Prison Promotion
February 19,
2009 | Kevin
Zdancewicz
Minor league sports are a JOTW
hotbed. Much like minor league baseball which is well-known for its
crazy
promotions and giveaways that sometimes spill over onto uniforms, minor league
hockey relies heavily on
the public
relations department to get patrons through the turnstiles. Hockey farm
systems
definitely have the standard special uniforms covered – franchise throwbacks, breast cancer awareness pink sets, and tributes to the NHL affiliate (notice the
advertising
patches common in the minors). Then, there are tons of examples of random, off-the-wall
promotional
jerseys with accompanying themes.
Today's feature
(promotional)
jersey comes from the ECHL, where the Las Vegas Wranglers hosted the
Bakersfield
Condors for “Prison Night” last month inspired by recently-disgraced
former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.
The Wranglers wore the old-school, prison-stripe
uniforms
pictured above and the Condors went with faux-orange jumpsuits. While the uniforms are
solid for the
prison theme, the overall promotion was well done with some of the
extra details
that Las Vegas added. The referees got into the act with appropriate law enforcement attire and the off-ice official
wore a black
robe and judge’s wig (see fifth photo in this slideshow). Probably the coolest extra was
dressing up
the penalty box to literally put offenders behind
bars
in the
sin bin.
The thing I don’t get about
this
topic is why some people come out and criticize minor league
promotional
jerseys when teams wear them. Some just openly mock the (admittedly
sometimes)
ridiculous uniforms that these promotions produce while others argue
that they tarnish
the sanctity of the professional hockey sweater – an interesting take
given that
various NHL teams have contributed some suspect
alternate uniforms. There are even some terrible regular jerseys in the NHL that are
worn
every
single game that people are happy to overlook or have decided to accept
simply
because they are regularly worn. None of this should give critics the
right to
hate on minor league promotional jerseys. They are only wearing them
one time! Many
of them promote a good cause or raise money for charity. And the ones
like
today’s featured jersey are just for fun: Minor League hockey is
supposed to be
fun! Haven’t you ever seen Slap Shot? Maybe the people who don’t like
harmless
promotional jerseys should be the ones wearing prison uniforms.
Photo Courtesy of Flickr
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