Naa Sheka Returns to Design Canucks’ Black Excellence Night Logo

The Vancouver Canucks are celebrating Black Excellence Night with an encore from last year’s designer. Fashion designer and entrepreneur Naa Sheka is back to create this year’s design, blending her Ghanian and Canadian heritage.

She describes the experience as a dream come true, with her designs featured on Canucks jerseys not once, but twice.

“Being born in Vancouver [and] raised a female hockey player as a woman of colour, to be able to come here and showcase my designs is absolutely priceless,” she said.

“It’s really cool to be able to showcase Black excellence here in my city and also I think it’s a really proud moment for anyone from the diaspora.”

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Growing up in Vancouver in the ‘90s, Naa Sheka was a big Canucks fan, watching the team and playing hockey with the boys until girls’ and women’s leagues became available. The Canucks mean a lot to her, and she has channeled that connection into this year’s design.

For this year’s jersey, she incorporated the Orca logo, overlaying it with celebratory Ghanaian patterns and colours from the Ghanaian flag. The design uses kente cloth motifs to tie the Canucks logo to her heritage, also honouring her father and their Ghanaian roots.

“I wanted to connect the strengths and traditions of both the Ghanaian community and the Canucks community and create a visual representation of All Together, All In,” Naa Sheka said.

Three West African Adinkra symbols are displayed vertically on the Orca’s dorsal fin. The top symbol, a seed, represents togetherness. The middle symbol with a square shape shows protection of the community through love and happiness. The bottom symbol represents a chain, symbolizing unity.

As part of her own mandate to give back, Naa Sheka provides school essentials for students in Ghana and helps build libraries by sending books to schools and helping build shelving. On a trip to Ghana, after creating last year’s first Black Excellence logo design , she shared the project with the students which was meaningful for her.

“A lot of people in Ghana were very proud to see their traditional symbols and their designs and traditional ways in hockey over here, so I thought it was a blessing,” she said.