This past October the Western Hockey League’s Saskatoon Blades ran a jersey design contest giving a fan an opportunity to see their creation come to life and be worn on the ice for the Blades’ game against the Swift Current Broncos on February 2nd.
Today the Blades announced the lucky winner, Fabio Burà who wins a team autographed version of his jersey as well as tickets. Fabio’s jersey was chosen via a fan poll amongst four other finalists and was the clear winner according to the Blades.
The winning design, click for larger image
Burà’s design features a logo he designed, a “Blades” wordmark in which the “L” is also a hockey stick with tape, “SASKATOON” below. A nearly impossible to see maple leaf appears in the top left of the “B” on “Blades”. A shoulder logo was also designed by the winner, crossed hockey sticks and a maple leaf (did you know they were from Canada?) with the team name around it in a round logo.
The other finalists jerseys are shown below… did the Blades fans make the right choice? Have your say in our comments:
Chris Creamer is the founder of SportsLogos.Net and has been maintaining it since June 1997. You can follow him on Twitter at @sportslogosnet or contact him via email at ccreamer@sportslogos.net
Ian
Thursday, January 3, 2013 at 11:40I like it but I really like one with a sword in it...I like the shoulder patch of the sword made out of the SB. The hockey stick L is kind of blah and unoriginal IMO.
Alex Romanelli
Thursday, January 3, 2013 at 11:41mine was better, that sucks
Ben Foster
Thursday, January 3, 2013 at 22:21Well, don't we all have our opinions?
Big Stunna
Thursday, January 3, 2013 at 11:50Generic font FTW
Delayed Penalty
Thursday, January 3, 2013 at 11:54At first glance I liked it, but the longer I look at it the worse it gets. Serpentine, Brush Script, whatever that hockey stick/S money symbol thing is down on the hem. Finalist #1 is better IMO, but it's a fan voted contest, so majority rules I guess!
Mark
Thursday, January 3, 2013 at 12:25Gold colored ones don't work
Aaron
Thursday, January 3, 2013 at 12:49The white Blades jersey that won the contest looks good and clean, but I think it could've used the main logo as shoulder patches. The Habs-esque version in navy should've been the clear cut winner mixing in the old logo with the new one. The ones with the sword logo is pretty sharp looking. The light blue one, can you say Atlanta Thrashers? Although a pretty bold attempt to mix in the current colours with the past colours.
Scott Markiewicz
Thursday, January 3, 2013 at 13:08The winning doesn't work for me. Great execution, but I don't think the striping works and the piping on the hem looks out of place with hem stripes also present. It's either hem piping OR hem stripes, not both. I may be biased because I designed the Canadiens-esque jersey, but I think it should have won...
Troy Griggsby
Thursday, January 3, 2013 at 14:46Great execution, but Brush Script MT for the wordmark?!
ingmar66
Thursday, January 3, 2013 at 15:16The best of the ones shown here, but not very exciting. I do like the shoulder patch with the letters HC for Hockey Club. Very stylish! But the maple leaf in the wordmark is out of place, the script is too generic and the extra logo on the back is not very creative.
Joe G.
Thursday, January 3, 2013 at 15:39I personally like the 3rd from the top, with the gold, but I think they made a good choice.
Aaron
Thursday, January 3, 2013 at 18:20The jersey with blue and gold looks cool too. If the Blades had a parent club, the Buffalo Sabres would be it. In more ways than one.
Tom Richards
Thursday, January 3, 2013 at 17:04To me the winner is a great start, but needs some font help. He'll be excited when that jersey comes, though. I submitted this on a jersey: http://boards.sportslogos.net/topic/90306-saskatoon-blades/#entry1922319 but no dice. Oh well.
John Burlie
Thursday, January 3, 2013 at 21:00at least someone managed to make something on that horrible template they gave us. Seeing that one of the finalists made their own template kinda pisses me off. The rules were that it had to be their template which is why I gave up. Oh well, at least it looks 'normal', could have been a lot worse
Thomas
Saturday, January 5, 2013 at 14:56My god, its not even special at all. It's just vector-ized. And why the heck is it in another template? All 5! Jeez, If i knew i could make my own template... Atleast they are better than the Brewers jersey entries haha
Trent
Saturday, January 5, 2013 at 16:45Honestly these contests are all the same regarding hockey designs. If you were to name the most common hockey uniform design, what would it be? 3 stripes on the shoulders and 3 stripes underneath the chest numbers. And this is what they choose for the one game alternate?! It's for one game for crying out loud; how about some creativity! Why even have a contest when the winning design just blends in? I am not trying to bash the designer, it's just that this is THE MOST common design out there. It makes me sick that some designs that went outside the box to try and make something unique were bypassed for this one. Disappointed.