Now that we are deep into the Sochi 2014 Hockey Tournament, I thought now would be a great time to take a look at the uniforms for each participating nation and rank them. The idea for this one came after seeing a tweet from Icethetics with all of the Olympic jerseys on their own “IceGear” uniform template:

Now that we know what we are working with, let’s start the rankings!

14. Japan

Japan women’s hockey white jerseys. Image from USA Today Sports Images

If you haven’t been following the Women’s tournament, then you probably have not seen the Japanese Women’s hockey team’s jerseys in action. Honestly, you haven’t missed much. Japan is such a colorful nation and yet they have some of the blandest uniforms in the Olympic competition.

13. Slovenia

Slovenia men’s hockey team blue jerseys. From USA Today Sports Images

I know Slovenia’s jerseys have gotten a lot of attention on Twitter and a lot of people have praised them, however, I think this is primarily because they are so different from the rest of the Olympic uniforms. Being different and standing out from the crowd does not necessarily make them good. The lime green is pretty cool and they jerseys pop on TV, but Slovenia’s uniforms just do not fit with the Olympic motif. They are more Roller Hockey International than Olympic Hockey tournament to me.

12. Latvia

Latvia men’s hockey jerseys. From USA Today Sports Images

I like the maroon color of the Latvian jerseys, as well as their simplicity. What really ruins it for me is the Latvia wordmark beneath the crest. I get that most people are not familiar with the Latvian team and having Latvia prominently displayed on the jerseys helps one immediately identify them, but I think it distracts from what is otherwise an outstanding uniform.