Reason behind the color change?

Hey all,

I've been a Devils fan for 13 years now, ever since I was 9 years old. One thing that I always wondered about is the decision to change the colors during the '92-'93 season. I was curious to see if any of you old timers could shed some light on the reasons or what it was like to be fan at that time. Was it a big deal to the fans/media?

Personally I think the "christmas tree" jerseys were kinda cool, I bought one with MacLean on the back a while back. Granted nothing beats the classy black and red digs we have now.

Also, Do you guys see any changes/third jerseys in our future? I know Lou has vigorously denied changes as long as he's in charge.

:stanley: :stanley: :stanley:

I couldn't stand the red & green when the Devils first came to NJ. I was 12. I remember practically rejoicing when the black & red debuted. I've come to appreciate the red & green quite a bit. I actually just bought an 83-84 Mitchell & Ness Devils jersey off of Ebay. Great jersey.

Anyway not sure why they did the color change, just compelled to respond since I just got my throwback. I'd love to hear why they changed myself.

I don't know the official reason on why the color change but I have always looked at as red and black makes more sense for a team named the Devils than red and green. Also I think it also had to do with the fact that red and black is more eye pleasing than red and green.

I don;t see any changes. 1 like you said Lou has come and stated no changes as long as he is in charge plus second it is the uniform that was worn for most of the teams history (15 years now compared to 10 for the green) and this time has been the Devils most successful period. They have won 3 cups with the current unis and have never had a losing season in them.

I don't know the official reason on why the color change but I have always looked at as red and black makes more sense for a team named the Devils than red and green. Also I think it also had to do with the fact that red and black is more eye pleasing than red and green.

I don;t see any changes. 1 like you said Lou has come and stated no changes as long as he is in charge plus second it is the uniform that was worn for most of the teams history (15 years now compared to 10 for the green) and this time has been the Devils most successful period. They have won 3 cups with the current unis and have never had a losing season in them.

I remember reading that the black made the players look bigger, tougher and more menacing, or something to that effect. They wanted players to actually want to wear the jersey.

The red & green scheme probably came about due to the name being based on the NJ Devil legend being from the Pine Barrens. Pine=Forest=Green. Just a theory.

Black & red is definitely a more menacing color combo.

The red & green scheme probably came about due to the name being based on the NJ Devil legend being from the Pine Barrens. Pine=Forest=Green. Just a theory.

Black & red is definitely a more menacing color combo.

I second your theory and would add that being the "Garden State" might have something to do with it.

edit: did Dr. McMullen's wive choose the colors? I know she designed the logo. I always wondered if Scott Stevens requested the change.
Nothing like Jersey tomato sauce or "gravy" depending where you grew up.

Carolina (and more recently Buffalo) has fared well since switching to their *ahem* current color scheme.

I like the "ahem".

Off topic but related way too many teams in all sports switching to a black color scheme or black alternate jersey. It's lost it's effect in a big way. Great example I've noticed, though not following baseball, the Mets & Blue Jays.

I like the "ahem".

Off topic but related way too many teams in all sports switching to a black color scheme or black alternate jersey. It's lost it's effect in a big way. Great example I've noticed, though not following baseball, the Mets & Blue Jays.

It was a marketing thing - black jerseys sell better.

I know Dr. McMullen's wife designed the logo, not sure if she chose the red and green though.

The fans may have picked the colors when we voted for the name. I was 15.

I always thought they took the original colors from the Italian flag. I'm serious, there are more than six million Italian-Americans in the Tri-state/Penn area.

I always thought they took the original colors from the Italian flag. I'm serious, there are more than six million Italian-Americans in the Tri-state/Penn area.

I don't doubt it.

How many Irish?:)

It was a marketing thing - black jerseys sell better.

I'd have to agree with this one.

It was a marketing thing - black jerseys sell better.

So do third jerseys.

It was a marketing thing - black jerseys sell better.

Except the Devils don't have have a black jersey. The black is only on the shoulders, the outline of the logo and numbers, and the piping.

I like the change, it's a lot sleeker and makes the jersey look better than if it was green.

