The Ontario Hockey League’s newest team, the Mississauga Steelheads, unveiled their new team jerseys Friday via their official Twitter feed.
The uniforms are a direct usage of the Toronto Maple Leafs jersey template, same colours and striping, but with the logos of the Steelheads in place of the Maple Leafs, and the team does not try to hide this fact.
In the official press release the team acknowledged approval was required from the NHL before using the design on their new uniforms:
Following an approval process with the National Hockey League (NHL), the team is proud to wear the iconic Blue and White Leafs jerseys for the upcoming season. Staying true to the Toronto Maple Leafs Blue and White, the Steelheads will be wearing the traditional “Leafs look” from head to toe for the 2012-2013 season.
From that last sentence we know the team helmets, pants, and socks will also be a direct copy of the Leafs. We’ll assume the numbers on the back of the player jerseys will also be in Maple Leafs style.
For those unfamiliar with the location of Mississauga, it’s right next door to Toronto; a very large city in it’s own right (with a population over 700,000 it’s Canada’s 6th largest) but lacking it’s own identity due to it’s proximity with it’s much larger neighbour to the east in Toronto.
What we hadn’t seen before was the new shoulder logos on the Steelheads jerseys.
A combination of the letter “M” for Mississauga and a lighthouse, the lighthouse is based off of the one located in Port Credit – a smaller lakeside community within the City of Mississauga.
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A Brief History of the Steelheads
The Steelheads were originally known as the Toronto St. Michael’s Majors, established for the 1998 OHL season. Unrelated to the Majors, one season later Mississauga got a separate franchise known as the Mississauga IceDogs.
In 2007, a franchise swap occurred seeing the Toronto St. Mike’s Majors re-locate to Mississauga while the Mississauga IceDogs headed south to St. Catharines to become the Niagara IceDogs.
Following the 2012 season the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors were sold to new owners on the condition that the Majors name no longer be used by the team. A name-the-team contest was held and Steelheads was selected in honour of the fish that frequents the local Port Credit River.
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Details on how to order one of these new Steelheads jerseys is listed below, from the official team press release:
For those looking to secure their piece of Steelhead history, the team will be offering a pre-order for fans looking to order their official Mississauga Steelheads jersey. As a bonus, the first 100 fans to place their order will have the chance to get their jersey signed by a current Steelhead player of their choice! For more details on the pre-order, visit the Steelheads office at the Hershey Centre or emailinfo@mississaugasteelheads.com .
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