Black T‑shirt on a mannequin featuring an Oakville Hornets hockey graphic.

Oakville Hornets Apparel

This project focused on creating custom apparel designs for the Oakville Hornets Girls Hockey Association to provide players and fans with unified apparel options while modernizing the association’s online store presence.

Role

Graphic Designer

Scope

Apparel Design & Product Mockups

Tools

Illustrator & Photoshop

Client

Oakville Hornets Girls Hockey Association

Problem

The Oakville Hornets Girls Hockey Association had not refreshed their apparel designs in several seasons, leaving players and fans with outdated gear and limited options across the organization. REP players were restricted to one design only, and players at lower levels could not wear that design at all. From a user experience perspective, the existing system did not support the needs of different user groups within the association.

Previous Player Designs

Previous Fan Apparel Designs

Solution

The final solution consisted of a refreshed apparel design system that supports both players and fans across all levels of play. Accessibility, consistency, and confidence were the main priorities across the entire apparel experience, with each design developed to work across various apparel types while also supporting customization.

Black sweatshirt with Oakville Hornets Hockey text in white and red on the front.

Black T‑shirt on a mannequin with Oakville Hornets Hockey text in white and red.

Red T‑shirt on a mannequin with Hornets Est. 1996 Hockey text and a hornet graphic.

Black hoodie with Hornets Est. 1996 Hockey text and a hornet graphic.

Black hoodie with 1996 text in bold white outline and Hornets in red script on the left chest

Light grey T-shirt with 1996 text in bold white outline and Hornets in red script on the left chest

Navy beanie with 1996 in bold white outline and Hornets in red script across the brim.

Black T‑shirt on a mannequin with bold red Hornet Nation text featuring a diagonal split effect.

Light gray hoodie with bold black Hornet Nation text featuring a diagonal split across the chest.

Red crewneck sweatshirt with Hornets text, the number 74, and a small hornet graphic beneath two horizontal lines.

lack T‑shirt on a mannequin with Hornets text, the number 74, and a small hornet graphic beneath two horizontal lines.

Black T‑shirt on a mannequin with Hornets text in red and white, Hockey in a thick red bar, the number 24, and a hornet graphic.

Light grey sweatshirt with Hornets text in red and white, Hockey in a thick red bar, the number 24, and a hornet graphic.

Behind the Solution

Research was conducted into NCAA and Major League teams in order to elevate the association's apparel, ensuring the brand gave off the same levels of confidence and professionalism. Research into high level sports branding helped define a bold, positive tone that empowered players while still remaining accessible to fans.

01 Brand Guidelines

The new apparel designs had to be designed within the existing strict Hornets brand system, meaning existing logos had to be vectorized for consistent scaling, recolouring, and multi use application.

02 Visual Exploration

Designing within the brand guidelines also meant designing for specific apparel colour options with the ability of having multiple uses. Exploration into garment and logo colours, typography, and number colour options for player personalization was key to ensuring logos remained legible across multiple apparel colours.