Flower Shop’s PWHL Team Looks Are “Bringing Hockey Into a New Chapter”
Ahead of the PWHL’s (Professional Women’s Hockey League’s) second season, the league approached New York-based creative agency Flower Shop to lead the strategy, execution, and design for the six inaugural teams’ new identities.
Working closely with the PWHL, design agency, F37 Studio, and hockey uniform manufacturer, Bauer, Flower Shop created the new looks, logos and names for the teams, as well as the stylings of their jerseys, embodying the unique spirit of each team: the Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost, Montreal Victoire, New York Sirens, Toronto Sceptres and Ottawa Charge.
“This was a significant undertaking for both Flower Shop and the league,” says the agency’s co-founder and CEO, Mary Lou Bunn, “resulting in six fully realised sports brands we hope will stand the test of time.”
After the PWHL’s first season began in January, fan demand for traditional team names and identities became clear immediately, so Flower Shop worked at a breakneck pace to finalise names, logos, and designs for all six teams by the jersey artwork deadline in May.
“The team identities had to reflect the athletes’ commitment to the highest level of sport,” says Mary Lou. “Each brand needed to feel bold, fierce and as powerful as the players who would wear them and the fans who would rally behind them.”
Leaning on Flower Shop’s sports marketing experience and big-brand thinking, they made sure to maintain the colour schemes assigned to each city during the league’s inaugural season, and conducted interviews and surveys in the PWHL’s core cities to ensure that the final designs reflected both the athletes’ vision and the fans’ passion.
“At Flower Shop, we’re about creating work that people connect with on a deep level - and this project was no different.”
Al Merry, Flower Shop’s CCO and other co-founder, shares that the team names were the foundation of the project, working closely with the league to create IP-safe names tied to each city’s history, which were also chantable and timeless. “These are sports teams we hope will be around for generations, so the names needed to feel enduring.”
To achieve this, Flower Shop studied each city’s architecture, seasons, atmosphere and history, visiting each place to conduct research in-person and attend the teams’ games. “I remember being in Ottawa, sitting in the public library surrounded by Margaret Atwood books and local typography, trying to uncover those essential elements that make Ottawa, Ottawa,” shares Al.
“That research inspired things like the ‘Charge’ brand for Ottawa – a nod to the electrifying energy we felt in the arena. The logo, with its bold red and yellow ‘C’, reflects that intensity. For Montreal Victoire, there’s a hidden blue ‘M’ in the design, while New York Sirens’ wordmark features a bold, blocky ‘NY’ that really grounds it in the city’s spirit.”
“At the end of the day,” he adds, “this was about more than just logos and names. It was about creating team identities that celebrate the athletes and resonate with the passionate communities behind them. That’s what makes sports branding so special – it’s about creating something that fans and players alike can rally behind for years to come.”
After the team names and briefs were locked in, the design agency, F37, helped execute the logos and wordmarks, and this meticulous, integrated unit then collaborated closely with manufacturer Bauer to hit the ambitious deadlines. “We went up to the factory site with the league folks and had in-person work sessions where we selected the methods of construction and every swatch, trim, and texture together,” says Al. “It was fascinating to see the production process up close. Then we went to a bar and watched a PWHL game on CBC.”
For Mary Lou, one memory that sticks out from the project is the New York Siren’s opening game from January, where the creatives – excited to embark on the huge endeavour – took in all the event’s emotions and spitballed different ideas. “We were riffing on team mascots and laughing so hard, our CFO Bill had tears spilling out of his eyes,” she says. “Then we got to the game and cried for real in the leadup to the face-off.”
“It was an indescribable feeling to see the range of expressions among the faces in the stands – elation, triumph, intensity, hope, and a sense of bittersweetness somehow too. And the players, in jubilation and awe themselves, soaking it in and playing their guts out.”
At Flower Shop, they have a mantra, ‘Could this be better?’ – and pleasantly, this was an ethos shared by the PWHL throughout the process, says Mary Lou. So, the challenge became meeting “the astronomical level of motivation and expectation” they all felt. “Branding one team is incredibly challenging. Branding six is beyond, and the fans and the players were waiting. We had to deliver something really special!”
Despite this challenge, the CEO adds that everyone on the team “would have cut off our left arms to do this work” when the PWHL first approached them. “And most of us are lefties!” she adds. “We felt we understood the significance of the task and the responsibility. Looking back, we didn’t know the half of it.”
As soon as they started interviewing coaches, players and fans, and going to the games, the team realised they were creating something much bigger and deeper than ‘brand’ with these six unique team identities. “Our sense of what this league deserves has been compounding exponentially by the day. The PWHL’s commitment and work ethic is unrivalled. It’s been humbling and uplifting and invigorating and exhausting.”
“The important thing is that we’re not just taking the PWHL into a new chapter,” concludes Mary Lou. “In terms of what this league has to bring to the table, we’re bringing hockey into a new chapter. Women are here to play, as they have been. And every sport and sports business is better for it.”
