Dallas Stars Share The Logos and Uniforms They Almost Used

Red, white, blue with Texas flags on the uniform.

Double blue and silver with a “DS-State of Texas” monogram logo.

Black, green, and gold.

These are just some of the logos and uniform ideas which the Dallas Stars almost went when they rebranded prior to the 2013-14 season, and now, thanks to the Stars, we can see those actual design concepts for the first time courtesy a video posted on their official website.

“Changing the logo and jersey really began during my first conversation with [Stars owner] Tom Gaglardi… he never really appreciated the original Dallas Stars logo” – Stars President Jim Lites

“I didn’t feel comfortable going forward, that our logo was one that stood up next to the best ‘Original Six’ logos and the best logos in the NHL… and that was what we deserved” – Gaglardi

The Stars turned to various internal staff, including broadcasters and former players (Joe Nieuwendyk was the one player they mentioned), setting up a white board and allowing those to just sketch ideas for a new logo as they came up with them:

Those bottom two are top notch.

According to those in the video, it was during these whiteboard sessions that the main idea of a logo featuring a “D” with a star came about. The look the team eventually ended up using.

From there they turned to Jeff Neal, the Stars animation co-ordinator, who was asked to mock up some preliminary designs. Multiple colour schemes were pitched — the classic black, green, and gold was one, emulating the colours of the Texas state flag (red, white, and blue) was another. Blue and gold, similar to the St. Louis Blues was a surprise finalist.

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Dallas Stars Logo Concepts:

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State of Texas themed uniform concepts

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Blue and gold

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Double Blue, “DS/Texas” monogram

I kinda like that logo above, maybe as a shoulder patch.

Anyways, after reaching out to focus groups and even consulting with the NHL it was determined that the Dallas Stars had to be green and that they could even “own the colour” in the league (nuts to you Minnesota… take your team, take your colour).

Television tests were conducted using various mockups and they settled on using a lighter shade of green then they had in the past, “Victory Green” as they call it. The lighter shade was preferred because it really “popped”, and it helped steer the team away from that monochromatic look (black vs. white every single home game) they’d seen in recent seasons.

The uniforms shown above were a finalist design, why they didn’t go with that I’ll never fully understand or accept. The video mentioned several times that green and gold was a desired colour scheme (along with the others mentioned previously in this article), unfortunately they do not address – not once – how or why they ended up ditching the gold in favour of silver.

In June of 2013 the Dallas Stars unveiled their new uniform and logo, featuring the “D” star logo you see on the green/gold mockup above except with the gold removed: