Takes and trash talk from both ALL sides of the NHL's most obscure PATHETIC* rivalry

* Thanks, Kevin Lowe!

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Do stupid uniforms make Cents?


Part of me thinks that NHL marketers are devious geniuses—they are purposely producing shitty Reebok designs so that fans will demand another design as quickly as possible. Consumers will pay twice—grudgingly buying a lackluster jersey this summer and enthusiastically buying an improved version the next.

Secrets and unveilings may be exciting, but remember: fans are the ones cheated by having no voice in the design of the product they are expected to buy. It would have been nice if the NHL sampled its fans' reactions prior to mass production, but then again, if the new uniforms looked too good off the bat, how could they get away with a re-re-design next summer?

Anyway, as for Scott and Teemu vs. retirement, there are still no concrete decisions as of yet. At the start of the summer, I decided that I wasn't going to write too much about offseason moves or projected lineups until those questions were answered, and I won't start today. I guess I still lean towards optimism about the players returning, but all summer I have mostly focused my attention on Scott's return status—I realize that I've been way too spoiled watching last year's double-Norris blueline, but dammit! It turns out I like being spoiled!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Earl, I'm convinced that the Sabres are going to return to the vintage third jerseys permanently in a few years. After they have wrung every last penny they can out of the Buffaslug (which incidentally, is a lot of pennies. We bitch about that slug, but it sure didn't stop us from buying jerseys), they are going to announce the return of the vintage jersey by saying, "Everyone HATED the Buffaslug! We're just giving the people what they want!" And it will be true.

Damn, slug.

Schnookie said...

Hm... this cartoon (brilliant, as usual -- that Sleek sure is a genius) raises the question: are teams going to be stuck with ugly-assed banners in overwrought Reebok designs well after they return to normal-looking sweaters? Oh, who am I kidding? Just think how excited the Islanders are at the thought of making "event nights" for taking down all their old banners and putting up new color-blocked ones, and then they can just do it all again in a few years when the next round of redesigns hits.

Patty (in Dallas) said...

They have proof that that strategy will work. Because when they first started talking about the new unis right out of the lockout, they had some crazy ideas. I am convinced they floated those trial balloons, just so that when they showed up wearing them at the All-Star Game, we'd think they weren't that bad.

I do think they let too much time go by between then and now, though, and people have forgotten the original bad ideas and are back to hating the current ones.

Earl Sleek said...

Damn, slug.

Yeah, one of the problems last year was that the two teams that really underwent uniform re-designs (Buffalo and Anaheim) also happened to be two of the best on-ice teams of the regular/post-season. They were bound to be imitated.

If only Phoenix had done it last year too--maybe there'd be more sanity today.

Anonymous said...

New unis pure genius or the NHL version of New Coke. Only time will tell.

RudyKelly said...

The new Lightning jerseys look like roller hockey jerseys. I'm not sure if that's good or bad.

Anonymous said...

Bring back the RHI!

Charity said...

scott & teemu have supposedly registered their kids for school down here... so... retirement or return???

my crystal ball remains strangely silent.

Anonymous said...

Scotty and Teemu gotta make decisions soon. Its gotta be hard for everyone esp the families and front office. Imagine figure out your team and cap space not knowing if two main guys will be there or not next month.

Registering your kids for school somewhere doesn't really mean too much. My kid is registered up in Canada since we were supposed to move there two weeks ago but we gotta wait 6 months before moving from California.