HbD News: New Penguins Third Jersey Announced (Gold BABY!)

By JVDW
In HbD Breakdown
Sep 19th, 2014
14 Comments

Pens-thirds-636The brand new third jersey to be worn by the Pittsburgh Penguins this coming season. It will be the 4th third jersey for the team since the 2008 Winter Classic (’08 Classic, ’11 Classic, ’14 Stadium Series, and now this one). That’s 4 in 7 seasons, in case you were wondering. I feel for Pens fans, having to constantly shell out money for these things. And this is already for a team that has a complete identity crisis surrounding their jerseys with more variations than any other team in the league. It’s craziness.

But, at least if you were a fan of the Penguins in the ’80s, you may not have to buy a new one, since it’s remarkably similar to their jerseys from the ’80s/early-’90s. Gone is the recent Vegas gold in favour of their original golden yellow. “Original”, meaning when they first starting wearing yellow instead of blue jerseys. And from the Worst to First post we did on the Penguins’ jerseys just a few months back, these black jerseys are one of the better ones, ranking 4th/3rd out of 12. Here’s what we said back then:

Here, a lot of Penguins’ jersey design experimentation comes full force, with angled striping on the sleeves, with the shoulder yoke merging with the base and the sleeves getting their own colour.

• More: Worst to First Jerseys: Pittsburgh Penguins (Redux)

I can’t point out enough that weird treatment of the shoulder yoke having the same colour as the jersey, and then the sleeves having a different colour. It’s extremely rare in the league, with only Detroit using it these days (and they have for many, many days). The Wings pull it off because the rest of their white jerseys are extremely minimal. Here in Pittsburgh, with those stripes, it just seems to stand out more. But it definitely looks more natural in the black jerseys than the white or gold ones they wore during that era.

These ones are definitely replicas of their 1988-92 jerseys, with the straight (not angled) stripes on the sleeves and great solid striping on the sleeves. Remember what else happened to the Pens from 1988-92. Oh yeah, two Cups.

Now, about black jerseys, which regular readers know I’m usually not a fan of…

It also forced the Penguins into a black jersey, which is something we’ve already discussed about how black jerseys don’t work well in hockey, on a clean white ice surface. But the Penguins slapped that black jersey with so much gold that you couldn’t really call it a black jersey…The black and gold works when the gold is allowed to dominate like this.

I’m still a big fan of the Pens’ Vegas gold – as it gives them a unique visual brand within the league and, admit it, just looks damn sharp – but as a third jersey, these are a definite win. I just wish they would have gone with the solid gold jersey instead of black, but that’s an issue for another day. But I wonder, maybe they’ll actually wear yellow helmets with them as well?

What do you think of these new thirds? Let us know in the comments below.

 

 

14 Responses to “HbD News: New Penguins Third Jersey Announced (Gold BABY!)”

  1. Michelle says:

    I really like the new third jerseys. Lets just hope these ones are as big of a Crosby-killer as the blues thirds. :/

  2. Chris says:

    Love this! Hope some other teams do the same and pick an old classic for their thirds as well.

  3. Francois says:

    Like the classic Penguins, very nostalgic of their great years with Mario Lemieux, Jagr, Francis, Barrasso, Coffey, Bowman, the list goes on….

    But I will say this however: I saw this picture, which was also on Twitter (see link below) and from the back, the bottom part of the shirt, with the horizontal striping and RBK Edge design looks really weird. Looks like a black jersey that is too small, with a long yellow on under it. Maybe it is just my eyes tho…

    http://toomanymenonthesite.com/2014/09/19/pittsburgh-penguins-unveil-new-third-jersey/

    • Admin says:

      Oh wow, yeah, I missed that image. Not crazy about that elongated yellow at all. Should have just kept it as a solid line with black underneath.

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  8. Great infromation.
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