The San Jose KISS

You might be aware of this blog's appreciation for the KISS aconyn. That is, I appreciate the idea of keeping designs simple and clean with the logo evident and the brand colours bold. This allows for quick identification by fans and players, and it helps the team sell merchandise thanks to the overall brand being highly recognizable. Logos that are highly-detailed and difficult to reproduce often don't sell well while highly recognizable logos - the Apple logo, the Nike Swoosh, McDonalds' golden arches - seem to stand against the test of time and often are well-known across the world. The San Jose Sharks were a highly-recognizable logo once, but changes and tweaks over the years have made the brand less iconic than it once was.

It started with the choice of colour for the Sharks as they opted for teal over traditional blues. CCM, who was making the NHL's jerseys at the time, didn't exactly like the idea of this colour, and they tried to dissuade the Sharks from wearing teal. The Sharks resisted the suggestion to change, and the result saw the Sharks go absolutely bonkers with their merchandise sales.

In a Yahoo! Sports article written by Josh Cooper, he states that the Sharks had an incredible initial run. He writes, "In their first year the team generated $150 million of retail, which accounted for 27 percent of the NHL's league total. They ranked second behind the Chicago Bulls, led by icon Michael Jordan at the time, in merchandise amongst all pro sports teams. According to Levine, most NHL teams accounted for 4-5 percent of the league's merchandise sales."

A brand-new team, a distinctly unique colour, and a fun-yet-rudimentary logo led to San Jose generating more retail dollars in 1992 than teams spend on player salaries today. After years of redesigns, additions of colour, relying way too heavily on black, and a lack of creativity in the branding overall, the San Jose Sharks look like they may be on their way back towards a more simple brand thanks to a leak of their new uniforms that they'll wear this season.

The Sharks will wear a more traditional style of hockey sweater this season with the sleeve stripes and hem stripes that make them look like a hockey team. Count me in as a fan of the striping already because this is the best version of stripes they've worn since the 2007-2013 era of jerseys. The Sharks will look like a proper hockey team this season!

For the first time since 2001, there is no black jersey in the mix. That's precisely how the Sharks should operate moving forward when you see these two jerseys hanging next to one another. Black as an accent colour still works for the Sharks so abandoning it altogether doesn't work within their colour scheme, but there is no way it should ever be a jersey colour again for this team. Stick to the primary colour that made you popular, San Jose, because the teal colour is uniquely yours.

My only quibble would be that I wanted to see the Sharks go back to their original teal colour as opposed to keeping the darker teal colour. As shown to the right, the colour on the upper-left was the colour worn in the Sharks' early years compared to the darker teal they wear now. The darker teal almost comes off gray while the original colour has that splash of blue to it that keeps it from looking too gray. I like the teal colour overall, but I do think the Sharks would benefit from lightening up the teal colour to their original pantone colour. Regardless of my opinion, though, the Sharks always look better in teal and need to keep that as their home jersey colour.

San Jose finally has gone back to the KISS concept as they've kept their redesign simple while letting the logo and colour scheme do the talking for them. All unnecessary colours have been removed from the overall colour scheme, and the result is a very traditional-looking hockey jersey that most hockey fans would appreciate.

I'll officially call this uniform set the "San Jose KISS" jerseys - the San Jose Kept-It-Simple Sharks jerseys. Well done, Sharks, on a gorgeous redesign for the 2022-23 season!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!