Asian Olympic Dreams

View fullsize

This has been one of the most popular theme weeks the Concepts page has ever hosted. They just keep rolling in so I figured I'd extend the fun into this weekend of critical Olympic hockey games.

One continent we didn't get to earlier in the week was Asia. Three artists have taken care of that. D'Arcy Murphy gets us started with Team Kazakhstan. He was inspired by the country's colorful flag.

Next we have a couple of newcomers. Eli Swanson heads south to Afghanistan for this one. He was also inspired by a national flag. And truth be told, this set wouldn't have looked terribly out of place in Sochi.

Finally, Parth Shah tackles his native India for this jersey. He's the first to be featured on the site using the new IceGear template. What do you think of these three national team uniforms?

Check back tomorrow for one final set of Olympic jerseys from countries we didn't see in Sochi.

Caribbean Olympic Dreams

I'll admit, a lot of this week's concepts could've been considered for a Freak Out Friday. But the point was to showcase jerseys for teams that weren't participating in Sochi. So naturally, there were going to be some outliers.

But today is a different story. Dallas Kirkpatrick presents a series of Caribbean hockey sweaters. (So many things wrong about that.) Of the six jersey sets seen above, only one nation has an IIHF membership. Jamaica joined in 2012.

Click through and you'll also find Aruba, the Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. They are wonderfully colorful and each is stylistically unique. Have to give Dallas credit for the creativity. A great way to end this theme week if you ask me.

Olympic Dreams of New Zealand

Did you know New Zealand has had a national hockey team since 1987? Neither did I. Not surprisingly, they aren't represented in Sochi, but Ryan Wick put together should they need it in the future. He explains:

I've got a concept that I'd like to contribute from you tweet today about a team currently not playing in the hockey in Sochi. I've done the New Zealand "Ice Blacks" who currently play in the Div. 2B of the IIHF World Hockey Championships. Quick run down of my design:

• On the bottom of the jersey, incorporated a sublimated Maori tribal design
• On the arms, a sublimated silver fern
• The crest is what they use in IIHF tournaments, but is not their national federation logo, which is not allowed in Olympic competition
• On the left arm, the NZ flag; on the right, the NZ Olympic Committee logo
• The shoulder logo is the Team New Zealand logo used for the London games
• Hanger effect is a line from their national anthem

African Olympic Dreams

View fullsize

Hey, if Jamaica can have a bobsled team, why can't the Ivory Coast have an ice hockey team? Okay, there are plenty of reasons why. And the Ivory Coast is not one of the four African countries that does play hockey. But that hasn't stopped Jared Pozzobon from coming up with a jersey design — you know, should they ever need it.

European Olympic Dreams

View fullsize

Greece isn't exactly known for its ice hockey prowess, but that's the point of this theme week. We're looking at countries that did not qualify for Sochi. Alan John Herbert came up with this stripe-heavy set. It's a good look and immediately identifiable as Greek.

View fullsize

Icethetics' only Portuguese reader (probably) is Diogo Ferreira and he sent in this jersey design for his home country. It's based on the uniform for a sport that's a little more popular in there — soccer. Unfortunately, I understand Portugal no longer has a national hockey team, which only played three games during its existence. But Diogo assures me there are plenty of NHL fans.