A Chocolate Coated Evaluation

HERSHEY, PA – Mitch Lamoureux shows off the new third jersey for this season at the Season Ticket Holder Event on August 29th, 2012. (Tim Stough – Sweetest Hockey on Earth)

Aside from a new logo, uniform and a fuzzy mascot being released to Bears Nation on a few weeks ago, the ceremony also gave the opportunity to reflect on how great the Hershey Bears fan base is. On a randomly chosen work and school night, several weeks before hockey season, a season ticket holder crowd of nearly 3,000 rushed through the Giant Center doors to see the start of what is advertised as a new chapter in Hershey Bears history.

But now that the special event is over and done with, it’s time to reflect, judge, and even criticize the new look of the 2012-13 Hershey Bears. Let’s start with the new logo: Being the 75th anniversary, most fans have been asking for an old school, classy look with the team’s famous chocolate and white colors. The new logo features a brown bear standing on all four legs. This brown bear was used in one of the franchise’s original jerseys dating back to the late 1930’s. However, with that said, the new look also has some minor changes to the style of font.

On to the jerseys, the main home and away uniforms feature the new logo with the 75th anniversary patch on one shoulder. White will continue to be home colors and the brown jersey will continue to traditionally represent the team away from Giant Center.

The last two season the third jersey has been the most popular and most bought among the wide fan base. Whether that will continue onto this coming campaign, that’s for the fans to decide. The third jersey was worn Wednesday night by the “Most interesting man in Hershey”, Mitch Lamoureux. The base of the jersey is white with the logo being just the head of the bear. Similar to the  previous logo, the mouth of the bear head continues to be open and still expresses an epic facial expression.

Last but not least, a personal product of Dan “Beaker” Stuck, the new, thin Coco the Bear made his debut to close out the ceremony. On the ice he certainly seemed more energized and active than ever before. He also has a better six-pack than any athlete on my local high school football team. Whether the skinny and muscular Coco is appealing to your eye or not, that’s for you to decide. But on the flip side, expect a much more active cub roaming the stands for this coming season.