The Maine Mariners, ECHL affiliates of the Boston Bruins, celebrated “207 Day” on Friday. “207” is Maine’s area code, and Friday was February 7th, so 207 Day was on 2/07. Clever.
— Maine Mariners (@MarinersOfMaine) February 8, 2025
The team prepared one-off jerseys to commemorate the occasion. The primary crest is a Mariners alternate logo, usually worn on the shoulder of the home sweater, but is also worn as a crest on their Bruins-inspired alternate. These are basically a new color of that template, with the same shoulder patches, though the Mariners are dropping the lace-up collar for 207 Day. The Mariners have instead placed a star in a pentagon, a symbol that evokes the starburst on Maine’s coat of arms. The USL League Two club Portland Hearts of Pine have a similar design as an alternate logo, replacing the star with a heart.
The colors for the Mariners’ 207 Day unis come from the 1901 Maine flag (also known as the “Original Maine Flag,” but more on that in a minute), which in recent years has seen a resurgence as a more unique and aesthetically pleasing alternative to the official Maine flag, which replaced the original design in 1909. The flag design even appears on the team’s socks.
I love the original Maine flag — the colors are perfectly Maine and the flag has become a recognizable (albeit unofficial) symbol of the state. I do think the accent blue used on the jerseys is a bit too bright — it should be closer to navy — but that’s a very minor complaint.
And this isn’t the first time a Maine-based team has looked to the 1901 flag for uniform inspiration. Back in 2020, the Maine Celtics (G League affiliates of the Boston Celtics) became the first Maine-based minor league team to adopt the original flag into a uniform, which they did to celebrate Maine’s bicentennial. In 2024, the Portland Sea Dogs (Double-A affiliates of the Boston Red Sox) did the same, although the Sea Dogs’ one-off uni was more explicitly a nod to the victims of the horrific mass shooting in Lewiston that occurred in late 2023.
“But wait,” I imagine you’re asking. “The tree from the 1901 flag is more dendrologically correct than the tree used on the uniforms. So what gives? Where did this tree come from?”
From Maine’s ensign, that’s where. In 2017, the Maine Flag Company launched “Original Maine,” a brand which combined the pine tree from the state’s ensign with the other design elements from the 1901 flag. Most “1901 flags” you’ll see flying in Maine these days are, in fact, the flag designed in 2017 and sold by the Maine Flag Company online and at the brick-and-mortar store in Portland. While the Maine Flag Company’s design is probably the largest factor playing into the 1901 flag’s resurgence, their design is somewhat controversial — when state lawmakers passed a law to hold a referendum on re-adopting the 1901 flag, Maine’s Secretary of State held a contest to create a more modern design that was distinct from the Maine Flag Company’s design.
The referendum, held concurrently with the most recent presidential election, saw the new/old flag defeated. Voters chose to retain the current flag by a 56-44 margin.
The flag debate was probably the most civil portion of Maine’s elections in 2024, with progressives and conservatives on both sides of the debate. Still, some decried the effort to return to the 1901 flag as “woke,” and the referendum results did correlate fairly well with presidential results — areas that voted for Kamala Harris were more likely to support changing the flag, while areas that supported Donald Trump were more likely to vote to retain the current one.
The flag has avoided any overt political connotations with either the left or right. Sports teams are generally hesitant to wade into political issues (debates about public funding for stadiums notwithstanding). The referendum result didn’t dissuade the Mariners from introducing these uniforms, though the team’s plans for this jersey almost certainly predate election day.
Still, I can’t help but wonder if the other Maine teams will shy away from using the flag as a basis for uniform designs. The Sea Dogs have not announced plans to bring back their Maine flag jerseys (which doesn’t necessarily mean they’re gone entirely, they could simply be waiting to announce their return closer to the season), and the Maine Celtics have dropped their design entirely — their 2023 and 2024 Maine promotional jerseys were basically LL Bean adverts, with the 2023 version being flannel and the 2024 version evoking the scene printed on some LL Bean tags.
I, for one, hope that Maine’s teams continue to look to the 1901 flag for inspiration, and I still think there’s a chance the state adopts it as its official flag in the future. I would love to see this jersey enter regular rotation for the Mariners.
I love these.
The ECHL continues to put out some absolute stunning one-offs. These are great.
Resist change at all costs! If you do not, you are “woke”.
Holy sheep shit. People that always complain about shit being “woke” never disappoint. Why would they choose a good design over a boring one? I’m assuming very few of them are vexillologists.
For the record, I’m not bashing conservatives… just the ones I was specifically referring to.
Let’s not fall into the trap of “woke” conversations….
People choose what is aesthetically pleasing to the eye (or brain, specifically). Period.
As one of those “Independents”, my experiences have shown me that the vast majority of “liberals” and “conservatives” are common sense thinkers that are not influenced by political “fads”.
Both flags have a Pine tree design, not a big deal, anybody can still fly either.
And the Mariner Unis are are low-key and simple, really great, no matter the tree.
Great sweater, great uniforms.
Like the Mariners alternate logo as a primary logo. A good primary logo aesthetic is to keep it simple and not too busy. Like what you see on the original Maine flag.
Good uniform but I am starting to dislike the “vintage” white hockey uniforms more and more. It was charming and unique when first used and not seen before. As time goes on we see them more and more. Let’s just make the uniforms white which looks much better than “vintage” white.
These need to be nominated for best one-off uniforms when the second annual Uni Watch awards roll around at year’s end.
“There is Unrest in the Forest,
There is Trouble with the Trees….”
-Neil Peart, 1979
Those are sharp! But I have to ask: What is the significance of the diagonal line though the state? To be honest, it reminded me of the eclipse map through Maine last April.
Maybe an homage to Dolores Claiborne?
Lol, quite possibly.
Those Mariners uniforms are pretty nice. I like that the detail even went down to the socks!
The Sea Dogs jerseys were a bit much to me, with the giant tree on the front and Maine silhouette covering most of the back, but I did snag one of their bicentennial caps that utilized those colors with the “Original Maine” elements on the side.
link
On those Sea Dogs jerseys, it took me a long time to figure out that the state of Maine on the sleeve was supposed to be forming a zero in between the 2 and the 7, and that the jerseys were’t all numbered 27 in honor of some past great player.
The original is pretty blah, but ok. The other is ok as well.