S Tier: Navy Lighthouse
The best finalist by far is the Navy Lighthouse jersey. I love how the orange and atlantic green stripes look on the navy background, and I think the lighthouse logo would make a great front crest.
A Tier: Navy Fisherman
The orange and atlantic green stripes also look good on the Navy Fisherman jersey, however the updated fisherman logo looks out of place here due to the dearth of atlantic green on this version of the logo. Also why is the collar grey behind the NHL logo?
B Tier: Orange Fisherman
The Orange Fisherman jersey has the opposite problem, too much atlantic green on this version of the logo for a jersey without that colour anywhere else. I do like using orange as the base colour though, in an ideal world the Islanders third jersey would be orange.
C Tier: Orange NY & Navy NY
I have the two NY jerseys tied in my ranking. The orange version is fine as is, but would work much better with four stripes instead of three to match the stripes in the logo. The Navy NY was one of my favourite finalists until McElroy Creative on X pointed out that it's basically just a Rangers jersey.
D Tier: Navy Islanders
If it weren't for the wordmark logo I might have the Navy Islanders finalist ranked higher, but I just think the arched Islanders script looks awful stuck within the chest stripe.
E Tier: Navy Isles
Speaking of awful, I can't believe anyone chose to use this Isles script. The jersey itself is decent, it's just ruined by the choice of logo.
F Tier: Orange Lighthouse
Last and also least is the Orange Lighthouse jersey, which is literally an Oilers jersey with the lighthouse logo slapped on the front. How this joke of an entry ended up in the top eight finalists is beyond me.
Sidenote: I just noticed the TV numbers on the front view of all these jerseys are number 62, instead of 26 to match the back view.
If I could have entered the design contest I probably would have entered something like this, a simple orange jersey meant to work well with their existing primary set.
Last up is a double-blue design (using a very dark navy), with the lighthouse logo once again front and center.
Now it's time for me to show you eight Islanders concepts I've designed over the years (I wasn't allowed to enter the contest since I'm not an American). Not all of these were originally meant to be third jerseys, so some work better than others in this context.
Muted Colours - May 2012
For my first ever Islanders concept I used muted colours, meant to evoke the faded shades of old fishing equipment. I also used a four stripe motif, a theme which will come up multiple times in these concepts.
Tame Fisherman - September 2012
My next Islanders concept took the fisherman design and stripped away all the wacky 90's goodness (this was back before 90's nostalgia was in vogue).
Four-Stripe Chest-Stripe - October 2012
This concept used a four stripe design as a chest stripe. I don't know why I repeated their primary logo on the shoulders (à la the Buffalo Sabres from 1978-96).
Stripey-Armed Orange - October 2013
Another four stripe design, but this time in orange and using the arched wordmark from their 2011-14 third jersey.
Simply Orange - July 2014
Four Forward Slashes - July 2021
My most unique Islanders concept placed the main logo on the shoulders (à la the Canucks' Flying-V jerseys), with four stripes being the only design feature on the front.
White Lighthouse - May 2023
Next up is my first time using the Lighthouse logo as the front crest. White probably isn't the best base colour for a third jersey, but it has been done before.
Double-Blues - February 2024
Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
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