Olympic Spirit
We're now a few days into the 2010 Winter Olympics and Canada and the United States are off to decent starts but the real test will be Sunday when they face each other. In the spirit of the games, a few artists have submitted related concept art.
 Jake Niehl |
Jake has put together these sweater designs for Team USA. The shield is cool, if not reminiscent of the NFL shield. But I fear he hasn't fully thought through the size of his numbers. Double-digits would have a little trouble. |
 Jeff Kennedy |
And Jeff has sent in this Team Canada concept. It's not so much an original design as it is a fusion of a few different ideas. But mainly, he's dropped the black in favor of gold. |
I'm really hoping to add more of an international flavor this post, so if you've got any ideas for ways to improve upon Finland, Russia, Sweden or anything like that, send it along and I'll include it here!
Chris
 Elias Cripotos |
Adding a little bit of European flavor to this post, Elias sends in his Swiss redesign. Not only is it great by itself, but it's miles better than Switzerland's actual jerseys — which are very plain, as you know. It's amazing what the addition of black does for the contrast on these sweaters, by the way. |
Keep sending in your Olympic-themed concept art through the end of February!
Reader Comments (16)
That Canada concept isn't allowed for the Olympics, they can't have a logo like that. With that said, I do like the look.
Can somebody explain to me the whole controversy with Canada having their "illegal" logo on their jerseys? I'm afraid I still don't understand.
That being said, I like the addition of gold in the logo. It's not in the flag, but then again, neither is black. I think gold would make a very strong accent color.
Nice concepts guys. Btw Chris I just sent u my team Switzerland jersey concept
Chris, everyday that goes by I start disagreeing more and more with your commentary, that Swiss concept would be insulting to the nation and their current set is so simple it's perfect.
I really like that Team Canada design but I think that for the IIHF World Championships, when Canada actually does wear that logo, it would look great if they switched the black to the dark red like the one above and leave the player white…..there’s no black on our flag so I don’t think it should be on our uniforms or in our logo.
I would really like to see a USA Jersey with some of that light blue that has found it's way into so many other US olympic uniforms. Dosent have to be replacing red or white, just trim around the numbers and striping.
I totally agree with KOHO, the Swiss jersey is so simplistic and beautiful. The USA is so simplistic that it is not that great, now the white 3rd on the other hand is pretty nice. But the Swiss concept is not that bad, but their current is very nice.
Agreed with Jared and Koho. Did anybody here watch Canada v Switzerland yesterday? Their jerseys were almost identical; black helmets and pants, red and white jersey and socks. Utterly confusing to watch, and I'm sure it didn't help the players at all. The Olympic teams could have done a better job in making these jerseys more unique from one another. Canada should switch to all red, eliminate black. I'm quite skeptical of olympic teams using colors other than their national ones (hint, Finland).
Or Italy? Why is it that they always use blue instead of green or red?
The italian one is a pretty complicated story, it was the colour of the crest of the Savoia Family, which have always been kings of italy until it became a republic back in the 40's. in started whit a soccer match at the beginning of the 20th century and the crowd seemed to appreciate the colour so much that it became the national colour for every italian sports team. we have gotten used to it, so i can't quite imagine an italian national team wearing something different from blue :D
@ Kevin: Canada isn't the only team affected by the uniform controversy. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) finally decided to enforce its long-standing rule about corporate logos on team uniforms. The Canada logo that we all know and love is actually the logo for the corporation Hockey Canada. The same goes for USA and several of the other countries. Since it's a corporate logo, the IOC did not allow them to use it on their jerseys. Hope that helps.
About those Swiss jerseys, all I can say is: "Mmmmm... Toblerone."
In case you're wondering, the script from those Canada jerseys (Jeff Kennedy) came from the Hockey Night in Canada logo.
The Canada concept is horrible. Terrible jersey style. Never liked the hockey player logo anyway.
The Swiss design is neat though. Definitly better than what they are wearing now.
@Glen So, that's why the USA isn't wearing the USA with the flag?
@ Kevin: Yup.