Sabres white vintage jerseys to be worn at the Winter Classic?

As scooped on the Sabres board there is an interesting link being passed around to a store selling what they call the January 1st, 2008 special edition jerseys for the Winter Classic. It's from a company called GreatSkate. Check it guys and email me @ info@SabresNotSlugs.com or comment if you have any more info. Thanks!!

Sabres Winter Classic Jersey?



Product Information:

Special Edition for January 1st, 2008
Winter Classic Clothing Line From RBK
Cheer on the NHL and watch the Buffalo Sabres VS. the Pittsburgh Penguins in this onetime outdoor game.
Order now for November Delivery. Make a Great Holiday Gift!
RBK Vintage Sabres Jersey - White
Buffalo Sabres Logo on front and Shoulders - As Pictured
Air Mesh w/Poly knit neck trim
Tackle Twill Applique w/emb.
As Pictured Above
Sizes Small - X-Large

Of course and as usual, there has been no confirmation by either the NHL, the Buffalo Sabres, or RBK International.

The only thing I didn't ask if Pittsburgh would be wearing a throwback as well. There is no indication of that on their products list on the website either...

****UPDATE****

The company's customer service told me when I asked about the uniform for the game "Absolutely yes...white vintage."

And he replied when I asked about an official announcement from any organization and he replied "They haven't announced it yet but we definitely know about it...wanna get in your pre-order today?"

He also said that the jersey is made by RBK but is NOT in an RBK Edge cut uniform. It will simply be the same style cut as our alternate thirds from last year. According to them, there will be no NHL emblem on the neck. It is a replica jersey that they are selling as well, NOT the authentic.

***************

Well I hope this is true because for me, this may be the big step and finally a hint that the Sabres got the clue that the vintage is the more visually appealing and more profitable look long term jersey to go with. Hopefully they will realize that, get smart, make the vintage the primary logo again and keep the slug as the third to not generate dissent among fans who spent good money on the current look.

This is the organization's chance to make right and make the vintage jersey the number one selling NHL jersey in the league for next season when it comes back. Which I hope they already thought of...using the slug in the old bait and switch move in favor of the vintage.

People have an emotional connection to that vintage look way more than for the slug. Even non-Sabres fans respect the vintage look of the Sabres. Just like buying a new car, if you get emotion involved, you get higher sales and more profit.

Now then...just a thing for the Sabres owner, Managing partner, Creative Services Director, and Marketing department to keep in mind as they are now in the process of "modifying" the third jersey for its re-introduction next season.

DO NOT DARKEN THE BLUE OF THE JERSEY. Don't be cheapskates and just buy some lighter blue pants and helmets that match. The rumor out there is that there are inconsistencies in the blue fabric that require the change...well if Vancouver can wear a royal blue color with their new Edge jerseys, then the Sabres' version of that shouldn't be hard to match.

If you darken the jersey anyway, please don't use that color fabric inconsistency line as an excuse. If you want to darken it to make it the primary uniform and logo again and match the outfitted color scheme of the HSBC arena and it makes that transition back to the classic logo more cost effective, then I'm all for it!

The Slug on a football helmet...

Being that I am still reeling from the "Buffalo being Buffalo" Monday night debacle and am enamored with the Bills right now I came across this and became quite horrified.

The slug or any permutation officially does not work in any application whatsoever now...I'm deeply sorry that I gave it one ounce of validation as an acceptable football logo.

Why did the Bills have to lose that way...again?

In my short existence on this earth I have had to live with more than our fair share of bad sports luck in Buffalo.

Wide Right, 4 Super Bowl losses, No Goal, Music City Miracle, Week 1 vs. Denver, and now last night. Instead of earning respect as a young and tough football team, the Buffalo Bills gave even more people reason to laugh at them...plus they gave away another football game. I didn't think I could have felt as awful as I did vs. the Broncos week one. But history repeats itself again...and all Dick Jauron can do is be bashful about it. At least last year with the same type of game between Chicago and Arizona, Dennis Green had some better sound bytes during the post game press conference.

Even with the Kevin Everett tragedy, I thought the Bills could play some inspired football and they did last night for 59 minutes and 59 seconds.



Of course I'm gonna fish my Poz jersey out of the trash but it needs to enjoy the stench for a bit and then I might hang myself with it in the garage to complete my Bills fan experience in this plain of existance.

Opening Night Musings - Banners, the Game, and More

Well, I see why they did it, and I can deal with it. The black and red banners have been changed from their original white to now being literally black and red. They now match the alternating color scheme of the blue and gold banners that came before them, as in "blue, gold, blue, gold, black, red."

Sadly, the new banners for last season's division title and Presidents Trophy are clad in slug. One is blue, the other is white. Odd that they felt the need to change the previous white banners to match the alternating theme, only to string up a new white banner. Likely because the flaccid gold slug on a matching gold banner wouldn't work.

