0037: A Possible Fix for Pittsburgh?
Last week I lent voice to the opinion that the Pittsburgh Penguins are overdue for a uniform overhaul. They wear a generic template with washed out colors and a weak design. I'm not saying Alan Waldron has the perfect solution, but this is certainly a step in the right direction. It minds the club's near half-century of history with bold lines and a design that stands out. If it were me, the one thing I'd change: forget Vegas gold and go with full on Penguins yellow from back in the day. Where do Pittsburgh fans stand on the matter?
Having said mine, it's only fair now that I let Alan say his peace on the design:
I kept the Pens 5-stripe pattern because I like the fact that it's a design element unique to the Penguins and featured on our inaugural uniforms. I know there aren't many people in the 'Burgh that like the diagonal Pittsburgh on the front, so I've included a second option with the circle logo which I think is equally as attractive.
Chris
After reading through the comments, Alan has made some revisions to his Penguins concept. What do you think of the changes?
Alan Waldron 
Reader Comments (33)
As a Pens fan, this is exactly what I'm looking for. I prefer Vegas Gold over yellow, just to be unique, but it looks a lot better when it's shiny, like on the CCM sweaters. If Reebok could do that this would be almost perfect.
Very impressive. I would go with the black and diagonal "PENGUINS" white jersey. Yellow would be better than the gold though. Also, the circular shoulder patch on the white diagonal jersey may be unnecessary - just the skating penguin without the circle around it would like fine. Those are the only two things I would change, with the yellow for gold swap being the more requested one.
With those two jersey's, the Penguins can then go with a yellow jersey as a third jersey that has the skating penguin as the crest. I think more teams, such the Penguins and Sabres (for their next 3rd jersey), will be going to yellow third jerseys because of the success of Nashville's new home jersey. Also, a yellow third jersey is a good choice because they can be used at home or on the road, since they go well against colored or white opposing jerseys.
Man, that's great. They should use those.
I'm liking the new jersey design / template for the home and road jerseys, not a great fan of the third jersey being the same as the road or of 3 different logos for the 3 jerseys tho.
personally i'd keep the basic skating penguin logo for the home & road and make the third jersey gold.
It always looked like urine yellow to me, this vegas gold. I liked the 80's/90's yellow much better. Sure it looked a bit Bruins, but much better than what they have now. IMHO, they should've added grey to differentiate from BOS, like their late 90's third uniform.
Considering that the Penguins just built a $300 million arena that features black and vegas gold throughout the entire venue from signage to seat colors, I doubt the Pens will be switching back to yellow anytime soon.
I agree with Scott, vegas gold looks much better when it's used on a shiny/metallic fabric, which is why I made it "glittery" in the concept.
As a pens fan I agree its time for a makeover. I like these designs I would just make a few changes. I would keep the circle logo found on one of the white ones and use that on both black and yellow. I would switch the gold to yellow and reduce the striping to 3 instead of 5. I think 5 makes the jersey look to busy. Overall, I agree these are a step in the right direction.
Also a Penguins fan. I like the pattern you chose and the the way you used the color scheme. My only concern with having the diagonal PITTSBURGH would be the problem of where to put any of the anniversary patches or Stanley Cup patch. Because of this, I like the white one with the circle logo on the chest without any shoulder logos.
Those are nicely executed! I wonder if it might look a little "cleaner" with 3 stripes vs the 5 here (I realize the 5 is a Pittsburgh tradition though)?
I think I prefer the circular logo on the road jersey in this instance, although that diagonal Pittsburgh ain't too shabby either.
I remember when the Penguins changed to black and gold and the Bruins had a fit. I like the original colours back then, back then they were the only team in navy blue. If the Penguins change uni's they will most likely keep the black and gold so these concepts nicely combine the old and new...nice job!
I know I'm in an absolute minority here as a pens fan, but I honestly don't see anything wrong with vegas gold. IMHO, I like it a lot more than the 80s/90s yellow. It does look sharp as a detail on black, it's unique, and it has a cool, as in cold, feel to it that goes along with the whole penguin theme, you know?
I think a shoulder yoke like Carolina's current away jersey or Minnesota's third and other some minor detailing should be worked into the uniform somehow, but I, personally, am happy with the Pen's coloring right now..
