For the franchise’s first major logo change since its inaugural season in 1993, the Florida Panthers held a special event at BB&T Center to reveal the new icon and sweaters. The new primary logo includes a more mature and stoic panther inside a shield with “Florida” set in a tab across the top of the mark. The primary logo will be used on the Panthers away uniforms. The same logo design will be on the front of the home uniforms with “Panthers” in the tab. The new logo is based off of the 101st Airborne icon.
Panthers players Aaron Ekblad, Vincent Trocheck, Shawn Thornton and Steven Kampfer revealed the new uniforms to the crowd. Panthers alumni Ed Jovanovski, Olli Jokinen, Radek Dvorak and Bill Lindsay also made an appearance.
Better, detailed look of the new Florida Panthers home and road jerseys #FlaPanthers #nhl pic.twitter.com/L6ybN5KxY0
— Chris Creamer (@sportslogosnet) June 2, 2016
“The idea when we came into Florida and took responsibility for the stewardship of the franchise, was to start anew and create traditions that were unique to this new start. I think the logo harkens to the vanguard of courage; the idea that you put a shield on the hockey uniform. It’s something to protect, but you also protect it. We wanted something that began a new tradition of winning and demonstrated courage and selfless dedication to a team pursuit of victory.”
–Vincent Viola, Florida Panthers Owner
Comparison of new @FlaPanthers logo and 101st Airborne logo, on which it’s based. pic.twitter.com/GI5oj6Zl0x
— Paul Lukas (@UniWatch) June 2, 2016
Along with the new primary logo, the Panthers also unveiled a new logo with the Florida state flag with a prowling Panther above it. In addition to militaristic tabs above the prowling panther that will either read “Florida” or “Panthers” based on whether the team is home or away, a separate tab just for the team’s captains will be added on top of that.
@FlaPanthers captain and alts will wear banner as part of sleeve patch. Not yet clear if they’ll also wear C & A. pic.twitter.com/WENQYla6Nz
— Paul Lukas (@UniWatch) June 2, 2016
Lastly, the “Leaping Panther” logo has been given a modernization and will be used as a helmet logo.
@sportslogosnet @icethetics @uniwatch New Panther logo on helmet. Much cleaner pic.twitter.com/89JsgDkZAm
— DT Concepts (@dt_concepts) June 2, 2016
With the Panthers turning into a more competitive team and gaining more of a following in Florida, the uniform, logo and brand change is a good one for the team. The military theme, similar to that of an MLS team, will be an interesting one as no other team in the NHL has that kind of theme on their uniforms.
Main Photo:
