National Hockey League - Dallas Stars

The Making of the Dallas Stars Third Jersey

For the Stars, it took a year to sew up all the loose ends in creating an alternate look

By MIKE HEIKA / The Dallas Morning News

While many fans are aghast at the Stars' newest marketing tool – a third sweater and a new logo – those inside the marketing department put in a year of work weaving a theme into the jersey. Each decision was bounced around a committee of decision-makers led by Bryan Perez (executive vice president, marketing and communication), Steve Shilts (vice president, merchandising) and Christy Martinez (vice president, marketing), and everything from color to neck line to fabric was intensely dissected. Here is a look at what went into the building of the uniforms the Stars are simply calling "The Blacks":

Logo: The Stars employed the New York-based design company Skilo Brand to design the sweater, and just as it did when it designed the New York Rangers' "Statue of Liberty" sweater, Skilo said it wanted an "icon" to start out with. It was the suggestion of Christy Martinez to look at constellations, and the entire group quickly decided on Taurus the bull.

But while it was clear that the bull would have the stars of a constellation visible within the logo, what wasn't so clear was the direction of the horns. First drawings came back with the horns up, and the Stars marketing team felt that looked too much like a longhorn. The horns were quickly pointed down, and Skilo Brand added the shooting star in one of the horns to complete the logo.

"We wanted something bold that tied in the synergy of the Stars coming together to form an unstoppable force," said Shilts.

Colors: The Stars wanted to stay with their primary colors – green, gold and black – and said from the start they wanted the base color to be black. With dark sweaters being worn at home, the idea of an alternative to the home greens was a must. After the base color was established, just about anything went.

"The design group decided to put red in the logo, and we really liked it right off the bat," Shilts said. "We were going to leave it in the logo only, but then we decided that we needed to incorporate it throughout the entire jersey."

Skilo Brand, the design company employed by the Stars, brought in silver as an accent color in creating the New York Rangers' third sweater. And the Oilers also used silver as a complement in their third-sweater design. So adding a new color was nothing new in the NHL.

Striping: Once the logo was decided upon, the Stars had about 15 designs drawn up with traditional striping, little striping and the wavy striping (or high tail) that was selected.

Many incarnations of the sweaters were designed with no red in the striping, but the primary problem was establishing a clear boundary between the design areas when dealing with similar colors such as black and dark green.

"We were especially concerned that it was all blending together with the pants and kind of looking like pajamas," Shilts said. "Even when we tried the green, it just didn't stand out. But when they came back with the red to define the bottom of the jersey, it just clicked for us. The word they used is, it 'pops,' and I think that's perfect."

Sleeves: In many ways, the look of the sweater is similar to that of the New York Rangers' third jersey, and that includes the sleeves. But while the Rangers' design has sharp angles, the Stars' jersey is softer.

The sleeve striping on the Stars' jersey follows the curve of the "high tail," or lower striping, but it took some discussing to come up with the design. Early experiments incorporated the Stars' traditional logo in the sleeve, in large part because the sweater is not immediately identifiable with the team. However, some early designs had the star high on the sweater. The high swoop destroyed the clean lines and didn't leave enough space for numbers on the sleeves.

The Stars' marketing team brought the lines back down and put the Stars' logos square on the front of the sleeve, where they fall in a visible line with the logo.

Neck and Shoulder: The first instinct of the Stars was to put a tie collar on the sweater, but they realized that would go against everything they were trying to accomplish. They decided that a new-look jersey with an old-style color just didn't make sense.

The group experimented with the square collar and slot collar that have been used on other "unofficial" sweaters, but also believed those didn't follow the flow of the striping. Instead, the Stars went with a standard V-collar and mixed in the accent colors.

Designers also considered a shoulder patch, but the old Stars patches didn't fit. Instead, they went with big white numbers to allow easy player identification and give the sweater even more contrast.

Mostly, the Stars wanted to avoid doing what other teams have done.

"We could have gone the way most teams did and kind of go retro look, real simple and real kind of blah," Stars president Jim Lites said. "We could have copied Colorado or other franchises. Instead, what we're doing with this is creating an alternate image. We still have our primary mark, but this is something completely different."

ALTERNATE SWEATERS AROUND THE LEAGUE

Five NHL teams will reveal alternate sweaters this season. So far, the Stars and three other teams have unveiled theirs. Atlanta will debut its sweater later this season.

Columbus: The Blue Jackets stayed with their basic colors and went with a classic look. The logo is the Ohio flag wrapped around a star. Columbus' mascot is a tribute to the city's contribution to the Union's efforts in the Civil War.

Anaheim: Going old-school, the Mighty Ducks used a baseball script with simple striping and a tie neck. The team's duck logo appears nowhere on the sweater.

Minnesota: Another attempt at old-school, the Wild reduced the size of its logo and placed it inside a circle on the chest. The team used red as a primary color for the first time. Like Anaheim and Columbus, Minnesota went with a tie neck.

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