Saturday, September 11, 2010

On Sweaters...


Just a quick thought:

Reading Bruce Garrioch's piece on rookie camp player Cory Cowick being excited to wear the Senators uniform for the first time today in London, it occurred to me that the actual NHL uniform is devalued somewhat when guys who have no hope of making the team are allowed the luxury of wearing the real sweater.

Not to be a grinch, but wouldn't the legit NHL sweater be more of a threshold if the rookie camp players wore different sweaters, something similar to the practice jerseys, in rookie camp games? And why not extend that to pre-season games as well?

That way, when you actually make it to the NHL and play your first regular season game, putting on that real NHL jersey really means something.

As it is now, even try-out players put on the jersey for meaningless games in September. It's like having two Stanley Cups - a fake one sitting in the Hall Of Fame in Toronto so people can get their picture with it and the real one touring around to various events. It doesn't feel right.

Plus, the team could then experiment with different style jerseys and even sell them to fans who would gladly pay for the kitsch factor of owning a rare but official Sens jersey with a different design. You'd have 3 different sets of sweaters. Rookie, Pre-Season, and Season Official.

Hell, let the rookies try out those super vintage jerseys like the one pictured above. Now that's a marketers dream.

Just a thought....

5 comments:

Young said...

Yes Milksy, a little Grinchy of you, but I see where you are coming from. It would be sick to see them wear cool different jerseys though, I agree with that

Anonymous said...

I like it. I think it's a great idea.

It'd be cool if the official Sens jersey is somehow put on a pedestal.

The only thing I'd add, is that they should seriously come up with a real official jersey, instead of changing it every couple of years.

I get that they need the merchandising revenue. But, keep the original white 2-D as the staple. There's so much history with that. Screw around with the other ones if you want.

Anonymous said...

Whole-heartedly agree. It was weird to see Condra wearing the C in this afternoon's game against Pittsburgh.

But at least the Ottawa rookies have the decency not to wear the numbers of actual players on the team - it was really weird to see a Pitt rookie wearing Staal's #11.

Canucnik said...

If you are good enough to be invited to Rookie Camp ya get to wear the sweater of the Big Club...it's tradition....then they take 'em away and reissue at the main camp and take 'em away again, it's almost impossible to hawk one even if you are going to be a star in Bingo!

Kara said...

I really don't like that "O" on the front, reminds me too much of a zero!

I love the classic look though; if they could "remodel" it just a little...maybe a maple leaf or a "S" or something. Very nice look.

Hockey season is coming!