But I must say the video packages before the game were great and really stirred up the right emotions. The player introductions were exciting, though quite awkward in places. Hearing them announce Teppo Numminen when he was unceremoniously suspended because he needed heart surgery was a little uncomfortable (hey, they had to get the money for the scoreboard somewhere, right?). Also, as we loudly cheer Max, Vanek, Miller, and the bunch, only to hear Daniel Paille and Mike Ryan's names announced right along with them, the gap left by Chris Drury and Danny Briere was never more apparent. But, we're all moving on. I guess that will all pass in a few games.

That said, the game was great for the first 20 minutes. Roy and Vanek look like they'll live up to the lofty expectations placed on them due to their immense contracts. Spacek had a great game, and looks to be in better form than last season.

But, we're still lacking in size and strength. Hitting was almost non-existent. Dimitri Kalinin still has a job despite playing his usual sub-par game. And our special teams were horrid.

So essentially, we're the same team as last year. Minus the leadership.

That's ok. This team thrived on the underdog role before. Looks like they might have to do it again.

But in the end, we're off and running, and it feels so great to have hockey back! GO SABRES!!!

The biggest reason (out of many) why I hate the slug.

Totally unoriginal and offensively similar when compared to the iconic logo of the Buffalo Bills.



I would have to question Frank Cravotta's (Sabres Director of Creative Services)comment that "starting from scratch" was a sound idea as he was working closest with RBK during the design process. Amputating and then bleaching the Bills logo isn't what I would call starting from scratch.



Even worse when adding the mockery factor.

It's beating a dead horse obvious that better options were on the table to update the logo besides the slug. Our realistic shot are as fans with a collective voice is to demand that management return to the vintage logo as a primary uniform and logo for the team. Demote the slug to the mailroom and make it a third jersey.

From a sales and business standpoint I think they would be FOOLS to not to do so. Let the fans suffer with just the slug this year, and drop the vintage FULL TIME back on the team and enjoy the revenue.

IT WOULD BE AN ABSOLUTELY ABSENT MINDED DISPLAY OF INDIFFERENCE TO THE FANS IF THEY BROUGHT BACK THE VINTAGE FOR ONLY 15 GAMES AGAIN FOR THE 2008-2009 SEASON!

Let these people know how you feel. Write the team or better yet their emails would most likely be in the email format of FirstName.LastName@sabres.com

EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT
Owner B. Thomas Golisano
Managing Partner Larry Quinn
Chief Operating Officer Daniel DiPofi

MARKETING
Director of Marketing Rob Kopacz
Director of Game Presentation Martin McCreary
Database Marketing Manager Tom Matheny
Promotions Manager Rich Wall
Website Manager Brian Wheeler
Promotions Coordinator Jacqueline Tollar
Director of Creative Services Frank Cravotta
Graphic Artist Vicki Sitek

MERCHANDISE
Director of Merchandise Mike Kaminska
Merchandise Manager - Inventory Control Glenn Barker
Merchandise Manager - Event Sales Jeff Smith

Banner Alterations???

I have no specifics yet, but I am getting word that the Sabres have altered their banners in HSBC Arena.

Does anyone out there have pictures they'd like to share? Before I get too deep into this topic, I'd like to know specifically what is being done.

But let me just say that no matter what they're doing, even if it's conservative, I think it's a bad move.

History should not be revised. History should not be forgotten.

I'll keep an eye on this. Again, if anyone has specifics, please, let us know.

RBK Edge "template"

Now that we have the whole package available to look at, we can now see how RBK ran out of creative steam when redesigning the NHL's uniforms.

It's an obvious look at the RBK templates, styling, and design bleeding over on to other teams. It's lame and annoying that these teams have to share each others design and look and makes me think that RBK's grand research and developement stressed heavily on teams drawing designs out of a RBK Edge water repelling top hat.



Edmonton and Florida can enjoy a custody battle over their Half sleeves, and vertical piping.

Moving on to Ottawa and Pittsburgh...Notice their cuffs. "Weaksauce" as they say on the urban dictionary.

Function over form here and the function sucks right now...but that should change soon and hopefully before player safety becomes an issue.

At least the NHL or RBK are beginning to listen to its players and RBK is fixing the problem regarding the wicking of moisture into gloves and skates...This after all is the NHL and RBK's hopeful cash cow and they simply don't have the money or public relations wiggle room of the NBA to handle its own version of the New Ball controversy.

Article: New sweaters here to stay

"The biggest issue focused on the water resistant coating on the fabric of the sweaters. It was designed to keep moisture out.

It did that, but also trapped the moisture in which led to soggy equipment and unhappy hockey players.

To correct that problem Reebok says it has developed a treatment that permits sweat to escape through the fibers, yet still manages to stay reasonably dry.

This new sweater is being shipped to teams around the league, with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Reebok's spokesman Sidney Crosby likely to debut the modifications as early as Friday.

Despite the public outcry from the game's fighters, the NHL doesn't see the need to alter the design to accommodate their needs, other than to further investigate whether the sweater's tie-downs have to be improved."