HbD News: Stadium Series Jerseys Announced for LA and Anaheim

By JVDW
In HbD Breakdown
Dec 3rd, 2013
19 Comments

Kings-Ducks-SS-636This morning, both the LA Kings and Anaheim Ducks unveiled the jerseys they’ll be wearing for the upcoming Stadium Series game at Dodger Stadium on January 25, 2014. The nice thing about having these sort of one-off games, and having jerseys for them, is that you know exactly what your opponent will be wearing and can plan accordingly. Sounds like the beginnings of a bad date, but it’s always awkward when you show up wearing the same thing (and someone always has to point it out too). That awkwardness is heightened when you’re playing a sport against each other, which is why teams have coloured jerseys and white jerseys, so you always know you’ll look different than the other team.

That’s also why I’m very excited about the Winter Classic between Detroit (wearing all red) and Toronto (wearing all blue). It’s going to look fan-flipping-tastic. And then you get the Stadium Series between your angry hungover uncle wearing orange pyjamas and your unattractive aunt on her way to a funeral. Sigh.

Okay, where to start? The “OC” patch on Anaheim’s jersey? LA’s choice to use grey as their “colour”? The slanted numbers? The chromed logos? Nah, I’m going to ease myself in and start with the positives.

Neither team will be wearing white, which is kind of cool. That’s what I meant at the beginning about being able to plan your jersey for your opponent. If Anaheim wore these jerseys against, say, Philadelphia’s home orange jerseys, it wouldn’t work. But, knowing it’s a one-off jersey and knowing which team you’re going to play against allows you to get creative. Hooooboy, they got creative.

The slanted numbers appears to be an NHL-demanded design element, as it first appeared inexplicably on the Islanders’ Stadium Series jerseys. And it’s also on both these jerseys. Is it worse than Nike’s fake laces on the upcoming Olympic jerseys? I’m not so sure, but it’s definitely in the same category. As I stated about the Islanders’ jerseys, I have no idea why they would do this as it serves absolutely no purpose other than to have something different. That’s not the end result of a meaningful design process, that’s just messing around with things just because you want to.

It looks like the sleeves also have the angled striping that don’t wrap around the entire arm. It’s obvious on the images of the Ducks’ jerseys, but not so much on the Kings’. I’m guessing LA has it too and, again, it’s identical to the Islanders’ designs, so it’s looking more like an NHL-mandated design. The NHL is having their “fake laces” moment, à la Nike.

Bakzbn_CAAElPpo.jpg-largeOkay, now about the individual jerseys. First up, the Ducks. I don’t have a problem with orange at all. In fact, the Flyers have pretty awesome jerseys that are dominated with orange, but the big difference is that it’s not all orange. What happens with the lack of shoulder yokes, or any sort of striping anywhere on the jersey aside from the sleeves is that it starts looking seriously like a young boy’s pyjamas, especially because they used a bright and not commonly worn orange colour. In their beige-gold colour, it may have worked better. But like this? In orange? It looks a bit ridiculous and needs other elements to make it work. Textbook example of less not always being more.

As for the OC shoulder patch, from a design standpoint it fits with their branding and alternate logo and all, but c’mon, don’t call it that.

Oh, and the chrome logo looks awful on it, as expected. When you mix some sort of mangled skeuomorphistic logo with a flat design on the jerseys, it’s not going to look good.

BakxHhwCMAAAvrY.jpg-largeFor the Kings, given the colour palette the team has chosen for their branding, there’s not much else to do other than use a grey jersey. They already have black and white jerseys, so what’s a team to do? Well, going full-on retro and bringing back the purple-and-gold would have been pretty cool. Either would have looked pretty fantastic when matched against the Ducks’ orange jerseys.

But, after a little bit of time to really look at it, I don’t mind the use of grey that much, as it’s a look that’s a little more unique within the NHL and, aside from possibly looking dirty and rolled over numerous times by an asphalt truck, it might work. Don’t get me wrong, I would have much rather than purple or gold jerseys for the Kings, but if they didn’t want to do that, there’s not too many other options for them. Maybe they’ll actually be super-retro during the game, looking like they’re somehow playing on a black-and-white TV?

The shoulder patches, like the Islanders, come to a point and work better on the Kings’ jersey than on New York’s because it hasn’t got as much contrast between the black and grey. The “LA” shoulder patches follow the branding, using the “LA” from their logo and changing it to fit into a square patch. I don’t mind it at all. It’s a bit like what Toronto did with their TML patches, which definitely harkens back to baseball aesthetics, but the lack of interlocking between the letters gives it a more unique feel.

