Instead of looking proper and traditional and having what new general manager Mike Forbes calls a "pristine-looking" bird for their logo, the Salt Lake Golden Eagles plan to roar into their 25th-anniversary season with a new symbol, new and more marketable colors and a new uniform design that could be a real trendsetter.
The Eagles, who open the 1993-94 International Hockey League season Oct. 6 at Phoenix, unveiled their new logo and team colors Thursday. The dramatic new uniforms, still being manufactured, are to debut at the home opener Oct. 8 with the new Las Vegas Thunder.The colors for the Eagles will be maroon, old gold, black and white, and the new logo is a stylized and decidedly cranky-looking cartoon eagle with the words "Salt Lake Golden Eagles" displayed more prominently than in the past.
"We were just looking for a new look, something distinctive," says Forbes.
The Eagles, who wore the red and yellow of the Calgary Flames, their former parent team, for six years, needed to get away from that when Calgary moved its affiliation to New Brunswick in the American League following last season. And, said Forbes, they wanted to avoid the orange-white-blue scheme of the new parent team, the New York Islanders, who are obligated to provide about two-thirds of a team (14-16 players) for the next three years. Forbes says the Eagles were "a little uncomfortable" mimicking NHL-affiliate colors that might change again in a few years.
Salt Lake also wanted something to compete in merchandising with the San Jose Sharks' black-white-and-teal and some of the other currently popular looks.
It was also the perfect chance to update the logo. "Everyone had seen (the old one) for the past however many years," Forbes says. Personally, Forbes wanted something that looked "more indicative" of the fierce game of hockey. Out of several prospective logos, the Eagles chose one designed by Sportsrobe of San Diego.
The uniforms are being printed by a new "sublimation" computerized process used in Europe but not yet in North America. It can reproduce a complicated photo precisely and sharply. Forbes says new Eagle uniforms will be "unique for hockey" in North America and will make the Eagles leaders in fall fashion.
The Eagle jerseys will have the logo featured prominently on the front and will have "wings" on the arms and lower torso.
Forbes says sublimation printing starts with a white jersey and injects the dyes directly into the material. The inside of the jersey remains white.
The team had hoped to have its new uniforms by now, but setup difficulties have slowed things up. It's a one-time delay, though, and once the design is satisfactorily computerized and on a disk, there's no future problem. Replica shirts will be readily available for fans to buy.