The First McFarlane Night

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a closet of jerseys from various teams and leagues, but a number of these jerseys are often found in "worst jerseys of all-time" lists. Whether it be the Bruins' Pooh Bear alternate, the Stars' Mooterus alternate, or the Islanders' Fisherman jersey, there are a pile of hangers with jerseys on them that lots of people once cringed over, but now want for their own collections. One jersey which used to be pretty polarizing is the Edmonton Oilers' alternate jersey, affectionately called the "McFarlane jersey", designed by comic book creator Todd McFarlane. The jersey was unveiled on October 26, 2001 where fans instantly had opinions from good to bad, but it caught the attention of hockey fans across the hockey world.

The McFarlane alternate jersey would be worn for the very first time the next night on Saturday, October 27, 2001 as the Edmonton Oilers welcomed the Vancouver Canucks to Skyreach Centre as Oilers fans would get to see their team in the new navy-and-silver look. Wins would help to ease the jersey into the Oilers' culture while losses would likely give the wrong association with the futuristic design.

A quiet first period with just one penalty called saw the teams hit the break still tied at 0-0, but Jochen Hecht would give Edmonton the lead in the new uniforms just 5:48 into the second frame as he scored on the power-play. Trent Klatt would tie things up as he scored at 10:28 for Vancouver while shorthanded, and the Canucks would go into the second intermission up 2-1 after Brendan Morrison scored with 3:03 left in the period. Could the Oilers rally in this one?

Just 13 seconds into the third period, Todd Marchant tipped a puck past Dan Cloutier to tie the game at 2-2. The teams would battle, but Anson Carter would put the Oilers ahead with 3:54 to play with his power-play goal, and Tommy Salo would close the door the rest of the way as the Oilers prevailed in their new alternate jerseys by a 3-2 score over the Canucks! That would move the Oilers to 8-4-1 on the season and 1-0-0 in the new threads while the Canucks fell to 3-8-1.

The jerseys began to fly off shelves across the hockey world.
As reported by CBC News, the Oilers' new alternate jersey was a hit with Oilers President and CEO Patrick LaForge stating they had sold "$300,000 worth of jerseys" in two-and-a-half days. That's a pretty good return on merchandise sales, and Cal Nichols, who spearheaded the Edmonton Investors Group who saved the Oilers, is right in that a good design should sell across many markets. But did it?

The NHL doesn't have any jersey sales figures for the 2001-02 season published, but LaForge told Global News' Reid Wilkins, "The jersey broke NHL records for third jersey sales for number of units and dollars sold. As we hoped, it was a hit with Todd's followers as well."

That's an encouraging tale when it comes to designing a logo and jersey for all aspiring designers, but McFarlane recalled that his design wasn't intended on just being a hockey logo and design.

"You could walk down the street with it," McFarlane told KISS 91.7FM of his Oilers logo and design. "That's it. That's all. That's how simple I think logos should be. It was a best-selling third jersey. It set records, so God bless Edmonton... a strong logo is a logo that anybody will wear, regardless of the sport. When you look at the wheel and that wing for the Detroit Red Wings, it doesn't say hockey. The Boston Bruins is a B with spokes on it. It's just a classic, cool look."

You might be thinking that the logo never really clicked as an Oilers logo, but they did break it down in a newspaper article to help people understand what the meteor-like oil drop was all about.

It's not a great explanation when you read it today with all the marketing jargon and verbal diarrhea that some teams use, but it was hard not to be impressed by that jersey. The Oilers did very well.

I wrote about my Oilers alternate jersey before on HBIC, but I do have one with #77 Oates on the back and the 25th anniversary patch on the front that they wore in the 2003-04 season. I get a lot of "I forgot Oates played with the Oilers" comments, but everyone seems to love the original McFarlane jersey now and it seems like everyone has a story about a player or a moment that involved these jerseys. Some of the names who wore the jersey are iconic as well: Smyth, Laraque, Niinimaa, Brewer, Pronger, Roloson, Samsonov, Nedved, and the aforementioned Oates. Needless to say, the Oilers had some talent wear this jersey as their careers went through Edmonton!

Clearly, October 27, 2001 is an important day in Edmonton Oilers history, and it certainly is memorable for jersey collectors when looking for the iconic McFarlane Oilers alternate jerseys. Again, some people didn't like it when it debuted, and that's ok. We're all allowed to make mistakes as long as we learn from them, and it should be very obvious that this jersey was absolutely not a mistake in any way.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!