I always liked the red and green home jersey (which was mostly white back then)but the road jerseys were just terrible. The year before the Devils changed to red and black was the NHLs 75th anniversary and for the second half of the season the home teams wore their road jerseys in honor of how it was in the old NHL (see home teams used to wear dark - then switched to white - and have now switched back to dark :confused: ). So the home town fans got to see how ugly the old red and green road jersey were in person for those last 20 games or so...suddenly next season we were red and black. Coincidence? :dunno:

I'm not sure I remember the official reason, but marketing, player interest were definitely part of it.

I remember they were going to do red helmets but Claude Lemieux modeled the black helmets and everyone liked those better.

The red & green scheme probably came about due to the name being based on the NJ Devil legend being from the Pine Barrens. Pine=Forest=Green. Just a theory.

Black & red is definitely a more menacing color combo.

I also heard that the green in the old jersey's were supposed to represent the pine barrens.

I was also able to dig up some blurbs from when they announced the change:

The red, green and white colors of their uniforms have been the one consistent aspect of the Devils' 10 years in New Jersey, but the colors, too, are in the process of being changed. Starting with next season, the Devils will dress in red, black and white, which, in the eyes of some of the team's executives, are more attractive and more marketable colors.
National Hockey League bylaws mandate that a team wishing to change colors must notify the league by Dec. 15 of the previous season. The Devils have complied with that mandate, but no team representative agreed to discuss details of the new uniforms. One part of the uniform that will not change is the design of the team's logo, which has the letters "N" and "J" in a circle.
The Devils officially announced Wednesday that they will change their colors to red, black and white starting next season, with black taking the place of the green in their present red, green and white uniforms. As was reported earlier in the week, the logo will be unaltered. "Our feeling is that the new design will provide a more rugged look than our current uniforms," LOU LAMORIELLO, the president of the Devils, said about the change of colors. "This change will have a positive effect in our appearance as we enter our second decade in Devils hockey."
The New Jersey Devils have unveiled new colors. Their uniforms are red, black and white, as opposed to the old green, red, black and white. Says Jeff Williams of Newsday: "The players look less like Christmas trees now."

I think it was believed that the red/white/black combo worked better than red/white/green - and I concur.
}:-)>
I also remember there was some sort of study that said that red and green were the most depressing colors.

I think it was believed that the red/white/black combo worked better than red/white/green - and I concur.
}:-)>
I also remember there was some sort of study that said that red and green were the most depressing colors.
I think the study you are talking about was referring to The Red Green Show (http://www.rentertainment.com/images/redgreen/RedGreenCrew2.jpg), which while not depressing, certainly has a pathetic appeal to it.

I think the study you are talking about was referring to The Red Green Show (http://www.rentertainment.com/images/redgreen/RedGreenCrew2.jpg), which while not depressing, certainly has a pathetic appeal to it.
Are you kidding? That's the second-greatest show ever, right behind Uncle Floyd!!
<(-:**

I always liked the red and green home jersey (which was mostly white back then)but the road jerseys were just terrible. The year before the Devils changed to red and black was the NHLs 75th anniversary and for the second half of the season the home teams wore their road jerseys in honor of how it was in the old NHL (see home teams used to wear dark - then switched to white - and have now switched back to dark :confused: ). So the home town fans got to see how ugly the old red and green road jersey were in person for those last 20 games or so...suddenly next season we were red and black. Coincidence? :dunno:

You hit that one on the head. Those road unis were horrible. I've grown to appreciate the home unis but there is no redeeming the road. Possibly would have looked better with the green as the primary color. The bright red they used at the time was blinding.

I liked the red, green and white sweaters. When they changed, I didn't like it at first. I quickly grew to accept the new color scheme, and I prefere the more "cleaned up" look. There are three stripes on the arms and bottom of the current version. The black should is also better because it doesn't have any striping, and I like the fact that it is the same on both white and red sweaters. The old ones were had red for the home whites and green for the road reds.

I think my greatest fear when they reworked the uniforms was that the team would go into endless changes. The changes were not really that radicle, and the have kept the design of course.

