Sidney Crosby models the new RBK Edge NHL uniforms the league has switched to for the 2007-08 season
The NHL is all wet — literally. The combination of intense activity, indoor arenas, and full-body uniforms with loads of padding creates a lot of sweat, plus the skate blades are constantly creating ice spray, which condenses as it hits the players. So when the Reebok folks were designing a new uniform system for the NHL, they devised a series of moisture-repellant fabrics. For months now league officials have been doing this little party trick where they pour a glass of water onto one of the new jerseys, so everyone can see how the water rolls right off.
But here’s the thing: All that moisture has to go somewhere. And according to a growing chorus of complaints from NHL players, it’s going mainly into their gloves and skates, which have become a sloshy, saturated mess.
Another unintended consequence of the new uniforms: They’re so stretchy and, in some cases, so prone to tearing along the seams that they’re easy to pull over an opponent’s face during a fight, which can lead to major problems.
All of which shows that changing an entire league’s uniforms en masse, as the NHL and Reebok have done this season, is a tricky proposition. There’s no precedent for it among the major team sports — the closest parallel is the sea change in baseball triggered in 1970 by the Pirates, who switched from button-up vests, belted pants, and flannel fabric to a pullovers, elastic waistbands, and double-knit polyester. Within three years, all 24 MLB teams had gone to polyester, 14 had switched from button fronts to pullovers, and 16 had switched from belts to waistbands.
But that gradual transition happened incrementally, whereas the NHL changes — which involve graphics and aesthetics as much as new fabrics and tailoring considerations — are being thrust upon us all at once. With the regular season slated to begin this weekend, every single team has new uniforms, although some of the changes are more modest than others.
We’ll get to the new designs in a minute, but first here are some leaguewide provisions to keep in mind:
• There are no “third” or alternate uniforms this season — just home and road. Alternate unis may reappear next season.
• The league is sticking to the same home/road protocol that’s been used in recent years: colors at home, white on the road.
• Back in January, at last season’s All-Star Game, the refs wore silver armbands, instead of their usual orange. At the time, it was announced that this change would be made permanent this season. That plan has now been scrapped, and refs’ arms have been orange-banded as usual during preseason games.
OK, now let’s look at those much-ballyhooed new team uniforms, which Reebok reportedly worked on for 37 years, at a cost of $19 trillion (give or take a billion). With so many new designs, a team-by-team breakdown would be too unwieldy (if you want to see how your favorite team looks, there’s an excellent series of photo galleries here). Instead, let’s examine some of the trends and tropes that run through many of the new designs. In fact, in honour of these trends, I’ve categorized the teams into seven ‘divisions:’
THE APRON STRINGS DIVISION
Description: Apron-like piping that runs down the front of the jersey, or sometimes from the collar to the sleeves. Often repeated on the back (and, in the case of the Blues, onto the pants). Sometimes clashes with captaincy designations.
Teams Affected: Panthers, Oilers, Capitals, Predators, Blues, Avalanche, Thrashers, Flames.
Milton Sports Guy says: Worst thing to happen to hockey since Gary Bettman became commissioner. In fact, since this happened on his watch and seems to sum up everything that’s gone wrong during his tenure, we should henceforth refer to the piping as “Bettman stripes.”
THE DIAPER EFFECT DIVISION
Description: Unfortunate flap of white created by the new jerseys’ rounded shirttail hemlines. Somewhat less egregious version sometimes seen in other colors.
Teams Affected: Most teams with straight waistline stripes, including the Rangers, Blackhawks, Canadiens, and several others.
Milton Sports Guy says: For generations hockey jerseys have had straight hemlines and straight waistline striping. But the new jerseys all have these scooped hemlines (I still haven’t heard a decent explanation for why), which just don’t work with a hockey jersey’s traditional abdominal striping — the straight stripes and the curved shirttail invariably clash. One way around this problem, as several teams have figured out, is to put curved piping right along the hemline edge (compare the two approaches here — it’s no contest); another is to eschew lower striping altogether as the Leafs and Coyotes have done. But a much better solution would be to go back to straight hemlines.
JERSEY SQUEEZE DIVISION
Description: Narrower chest area than before, due to all the new stretch panels and seams that have been added in the upper-chest/shoulder areas of the jersey, leaving less room for chest graphics.
Teams Affected: The Rangers have had to make their diagonal insignia more vertical (compare last season to this season), several teams have been forced to move their captaincy designations either too close to the collar and crest or to the other side of the jersey, and Dallas’ star-based design had to be scrapped because the new jersey’s construction made it impossible to reproduce.
Milton Sports Guy says: Textbook case of engineering trumping design.
READ ANY GOOD UNIFORMS LATELY? DIVISION
Description: The use of words and/or numbers on the front of the jersey.
Teams Affected: Islanders, Sharks, Lightning, Stars, Canucks.
Milton Sports Guy says: The trend of front-jersey numbers began last season with the Sabres, and I still doesn’t see the point of it. You’ve already got numbers on the back and on the sleeves, so the additional number feels extraneous, plus it clutters everything up. But I kinda like what Vancouver and Dallas are doing, in part because it hearkens back to NHL history. It’s hard to argue with the elemental simplicity of a well-executed jersey crest, but I’m intrigued by the alpha-numeric trend — let’s see where it goes.
THE REE-BOX DIVISION
Description: Little contrast-colored tab to showcase the Reebok logo (as opposed to just having the logo be the same color as the surrounding fabric, as had been standard practice in the past).
Teams Affected: Avalanche, Panthers, Blues, Predators.
Milton Sports Guy says: Most offensive case of logo creep ever. It’s one thing to slap your logo onto a design; it’s another to make it part of the design. Then again, maybe I’m being too harsh. After all, it’s not as though the Reebok folks have plastered their logos on helmets, gloves, hip pads, sticks, goalie mitts and blockers, goalie pads, or the blue line, have they?
STRIPES THAT DON’T STRIPE (Sleeve Division)
Description: The odd phenomenon of sleeve stripes that wrap only part of the way around the sleeve.
Teams Affected: Oilers, Panthers.
Milton Sports Guy says: Look, it’s simple: You either have sleeve stripes or you don’t. You can’t have it both ways.
STRIPES THAT DON’T STRIPE (Hosiery Division)
Description: Slanted sock stripes that don’t wrap all the way around.
Teams Affected: Senators, Lightning.
Milton Sports Guy says: When the new Reebok uni system was unveiled at last season’s All-Star Game, the sock stripes were the silliest design element. I figured it was just one of those ill-advised “innovations” that so often afflict all-star uniforms. Surely nobody would want to incorporate that sock concept into a regular team design, right? Wrong.
I know I sound like a big curmudgeon here, but what other option is there when so many of the new design elements are so insipid? Here are some bright spots: The Original Six teams have all pretty much stayed true to their roots; the Sharks and Coyotes have done excellent updates; and the Wild have taken one of the league’s best alternate uniforms and turned it into one of the league’s best home uniforms.
“OK,” you’re saying, “but those are all pretty old-school looks. Don’t you like anything new?” Actually, yes. One team has come up with a new design that feels at once classic and contemporary: the Blue Jackets. Sleeve piping instead of ‘Bettman stripes,’ hemline piping instead of waistline stripes — looks good, right? Even from the back. This, friends, is the future of hockey uniforms. Or at least it should be.
What do you think, Milton?
