WSC Ice Hockey Uniform Redesign
Turn back the clock to mid-summer 2016. Wave One Sports was contacted by the director of junior hockey at the Wissahickon Skating Club (WSC) about the possibility of designing and building new Ice Hockey Jerseys.
Wave One and WSC have a long standing relationship that began in the late 1960’s when our bookkeeper, Muffin Oppenheimer (then Muffin Whiteside) and the entire Whiteside family participated in the junior hockey and junior figure skating programs at WSC. Muffin’s 4 brothers played ice hockey, Muffin and her sister figure skated, mom and dad were heavily involved doing everything from coaching to writing weekly articles for the Chestnut Hill Local Newspaper. By the 1990’s Muffin’s sons were playing hockey at WSC and the second generation was enjoying arguably the finest hockey experience in the Delaware Valley. So it was only natural that Stephen Oppenheimer, Wave One’s art director, was thrilled to get the opportunity to flex his artistic muscles, toned earning his BS in Product Design at the University of Oregon, working on the WSC Jersey Project. Who better to tackle this work than a WSC Jr Hockey alum.
Jr. Hockey director Walter Muehlbronner wanted a fresh new look that would excite the Warriors (WSC Hockey Players nickname). WSC colors had been red, white and navy for many years. An Indian head logo similar to the Chicago Blackhawks logo had been the primary face of the junior hockey program for years. The most recent look was red jerseys and white jerseys manufactured using the sublimation process that looked nice but just didn’t budge the needle on the excitement meter. Wally wanted a more traditional hockey “sweater” with appliqued patches and tackle twill numbers.
Stephen started with a revision of the Warrior logo for the front of the jerseys, added shoulder patches, a small version of the front logo with crossed tomahawks for one shoulder and a circular patch that incorporated the WSC Shield logo. Two color sleeve and back tackle twill numbers adorned the new royal blue New York Rangers pattern away jerseys. On the white home jerseys, Montreal Canadians pattern, Wally wanted 3 color tackle twill numbers. For the first time in memory, player names were included on the backs of the 2016-2017 WSC Hockey jerseys, via tackle twill name plates.
After much back and forth and a variety of mockups the final jersey designs were agreed upon. Players sizes, names and numbers were gathered and production commenced. In customary fashion, Wave One Sports constructed the high quality product on which our reputation has been built. Both on time and on budget. The Warriors took the ice for their first games of the 2016-2017 season wearing their new jerseys, smiles were seen all around.
