Folks, we need to talk about the Ducks’ jerseys, specifically the placement of the leadership letters. Because, I have to say, what the hell is this?
I don’t know if I have ever seen a more upsetting collection of patches than this. Anaheim announced this summer that they had procured a jersey sponsor back in June after coming to an agreement on a three-year partnership with Western National Property Management. The patch will go in the upper-right corner of the “primary home and alternate jerseys” and would be worn throughout the season, including preseason and playoffs (lol). Sure. Fine. Who cares. It’s 2023, jersey ads are a part of the league whether you want them to be or not, so it’s not surprising they’ve made their way to Anaheim. Furthermore, Anaheim is both a small/nontraditional market and in the middle of a rebuild, so the fact that the Samueli’s are empowering the business side of the organization to get creative about increasing revenue is unsurprising.
Unfortunately for Ducks fans, the first year of that deal just happens to overlap with the team’s 30th anniversary season, which as luck would have it, also comes with its own patch. During the first intermission of a home game against the Los Angeles Kings back in February the team unveiled the official logo of their 30th anniversary season. It’s quite a nice logo to be sure and Ducks fans will surely flock to both the team store and website to get their own slice of Ducks commemorative memorabilia, which is great – again, revenue baby. Unfortunately, that means that there are two patches on the chest of every jersey which creates a bit of a spacing issue.
The simple solution to this issue is to just move the 30th anniversary logos to the shoulders, thereby freeing up the entire top left corner of the chest and allowing the leadership letters to go in their traditional spots. It seems however, that the Ducks have chosen a less simplistic approach and instead are insisting on having all three patches on the front, lending a real “graphic design is my passion” vibe to their jerseys. Which, truth be told is not the best look for a franchise that already trots out one of the most maligned jersey sets in the league. Who knows, maybe its only for the pre-season and the appropriate alterations to patch placement will be made by the time the regular season rolls around. For now though, one can’t help but think Anaheim would do well to learn the lesson countless people have taken away from homemade birthday signs.