Here they are, courtesy of nhluniforms.com (http://www.nhluniforms.com):
http://www.nhluniforms.com/1980s/Images/Devils1.gif
http://www.nhluniforms.com/2000s/Images/Devils3.gif

Are you kidding? That's the second-greatest show ever, right behind Uncle Floyd!!
<(-:{Paterson, NJ's own Uncle Floyd, Jimmy Vivino. However, it is not fair to compare the two because Uncle Floyd has Oogie (http://www.jimmyvivino.com/images/bline1.jpg). If The Red and Green Show could lure Oogie away from Uncle Floyd, they would likely have the advantage. Oogie holds all the cards when his contract is expires.

Paterson, NJ's own Uncle Floyd, Jimmy Vivino. However, it is not fair to compare the two because Uncle Floyd has Oogie (http://www.jimmyvivino.com/images/bline1.jpg). If The Red and Green Show could lure Oogie away from Uncle Floyd, they would likely have the advantage. Oogie holds all the cards when his contract is expires.

Jimmy Vivino is Uncle Floyd's little brother -- a long time professional musician and, I believe, still a member of Conan O'Brien's house band "The Max Weinberg 7" (Max being a die-hard Devils fan himself...) Uncle Floyd is actually named Floyd... Floyd Vivino.

Jimmy Vivino is Uncle Floyd's little brother -- a long time professional musician and, I believe, still a member of Conan O'Brien's house band "The Max Weinberg 7" (Max being a die-hard Devils fan himself...) Uncle Floyd is actually named Floyd... Floyd Vivino.
You right. I goofed because my link was from Jimmy's site. I knew Uncle Floyd's brother was on the Conon O'Brien show, but I obviously couldn't remember his name.

I think that the old jersies were DISGUSTING looking.

But the new ones are some of my favorites in the league. Clean looking with great colors.

I'm not sure I remember the official reason, but marketing, player interest were definitely part of it.

I remember they were going to do red helmets but Claude Lemieux modeled the black helmets and everyone liked those better.

Yes, Claude painted the helmets black just before opening night. During the 1992-93 pre-season, they wore the old Green and reds.

I also heard that the green in the old jersey's were supposed to represent the pine barrens.

I was also able to dig up some blurbs from when they announced the change:

Good research - every team wanted black - look at LA Kings.
Also, the Pens changed their colors from blue to black and gold - to be consistent with the Steelers and Pirates. The Bruins complained, but when you look at what each franchise has done since the early 90s, the Bruins ought to give up their claim on black.....

Red and green does not go together very well no matter how they are put together. I like the current ones, but I thought the old ones were trash.

I still wish the Devs would wear the green as a 3rd jersey, but as long as Lou is around it won't happen. The man flat out said no 3rd jersey when he's around. Why? :dunno: foolish pride?

Lou thinks 3rd jerseys are gimmicks and he feels the team is above that. That's really about it.

Lou is a genius at putting together hockey teams as we all know but he's very stubborn with marketing. An alternate black jersey would probably do well, plus throwbacks are huge now so it probably wouldn't hurt to do a test run on the red & greens to see what kind of demand is out there.

I got my red & green home jersey from Ebay. There are a few out there. Mitchell & Ness made them but I don't know how well they did on the sales.

I still wish the Devs would wear the green as a 3rd jersey, but as long as Lou is around it won't happen. The man flat out said no 3rd jersey when he's around. Why? :dunno: foolish pride?
My guess is he wants people to spend money going to the games rather than on multiple sweaters. I live nowhere near NJ though, and wouldn't mind having more than just the home and away versions. Lou cares about Devils fans, and I know that was an issue with the new arena. The Devils will own the arena and won't have to pay rent to use it. In theory this should drive ticket prices down or at least cap them for a few years. That is all speculation of course.

I know Dr. McMullen's wife designed the logo, not sure if she chose the red and green though.



Whoever this Mrs. McMullen is, she designed one of the top 3 or 4 logos in the entire league.

And the red & green were fine too, but I do like the black & red.

And now, the jersey and colors will forever be linked to being a "face painter" and "gotta support the team." (one of the best Seinfeld's ever)

The NJ jersey/color combo should never be altered in any way...

