Red Wings Winter Classic Jersey Concept #2

Back in February I took a look at one possible jersey the Red Wings could wear next January when they host the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2013 Winter Classic at Ann Arbor’s Michigan Stadium.  Now I’ll go through another option for the team.

As I said last time, you can be pretty sure that we’ll see some form of “vintage” look from both Detroit and Toronto.  I think that it’ll be something based on a look the teams have previously worn, rather than an entirely new design.  As such, this one is a familiar look, based on the sweaters of the 1926-27 Detroit Cougars.

Why I started with the ’26-’27 sweater as a basis:
This is a familiar look, as it’s the style the Red Wings wore in 2009 when they visited the Chicago Blackhawks for the Winter Classic at Wrigley Field.  It allows the team to have some consistency in that respect.

Why I made the changes I made:
Detroit will be the home team next January, and in all likelihood will be wearing dark jerseys.  As the 2009 sweaters (like the ’26-’27 ones they were based on) were white, I switched the colors around to make a dark version.  The color swap is the only change I made to keep things consistent with the 2009 design.

Other design decisions:
As with my last concept, I’d expect a lace-up collar to be part of this one.  My template just doesn’t show it.

I avoided following the trend of using “vintage white” because the 2009 version of this sweater didn’t and  I wanted consistency between the two.

Additional reasons I think this could be worn:
The big benefit to going with this one would be branding.  The Red Wings already have merchandise featuring the Old English D (even if it’s what I would say is the wrong D) and the ’26-’27 Cougars sweater is the only time they’ve ever regularly worn it.  If they wanted to wear something other than the Winged Wheel, it seems like the Old English D is what they’d default to.

Disclaimer:
I have no advance knowledge of what the Red Wings or the Maple Leafs will wear on New Year’s Day, this is just a concept of something Detroit could wear.I know my template isn’t perfect. I’m admittedly too lazy to fix it. I already mentioned that I expect the sweater to have a lace-up collar and I know the Reebok vector would be replaced by their wordmark.