One day after the Canucks held a private photoshoot at GM Place with their new jerseys as the star attraction, there still hasn't been an internet leak revealing the new duds.
Most Canuck fans will agree it's very difficult to remain patient with the brand of the Vancouver franchise hanging in the balance. Dotcom search engines and various message boards must be hitting overload with all the traffic hoping for an early glimpse.
A few months ago a CDC poster with the handle, England Wins, created two mockup jerseys that took the internet by storm. The creations were so popular, Don Taylor of
Rogers Sportsnet and the
TEAM 1040 publically endorsed the jerseys, and the Vancouver Canucks switchboards lit up with phone calls from countless fans asking if the jerseys were for real.
Most hoped they were, myself included.
Although it's been months since England Wins took an hour and a half out of his day to create his hopes for what the new Vancouver jerseys would look like - the jerseys still remain the choice of Canucks fans everywhere. A recent poll on Sportsnet shows the jerseys as the runaway favourite.
Will Orca Bay Sports & Entertainment listen to the fans and ditch the Orca as the primary logo? All indications point otherwise. But I still thought it would be cool to get the thoughts and views of the creator of the most popular jerseys so far.
In his own words, here's England Wins...
My name is Greg Knight and I have lived in Vancouver most of my life. I've been a longtime Canucks fan but as you can see by my nickname I'm an England fan as well. I have the England Wins name because they never do, in soccer anyway. My passion is art and sports to which neither pay the bills so I work 9-5 like the rest of us for a local engineering company.
I'd like to talk briefly on why I made the jerseys in the first place. 10 years ago when the current uniforms were going to be introduced I was very alarmed because Vancouver has a tendency to create radical and nonconforming designs. I'm an amateur artist so it was easy for me to pick up some pencils and start designing our new Canucks Jersey. If I remember correctly I did send some designs to Orca Bay but of course I never heard back from them. I disliked the Orca uniforms when they were introduced and I still don't like them very much. There is so much potential here in Vancouver and being Canadians it should be quite easy for us to come up with a new forward thinking yet classic and suitable design for the year 2007.
Well here we are 10 years later and we are in the same predicament!
I started out surfing the CDC one day back in February and there were several threads regarding the new jerseys and what they should look like. This is right after the All Star game when they released the new RBK jersey. Members on the boards were designing all sorts of new looks but I was getting very frustrated because no one was seeing the vision I saw and it was sitting right in front of me. So the logical step was to combine the RBK template and the very popular vintage jersey. Very easy and it took no more than 90 min.
I contacted Orca Bay several times and also sent them some of my designs but their response was that the NHL holds the legal rights to anything "Vancouver Canucks" so they would have to delete my designs and they would not be able to discuss the subject any further. This I understood but I did ask for a contact at the NHL level but that was a dead end also.
Regarding the Orca whale being more popular than the Rink/Stick logo, perhaps the $1 million that went into the cost of the jersey went to the same group that designed the London 2012 logo.
I have suggested previously on the boards and to other outlets that the Canucks should have started a jersey design contest. I would have initiated it in their very own Creative Forum where most of the die hard fans live. The Canucks could have stipulated that the winning jersey may not necessarily be 100% of the final creative work but would still be represented overall. This would have given Canucks greater flexibility with the concept, have the final say, and the CDC fans would be happy that they had some input. You know this would also have generated a lot more traffic and revenue to their website. Some other points:
1. Their CDC Forums is a source of free information.
2. Would have had most of their new design ideas created through the contest.
3. Lower-cost/Free advertising within the community.
4. Not alienated the fans who pay their salaries.
Although we haven't seen what the new uniform will look like there has been some information leaked and it's not looking very good. I'll never buy the Orca jersey because it's not what the fans want.
Thanks for your time, England Wins. You definitely had my vote months ago, and you still do today.
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