St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 24th 1994

 The traditional Blues uniforms are going the way of the $13 seat, the prowling Arena cats and free parking at Forest Park.

Team chairman Mike Shanahan unveiled the noisy new sweaters Thursday afternoon at a news conference across the street from the Kiel Center construction site.

"It's a great traditional uniform we have with the Blues," Shanahan said. "Mr. (Sidney) Salomon made a great choice when he chose the bluenote and the Blues name for the franchise.

But, he noted, "As music tastes change, so do the design of the uniforms. Of the 26 teams in the league now, excepting the expansion teams, 10 or 11 have had new uniforms developed in the last two years. The NHL has encouraged it.

"We are moving into a new building, we are moving into the 1990s . . . this is the time to redesign the uniform."

The new sweaters came from a 12-month collaboration between Blues officials and Ed O'Hara of Sean Michael Edwards, a design firm in New York City. The firm has worked on a half-dozen NHL designs and redesigns, including the expansion Florida Panthers.

"Over the course of the year, there must have been easily 75 different combinations," Blues president Jack Quinn said. "As you know, it has to be submitted to the league (for approval). They just thought it was great, absolutely dynamite."

The home jerseys look much the same at a glance, white with the familiar bluenote logo and red and yellow trim. But the sleeve and waist stripes are slanted, as are the sweater numbers, and new trumpet logos adorn the shoulders.

The trumpet logos "reinforce the equity of the music note," said Thomas Duane, co-owner of the firm and O'Hara's partner. The slanted lines represent a musical staff. "Again, it reinforces the music note," Duane said.

On the road next season, the Blues won't sneak up on anybody. Their traditional blue road sweaters will be accentuated - no, dominated - by fire-engine red sleeves and waists.

Though Quinn asked the designers to keep the same sweater colors, he allowed the designers to shift the emphasis of the colors.

"Red is a very handsome color," Duane said. "It's doing very well for the Florida Panthers. The Blues already had the red equity in their mark. It's not one we introduced."

The bluenote logo hasn't changed since 1987, when Shanahan's ownership group bought the franchise from Harry Ornest and tossed out Ruth Ornest's sweater design. This design is the first major departure since then.

"They had a very exciting mark to start with," Duane said. "I think they really made some great decisions. To enhance that without taking away from it was a challenge. I think we accomplished that."

The new uniforms are available at the five Blue Note Sports Shops around St. Louis. "They are already well into selling them," Quinn said late Thursday afternoon. "And they are not any more expensive than the uniforms were last year."

The authentic game jersey sells for $145.99 at the Blue Note shops. A replica game jersey is $89.99 and a youth jersey is $69.99.