Good research - every team wanted black - look at LA Kings.
Also, the Pens changed their colors from blue to black and gold - to be consistent with the Steelers and Pirates.

Good research? Don't know about that, but definitely a bad conclusion!

When the Kings went to black/silver/white, they became the 4th team to wear black (4 in the 21 team NHL - not too many IMO). The first 3 were Boston, Pittsburgh & Vancouver.

NJ still wore the red & green for a few more years before switching to black (see nhluniforms.com).

Now EVERYBODY it seems has black or ultra dark navy (basically black), and the whole league looks quite boring (approx. 21/30 wear black or very very dark, counting some 3rd jerseys).

The Flyers and Sharks are 2 of the worst looking black jerseys, the Flames are the absolute worst black jersey.

Good research? Don't know about that, but definitely a bad conclusion!

When the Kings went to black/silver/white, they became the 4th team to wear black (4 in the 21 team NHL - not too many IMO). The first 3 were Boston, Pittsburgh & Vancouver.

NJ still wore the red & green for a few more years before switching to black (see nhluniforms.com).

Now EVERYBODY it seems has black or ultra dark navy (basically black), and the whole league looks quite boring (approx. 21/30 wear black or very very dark, counting some 3rd jerseys).

The Flyers and Sharks are 2 of the worst looking black jerseys, the Flames are the absolute worst black jersey.

Good research to you, too. Hope I'm not damning you with my praise :-)
The trend to black went in two waves: Boston was "an original" (consistent with a black bear, or bruin), Pittsburgh wanted to climb on the bandwagon of the Steelers
and the 79 World Champ Pirates.
Vancouver started the "That's right, we bad" trend with coverting their colors and logo from the Pacific Northwest colors (blue and green, with a hockey stick, I recall) to the black and orange. Then everyone hiked on the wagon. Hockey, basketball,etc.
At the risk of sounding straight out of "Queer Eye ", black and orange don't look too great together. I agree - the Flyers Black unis are poor. And some teams just don't do well with black, period. The Islanders and the new Sbares logo, which looks like a toupee (at least they are bringing back the old crossed sabres as a third uni)

As much as I hate the Flyers, I'd prefer if they went back to their old orange road (now home) uniforms. As for the Christmas Tree jerseys, I just hope we see them one more time at the Meadowlands

Good research to you, too. Hope I'm not damning you with my praise :-)
The trend to black went in two waves: Boston was "an original" (consistent with a black bear, or bruin), Pittsburgh wanted to climb on the bandwagon of the Steelers
and the 79 World Champ Pirates.
Vancouver started the "That's right, we bad" trend with coverting their colors and logo from the Pacific Northwest colors (blue and green, with a hockey stick, I recall) to the black and orange. Then everyone hiked on the wagon. Hockey, basketball,etc.
At the risk of sounding straight out of "Queer Eye ", black and orange don't look too great together. I agree - the Flyers Black unis are poor. And some teams just don't do well with black, period. The Islanders and the new Sbares logo, which looks like a toupee (at least they are bringing back the old crossed sabres as a third uni)


The Islanders don't wear black niether is the new Sabres stuff. Both are navy blue which in my opinion looks good although that new new sabres logo needs to be burned at the stake for the reasons you gave.

And, apparently, for color-blind folks green and red are the hardest to distinguish... So the old school Devs jerseys must have looked like a delightful shade of... gray?

i think the devils jersey and logo are among the sharpest in the league. the logo is succinct and simple.

i liked the green on the old jerseys as well, but i didn't have to look at it all the time.

The old road unis were hideoso... But the old school home whites with green and red trim were quite cool, IMO, and are very much the precursors to the current, clean design. The green helmets, that is a whole other story...

Somewhat off topic, I still think it was supremely stupid of the NHL to switch from home whites to home solids, as now every visiting team looks exactly the same, except for the logo, versus the fans getting to see some of the classic away jerseys -- Leafs, Rangers, Bruins, Blackhawks, etc. Of all the things they changed after the lock-out, I wish they changed this back to the far superior way it was previously.

And, especially with the Devils, I thought we looked way tough rolling into town with our red unis and black helmets as the away team. Oh, well. The NHL has a hard time getting anything right.

