USA Hockey unveiled the jerseys to been worn by the men’s and women’s teams at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi today to much ridicule.
Both the blue and the white jerseys feature blue shoulders with sublimated stars printed on them. At the collar is faux-lacing, where what appears to be lacing is simply a printed graphic.
On the white jersey the blue shoulders are bordered with a thick red stripe. On the blue jersey this is replaced with a red and a white stripe high on the sleeves.
The crest is a modernization of the USA shield worn by early American Olympic entries and seen recently on alternate jerseys.
There is no striping on the body of the jersey.
As I did with the Red Wings’ Winter Classic jerseys, I’m taking a look at how the elements that went into the final jersey design could have been used to make a better concept.
The sublimated stars are removed because they’re a horrible idea. The blue shoulder is retained on the white jersey, however, in the form of a more standard yoke design.
The sleeve stripes on the blue jersey are lowered to a more traditional location and mirrored onto the white jersey, where blue swaps for white. Those stripes are also added to the waist of the jersey in another traditional design concept.
The shield remains in place but slightly larger.
My template doesn’t show it but the jerseys would feature standard lace-up collars.
With a handful of changes the 2014 jerseys go from a mish-mash of too-modern ideas to a classic-looking concept.
