Here we have the jerseys for the New York Riveters of the National Women’s Hockey League.
Serious question: are these among the best jerseys in hockey?
Yes. Yes they are.
The NWHL came to be in 2015 with a Founding Four teams: the Boston Pride, the Buffalo Beauts, the Connecticut Whale, and the New York Riveters. In these four teams we have an interesting mix between teams with built-in branding and teams trying to start from scratch. The Boston Pride have black and gold colors with a simplistic font, reminiscent of the Boston Bruins. The Connecticut Whale are green and blue, much like the Hartford Whalers, Connecticut Whale (AHL), Danbury Whalers (FHL), and pretty much any other hockey team to ever be based in Connecticut.
The Buffalo Beauts went with a grey and baby blue color scheme, though they kept a Buffalo mascot as their logo like the Bills and Sabres.
Then we have the New York Riveters. New York can be a tricky market, given that there are so many teams around. It’s not really possible to emulate one brand without isolating a chunk of a potential fanbase. The Rivs went with a red, white and blue color scheme, in keeping with the “Rosie the Riveter” patriotic theme. Their debut logo featured the same Lady Liberty spikes at the top as the 2000 Rangers alternate logo, but have since adjusted to a plain square logo. One can assume that was done to de-Rangerize the logo so that Islander fans could get behind it.
The year one jerseys have a white base, whereas in year two, they mixed it up and went with a red base. This makes a ton of sense when one considers that in year two, the Riveters moved from Brooklyn to the Barnabas Health Hockey House at the Prudential Center in Newark- Devils territory.
From the incredible logo to the patriotic color scheme to the metallic rivets and everything it stands for, one can’t help but wonder if these are the coolest threads in professional hockey.
How do they rank on Casey’s scale? Watch the video in the summary to find out! Be sure to check back later for the featured story of the week, “The Comeback.”
Special guest: Rob DeLuca, of Devils Army Blog (NJDAB.com).
UPDATE: Here it is, the long-awaited feature story! “Repping the Rivs,” on the Riveters, the NWHL, and the greatest comeback in league history.
