2022-2023 NHL Jersey Changes

[BuckDancer]

40 minutes ago, throwuascenario said:

Or y’know, just wear their 1997-2007 home and away uniforms for the rest of time .

 

BTW: The Hurricanes have worn 12 different uniforms in the past 10 years, with only 2 of them matching. Their current roads and this year’s reverse retro that they wore for 2 games. So they’ve worn 11 different jersey designs with 5 different logos and never had a matching home and away design.

 

The Minnesota Wild have had the same problem but for much longer. 15 years without a matching road and home uniform since the 2007 reebok take over.

 

Over the past decade they have worn 9 uniforms including two faux backs, the rbk version of their original road, their current road, current home, two north stars RR's, winter classic and stadium series jersey. 

 

None of these jerseys have had the same striping pattern and logo as another expect their two RR's.

[chcarlson23]

6 hours ago, BuckDancer said:

 

The Minnesota Wild have had the same problem but for much longer. 15 years without a matching road and home uniform since the 2007 reebok take over.

 

Over the past decade they have worn 9 uniforms including two faux backs, the rbk version of their original road, their current road, current home, two north stars RR's, winter classic and stadium series jersey. 

 

None of these jerseys have had the same striping pattern and logo as another expect their two RR's.

Their current home and road have the same logo, and have a striping pattern that lends itself to being a match between jerseys. There are quite a few teams who don’t have completely identical striping patterns.
 

The Hurricanes do it worse, because they’re home and roads feel like completely separate identities, (Minnesota was very guilty of this until Adidas took over) and to top it all of, they brought back their best sweater this year, but only as an alternate look. 

[Chromatic]

I'm not sure if this is an unpopular opinion or not, but I don't think home and roads need to match/be an inverse of each other.

 

Many teams that have looks that are considered "untouchable" don't match, like the Canadiens, Rangers, or Yankees.

 

That's not to say the 'CANES' jersey is good,  just that I don't think its an automatic strike against it for not matching the home.  Hell the Stars rebrand was lauded and it doesn't match. 

 

 

[Bayne]

I think there's a good identity to be created regardless of the name or colour scheme. It just needs to be found, executed well and stuck to in order to create equity and recognisability.  Carolina have messed this up and I really don't like what they've done to their brand. It screams of having a lack of vision or direction (or too many different ones) - it feels confused and unsure about itself. A bit like the Canucks, much to my chagrin.

 

If Carolina had stuck with their 97-07 Stanley Cup winning uniforms and hadn't worn anything different - those things would be modern classics. I really think that. They're unique and really cool. Shame they've messed around with it so much.

[spartacat_12]

20 hours ago, CDCLT said:

The Hurricanes are an example of a team, in my opinion, that will never look good, and it starts top-down. The name "Hurricanes" doesn't lend itself to sports imagery nicely and was likely chosen so that the colors of red and black would match NC State and not for any particular reason related to Raleigh or the Carolinas. Their best jersey is obviously their first set but even then I don't really like the inclusion of silver and the italicized name and number font is hard to make work well. Since then, the team has continued to make changes for the sake of making changes, including the baffling red and white set from 2013 (that didn't match the road jersey). The 2017 home set was better but still an inferior version of the '90s set due to the sublimated warning flags (although I actually prefer the color balance here) and still kept the old road jerseys. The alternate uniform sucks, I don't even hate the logo, but the gray yoke and boring striping make this set a bad alternate (and a worse primary). The new road jersey has awful diagonal text instead of the primary crest and is again missing lots of black and still doesn't match the home uniform. This year when they dropped the old red set for the terrible black jerseys and then brought back better uniforms as their alternate just proves to me the team has no clue what to do with the brand. In fact, the only good design decision they've made since 2017 was trying red helmets with the white sweater.

 

I just don't think you're ever going to get a good brand out of the red/black Hurricanes. Even their best uniforms have problems and they're just another red and black NHL team. Maybe a quality brand could exist with the name "Carolina Hurricanes" but certainly not one with a red and black color scheme. They should've leaned more into the 90s and gone with a more out-there scheme, matching NC State be damned. Teal in particular I think would've been a great inclusion. Now, however, the team has spent 25 years as the Hurricanes and nothing about the brand is going to change. In my opinion, the best this team can hope for is a good set of uniforms and can never truly be great because of the decisions made when the franchise first moved.

