The Canadian Football League’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats are paying tribute to their hometown’s working class roots and long history as a base for the Canadian steel industry with a new uniform and alternate logo.
The team unveiled the logo and uniform on Thursday, June 9 — the 176th anniversary of the founding of the city of Hamilton. The logo features a yellow “H” with hammer silhouettes in the negative space at the top and bottom. “THE HAMMER” — a nickname for Hamilton — is written in black across the crossbar of the H.
The new H logo appears on the shoulders of the new alternate uniforms and on the new helmets that go with them. The Tiger-Cats said in their announcement that the logo is “a nod to the early 1900s Hamilton Tigers” of the National Hockey League.
“Our franchise has a rich and storied history in the city and we’ve been proud to call Hamilton home for 153 years,” Hamilton Sports Group president and chief operating officer Matt Afinec said on the team’s website. “The inspiration for ‘Made in the Hammer’ is to celebrate the indelible link between Hamilton, the Tiger-Cats and the amazing fans of this team who call this city home and still consider this city home, even if they live abroad.”
The jerseys unveiled Thursday are “steel gray” to honour Hamilton’s industrial roots. “THE HAMMER” is spelled out across the chest in black. The names and numbers are black outlined in Ticats gold. The collar is black with a pattern of grey hammers, and “MADE IN HAMILTON” is written in gold inside the collar.
The helmet (seen above) is black with the yellow H logo on either side. The stripe down the middle contains the same hammer pattern as the jersey collar.
The pants are steel gray with a broad black stripe down each side. The Tiger-Cats’ primary logo sits on the left hip. None of the photos or videos the Ticats released on Thursday showed the socks that go complete the ensemble. (UPDATE: A new video posted to the Ticats’ Twitter gives a slightly better look at the pants. It appears there are no black stripes on the sides, and what initially looked like a stripe was a black towel hanging from the belt of quarterback Dane Evans. The pants can be seen at approximately 0:51 of the video below.)
The Ticats will wear the new uniforms for two home games this season: on Canada Day (July 1) against the Edmonton Elks, and on October 21 against the Ottawa REDBLACKS.
The Ticats also offering T-shirts and hoodies featuring the new H logo for sale or pre-order in their online shop.