The worst part of this jersey is easily the chrome logo. Again, it doesn’t fit with the aesthetics of the jersey and just looks ridiculous on there.

The striping is consistent across the sleeves, collar and bottoms and it’s a classic hockey striping design. Shit, I think I may be starting to actually like these jerseys a little bit. But, when Anaheim set the bar so low, it’s hard not to. Regardless, the Kings’ jerseys are definitely the winner of these two jerseys. And that’s just depressing.

Best tweet about it? Easily this one…


Agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments.

 

19 Responses to “HbD News: Stadium Series Jerseys Announced for LA and Anaheim”

  1. Duff says:

    In addition to being chromed up, the logos are extremely large. Guess they wanted to make sure we didn’t miss the shine.

  2. […] all go read what noted Jersey Expert John van der Woude of Hockey by Design has to say about the Kings and Ducks Coors Light Stadium Series™ Jerseys. And after that… we’ve assembled the #TeamTRH Players to give their input and thoughts […]

  3. […] a surprise move, the Ducks use their fugly Stadium Series jerseys early for this festively horrendous week. Against the red and green of the Devils, there will be […]

  4. […] There’s some things in general that we can gripe about with all of the jerseys introduced in the Stadium Series, but this one has got to be the worst of the bunch. From it’s presentation – of Ryan Getzlaf all Movembered-up, looking like that creepy uncle that you see only at holidays and weddings/funerals, in a jersey that looks oddly frumpy and way too form-fitting – to its overall design, this is pretty awful. The extreme simplicity of the jerseys works against it, looking more  like orange pyjamas than a professional hockey jersey. We have nothing against orange, but it’s not helping to fight that whole pyjama thing either. See our full analysis of these jerseys here. […]

  5. […] refined). Also, the slanted numbers on the sleeves. The recent Stadium Series introduced that on their jerseys, and even 18 years later, it still doesn’t work. It’s like raw […]

  6. fucking love mighty ducks jersey!!!!!!!!!!!!

  7. […] if they both agree to wear their Stadium Series jerseys the entire series, well, that might be awesome by being totally awful. At least it wouldn’t be […]

  8. […] On the flip side, I can see why some people would complain that they don’t do enough, and it looks very similar to their current road whites. Fair enough. It would have been interesting to see a Vegas gold jersey instead of white (which would have worked against the Blackhawks in the game since they wore black). But like I said, the NHL is setting restrictions on these jerseys, and these ones are miles ahead of what Anaheim or Los Angeles came up with. […]

  9. […] You saw this one coming, right? If you read our Top/Worst 5 of 2013 post from a couple weeks ago, you know how we feel about the Ducks’ orange pyjamas uniform. There’s too few other elements  to counteract the extremeness of the orange that completely dominates the entire uniform. Even the Flyers know there’s limit to the amount of orange to put on a jersey. Cutting the sleeve stripes off was a mistake. This jersey needed the full sleeve stripes, as well as striping along the bottom of the jerseys, and maybe ever the shoulder yokes. The full orange is just too much. With black gloves and shorts, it’s getting a little Halloween-esque as well. And in case nobody has yet mentioned it, orange and beige don’t really work together. Kudos to Jonas Hiller though, for fully embracing the monstrosity of it all, by adding an orange helmet and pads to compliment these jerseys, if you can use the word ‘compliment’. If I may offer an alternate idea for the Ducks that would have been awesome? How about the jerseys from the movie they’re originally named after? Read the full assessment of the jerseys here. […]

  10. […] Full Analysis: HbD News: Stadium Series Jerseys Announced for LA and Anaheim […]

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  12. […] Full Analysis: HbD News: Stadium Series Jerseys Announced for LA and Anaheim […]

  13. […] More: HbD News: Stadium Series Jerseys Announced for LA and Anaheim • More: Worst to First Jerseys: Anaheim Ducks […]

  14. […] More: HbD News: Stadium Series Jerseys Announced for LA and Anaheim • More: Worst to First Jerseys: Anaheim Ducks […]

  15. […] More: HbD News: Stadium Series Jerseys Announced for LA and Anaheim• More: Worst to First Jerseys: Anaheim Ducks […]

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  17. […] • More: HbD News: Stadium Series Jerseys Announced for LA and Anaheim […]

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