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Fans react to new NHL Seattle team name, jersey

The Seattle Kraken have arrived! Bring on the memes.

As promised yesterday, the Seattle NHL team made a big splash this morning with the unveiling of their franchise’s name, logo and jersey design. Though the Kraken name was expected to be too bold for the league, the team has embraced the identity fans clearly were drawn toward.

They released this video, adding more promotional and informational videos to their feed throughout the day:

The guesses about the color scheme being hinted at in the video released yesterday were correct. The team has adopted a navy blue and sea-foam green palette with hints of an orangish red, used to make an eye in the tentacle ‘S’ logo and featured as a thin stripe on the sweater design.

Though the logo seems a little underwhelming in its simplicity, the choice to go with an ‘S’-shaped logo still harkens back to Seattle’s hockey history while still feeling very modern. This short clip sold me on it more than anything:

You can walk through the meaning behind the design choices for yourself at the Seattle Kraken website.

Of course, this wasn’t my top choice of a name, but I’m not mad the team is going out and trying something new. My own personal disappointment can be expressed in two Tweets made by very smart and funny people:

I really, really wanted to call them the “Suckeyes,” I cannot emphasize that enough.

I just think it’s a little corny and might sound dumb in a few years. Then again, the Toronto Raptors have a life beyond the Jurassic Park films. Maybe it won’t be so bad.

To their credit, though, I’m in love with the color choices (even if it does feel a little bit like running an Instagram filter over the Winnipeg Jets) and the jersey is absolutely spectacular. Look at this beauty:

The secondary logo on the shoulder patch incorporates an anchor and the Space Needle in a brilliant stroke of graphic design. I’m also digging the font used on the jerseys.

But no design, now matter how thoughtful, is free from being memed. Here are some of my personal favorite reactions to the Seattle Kraken announcement today:

Also, they got Lana Candor to do these adorable promotional videos for their merchandise (and 100 percent of the proceeds are going to local organizations, so we’ll all forgive you for grabbing a “Release the Kraken” shirt).

I think the team has a decent social media presence already. When the Vegas Golden Knights first landed on Twitter, people were delighted by a brand that seemed less formulaic than the others, but the schtick got old fast and eventually crossed the line into sexism, which didn’t seem to work people up quite as much as the account joking that media members were cheering in the press box.

Thus far, Seattle has a fairly balanced level of snark, changing their Twitter bio to say “now that we have a name, we’re strategizing all the ways to draft your favorite player,” which gave me a little chuckle. The account also manages to be just the right amount of horny for a team with a logo that features a tentacle going inside a monster.

Even a corny video about an all NHL team group chat came off pretty well, and not annoying me on Twitter as a franchise is a pretty big win.

What’s next for the Kraken? They’ll be in the search for a head coach soon, likely after playoffs wrap up, and then an expansion draft in 2021. By next fall, the league’s newest team will take the ice at Climate Pledge Arena.

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