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Iowa Wild Introduce New Alternate Jersey

The Iowa Wild, as you might imagine by the name and the splash image, are an American Hockey League (AHL) team based in Des Moines, Iowa, and are the AHL affiliate of the Minnesota Wild.

You may also gather that the team has very similar logos and uniforms to the parent club.

For the 2024-25 AHL season, the team has unveiled a new alternate jersey that also shares some similarities with the Minnesota Wild.

On Monday, the team showed off the jersey in a video, but we never quite got a full view of it:

Later, the team’s mascot — Crash — gave us a look at the full jersey.

As you can see, the jersey is white, with a red collar and green yoke. The crest is in the shape of the State of Iowa, with an interior design that is evocative of the Minnesota Wild. There is a thin green/thicker white/very thick green stripe on the sleeves and at the base of the sweater. Each shoulder features a different logo. You can’t see it in that photo but there are red TV numbers outlined in green on the sleeve near the biceps.

The team is referring to the alternate sweater as “Iowa Grown”. According to the team, the jersey “features the State Crest logo on the chest, which was initially introduced on a specialty jersey during the 2022-23 season. The State Crest blends the Minnesota Wild logo, a state outline of Iowa, and elements of the Des Moines skyline.”

Allie Brown Korinek, Iowa Wild VP of Business Operations, said “The Iowa Wild are invested in building a robust hockey community throughout the state. This jersey showcases what we are most proud of; our affiliation with the Minnesota Wild, our connection to Des Moines, and our role as Iowa’s team.”

The patches on the shoulder are an Iowa Wild logo and a hockey-playing goldfinch. The goldfinch is the state bird of Iowa, and had previously appeared on two Iowa Wild special edition jerseys.

Here are some screengrabs of the two logos:

And here’s a screengrab of the front of the jersey showing the Iowa Grown logo:

And finally, a bit of storytelling for the jersey:

The Iowa Wild open the 2024-25 regular season against the Manitoba Moose at Wells Fargo Arena on Saturday, October 12th. The team will debut the new alternate sweater in this game. It will also be worn in select games during the season.

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I’ll be the first to admit I don’t watch much minor league hockey, but I have been familiar with the Iowa Wild since their relocation from Houston in 2013, and I’ve always appreciated how they’ve kept their branding always very similar to the parent club. And I’ve always thought the Minnesota Wild logo was one of the best in sports. As such, I love how the Iowa AHL team has modified that logo while still making it their own. That alone is enough to make me love this alternate, but the striping is nice as well. I’m never a fan of yokes, but they look “right” on a hockey jersey more than any other, so even that’s OK by me. And how can you not love that goldfinch with helmet and stick! I just wish we could see how the back of the jersey looks — but I guess we’ll find out on Saturday.

What do you think of the new alternate?

 
  
 
Comments (20)

    Currently live in Des Moines and frequent wild games. I’m a fan of this jersey and I kinda wish they’d make it their regular home one (currently it’s a wheat colored jersey with “IOWA” diagonally in the front). I’m a little sad to see the old white go, but I am a fan of them making Iowa a point of emphasis

    The Minnesota/Iowa Wild ECHL affiliate, the Iowa Heartlanders also previewed new jerseys at a preview event last night. I wasn’t able to get pics but but I expect they’ll be posted on their socials within the week.

    As for the Iowa Wild jersey, I’m not sure I like the big Iowa on the chest. It feels clunky to me. One of the Heartlanders jerseys has a similar outline but uses the pink wild rose theme.

    Also, I really like the Goldfinch logo. They did a special jersey with it as the crest last year. I wish they’d make it a primary.

    I get to a few AHL games a year in TX. It’s a fun brand of hockey that you should definitely check out

    I don’t like it when the minor league team just takes the parent name. (Yay Utica Comets even when the Devils got with them! Boo Bridgeport Islanders, long live the Sound Tigers!) Same colors? Sure. Same template? OK fine. Same name just different location? Not my preference. It makes it look like an itinerant show just passing through, being “in the place” but not necessarily “of the place.” That being said, the Minnesota Wild logo is gorgeous, and I REALLY LOVE the way the Iowa club put their own spin on the brand. Do I know Des Moines well enough to know that that’s it? Heck no. But I do know the shape of Iowa. Well done!

    Am I the only one who thinks Iowa’s version of the Minnesota Wild crest is awful? At least Minnesota’s resembles a bear, with the interior multicolor design contributing to the bear’s features. My mind can’t get away from the fact that the star and river in Iowa’s aren’t supposed to serve as an eye and a mouth of some sort of weird shaped creature.

    It’s the outline of the state of Iowa. That is the spin to the Bear logo. Pretty genius I’d say.

    I know it is lol. I’m just so used to the star and the river representing the Minnesota Wild bear’s eye and mouth that it seems like the star and river is serving as an eye and mouth of a weird character that is also the shape of the state of Iowa. I think a different placement, or complete elimination of the star would have helped the logo out.

    How is this in any way ‘genius’? The Minnesota logo incorporates the star as the eye, the waterway as the mouth, etc. to create the animal. For Iowa, the outline of the state could literally house anything, and it would still be the outline of the state. They simply put a picture of the skyline within that border. It could have been a picture of an arena, or a player, or sunset, or anything…and they all would fit just fine, so I don’t know how this is genius in any way. Please fill me in, as I clearly must be missing something.

    I wouldn’t say it’s “awful,” but I do appreciate where you’re coming from. Perhaps taking a goldfinch head as the starting point, making the primary color gold and adding green and red accents might evoke the parent club logo as you would suggest. As it stands, it’s the color patterns that do the trick.

    The wildest thing in Iowa are the loose meat sandwiches that are inexplicably popular there.

    Having watched the original incarnation of the Roseanne show, all I know is that a loose meat/tavern sandwich is just a Sloppy Joe without the sauce.

    Which is to say, it’s a Sloppy Joe but competently made so that it’s seasoned without needing to drown in sauce. There are some Iowa foodways I won’t defend – taco pizza? taco pizza flavored chips? Busch Light? no thanks all around – but a properly made Made-Rite sandwich is up there with jazz and baseball among the greatest products of American culture.

    I wouldn’t say they were “founded” in 2013, they relocated and rebranded from the Houston Aeros while still being affiliated with the Wild. Not much different than when the Titans relocated and rebranded in Tennessee, but they were still founded in 1960 as the Oilers. The logo is a good mashup/concept, but I think it misses just a little with the state shape.

    it took me embarrassingly long for me to realize the mn wild’s logo was a bear head

    The entire Wild package, name, logo(s), and colors have been trash since the team was formed.

    I expected much, much more from the alleged “State of Hockey”.

    Just out of curiousity, what makes them trash? What would you have liked them to do differently?

    I wonder if they ever considered moving the star and river elements to the right side and making a rightward facing creature out of the state of Iowa so the logo elements would be dual purpose like they are on the MN Wild logo. Seems like Iowa already has a sort of head-in-profile shape to it, so they could just lean into that. But maybe it’s too human-looking?

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