On Monday afternoon, TSN’s Rick Westhead broke some news that will impact the NHL moving forward. The results won’t be right away, but by the start of the 2017-18 NHL season, the company producing the leagues jerseys will change.
Reebok, who has held the contract for a lengthy period of time, will only have two seasons left to produce the silks for the 30 clubs. After that, Reebok’s corporate cousin, Adidas will take things over.
The full story from Westhead can be read here.
Will We See Change?:
I think it is very obvious that we will see some changes coming to the NHL jerseys. For the 2005-06 and 2006-07 NHL seasons, teams wore looser jerseys, but Reebok changed things for the 2007-08 season, introducing the edge jerseys. These were much more fitted and looked tighter and cleaner than the old style jerseys, the loose fit.
In the process of changing the style, all 30 teams underwent some sort of change to their design. The Oilers famously went from their tremendous ’06 Cup run jerseys to threads that looked like, well pajamas.
As an Oiler fan, I’m praying that there isn’t another major change like that in two years. I love the current home and away jerseys. They are classic designs with tremendous colors, they just look right. On top of that, the new third jersey looks extremely sharp, it’s one I’d like the team to hold onto for foreseeable future.
That said, I think it’s almost 100% that we see some sort of change to these jerseys. Will Adidas go away from the edge style? Will they force teams to change the look to sell more jerseys? We’ll just have to wait and see I suppose.
Westhead included the following quote in his piece that all but assures changes will take place.
A source told TSN that the deal would surely mean big changes to uniform designs, perhaps with Adidas’s familiar three-stripe trademark being added to some or all team jerseys.
“The NHL might not want big changes like that, but for the money Adidas will pay, they’ll be pretty aggressive pushing to make the NHL jerseys identifiable with their brand,” the source said.
My Biggest Fear:
The debate has gone on for years, will advertising on jerseys ever reach the NHL? A completely different but still connected question is, should advertising make it’s way into the NHL jersey fold?
I’m adamantly against it, I think adding advertisements to these jerseys looks gimmicky and takes away from the history of some of those logos. Sorry, but I just don’t wanna stare at the McDonald’s logo while looking at the historic Montreal Canadiens jersey.
I love Dunkin Donuts and all, but can we keep that logo off the Boston Bruins historic jerseys? I just looks bad, keep it away please.
The answer to my first question? Well it’s likely to anger a number of people, myself included.
Moving to a new jersey supplier may be a natural transition for the NHL to begin introducing on-jersey advertising, several league sources told TSN.
During a meeting of NHL team presidents in New York last year, league officials estimated they might raise $4 million per team – or $120 million annually – by allowing corporate sponsors to put their logos front and centre on jerseys.
Yeah, thanks but no thanks. That said, I think we all knew that this day would likely come at some point, so we shouldn’t be overly surprised that this news is starting to come out. I just hope the advertisements on the jerseys don’t get to European hockey levels.
Best case scenario? It’s minimal like on the AHL jerseys. Worst case….well just look below for a second.
Finals Thoughts:
If Adidas just makes minor tweaks to the NHL jerseys, then this is fine, I’ll have no problem with it. That said, if they come in and force all 30 teams to change their design, force their own logo all over the jersey and then pave the way for advertisements on them, well then this could be a disaster.
That said, the NHL is likely to see almost $70 million per season from this deal, so I doubt they are complaining about it. It looks to be a very sound business decision by the league, but I hope they don’t go overboard on the corporate side.
Hey Adidas, please don’t fix what isn’t broken.
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