Tarnished, gross, unappealing, wrong. These are words that can be used to describe NHL jerseys if the horrid idea of putting soccer-esqe advertisements on them goes through. Once Adidas acquired the rights to become the NHL’s apparel provider last month, it was made clear that Adidas and the NHL are closely considering filling up the jerseys with advertisements. The plan is for Reebok, the current apparel provider, to continue through its last season and have Adidas takeover starting in the 2016-2017 season.
What does this mean? Well, it means that all 30 NHL teams will be getting essentially “new” jerseys, but mostly it will just be the same jersey with very minimal altercations. The current Reebok EDGE jersey template will be replaced with the pending Adidas template. The consensus from multiple sources is that the jerseys will feature the classic Adidas “three stripe” design, but it was not made clear if that would just be a small adidas logo on the back, or that all NHL teams will be welcoming three stripes into their beloved uniforms. That is a horrible idea from the start, and we haven’t even gotten into the advertisement aspect of it.
Hockey is a sport of tradition. There is not a sport out there you can name that relies more on its history and tradition, and that goes for the NHL as well. Why do you think the Original 6 teams have the same logo and in some cases the same jerseys they had when they started back in the 20’s? It is the identity of the team. A sacred crest. Something that should not be touched. The reasoning for the NHL wanting to put advertisements on the jerseys is a reasonable one: the league has been trying to increase revenue for quite some time now. They are trying to move away from playing little brother to the Big 3 sports in today’s world. The point is clear, the NHL will be increasing advertisement in some sort of fashion. It would absolutely devastating to see these beautiful jerseys tarnished. Montreal fans will say goodbye to the classic “CH” crest bestowed on their team’s jerseys and say hello to a big ole’ McDonalds “M”. You’re a Boston Bruins fan and can’t get enough of the spoked “B”? Sorry, here’s the “B” from Budweiser or Bud Lite. The Ducks could try to make a webbed Honda “H” to replace their webbed “D” but just like the whole idea of putting advertisements on NHL jerseys itself, it’s a nauseating idea.
This atrocity can be avoided. The jersey don’t need to have advertisements slapped on them. The sideboards of the rink are already covered with advertisements, there are advertisements in the ice surface, there’s commercials, advertisements all over the arenas, it’s already advertisements-galore. The NHL may have a reason for wanting to go through with this, but there is no true point. They already have littered everything with ads that they can, the jerseys are an area that should not be tampered with. Period. End of story. It is an ugly idea, literally and figuratively. So please NHL and Adidas, don’t make a poor decision and ruin something sacred and beautiful. Keep the jersey free and don’t make it yet another slave to the advertising prison that soccer has fallen into.
You tell me what looks better:
The Kings jersey is trash anyway but I see where you're coming from
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