As a Pens' fan (and a proud owner of a real 1972 Syl Apps circle-crest jersey), I don't hate the Vegas gold, just believe the current design makes it look awful. Currently there is no separation between the gold and the white on the away uniforms, making it all bleed together. And so, the gold splotch under the arms ends up looking to me like a huge sweaty pit stain.
All that said, I would buy both of these concept jerseys if they were adopted. A 1000 percent improvement over the current design. Are you listening Mario?
Just went to the new arena and there is a lot of Vegas gold. But the Pens store in the arena has a Ton of yellow gold items for sale. Think it might be back as a third jersey. Anything is better than the pajama on ice theme that reebok shoved down our throats.
Not a fan of the 60's/70's Frankenstein mish mash blue the Pens use now as a 3rd jersey, nor am I a fan of a black/vegas gold version of it......sorry!! The Pens need to look at the WBS 3rd(looks like the Pgh Pens '91/'92 unis except for its vegas gold and WBS logo) and go with those (using Pgh logo). Personally I'd LOVE the Pens go back to yellow gold and I've said it many times before, Yes the Pens switched to black/yellow gold to be like the Pirates/Steelers BUT the Pittsburgh Pirates Hockey Club wore the City colors of Black/Yellow gold before the Pirates(MLB) and Steelers and Yes the Bruins protested the color change BUT in the same time period the Pgh Pirates Hockey Club wore Black/Yellow Gold while the Bruins themselves wore Brown/Yellow gold
http://www.nhluniforms.com/1925-26.html
As a Pens fan, I love these concepts. Long overdue for a change.
These jerseys upset me. Changes MUST be made! Have the white jersey be an inversion of the dark jersey with the 3rd jersey having the diagonal PITTSBURGH. Also, get rid of the jersey ties and have the collars be black on all 3 while turning the Vegas Gold back to Yellow Gold.
If they're not going back to the 80-92 gold sleeve style, this would be a nice alternative. It's definitely a vast improvement over the bland Edge template they currently use.
Wouldn't mind seeing a treatment in the classic yellow "gold", though. I do agree with the point made by Scott above; shiny Vegas gold is good, matte Vegas gold looks like crap. There's just one element I don't like here, namely a useless cosmetic add-on around the neck area... but I'm willing to say it's not a dealbreaker here.
Being a huge pen's fan myself (and actually from pittsburgh), I wouldn't consider their jerseys "generic" and add a replacable option that only contains a black sweater with five gold stripes.
These past concepts have been gorgeous lately. Highly impressed!
Only thing to fix this would be to reduce the number of stripes, too many of them here cluttering the jersey making it look too busy.
I hate to rain on the parade, but this jersey already exists. The Pittsburgh Elite Girls (Youth) Hockey Program is already wearing them...
http://penguins.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=552405
Perfect. Well done.
I'm a Pens fan, but I see Vegas gold as the problem, not the solution, I'm all in favor if bringing the late 80's jerseys back with a few tweaks, Vegas gold could be implememted and be okay, but I don't care much for this design with Vegas gold.
I hate their WC jerseys... This is just a tweaked WC jersey.
No way I would get behind this.
I can live with Vegas Gold, but not taupe - which is how the color comes across on the Reebok jersey. As others have pointed out, the patchy taupe and white under the arms is hideous. I rate the 2000-2007 CCM jersey with shiny gold and chevrons a 10 compared to a 1 for the Reebok.
As for this concept: the diagonal letters are incredibly boring to me, I say stick with the crest (don't mind if it's in a circle on the road / third jersey). Not a fan of the 5 stripes, and not sure how that's a "Pittsburgh" thing other than that the '67 Pens jerseys had 5. I could easily justify 3 for ya - three rivers. I would not be surprised if the Pens kill the navy/5 stripe mishmash jersey and bring in an '80s/early '90s black and gold as the next third jersey, but I would also not mind seeing the primarily yellow (circa 1983: http://www.nhluniforms.com/Penguins/Penguins12.html) find its way back someday. Ultimately, I like where Alan was heading with this, but my personal preferences would dictate the aforementioned changes.