Top 5: Worst Designs of 2014

By JVDW
In John van der Woude
Dec 30th, 2014
6 Comments

2014Worst-636It’s that time of the year, where everyone and their top-5-favourite-dogs-of-the-year are counting down the best and worst lists for 2014. We here at Hockey By Design are not immune to such things. Why? Because they’re addictive. Have you ever watched WatchMojo videos on YouTube? Good god, we’ve lost hours in that timesuck.

So today, we’re starting with the Top 5 Worst Designs of 2014 in the NHL. Tomorrow we’ll be doing the Top 5 Best Designs of 2014. Why worst first? Because you always pick the bad news before the good news when given the option. Always. Remember, these are the Top 5 Worst Designs that were announced in 2014. We covered stuff like the Sochi Olympics last year.

If you’re looking for the Top 5 Best Designs of 2014, click here.

 

2014 Worst-HawksThis isn’t so much of a bad design as a disappointing design. The Winter Classic has typically brought out some creative, historical and interesting jersey designs. These are definitely historical, replicating their 1957-58 jerseys, but it’s extremely similar to the road whites they usually wear, making them completely uninteresting. Even their first Winter Classic jerseys and Stadium Series jerseys were more interesting than this. Again, they’ll look really fantastic wearing these sweaters, there’s no question, but the least they could have done was bring back some of their incredibly awesome old logos from the ’20s–’50s and experiment with those a bit. Or bring in some striped-goodness of the ’30s. Instead, it’s more of the same.

Full Analysis: HbD News: Chicago Blackhawks’ Winter Classic Jerseys Announced

 

2014 Worst-SharksDon’t blame the Sharks on this one. These jerseys are league- and Reebok-designed with little input from the team itself, as they were with last seasons’ Stadium Series jerseys. There are some interesting innovations here, but overall, it’s a middling design that shows an interesting effort but with numerous mis-steps derailed the overall product. For the Sharks, their refusal to let go of the orange accent colour shows here why that’s a bad idea. The orange is placed on everything from the collar to…nowhere else. Bringing emphasis to the neck line of the Sharks is definitely ill-advised, considering last year’s playoffs. #ItWas3-0.

Full Analysis: HbD News: Sharks and Kings Stadium Series Uniforms Announced

 

2014 Worst-DucksCreating a road white version of their alternate home blacks and making these the primary jerseys was a good idea for the Ducks. It made the webbed-D their primary logo and finally got rid of the horribly-designed full “Anaheim Ducks” logo. But, their home blacks were not really that great of a design because they’re, well, pretty stripy. And they didn’t change that at all for these road whites…and they added different coloured shoulder yokes. Yeah, it’s a bit much. Remember the Canadiens’ barber-pole jerseys? That technically had less stripes. I think most zebras have less stripes.

Full Analysis: HbD News: New Ducks and Blues Jerseys

 

2014 Worst-KingsLike the afore-mentioned Sharks Stadium Series Uniforms, there are not great uniforms. What sets the Kings apart here, are those white shorts, creating a sea of white from nipple-to-knee, apart from a couple thin black lines. Anyone else see the apparent Jimmy Fallon and Will Farrell inspiration in these jerseys? They may not be that tight, but they’re certainly white: Everybody’s talkin’ ’bout my white pants, I got my white pants, I got my white pants on… 

Full Analysis: HbD News: Sharks and Kings Stadium Series Uniforms Announced

 

2014 Worst-Lightning-1

The emo jersey. It’s almost entirely black, because blue isn’t cool enough, right Tobey? Black is just so, you know, cool, because I’m a moody and deeply emotional intellectual who wants to look more intimidating and cool. Did I mention black is totally cool? Because it’s totally cool. The jerseys are also trying to replicate a team (the Kings) they look up to by wearing what they wear. That seems very emo. Right Lucius? And “Bolts”? You want to change your name to something that seems more cool and clever? That seems very emo. Right Prince?

Full Analysis: HbD News: New Lightning Third Jerseys Announced

 

Who gets your vote for worst design introduced in 2014? Let us know in the comments below. Want to know the best designs of 2014? Click here.

 

 

6 Responses to “Top 5: Worst Designs of 2014”

  1. David Richards says:

    As a Lightning fan; I watched them raise the cup in 2004. Awesome!! (wife had tears in her eyes!). What the hell emo shit are you talking? Shut up if you can’t think of something to write about. Today (30th) ; who’s in first place? Shut your trap. I love torts. Go Lightning!

  2. […] • The worst jersey of the year? Tampa’s third jersey even trumps the LA Kings Stadium Series diaper uniform. [Hockey By Design] […]

  3. keith says:

    third jerseys should be their vintage ones and think a lot of ppl would love to see the out door game playing in the jersey that wayne gretzky wore for the kings.

  4. […] Best Designs of 2014 in the NHL. Yesterday, we did the Top 5 Worst Designs of 2014, and you can read that here. Why worst first? Because you always pick the bad news before the good news when given the […]

  5. Madi says:

    I actually love all of these uniforms. The only thing to say about them is that they’re maybe too simple. But simple looks nice. Except the white pants for the Kings need to go.

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