The beer league jersey is a beautiful, though irreverent–sometimes outright offensive tradition. A chance for grown men to express their inner-immaturity through creative means. I had the chance to help with designing my team’s jersey this year and I think they turned out great.
Just a bit of background: after playing roller hockey off and on since I was a kid, the closing of my beloved Scotts Valley Sports Center roller rink a couple years ago forced all of us exiled Scotts Valley hockey players to look at other options. I ended up playing roller hockey at Rollin’ Ice and at the same time, learning how to skate on ice for a year before feeling comfortable enough to join an ice hockey team.
I landed myself a spot on a team made up largely of fellow ex-SVSC hockey players, Mark it Zero, a reference to the well-known scene in The Big Lebowski.
Now in their second season, they were ready to get team jerseys. I volunteered to help with the design. I have helped with designing jerseys before, but these turned out especially nice.
First off, I didn’t create the logo–it is actually a great Mark it Zero T-shirt design that I found from a quick Google search.
Since it was just a low-res image, I recreated it in Illustrator and created color versions for use on a jersey.
After multiple versions, I tried them out on many different jerseys.
The team voted on the old Tampa Bay Lightning jersey and I mocked up what it would look like.
Several weeks later, the jerseys arrived and they look great in real life!
For more examples of the beer league jersey, visit Puck Daddy’s great Salute to Awesome Beer League Jerseys.
