After months of speculation and rumors, the icy silence around the 2024 Winter Classic finally started to thaw on Tuesday.
Artwork purportedly showing the Seattle Kraken and Vegas Golden Knights logos for the event were first published by SinBin.vegas, giving us our first glimpse into what the teams will be wearing in just a few months' time.
The leaked images displayed mockups for two Mitchell & Ness hats, each of which featured the respective teams’ apparent Winter Classiclogos. The right side of each hat displayed the recently-unveiled event logo, while the left side showed unique wordmarks for each team.
The apparent leak also seems to confirm the longstanding rumor that the Kraken will pay homage to the Seattle Metropolitans, who played in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association from 1915 to 1924. They became the first U.S.-based team to win the Stanley Cup in 1917.
The logo on Seattle’s hat is a simplified and recolored version of the club’s primary mark. The deep sea blue and ice blue in the original logo are swapped for red and vintage white.
A wordmark reading “KRAKEN” runs down the middle of the monogram, evoking the design of the Metropolitans’ original logo. The same text also appears on the hat’s left temple.
The leak also gives us our first peek at the Golden Knights’ branding for the game. The slate grey cap features a gold-colored bill and appears to use a new, vintage-inspired logo.
A ‘V’ monogram reminiscent of the Golden Knights’ primary logo is featured front and center on the hat. The top points of the letter are adorned with some kind of ornamentation, but the leaked image is too grainy to glean any solid details.
The wordmark on the side of the hat reads “VEGAS” in a cursive style font. Each side of the wordmark is flanked by a star, likely modeled after the Knights’ secondary logo. Again, the image’s poor quality makes the exact details difficult to discern.
While we’re still waiting for more details to emerge regarding the teams’ jerseys, the anonymous leaker also claimed that the Golden Knights’ jerseys for the event will use a cream color for its base. No details beyond that were provided regarding the jersey.
What’s really interesting to me is the Knights’ logo. While Seattle has a deep well of hockey history that the Kraken can dive into, Vegas does not. Instead, the Golden Knights seem to be creating an entirely new “fauxback” look, similar to what they did for their second Reverse Retro uniform—which was one of the best and most creative designs in the league-wide jersey program.
All in all, both of the logos in the leak seem pretty solid to me. I’m relieved that the Kraken aren’t just copying and pasting the Metros’ identity onto a modern jersey template, and I’m excited to see what the Knights’ overall look be like. I just hope both teams’ jerseys end up being as solid as their apparent logos.
