What Do We Think of the Vancouver Canucks’ Leaked Jerseys?

The threads are garnering mixed reviews on social media. 

When it was revealed that the Vancouver Canucks would be having some rather significant jersey changes in honour of the club’s 50th anniversary this year, fans weren’t sure what to think.

You see, the Canucks don’t exactly have a great track record of creating visually stunning sweaters. In fact, while some of those uniforms have aged better than others, the team is somewhat synonymous with ugly jerseys.

So there was trepidation and intrigue (and probably a bunch of other emotions) at the prospect of the team both introducing a completely new third jersey and doing a rebrand of their current home and away outfits. (The team will also be bringing back the popular “Flying Skate” logo on select dates.)

While the third jersey remains under wraps, the changes to the current look appear to have leaked. (The original post on Reddit has been deleted, but Sportslogos.net is an authority on all things jerseys and seems to think the design is legit.)

As such, the new threads are… uninspiring? Really, there are two changes at play here. The word “Vancouver,” which used to run across the top of the orca, is gone, and the shoulder patches have been changed from blue to white.

We’re assuming that the 50th anniversary patch will also adorn the jerseys when the team eventually releases them (which should be sometime before the NHL draft on June 21 and 22).

But, of course, we were hoping for a bit more. Wasn’t everyone? Does this even qualify as a rebrand?

As someone who often writes about sports but doesn’t know the first thing about fashion, I realize I might not be the person to bring down a judgement on the jerseys.

So I did some #realjournalism and walked 10 steps over to the desk of our style editor, Lucy Lau. Her take?

“You could place a picture of this ‘new’ jersey side-by-side with an image of the current one, and it would be the least exciting game of ‘Spot the Difference’ ever. Isn’t 50—half a century—supposed to be a milestone year or something? Where is the confetti? The snazzy gold embellishments? Where was the effort here???”

There you have it, folks. Let’s hope the Canucks have something a bit more daring in store when it comes to the team’s third jersey.