In picking a name for the Montréal team, the PWHL favored the long view over the potential for short-term awkwardness.
Name
The name Victoire is extremely unique, which means it has unique potential and unique disadvantages.
First, a positive: the name is immediately striking. It conveys success, pride, and dignity. Associated with Queen Victoria and the rink named after her which hosted indoor ice hockey games in Montréal as far back as 1862, the name is stained with an august history and elegance. It has built-in cachet. Though the team will make the name their own, the associations to build off of are strong.
It also means ‘win,’ which is a great thing when you’re winning, but may not be such a great thing when the team doesn’t win, or loses badly or for a long time or in an important game, ad nauseum.
Victoire is a beautiful name, and one it will be easy to take pride in, but it will also be easy for other teams and their fans to make fun of, which is not something you generally look for in a team name.
There is also the fact that Victoire is a French word that, while its meaning is somewhat clear to Anglophone fans, does not translate directly. Amy Scheer, the PHWL’s Senior Vice President of Business Operations, explained to the media after the brand announcements that it was intentional.
“We purposely decided that there would be no Anglican version, that we wanted to just keep it in French… There’s not meant to be a translation. We purposely wanted their name to be in French regardless of where they play… It was an intentional decision. We wanted to represent Montréal and Québec as best as we can and that is through the French language and that’s their name.”
There are benefits to choosing a French-only name. Firstly, it will appeal to some Québécois fans who will feel that the team name ought not be in English and who will encourage Anglophone fans to learn the French pronunciation. Secondly, ‘Montréal Victoire’ simply sounds cooler, in an English sentence, than ‘Montréal Victory,’ so enforcing the French name rather than a translation is a win for any English marketing as well.
That being said, it would have been far from impossible to choose a name that was a cognate in French and English. The previous women’s professional hockey team in the province was called the Montréal Force, a word which means strength in French. The newly-minted Ottawa Charge has a name that means the same thing in both languages, fitting for the bilingual capital city.
In the end, a French-only name does match the spirit of exclusivity and celebration of French language and culture that can often be found in the province.
The PWHL also put the team name in newer territory in terms of sports history. Of the many women’s hockey teams that have played in Québec, and even elsewhere in Canada, most have followed the conventional pattern of using a concrete noun as a nickname. After the Laval Le Mistral, the Phénix du Québec, and Les Canadiennes, the first departure was the Montréal Force of the Premier Hockey Federation. The Victoire carries on from that example in representing the team with a concept. Many debuting sports franchises, especially women’s sports teams, have adapted this newer convention in the last few years, including the Toronto Six of the PHF and the Vegas Thrill and San Diego Mojo of the Pro Volleyball Federation.
Naming a team after a concept allows for a more direct emotional identification than naming it after an object that may have a variety of associations. It is a newer way of doing things, but that means it has the benefit of feeling fresh, among the potential marketing advantages. The potential disadvantage of not having an easy logo or mascot can be turned into a positive by creating a distinct series of images which can be infused by associations with the team’s identity, rather than the other way around. In this way, the Victoire could be an extremely strong brand, provided that the other marketing factors—colors, logo, branding—are strong. Indeed, according to the team’s longer statement on the brand, the design team ran into problems trying to create imagery that could pull off such a lofty name as Victoire, but they did eventually create a logo that satisfied them.
Logo
The final design of the Victoire logo seems to have taken significant inspiration from the crests or shields of soccer franchises. That’s a good idea for a logo matching the concept-style name: soccer convention has teams named after their location, rather than the concrete nouns more familiar to North American sports, so they’re not designed around having a ready-made mascot. The Victoire’s shield-shaped logo borrows some of that tradition, furthering the sense of history imbued in the name.
The shield/crest rubric supplies an enclosed shape with room for multiple design elements as well as text. The Victoire logo incorporates the team name, the forms of the letters V and M for Montréal, Québec’s symbolic fleur-de-lis, and a blocky, minimalist wing/bird design said to represent the Goddess of Victory. It is involved and full without feeling overly busy and incorporates all the colors we are currently familiar with in the team palette.
We can compare the Victoire logo to the crests of new North American women’s soccer franchises in DC Power FC and Carolina Ascent FC of the premiering USL Super League, and Vancouver Rise FC in the soon-to-debut Northern Super League.
These team logos all utilize a strong border to delineate their crests and highlight their palettes. They use lines or spikes to suggest movement, from the upwards arrows of sunbeams reaching for Rise FC’s mountain peaks, to the halo of wings emanating from Power FC’s image of the Washington Monument, to the coiled kinetic power implied in the Victoire’s wing/feather segments. They are almost entirely crafted from single-color objects, meaning the designs are crisp, recognizable, replicable. They contain a lot of information and symbolism without being too busy or hard to print or sew onto uniforms.
The Victoire logo is unique in terms of the team and city it represents, but it is following an old and reliable design pattern, updated for the moment.
Colors
In expanding their color palette, the Victoire have landed on a selection that waves to, but does not copy, the Bleu-Blanc-Rouge grouping familiar in the region. Most pro sports teams in Montréal and more broadly in Québec have utilized either a red or a blue as one of their main colors, with maroon bearing a special place in Montréal’s hockey history.
Last season, PWHL Montréal wore jerseys in maroon and ‘sand’. They were the only team to deviate from a white base for their away jerseys. This year, they added a very dark blue as an accent color which appears in the logo. This main trio of colors are well-selected for balance, allowing the team a visually pleasant palette from which to design jerseys and merchandise.
A second accent color, a bright royal blue, was also added to the team’s palette, though it does not appear in the main logo. It was utilized on some of the merchandise that was made available for retail sale when the team branding was first released. While we may or may not see the royal blue accent color featured on jerseys, it is an excellent addition to the team’s toolbox when it comes to marketing and merchandise.
Summary
Naming a team ‘the win’ was never going to be anything but a risk. It’s very daring, and no doubt fans will embrace it, but it’s hard to call it a slam dunk.
What can be called a win are the colors and logo that were designed around the identity, and that may well be more important. A strong and replicable visual identity, particularly when followed by team success and the creation of traditions and legacy, can overpower any shortcomings in a nickname.
With the visual elements pulling more than their weight, I’ll hesitantly label this identity design a success. A strong first season under the moniker will help to cement the name as a good one, but it will be up to the fans to weather the storm of trolling they will no doubt face and claim la Victoire as their own.
