IceHL Jersey: From Fantasy to Reality

Today I'm thrilled to announce that for the first time ever, you can place an order for an Icethetics-branded product — and it's all thanks to our new friends at RinkGear!

Over the last several weeks, we've been conducting a series of polls to determine the most popular IceHL jersey design. And as you can see, the winner was the Milwaukee Lagers. And as of now, RinkGear is accepting pre-orders for this jersey!

If you're new to this party, the IceHL is a fantasy hockey league created from the by the Icethetics community, who wanted a creative avenue to fully brand a group of hockey teams from the ground up. And we did. The project began in 2008 and hundreds of polls have been conducted along the way to make sure the community is driving the decisions. For more on The IceHL Project, download the Yearbook.

The Milwaukee Lagers logos were designed by Joshua Frederick and the jersey was assembled by Matt Madore. Congratulations to these guys on seeing their work go from a computer screen to the real deal!

The Lagers sweater is being sold as part of RinkGear's Geeky Jerseys line and costs $95 — customization included. As far as the quality you can expect, here's what the company promises:

Your handmade jersey will feature high quality embroidered front, shoulder, and IceHL chest crests, lace-up neck, digitally sublimated stripes, plus a custom cut and sewn name and number of your choosing.

I have yet to see a RinkGear jersey for myself, but from everything I've read, they have a lot of satisfied customers. And the fact that this sweater features an embroidered crest and shoulder patches says a lot. Sounds to me like quality matters to them.

Obviously, the Lagers jersey was popular with voters but so were a lot of other IceHL designs! So if you're hoping to see another one go into production, place your Lagers order now. RinkGear will consider doing more IceHL jerseys depending on how this one sells. If it's a success, there will be more. And for my part, I'd like to own a North Carolina Nighthawks jersey!

By the way, for all you fantasy geeks, check out The IceHL page for weekly league updates. Listen, just because there's no NHL doesn't mean there's no fantasy hockey. The IceHL is currently in action and being powered by AHLers instead. (But of course we're keeping our fingers crossed that the NHL resumes soon.) You can follow along this season right here on Icethetics all year long!

New York Islanders Moving to Brooklyn

The New York Islanders announced today that they will be moving to Brooklyn, New York and playing their home games at the Barclays Center beginning in the 2015-16 season — after their lease at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum expires.

Barclays Center hockey seating chartOf note to Icethetics readers is the fact that the colors, name, logo and uniforms will be remaining the same. In other words, the club will not be named the Brooklyn Islanders. (Then again, the move is still three years away and who knows what could happen between now and then.)

The Barclays Center is actually not ideal for NHL hockey so I was a little surprised by the announcement. The arena holds on 14,500 for hockey when most other "state-of-the-art" buildings seat about 20,000. Naturally, it seems like it will have to mean higher ticket prices and a need for higher attendance.

Not unlike Seattle's much-maligned Key Arena, the Barclays Center wasn't really designed with hockey in mind. And when you replace a basketball court with a hockey rink, you lose a lot of seats at one end. Not much you can do about that, I guess.

But it gives me hope Seattle can put a team in the Key until new arena is built. I'd be all for that!

What do you think of this announcement by the Islanders? And what do you think of the fact that the 40-year-old name and logo will remain the same?

St. Charles Chill Joining CHL in 2013

The Central Hockey League is expanding next season. Well, re-expanding.

After the Laredo Bucks were sold this summer, the new ownership decided to the suspend the franchise for a season while it relocates to St. Charles, Missouri. The team will pick up in the 2013-14 season as the St. Charles Chill.

This, of course, means we'll be anticipating a new logo unveiling at some point within the next year. And the Chill are actually looking to fans for a little help in that regard. Last week, the team posted the following message on its Facebook page:

We have been working on getting the perfect logo for your new team. Anyone out there who would like to submit a logo can send it to nicole@stcharleschill.com.

Their colors are black, white, silver and "ice blue as an accent color," as they put it. So if you have a logo idea for the Chill, your email goes straight to the team's GM, Nicole Kupaks. By the way, if you do submit a design, feel free to send it my way too and I'll be happy to post it on the Icethetics Concepts page.

St. Charles Chill's official website (10/23/12)