As the Vegas Falcons prepare for their 6th season in the…
Wait, that doesn’t sound right.
As the Vegas Desert Knights prepare for….
Nope, still feels a bit off.
Six years ago now, a real discussion somewhat similar to this was being held in the conference rooms of the Fidelity National Investments building just off Summerlin Parkway. While the permanent home of the NHL’s 31st franchise was still under construction a team of designers from Adidas headed up by Jeff Eagles met and presented various team names, logos, fonts, colors, jerseys, and more with The Creator, George McPhee, and a few others representing what would eventually become the Vegas Golden Knights.
In a recent YouTube video from jersey fanatics, Icethetics, Jeff Eagles, the Adidas Design Director at the time, shared some of the early team names, logos, and jersey designs for the team that were eventually tweaked or abandoned completely.
The final three names that were presented to the team were Falcons, Desert Knights, and Golden Knights (Silver Knights was also considered as the NHL team name for a time).
Obviously, The Creator was stuck pretty strongly on Knights, so the majority of the logo create centered around Golden or Desert Knights.
Interestingly, a secondary logo seemed to have made it fairly far into the process and was consistently used in the late jersey mockups. It utilized the phrase found on the Nevada state flag “Battle Born.”
The teardrop-shaped logo appeared on a single shoulder of many jersey concepts presented to The Creator and Co.
And lastly, one of the more contentious issues that surrounded the team in the aftermath of the unveiling of the name was the decision to drop the “Las” from the city name.
In the build-up, we reported pretty early on that it was a likelihood it would happen, but the designs on Eagles’ site show a version of the wordmark with the full Las Vegas Golden Knights name.
Pretty neat stuff all around.
If you enjoyed any of this, I’d highly recommend you both watch the Icethetics video and check out Jeff’s site. There’s a lot more info than I shared here in each.
Coyote
I would have liked the “Battle Born” phrase included. Thanks, Ken.
Some interesting concepts here. A few look pretty dang good.
Bobby
Interested to see the plans for the next hockey sweater manufacturer in 2024, when the Adidas contract is over. I miss the thicker CCM pro ones from the 90’s, hopefully made in Canada next time, not Indonesia.
Chico Haskins
The official Adidas players’ sweaters are made in Canada.
Bobby
Yup, I meant available for purchase. These wafer-thin Indonesia ones they sell as the ‘pro’ sweater drive me crazy.
Emmanuel
When the team was looking for a name and solicited suggestions thru e-mail (disingenuously) I sent in Las Vegas Lancers. I’m still waiting for a jersey with a knight on horseback charging…..
JV
Find it hypocritical that the NHL banned names associated with gambling, yet completely embraced it 3-4 years later.
From The Score back in 2016:
“The league has made it very clear that the name really should not be associated with gambling and so on,” Foley said.
Wasn’t Perigrines mentioned as well?
Original 6 ✅
i sat with foley at sun coast when they were just trying to sign up season tik holders and he was set on black & gold and he actually mention golden knights. obviously cuz of i believe being a Army graduate if i’m not mistaken. and he said he was a shark fan. liked the Hawks and prayed he wasn’t going to get stuck with the coyotes ! i believe he had to work out the name with the golden knights paratroopers but i guess it worked out
jj
Please check out the Icethetics YT channel and Chris’s Icethetics page if you like logos and jerseys. He produces them extremely well and they are fun and informative. Been going to his site for many, many years.
Cheers.