The collapse of the Premier Hockey Federation in July 2023 was a disappointment for many fans. Fortunately, a month later, the league’s former players and managers were able to agree on creating a new women’s hockey competition under the name of the Professional Women’s Hockey League. PWHL will include six teams from the United States and Canada, with the inaugural match scheduled to take place in January 2024. As part of the launch preparations, the new league has recently unveiled its logo.
The fact that PWHL is a new competition gives it some advantage in terms of branding, as it has no previous identity to compare to. In addition, the league’s emblem can be called rather successful, as fans at least reacted positively to it.
The PWHL logo represents a kind of big “W” formed by two crossing hockey sticks and two figures resembling goalkeeper pads, and a short stroke in the lower part evidently refers to a puck. Thus, the general design looks bold and powerful, making it a clear symbol of women’s hockey. While presented on the web, the emblem was favorably compared to the Wonder Woman logo.
According to an official statement from PWHL, the “W” is a prominent sign to celebrate the league’s athletes as well as the people who pioneered women’s sports. Speaking for itself, it offers some versatility when applied to different branding elements.
The entire composition of the crossing sticks and the puck is a reference to a face-off, the initial moment of the game, thus symbolizing a new beginning for women’s hockey. Another symbolic point is that the emblem is made up of six elements, which refers to the number of players on ice for each team. And of course, it is connected with the six teams from Boston, New York, Minnesota, Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto that will participate in the inaugural season.
While the W symbol will be used as a primary logo, the league also introduced a secondary emblem representing the lettering “PWHL” where the symbol replaces a regular “W”.
PWHL chose purple as its main brand color. The league says this shade stands for power, as many associate it with ambition, which is meaningful for the competition and the players. Symbolically, the league used a purple carpet at the inaugural PWHL Draft, which took place in Toronto last month.
