FanPost

Rebranding the CWHL: THROUGH THE FURY AND THE FLAMES

Ah, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Montreal made it, Toronto immortalized it. That's pretty much how hockey went with Canada way back when in the earliest of 1900's. The opening teams told the old Toronto team was kinda dickish, but they couldn't imagine life without a hockey team from Toronto. The league had to gift one over to a company, and since that date the sport has become like part of the DNA of the very city and the province of Ontario as a whole. an NHL and AHL team in Tronna, A whole hockey league for junior players, the hockey hall of fame is here, has generated several great, if not most of the greatest, talents of the game...

Long story short, Ontario's pretty important for the health of hockey as a game and as a fanbase. So it's no real surprise that Toronto would have a women's hockey team, and the corporate hq is in Ontario (I think, the website was kind of vague about it, tbh.) So, let's see how they outfitted their ladies.

Toronto Furies Wordmark Logo:

Oh wow. What originality.

There isn't much to say in the defense for or against this one. It's just....text. Text in the sporty, blocky font almost everyone uses on their sweaters. It's not a bad thing mind you but....really? that's it? I'm not even mad like i was last time because....well....look at it. It's just there. Kinda boring, really. So here's what we're gonna do.

Dig into Toronto's history: Now digging back into history isn't always a good thing but having a good base never hurts. In this case, that nice blue T they loved wearing back in the olden days.

Emphasize the "Furies" nickname: First question...what the hell's a "Furies"? Well, it's something called a cthonic diety otherwise known as an Erinyes. And what did Erinyes look like?

So uh...let's loose the woman whose peeking out of her dress here and keep the wings. Winged goddesses.

Use both colors: I see no real reason why, if you're going to keep this whole "Blue/White" thing going in Toronto, you shouldn't use it on your logo. Hell, the Marlies and Leafs do it. Why not the women's team?

And with that we get...this!

There we are. Bright, Lively, billowing wings to show divinity...what more could you ask for? Well, how about a VEEERY little simple side logo to even things out.

Now I know what you're thinking...why the winged leaf? Well, I've always felt that a Maple Leaf is an excellent shoulder logo, it's striking enough to be either a main or secondary, but it would never hurt the furies to have a little more dimension to their portfolio. Besides, it is actually distinguishable from the Maple Leafs by sheer reason of taking up more surface area.

A couple of other questions you might be asking is: Doesn't this look an awful lot like the Maple Leafs? Didn't you say you wanted to get away from those identities?

Well...we'll get to that, let's look at the Sweater.

Toronto Furies Sweater:

You know the drill here. TRONNA BUT FOR THEM WOMENFOLK.

It's getting old. I've gone over this and over this. Too much like the leafs, be original next time, yadda yadda blah blah blah. And yet, here we are, and boy...we come to a bit of a stand still about how I'd actually change it up.

See, here's the thing about Toronto.

They REALLY love blue.

Like...a lot. The concept of a maple leaf too, but ho boy that color and Toronto....you'd think they married it or something. Almost every major sports team that isn't trying to co-opt the whole "WE ARE CANADA'S TEAM, EH" thing is using that color. Almost every part of Toronto's branding is blue. Hell, even the WEBSITE is blue!

...Quaint too. Like they wanted to get across the idea of being a town of 10,000 when in fact they're the biggest city in Canada. Regardless...it's a color that I think HAS to stay. It's not just a matter of whether or not it fits...it's just part of the city. ingrained as hard as the Leafs or Hockey or ignoring basketball is. It's like a part that think the whole the region would find...i dunno....missing. It's really quite something if you think about it too hard.

So here's my idea.

Yeah. I know it looks a lot like the Leafs.

I can only say I tried. Toronto's an old hockey town, I tried to keep old styled without co-opting off of the leafs too much. the single white stripe on the bottom hasn't really been Toronto's thing, and the sleeves are, as far as I know, unique for this look. I also preserved the Shoulder yoke because....really....shoulder yokes plus the color blue are actually quite a nifty combo. It catches quite nicely, though I can totally understand if someone feels this is too "Maple Leaf-y" for them.

I went through about no less than seven different ideas, all of whom were at one point something either the Marlies were currently wearing or the Leafs have already worn. It's VERY hard to come up with something under these parameters but I think I'm finally satisfied with what I've created.

Here is where I'd thank everyone who read these, but I did promise I was gonna go back and change that Boston Blades one....So for one last time, we visit the Boston Blades and re-brand them.

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