 

I mean North Carolina gets hit with more hurricanes than almost any other state, so the name does fit the region. It isn't like Lethbridge of the WHL. 

 

The colours came from a combination of the hurricane warning flag, NC State, plus the fact that Peter Karmanos was a Detroit guy, which explains why they wore red pants & helmets rather than black. I think the inaugural uniforms actually did a pretty good job standing out from the other red/black teams by including silver & having the flag pattern along the hem.

[DustDevil61]

9 hours ago, Bayne said:

I think there's a good identity to be created regardless of the name or colour scheme. It just needs to be found, executed well and stuck to in order to create equity and recognisability.  Carolina have messed this up and I really don't like what they've done to their brand. It screams of having a lack of vision or direction (or too many different ones) - it feels confused and unsure about itself. A bit like the Canucks, much to my chagrin.

 

If Carolina had stuck with their 97-07 Stanley Cup winning uniforms and hadn't worn anything different - those things would be modern classics. I really think that. They're unique and really cool. Shame they've messed around with it so much.

Even if they stopped wearing it in 2007 (and even the first RBK Edge design, which basically only added the phantom yoke), I still think the Carolina Hurricanes set is a modern classic.

[Sport]

Appreciation post for what I thought was a tremendous looking hockey game last night between the Sharks and Blue Jackets. 

 

 

 

This was last year. Not bad, but not as good IMO. 

[monkeypower]

On 3/9/2023 at 1:48 PM, spartacat_12 said:

I mean North Carolina gets hit with more hurricanes than almost any other state, so the name does fit the region. It isn't like Lethbridge of the WHL. 

 

Lethbridge is a pretty windy city, one of the windiest in Canada, so the name does apply in a sense. I remember seeing or hearing somewhere that the name Hurricanes was chosen kind of tongue in cheek, but I can't find it now and it could be apocryphal.

 

49 minutes ago, Sport said:

Appreciation post for what I thought was a tremendous looking hockey game last night between the Sharks and Blue Jackets. 

 

I'm a sucker for negative space striping, so I really like the Sharks jerseys a lot. 

 

What's the deal with the Jackets pants? Is there any indication either way about the continuation of the home and away pants?

[Sport]

11 minutes ago, monkeypower said:

What's the deal with the Jackets pants? Is there any indication either way about the continuation of the home and away pants?

Haven’t heard anything that would suggest they’re going back to red pants full time. Feels like the home and away britches are going to continue for the foreseeable future. I think most fans prefer blue pants with the white jersey to the red pants. I know I do. 

[Chromatic]

On 3/9/2023 at 12:48 PM, spartacat_12 said:

 

I mean North Carolina gets hit with more hurricanes than almost any other state, so the name does fit the region. It isn't like Lethbridge of the WHL. 

I was under the impression that Lethbridge was called that because they were a manufacturing city for the Hawker "Hurricane", which is why they have used logos like this.

 

 

To be fair, they haven't really leaned into the aircraft branding. But that doesn't mean the name is ill-fitting either.

[monkeypower]

10 hours ago, Chromatic said:

I was under the impression that Lethbridge was called that because they were a manufacturing city for the Hawker "Hurricane", which is why they have used logos like this.

 

 

To be fair, they haven't really leaned into the aircraft branding. But that doesn't mean the name is ill-fitting either.

 

That was kind of a retcon to an extent. This logo comes from a fan contest to design an alternate jersey for the 2012-13 season. The guy who came up with the logo used the history of the Hurricane plane being used by an old squadron based out of Lethbridge.

 

From what I recall and from what I am looking at now, that plane logo was only worn for the single season. The team hadn't used anything related to the plane before nor has after, everything has been weather based. Heck this logo was used in the last season of the HurrJcanes before Washington told them to change and they went back to the weather logos after.

[M4One]

Fanatics will become the official NHL jersey supplier beginning in 2024-25, with the deal running for 10 years.  The on ice jerseys will be made in the same factories as the current ones in Quebec and the specs will be the same.  There will be some differences in the fabrics and materials.

 

The NHL says the first significant changes to the jerseys could come in 2026-27 when different fabric options and player safety innovations like protection against skate lacerations might be introduced.

[Ridleylash]

[MOD EDIT: Elongated profanity.]

 

Why did it have to be :censored:in' Fanatics?

