After unveiling the logo on the left to the world at the beginning of August, it was only a matter fo time before the jerseys were unveiled as well. The 2022-23 AHL season begins one week from today, so the Calgary Wranglers were looking to give their merchandise sales a boost by showing off their new threads today that the players will wear on the ice. I can honestly say that, having seen these a few times already today, that the former Stockton Thunder will have a distinct Calgary Flames feeling to them, but do the Wranglers accomplish the goal of making themselves a unique franchise with their new jerseys?
Rarely do I ever appreciate the videos these teams put out because they're nothing more than a marketing team's effort to be Michael Bay, but here's the work done by the Wranglers to introduce their look. You likely will never get these 87 seconds back, so I apologize.
Before we break down the jerseys shown, let me be the first to say that "It's time to join the herd" might be one of the worst marketing lines in all of history. Wranglers look after herds of livestock on a farm, so referring to the fans who fill the seats at games as "cattle" or "livestock" is a blunder that should never have been made. Did anyone review this before green-lighting it?
Personally, I would have followed through on the "ride for the city" by getting people to "come ride with the Wranglers this season", but I don't work in marketing for the Flames. It would make way more sense to be part of the team by riding with the Wranglers, but I don't get to make these decisions. Let me just say that you're not off to a great start here, Wranglers, but you do you.
Terrible marketing messaging aside, my thoughts on the logo are linked above, but I want to draw your attention to one specific line because the old Wranglers logo "is perfectly suited for the team name as it literally shows a wrangler in representing the Calgary Wranglers." I'm not here to rehash the logo debate, though. Instead, let's focus on the jersey design exclusively before being everything together in summation below.
The style of the jersey remains fairly true to the Wranglers' past.
As shown, the same striping and down-the-arms colour from the neck are in place on the new iteration of the Wranglers jerseys as they were on the old. I like that the accent stripe on the down-the-arm colours is thick just as the old Wranglers had, and I think the white numbers do show up better than the red numbers on the old uniforms. If the Wranglers are honouring the past Wranglers who called Calgary home, they've done a good job while improving the design slightly. That deserves some kudos.
If we're talking about the Wranglers, though, it's hard to imagine not having any horse or cowboy imagery on the jersey. Well, the Flames corrected that "problem" by including a familiar horse on the shoulder as a patch as Blasty, their horrifically bad horse logo, in a side profile. I cannot fathom why the Flames, who went back to their beloved retro look as an everyday uniform, would insist onre-introducing Blasty on their Reverse Retro jerseys a couple of years ago before slapping it on the shoulder of their newly-relocated AHL franchise. I cannot stress how much I dislike Blasty as a concept and in practice, but, for the first time in Flames history, there may actually be a purpose for Blasty in that he could have and likely should be the logo for the new Calgary Wranglers. Except he's not aside from living on players' shoulders.
Overall, the jersey is a good throwback in style elements to the Wranglers who skated in the WHL. While all these elements are in Calgary Flames' colours, the aesthetic is that the Wranglers' new uniforms look like traditional hockey uniforms. That's the good that came out of this unveiling today.
Again, I go back to the logo as being vitally important here because the logo on the front of this new jersey doesn't convey "Wranglers" in any way. You could be excused if the top logo made you think "Calgary Wildfire" because that ties the flames on the "W" to the Flames organization. The old logo, with the Wrangler clearly depicted, would have been a much better choice simply because that was the old Wranglers' logo. Heck, you can get away with a version of Blasty on these jerseys because minor-league logos are a little goofy and whimsical, but tying in the horse imagery would make it easier to understand that this team is the "Wranglers". The logo chosen for this team does not convey that message in its branding whatsoever, so, of the three shown above, it is a distant third-place to the other two logos. The colours are also very "Flames" and not very "Wranglers" if one wants to nitpick at the overall aesthetic, but it seems people smarter than I are making these decisions about marketing messages and branding for an AHL team called the "Wranglers". My two cents mean nothing.
These jerseys may look good on the ice and the style of jersey emulates the WHL Wranglers of the past, but if a non-hockey fan can't come up with the word "Wranglers" on guesses five, ten, or twenty into asking them what this Calgary hockey team is called, you missed the purpose of the assignment. And it's never a good thing to lose the casual fan when trying to sell tickets and merchandise for your team.
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