2023-24 NHL Jersey Changes

[Morgan33]

The Hurricanes are now at 10 seasons without a matching home and road.  The first Adidas set was close but no cigar.

So of course the best jersey they wore last season doesn't come back...

[ruttep]

29 minutes ago, Morgan33 said:

The Hurricanes are now at 10 seasons without a matching home and road.  The first Adidas set was close but no cigar.

So of course the best jersey they wore last season doesn't come back...

 

Fire everyone working in their team branding department. What a clown show.

[The_Admiral]

As I recall, that ten-season run began with Karmanos firing or declining to even hire an agency and being like "nah I'll do it myself." I think he was actually the one who first sketched the Flushing Toilet on a napkin in the summer of '97.

[M4One]

10 hours ago, Ridleylash said:

I mean, I don't think it's terrible, honestly, and it's not like it's unprecedented in the NHL's history for white jerseys to have dark helmets, as seen with the Avs;

 

Nor is it unusual in international competition;

 

And that's not even getting into all the minor and junior teams that do it.

 

It makes sense to have only one helmet for international competition since a team only plays a few games per tournament.  Junior and minor league teams do it for cost saving reasons.  But, nowadays, even many major junior teams have two sets. 

 

I don't know why the Hurricanes have decided to wear the red helmets with the white jerseys, but it sure can't be to save a few bucks.  Could it have been because they were on a losing streak and decided to try it out and it worked?  Whatever the reason, it doesn't look good, at all, which is fine, I guess, since the uniform they pair it with is bad any ways since it doesn't match the home, has a dumb diagonal script, and does not even feature the primary logo at all.

 

[Sport]

I grew up watching ECHL and college hockey in the 90's. Wearing a dark helmet with a white jersey will never not look extremely bush league. I don't get why the league allows the Hurricanes to do it and I don't get why the Hurricanes insist upon it. 

[The_Admiral]

3 hours ago, Sport said:

I don't get why the Hurricanes insist upon it. 

 

it's v. cool

[Kevin W.]

On 10/16/2023 at 7:09 AM, Bayne said:

Minnesota are slipping into this category

No they aren't. In almost 25 years, they've had three primary dark jersey designs and two primary light jersey designs, plus one alternate dark jersey design that didn't later become a primary. You forget that they had the same white jersey (on two separate templates) for almost the entirety of their first 15 years in the league.

[monkeypower]

1 hour ago, Kevin W. said:

No they aren't. In almost 25 years, they've had three primary dark jersey designs and two primary light jersey designs, plus one alternate dark jersey design that didn't later become a primary. You forget that they had the same white jersey (on two separate templates) for almost the entirety of their first 15 years in the league.

 

I do see where they were coming from. The Wild haven't had matching jerseys since 2007 (with varying levels of team colour usage and balance) and have introduced a new alternate that is wildly (ha) different from the brand.

[ruttep]

35 minutes ago, monkeypower said:

 

I do see where they were coming from. The Wild haven't had matching jerseys since 2007 (with varying levels of team colour usage and balance) and have introduced a new alternate that is wildly (ha) different from the brand.

 

IDK. At least the Wild put the same logo on all three jerseys

 

[chcarlson23]

1 hour ago, monkeypower said:

 

I do see where they were coming from. The Wild haven't had matching jerseys since 2007 (with varying levels of team colour usage and balance) and have introduced a new alternate that is wildly (ha) different from the brand.

The Wild have had matching home and road sweaters since 2017 when they introduced the current green Adizero sweater. It matches just as well as the Hawks, Rangers, and even a little better than the Habs. 
 

The Hurricanes on the other had. Have 3 jerseys of various striping patterns and styles. They feel way less coherent than the Wild or any of the other teams I mentioned. 
 

(And geez, how many times is this discussion going to keep coming back up?) 

[Morgan33]

The Wild definitely have a cohesive set, even if the jerseys don't match stripe-for-stripe.  The chest band serves a functional purpose in helping the logo stand out better on a green background.  I would also argue the other differences (like the yoke on the road and the thin waist piping on the home) were well thought out and necessary.  They could stand to have matching shoulder patches though.

[Bayne]

12 hours ago, Kevin W. said:

No they aren't. In almost 25 years, they've had three primary dark jersey designs and two primary light jersey designs, plus one alternate dark jersey design that didn't later become a primary. You forget that they had the same white jersey (on two separate templates) for almost the entirety of their first 15 years in the league.

Maybe I'm being a bit knee-jerk. Fair.

[Bayne]

On 10/17/2023 at 7:11 AM, the admiral said:

 

If you understand them as a team by and for The Internet, everything they do makes perfect sense.

 Which is why I don't like them.

[Nordiks_19]

10 hours ago, chcarlson23 said:

(And geez, how many times is this discussion going to keep coming back up?) 

Don't worry, in a year or two when they inevitably switch to the North stars look full time, this discussion will be put to rest for good

[spartacat_12]

The Wild & Thrashers both made the same mistake when the league switched over to the Reebok Edge jerseys. They took a popular alternate jersey, made it look worse with the new template, promoted it to the home jersey, but inexplicably didn't make the road jersey match. Atlanta wasn't quite as bad, since both jerseys at least used the same logo & font, but both teams should've taken a page out of Columbus's book.

[ruttep]

41 minutes ago, spartacat_12 said:

The Wild & Thrashers both made the same mistake when the league switched over to the Reebok Edge jerseys. They took a popular alternate jersey, made it look worse with the new template, promoted it to the home jersey, but inexplicably didn't make the road jersey match. Atlanta wasn't quite as bad, since both jerseys at least used the same logo & font, but both teams should've taken a page out of Columbus's book.

 

I think that was mostly due to Reebok's 2007 obsession with removing hem stripes for no apparent reason. At least Original Six teams (with the exception of the Leafs) were safe from that trend, but it affected like half of the league.

 

Not to mention the most boring designs I've ever seen, courtesy of Dallas and Edmonton:

[spartacat_12]

2 minutes ago, ruttep said:

I think that was mostly due to Reebok's 2007 obsession with removing hem stripes for no apparent reason. At least Original Six teams (with the exception of the Leafs) were safe from that trend, but it affected like half of the league.

 

The inability to use hem stripes didn't affect whether or not teams got their jerseys to match. Teams like the Sens & Caps were at least smart enough to use the opportunity to go from mis-matching uniforms to a cohesive set, even if it wasn't on a traditional template.

[ruttep]

2 minutes ago, spartacat_12 said:

 

The inability to use hem stripes didn't affect whether or not teams got their jerseys to match. Teams like the Sens & Caps were at least smart enough to use the opportunity to go from mis-matching uniforms to a cohesive set, even if it wasn't on a traditional template.

 

Fair. I more wanted to use the opportunity to criticize the early Reebok Edge jerseys.

 

On another note, I can't believe that the Sens went so long (even went to a final) with this set:

[pepis21]

21 minutes ago, ruttep said:

I think that was mostly due to Reebok's 2007 obsession with removing hem stripes for no apparent reason.

IIRC there was a reason of that. Reebok planned sweaters to be tucked into pants, but NHL banned that in last moment.

 

On 10/16/2023 at 10:46 PM, Ridleylash said:

 

For Germany and USA it works well, because yokes had same color as helmets, but Avs and Canada are not good.

[ruttep]

3 minutes ago, pepis21 said:

IIRC there was a reason of that. Reebok planned to sweaters be tucked in, but NHL banned that in last moment.

 

So their rationale was that the stripes wouldn't be seen anyway. Huh. Thank you to whoever decided to place hem stripes flat across so that they can be seen, even with tucked jerseys.