 

Edited March 21, 2023 by officeglenn

[FCMacbeth]

1 hour ago, M4One said:

Fanatics will become the official NHL jersey supplier beginning in 2024-25, with the deal running for 10 years.  The on ice jerseys will be made in the same factories as the current ones in Quebec and the specs will be the same.  There will be some differences in the fabrics and materials.

 

The NHL says the first significant changes to the jerseys could come in 2026-27 when different fabric options and player safety innovations like protection against skate lacerations might be introduced.

I don't know what their jersey templates will look like, but y'know. Fanatics being Fanatics, their quality control absolutely needs a significant overhaul. To have the monumental task of manufacturing all 32 teams while being notorious for how terrible their quality is, to begin with, is immensely hard. To win those fans is even harder than that since we've already heard stories of misspelled player names and nameplates falling off. Fanatics has a year left to deal with this problem but I doubt they would take those criticisms from the fans seriously.

[AnPheitseog]

Fanatics is NOT making the jerseys. The same factory is making them and slapping on the Fanatics logo rather than the adidas logo.

[gosioux76]

22 minutes ago, Friedrich Stuart Macbeth said:

I don't know what their jersey templates will look like, but y'know. Fanatics being Fanatics, their quality control absolutely needs a significant overhaul. To have the monumental task of manufacturing all 32 teams while being notorious for how terrible their quality is, to begin with, is immensely hard. To win those fans is even harder than that since we've already heard stories of misspelled player names and nameplates falling off. Fanatics has a year left to deal with this problem but I doubt they would take those criticisms from the fans seriously.

 

I don't know, call me an eternal optimist, but I'd kind of like to think that Fanatics would appreciate the difference between making overpriced, high-margin, low-quality fan apparel for the mass audience and producing the performance apparel worn by professional athletes. 

 

Fanatics is just a retail brand, so this really comes down to who they choose for suppliers. And if the game-worn jerseys are going to be made at the same place where they're made now, then I'm not sure I'd put a lot of stock in the idea that their quality concerns will carry over. 

 

If anything, this looks more like an opportunity for Fanatics to elevate its brand to become more than a purveyor of cheap t-shirts that fade after two washes. Hopefully they'll live up to the opportunity and surprise everybody. 

[WSU151]

1 hour ago, Friedrich Stuart Macbeth said:

I don't know what their jersey templates will look like, but y'know. Fanatics being Fanatics, their quality control absolutely needs a significant overhaul. To have the monumental task of manufacturing all 32 teams while being notorious for how terrible their quality is, to begin with, is immensely hard. To win those fans is even harder than that since we've already heard stories of misspelled player names and nameplates falling off. Fanatics has a year left to deal with this problem but I doubt they would take those criticisms from the fans seriously.

 

Misspelled player names happen in the big leagues. Majestic had a number of on-field baseball jerseys where the *team name* was spelled wrong (Remember the Angees jersey?)

 

 

From my experience...With adidas having :censored:ty MLS replica jerseys and Nike Swingman jerseys material just being sublimated with ultra-thin see-through twill, Fanatics breakaways really aren't that bad...could they be better? Sure.

[C-Squared]

 

 

Hello! Many years ago, I was an extremely active member of this message board. I posted some of my earliest work here & slowly turned an art hobby into a side hustle. A decade later, I am a professional artist. I have worked with several pro athletes on shirt designs & I've carved out a niche selling mashup pop art & merch online. I also just completed an official collaboration with he Buffalo Sabres!

 

Proceeds from this official Military Appreciation Night design benefits the Buffalo & Erie County Naval & Military Park and their preservation work on the USS The Sullivans, a decommissioned US Navy ship, named after five brothers who were killed in live combat. The ship has recently made headlines for taking in water & we're hoping to literally keep it afloat!

 

https://26shirts.com/collections/frontpage/products/special-edition-buffalo-sabres-military-appreciation-night

 

Shoutout to all the members of this site who walked me through the basics a decade ago! 🫡

[Echo]

10 hours ago, C-Squared said:

The ship has recently made headlines for taking in water & we're hoping to literally keep it afloat!

 

Does this line refer to The Sullivans or the Sabres?

[The_Admiral]

Nice craftsmanship, but I don't think there should be military appreciation nights as long as pride nights are being discontinued. They say a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, but hey, I'm pretty small-minded.