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Some random thoughts from your humble webmaster

March 18, 2014

Uniform spotlight: 1967 California Seals

Even after spending well over a decade researching the history of NHL uniforms, I still get fascinated by the story behind the uniforms -- not only the what, but also the how and the why. One interesting story is that of the 1967 California Seals. As everyone who visits this website regularly knows, the team changed its name to the Oakland Seals within two months of its inaugural season and swapped out their crests accordingly. However, that wasn't the only change made to their uniforms that season.

Recently, a visitor to the site e-mailed me and told me about a correction I might need to make to the Seals uniforms from 1967-68. At first, I thought he was going to tell me about the WHL hand-me-downs that the team wore in the pre-season. But he attached the black-and-white photo that you see to the left that shows the back of the green jersey (which was the home jersey back then) with a blue number trimmed in white. After seeing that photo, I knew I had to do some research.

Initially, the back numbers and the shoulder numbers had the same treatment -- blue trimmed in white. However, fans and the media complained that the numbers were way too difficult to decipher. So the decision was made to change the rear numbers to white. This was accomplished by adding an additional white twill layer over the existing number, creating the effect of a double outline. Turning the jersey inside-out as shown on the image to the right, you can see the double stitching. Normally with a number that has a single or double trim, all layers are sewn together, and that pre-assembled number is applied to the jersey usually by heat-pressing it on and reinforcing it by stitching the edge to the jersey.

From a distance, one might not think anything out of the ordinary of the appearance of the numbers on the green jersey. However, when looked at from up close, thanks to the addition of the white layer on top of the blue number, you can see that the resulting inner blue outline does not have a uniform width all the way around.

It's unclear whether the Seals were trying to make a fashion statement by having their shoulder numbers on their green jerseys be a different color than the numbers on the back. If they did, they did so totally by accident and out of necessity.