benefit the Players' Continuing Education Fund.

Honestly, I love seeing this sort of thing in the minors/juniors. It's one night and it's fun. We'd never want to see it attempted in the NHL, of course, but if not for teams like this and their charitable causes, we'd never know what a Nuclear Night jersey would look like. Would we?

For the record, the Americans were victorious in all their atomic glory, defeating the Portland Winterhawks 5-2. And you know the Winterhawks didn't look this good.

My thanks to Josh S. for the tip.

If you though the Tri-City Americans had eye-catching jerseys, let's head to the Ontario Hockey League.

Alumni Night jersey / Erie OttersThe OHL's Erie Otters unveiled their Alumni Night jerseys last week.

These bright yellow sweaters will be worn this Saturday, Feb. 5, to celebrate the Otters' 1,000th regular season game.

These game-worn jerseys aren't going up for auction, however. (I think we know how that would go.) Instead, they'll go on sale following the game for $240 each (with a $20 discount if you're a season ticket holder).

Frankly, I'm not familiar with Erie's hockey past. Are there any readers who can shed some light on the history behind these colors?

Kudos to long-time reader Jeff S. for emailing this in.

Lethbridge throwback / from Joshua SchroederThe WHL's Lethbridge Hurricanes celebrated the 60th anniversary of a hometown team's world championship last week.

On Tuesday, Jan. 25, the Hurricanes hosted the Brandon Wheat Kings sporting the sweaters of the old Lethbridge Maple Leafs, who won the World Amateur Hockey Championship on the same date in 1951. They won 4-3.

This is a very cool tribute, and one of the few times "vintage white" is an acceptable color on a 2011 hockey uniform. They're honoring a team that played six decades ago. The cream color adds to the illusion that the guys are sporting the old club's sweaters. Even if we know better.

Now for all the links: Read a recap of the game on the team's website. Learn about the history of the Lethbridge Maple Leafs and the significance of the throwback night.

And while the auctions may be over, it's worth checking out what some of the sweaters sold for. One went for as much as $1,000! Who is Max Ross?

Thanks again to Josh S., our WHL watchdog.

I've got some other minor league jersey photos I'll try to get posted this week. Also preparing to give a stagnant Icethetics feature a big makeover. It'll give you another reason to keep coming back.

Saturday
Jan162010

Pink in the Rink

I've had a few days to recover from my awesome trip to Las Vegas last weekend. Wish I didn't have to come back. Ever. The sooner I can get out of Florida, the better.

In going through my email this week, I noticed a couple of notes regarding "pink in the rink" events going on throughout the hockey world. Traditionally, we see this most heavily in October, as that is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. But maybe it's January in Canada? I don't know.

The ECHL's Victoria Salmon Kings and WHL's Lethbridge Hurricanes (and possibly others) will be wearing pink-infused jerseys in action tonight which will later be auctioned to support breast cancer research. Yay for good causes!


Icethetics reader Stuart writes in about the Salmon Kings, providing a link to details of the jersey auction. The highest bidders will be winning the sweaters right off the players' backs — well in at least one case.

Salmon Kings' pink jersey

Only one live auction will take place tonight in Victoria. The winner of that will take goalie David Shantz's pink jersey.

Two silent auctions will kick off tonight at 6 PM (Pacific time) for jerseys being worn by Patrick Coulombe and Wes Goldie. Bidding closes when the second intermission ends and winners get their due right after the game.

Two online auctions, which began on Tuesday and end tomorrow, will see the winners cash in on sweaters worn by Olivier Latendresse and Jimmy Sharrow.

The team's web site is quick to point out that this is the first time in the team's six-year history that the players will skate in pink. Money raised from the event tonight goes to the B.C. Cancer Foundation. More photos are available by clicking here.


But wait, there's more. The Lethbridge Hurricanes, a junior club in the Western Hockey League, are also doing a Pink in the Rink event for the first time this weekend.

Hurricanes' pink jerseyThe two-night event began last night and continues tonight. Fans can bid on the pink-infused sweaters in a silent auction. The jerseys will be distributed to the winners following tonight's game.

More details are available on the team's official web site.

Proceeds from the jerseys will support the Canadian Cancer Society and the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. Along with the proceeds from the jersey auction, funds will also be raised through the intermission promotions and donations.

Also, in a player-driven initiative, a number of the Lethbridge Hurricanes have stepped forward and volunteered to have their heads shaven at the end of the second game to show their support and commitment to this cause.

The head-shaving thing is a nice touch.

My thanks to Joshua for providing the tip and the link to Canes broadcaster Pat Siedlecki's blog, from where I nabbed the above photo. Joshua also said he'd send along some pictures from tonight's game. If he does, I'll be sure post them right here. (Scroll down.)