Updating The Crown

I normally have nothing to write about when it comes to the ACAC being that HBIC Headquarters is two provinces to the east. The Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference is a significantly important league when it comes to Canada West hockey history, though, as that league has graduated the likes of the Lethbridge Pronghorns, the Mount Royal Cougars, and, most recently, the MacEwan Griffins to the U SPORTS level. To say that ACAC hasn't had an effect on U SPORTS and Canada West hockey would be similar to saying that the IHL had no effect on the AHL: it's simply not true.

One team that had applied for university status, like the three listed in the previous paragraph, was Red Deer College as they looked to elevate their status across the nation by applying to become a university one year ago. They were instead granted the status of a "polytechnic school" by the Alberta government through this reclassification process. As a result, Red Deer College changed its name last summer to Red Deer Polytechnic, but their sports teams still needed an update to reflect their new school status.

While we await the Red Deer Polytechnic Queens hockey team to update their look, the men debuted their new look yesterday and it seems that the Kings will look good in their new threads next season!

Ok, there's a lot to unpack on the new look for the Kings, but this Dallas Stars-esque design works fairly nicely. It's clean, the jerseys look like hockey jerseys, and the logo isn't some overly elaborate design. If the Red Deer Polytechnic was following the KISS concept - "Keep It Simple, Stupid" - they achieved a good look in their new design according to this writer.

According to the release put out by Red Deer Polytechnic, "[f]eedback from two virtual Red Deer Polytechnic Athletics Engagement Sessions, along with responses from a public online survey during Winter 2022 Term were used to help shape the creation of the updated logo, which remains a Crown."

As the title of this article states, if your sports teams are called the "Kings" and Queens", a crown would be a very good choice of a logo. Not changing the logo, in this case, means a update would be needed and Red Deer Polytechnic went far simpler without abandoning the important elements. As you can see on the old logo, the detailing would make recreating the logo a bit of an effort if there were layouts needed for silk screening on merchandise. The new logo, though, is fairly easy to recreate, and the three points still create a crown-like design. Is it perfect? No, but it accomplishes the job with far less intricate design. If we're keeping it simple, Red Deer Polytechnic hits the mark with the logo redesign.

"The new Red Deer Polytechnic brand was unveiled on October 1, 2021, and this included a new logo," Kristine Plastow, Dean of Students, said in the release. "As a result of the changes, the brands of the Polytechnic and Red Deer Polytechnic Athletics were not aligned, so we engaged with stakeholders to better connect the two. With the bold and modern features of the updated Crown, along with the single green colour, the relationship between the two brands is now strongly correlated."

Design rhetoric aside, the jerseys follow the same green colour idea as Red Deer Polytechnic goes from a primarily white-and-black uniform design to one that is white-and-green. Automatically, this gets a massive thumbs-up from me due to my wanting more green on uniforms along with the retirement of the black uniforms as primary uniforms, but the new home and road uniforms look more like traditional hockey sweaters with their hem stripes, sleeve stripes, and the shoulder yoke on the white jersey. These upgrades to the design of the jersey along with the colour change are a positive upgrade in my books.

The only thing I don't like? That number font. That doesn't fit the uniforms at all, so let's hope they come up with something a little more regal for the Kings and Queens on these uniforms.

What shouldn't be forgotten, though, is that Red Deer Polytechnic can keep the black uniforms as an alternate or throwback uniform if they wish. Being that the Kings have played in some special games, the alternates black uniform can be brought out for those games if they wish, giving the Kings a complete hockey closet of jerseys. They have options here with the new uniform set, so why not use them all?

If you have a couple minutes to spare, Red Deer Polytechnic Athletics also made a quick video that shows all of their logos and history. There are some rather terrible designs in their history, but there are some that are good too. In short, they have a fun history with their sports teams, and this video highlights some of that fun!


Overall, I think this is an excellent rebranding for the Red Deer Polytechnic Kings men's hockey program. They didn't go overboard, they went more colourful, and they look like traditional hockey uniforms. One has to wonder if the women will wear the same design as the men, but they wouldn't lose any points if they did since this is a solid rebrand for Red Deer. Thumbs-up from this writer, and I can't wait to see the Kings on the ice in their new uniforms for the 2022-23 ACAC hockey season!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!