We wrote about the new Denver arch eight months ago, after the University of Denver Athletics announced the retention of an ‘arched Denver’ logo with a more muted arch. The new Denver arch comes on the heels of the rollout of the revised interlocking ‘DU’ logo that was launched university-wide a year ago. The interlocking DU logo rebrand was especially concerning to fans of the hockey program, where the potential loss of the Denver arch was seen as a potential blow to the University of Denver Hockey program branding and history. After eight months of waiting, University of Denver men’s hockey shared photos of their new uniforms this past week with the new Denver logo on the chest. While there will always be resistance to change, this is a clean new look that is very much in line with the brand and tradition of Denver Hockey.
This revised home jersey features a red Denver arch trimmed in gold with a new lettering font. This logically aligns with other metro schools such as UMKC which rebranded to ‘Kansas City’ and UNO which rebranded to ‘Omaha’ with their athletic uniforms featuring city names that closely integrate their institutions with their community. Plus, ‘Denver’ is a differentiator from other DU-named schools (DePauw University, Drake University, Drexel University, etc.).
The initial announcement from athletic director Josh Berlo stated the continued use of the Arched Denver for DU’s 18 varsity sports:
According to our sources, several levels of Denver administration were involved in the final approval of the Athletic Department’s use of the new arched Denver.
Denver has also moved from a maroon color palette to a more brilliant red color and carried the new interlocking DU logo over to the shoulders. New Balance continues to be the manufacturer of the sweater and shorts. Overall, we like the look of the new uniforms and believe they preserve the Denver Hockey brand.
The official uniform announcement video is in the tweet below and more images of the new uniforms can be seen on DU Hockey’s social media pages:
Denver hockey’s 2023-24 sweaters are here. Straight 🔥🔥🔥 from @newbalance.
#GoPios pic.twitter.com/B24B91yU0R— Denver Hockey (@DU_Hockey) August 31, 2023
All photos courtesy of Denver Athletics
What was wrong with our crimson red??
This actually *is* more crimson than last year’s version was. Last year’s NewBalance version was more akin to maroon than crimson. Let UMD and Minnesota have maroon. These are a lot more like the crimson we saw on the ice in Boston in 2022.
The red Pantone color matches the new brand refresh. The ‘crimson’ color has changed in the past. In the 70’s, DU had ketchup and mustard (McDonalds) uniforms. When DU went DI in 1999, Dan Ritchie led the way to a darker, crimson color. If you look up ‘crimson’ colors, there are a number of shades from maroon to red.
Dunker here: are we now officially red and gold? I’m ok with that because the crimson on clothing DU students, alumni, and fans could purchase was getting kind of dull looking. Few manufacturers could copy the crimson properly.
I hate change, but I’ll finally confess: I saw a rising freshman at a NJ supermarket about a month ago wearing the new interlocking DU logo on the chest. Logo not too large, just right. It also had University of Denver on it. I spotted logo from 50 feet away. It looked fresh and sharp. Naturally I gave the kid a BOONE sticker for his phone. Go Pios
Dunker again: the McDonalds color will always be my favorite.
I don’t think we should underestimate the role of this blog in getting to what is a very good final uniform result. Remember, there was a lot of initial energy by the overall university rebranding team pushing for a dominant new DU interlock as the primary jersey logo — replacing the old arched Denver with that single new interlock logo. That would have been terrible.
Our pushback here (and the pushback from DU athletics) gave us this compromise, retaining a modified ‘arched Denver’ and relegating the role of the new interlock to the uniform shoulders, where it replaced the older, more collegiate DU interlock. While I am a little sad to lose the old interlock and the old arched Denver, this was an acceptable compromise.
As for the new Crimson, I am fine with it, as it is close to the original red-crimson colors DU has used for much of its history since the 1940s, and perhaps before that.. I am just glad there are no black hockey jerseys. Black has never been am official DU school color, and the more recent use of black jerseys in DU’s minor sports bugs me, as it negates our school colors and is often hard to read what school we are in game action.
I hope they use the new “Denver” arch on t shirts, sweatshirts, etc. When you look at the DU athletics gear at the bookstore much of the inventory is sub par and they use the new DU logo on way too many things! I’m glad I bought couple New Balance t shirts with the old arch before the switchover was made.
As an experienced graphic designer I find this new branding to be a complete waste of time and money that could have been used elsewhere in the athletic department and facility. The new logo IMO is not successful, it is lacking in depth and color and the choice of font does not compliment or work well with the old branding.