Somewhat off topic, I still think it was supremely stupid of the NHL to switch from home whites to home solids, as now every visiting team looks exactly the same, except for the logo, versus the fans getting to see some of the classic away jerseys -- Leafs, Rangers, Bruins, Blackhawks, etc. Of all the things they changed after the lock-out, I wish they changed this back to the far superior way it was previously.From the 1940's through 1970, the NHL teams wore dark sweaters at home and white on the road. Prior to that, most teams only had a dark sweater.

From the 1940's through 1970, the NHL teams wore dark sweaters at home and white on the road. Prior to that, most teams only had a dark sweater.

We didn't exist as a team in 1970. From 1982-2002, it was better the other way around (IMO). And it is those classic dark sweaters I miss seeing at the Swamp...

We didn't exist as a team in 1970. From 1982-2002, it was better the other way around (IMO). And it is those classic dark sweaters I miss seeing at the Swamp...

I agree 100%

Old Jersey were FUGLY and didn't sell well. This is all about making $$. Blk and red sell better than Vomit and red.

Old Jersey were FUGLY and didn't sell well. This is all about making $$. Blk and red sell better than Vomit and red.

I agree completely on the new design being both better -- and more profitable. The last few posts were regarding the switch between home whites to home darks... which was a mistake IMO. The new Unis rule, and I own several...

Well if you remember the switch to dark at home happened the season before the lockout. The reason was because of travel and to make it easier on th equipment managers because prior teams had to bring both uniform sets on road trips in case the home team wanted to wear dark alternates. By making dark at home teams only need to bring 1 set with them.

Personally I like the switch. I like the Devils red unis better so I like them as the home uniform. As pointed out many of the dark uniforms are the more famous ones so it's better that they are that teams home uni. Montreal is a great example of this. Before the switch it was like if the Yankees wore pinstripes on the road.

As pointed out many of the dark uniforms are the more famous ones so it's better that they are that teams home uni. Montreal is a great example of this. Before the switch it was like if the Yankees wore pinstripes on the road.

Which is why I am disappointed that we NOW never get to see the famous dark uniforms in person...as every visitor is now in white.

And with regards to the Yankee argument, NOW it is like the Yankees playing in their road greys (darks) at home versus the 34 seasons in Hockey prior to this change where they would have been playing in their classic pinstripes (whites).

I like our red unis too (but think the whites look cleaner as a design), but thought they had way more intimidation factor as a road uni -- rolling into an opposing town as "The Devils" in red and black.

Just one opinion, but I really hate the change.

Maybe the Devils could wear their old Red and Green Jerseys for the last ever home game at CAA. That would be neat.

Paterson, NJ's own Uncle Floyd, Jimmy Vivino. However, it is not fair to compare the two because Uncle Floyd has Oogie (http://www.jimmyvivino.com/images/bline1.jpg).

Adding to the obscure trivia (funny timing here): I just purchased a David Bowie CD from '02, Heathen. On it, he has a song devoted to the Uncle Floyd Show (sings about Oogie and all). When I first heard it, I had to give my head a shake. Growing up in the Tri-State area back in the late 70s/early 80s that song's subject matter sure led to a time warp...and talk about strange connections! Apparently, both Bowie and John Lennon were big fans of the show back in the day.

i think the devils jersey and logo are among the sharpest in the league. the logo is succinct and simple.

Agree. The blaring colors and overdone cartoon logos (often with a juvenile "intimidating" connotation) excite some. But ultimately, you come to see that when it comes to sports design, less is more. Clean, sophisticated.

Adding to the obscure trivia (funny timing here): I just purchased a David Bowie CD from '02, Heathen. On it, he has a song devoted to the Uncle Floyd Show (sings about Oogie and all). When I first heard it, I had to give my head a shake. Growing up in the Tri-State area back in the late 70s/early 80s that song's subject matter sure led to a time warp...and talk about strange connections! Apparently, both Bowie and John Lennon were big fans of the show back in the day.The Ramones also mentioned Uncle Floyd in the lyrics of "It's Not My Place (In the 9 to 5 World)."