The morning after heavy rain pummeled Seattle with its wettest day of the year, another rush of water arrived in the city in the form of the name for a new women’s pro hockey team.
The Seattle Torrent unveiled their brand identity on Thursday as the team gets set for its inaugural season in the Professional Women’s Hockey League.
“Torrent” in this case is a nod to “powerful waterways that shape and connect Washington’s unique landscape, symbolizing the team’s determination to carve its own path,” according to a release by the team, and a new video on Instagram. The team’s “S” logo and slate green and blue color palette is meant to represent “a rush of water” and “flowing curves mirroring river channels.”
While the name is in keeping with other weather-related women’s sports brands in the city — Storm, Reign — in a tech town, our immediate thoughts on torrent went in a different direction: file sharing.
Torrenting gained popularity in the 2000s as a way to download content — such as music or movies — using a peer-to-peer network. The technology spurred the sharing of copyrighted material without permission that is considered illegal in many places.
According to the PWHL, the league led the design process for Seattle’s team identity and collaborated with creative agency Flower Shop for the name and logo.
The Torrent will play home games at Climate Pledge Arena, home of the Seattle Kraken NHL team.
Vancouver, B.C. is joining Seattle as a PWHL expansion team in the now-eight-team league. That city went with “Goldeneyes” as team name. Maybe a bit of a James Bond reference will work up there.
Other teams in the league include Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost, Montreal Victoire, New York Sirens, Ottawa Charge and Toronto Sceptres.
Seattle opens its regular season schedule Nov. 21 at Vancouver.
