A Brief History: Barclays Premier League Championship Badge

Every league around the world displays its logo on the kits of all their teams during league play.  This is most commonly done towards the bottom of the shoulder yokes.  In the Barclays Premier League, the previous year's champions get a little something extra, however.  Instead of repping the league's standard badge with a white filler, they get one with gold.  As most of the game's quirks in Europe go, this touch of gold, although minor in the grand scheme of things, adds more to the prestige that comes with winning in a top league.... making this BPL tradition one worth continuing.  

Standard Premier League Badge

Champion's Gold Badge

A Brief History: Calgary Flames Alternate Captain Patch

The Calgary Flames, believe it or not, used to be based to Atlanta.  There, the flames had a logo that was a flaming "A" instead of a flaming "C".  What is interesting about the flaming "A" is that it is still present on two Calgary sweaters today, those are the sweaters of the team's alternate captains.

Mike Cammalleri and his alternate captain patch

It is a hockey tradition that each team has one captain (who wears a "C" on his chest) and two alternate captains (who wear an "A" on their chests).  Every single NHL team, except for Calgary, makes their captain letters the same font as the numbers on the back of their jersey.

Calgary, unlike the rest of the league, does not match the font on the back of their jerseys with their alternate captain "A's" as they use the old Atlanta Flames logo instead.  I find this very creative and I think it is a smart move by the Calgary management because not only does it pay a tribute to the franchise's old team, it gives the lifelong Atlanta and Calgary fans a blast from the past!

Let us know what you think about the Calgary Flames alternate captain letters on our Twitter account (@JerseyCloset).  Also, if you have any suggestions for next Friday's "A Brief History" segment, let us know!

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A Brief History: Colorado Avalanche Yeti Logo

The Colorado Avalanche are often considered the NHL team with the most odd and peculiar secondary logo in the game.  This logo (above) is of the foot of the mythical creature known as the Yeti.  As strange as this logo may be, it does make sense for a team based in Denver as Yeti's are often rumored to have been spotted in Colorado's cold snowy mountains.

As much sense as it may make, however, many people ask themselves the question, "why?"  Why did the team decide to use such a logo and affiliate themselves with a Yeti?  Well, actually, there is no official answer to that question as the franchise has never offered an explanation!

In our opinion, we feel the team did this simply to be different and create a unique yet appealing jersey concept.  Maroon is already an uncommon base color for a jersey, so it would make sense for the jersey to have an uncommon logo as well!

What is your opinion on the Avalanche Yeti logo?  Let us know in the comments below or by tweeting us on Twitter (@JerseyCloset).


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A Brief History: The Start of the LA Kings Silver and Black Era

Everybody can remember the day when Wayne Gretzky was traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings.  However, something that often goes unrecognized from that same event was the re-branding of the Kings.  After rocking their historic yellow and purple color scheme for over three decades, the Kings (only a few days after the Gretzky trade) simplified their look going to a black, silver, and white color scheme. 

This change was not a coincidence with Gretzky's arrival, however, as the Kings re-vamped their look solely because of him.  They knew they had just went from a nobody franchise to an organization with the best player to ever live, so they had to make a statement.

As you can see today, this style was well accepted by Kings fans and black, silver, and white have been the franchise's colors ever since!  In fact, the Kings would win their first Stanley Cup in these colors.


Thanks for reading this weeks "A Brief History!"  Please let us know what you think in the comments.

A Brief History: New York Islanders Logo

A hockey jersey would not be complete without its logo, and over the last forty years (excluding their awful Fisherman logo) the New York Islanders have made a very minor and often times unrecognizable change to their logo.  This change was the addition of a fourth orange band around the hockey stick in their logo versus the original three.  The team did this to symbolize the organization's four straight Stanley Cup victories from the 80's.

Interestingly enough, however, the change occurred over twenty five years after the four cups, when the team resurrected their classic sweaters in 2010.  In addition to adding a fourth stripe, the Isles made all four of the stripes thicker and bolder so no one would ever forget their historic past.

Check out the evolution below:

The original logo with three thin stripes

The new logo with four bold stripes

We hope you enjoyed this week's "A Brief History" and let us know what you think below in the comments!  Here is a link to a video discussing the Islanders jersey/logo history in more depth: http://video.islanders.nhl.com/videocenter/console?id=72671


Thanks for reading! 

A Brief History: Detroit Red Wings Captain Letters

The Detroit Red Wings have arguably one of the most historic sweaters in the game of hockey, but there is one aspect of jersey that goes unnoticed by a lot of hockey fans.  That is the captain letters (the "C" and "A") and how they are on the top right side of the jersey instead of the top left like the rest of the league.  

Pavel Datsyuk's "A" is on the right side of his sweater

Many people think this is because the jersey design is so old and untouched, but that is not the case.  The real reason is because when the league decided to switch to the Reebok Edge jersey system in 2007, the new, more form fitting jerseys did not contain enough room above the wings in the logo to fit the captain letters in that space.  So, in an attempt to keep the same design the team has been rocking for nearly a century, the organization decided to put the "C" and the "A" on the right side of the jersey instead of messing with tradition.

If you enjoyed our first "A Brief History" segment please let us know in the comments below (we are open to suggestions).  Thanks for reading!