Prototypes Aren't Final Designs

I'm not one to criticize anyone's designs since my artistic abilities are limited to stickpeople and colouring books. I will fully admit that the people who design logos are incredibly talented, but those who often design jerseys seem to lose their way when it comes to capturing a team's identity. It's no secret that there were a lot of less-than-impressive designs when Reebok took over the league-wide NHL jersey contract, but seeing some of the prototypes for what could have been often has me shaking my head. While there's nothing particularly wrong with these designs, there's nothing that makes them good or impressionable either. Thanks to a Twitter account, we got to see a Vancouver Canucks prototype that's... something else.

Full marks goes out to the Vancouver Canucks History Twitter account who, on Tuesday, decided to drop these beauties on social media.

These two prototype images were taken from the SportsLogos.Net Forums who had posted them from a Worthpoint auction listing, but let's just jump into this and say that I'm fairly happy that these never saw the lights of an NHL arena. They do have a little of the colour scheme that 1997-2001 Canucks were using, but let's call a spade "a spade" and say these are pretty terrible in design and execution.

Again, these are prototypes, though, so seeing the Canucks trying to resurrect the red-silver-and-blue scheme while sporting zero green should be considered a crime. The Canucks started as a green-and-blue team, so that's part of their history that shouldn't be forgotten. I realize that the Canucks wore red, yellow, and black for many years, but those colours should only be used if the skate logo is involved. Otherwise, stick to the original colours and wear them proudly.

It took them awhile to finally go back to their heritage colours full-time, but the return to the green-and-blue scheme in 2007-08 just looks better than all the other designs they've worn. Again, I like the skate logo being used as an alternate jersey because a lot of people in Vancouver and who are Canucks fans grew up with that look, but that green-and-blue look is uniquely Vancouver Canucks.

I'll say it again: prototypes are never final designs. In fact, a lot of designs are only steps in getting to a final design that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing. In Vancouver's case, it took them ten years to go from the red-yellow-black colour scheme to the green-and-blue colour scheme, so just remember that teams may wear more misses than hits when it comes to uniform designs.

Those prototypes above? Classify them as misses in the process.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!