NHL Goes With Fanatics for Next Round of On-Ice Jerseys

Interesting but inevitable choice gives many fans concerns over future quality.

I have a few jerseys… not enough, though.

The news every true NHL fan knew was coming, but has been dreading is finally here. That’s right, it was officially announced that Fanatics will be the manufacturer of on-ice jerseys starting in 2024-25.

Is that being too dramatic? Probably. But if you’re like me and you like wearing a jersey here and there, you have concerns about where this is going. 

Fanatics has been the NHL’s online retail provider as well as the producer of “fan apparel and headwear, replica jerseys, licensed memorabilia, performance and training products, on-ice Stanley Cup champions apparel and headwear,” as stated in the official press release from Tuesday.

And if you’re like me, you bought some of that Stanley Cup apparel, including the on-ice hat, shirt, maybe a hoodie or two, etc. Honestly, I haven’t had any issues with any of the Fanatics hats I’ve purchased since the partnership began. The only real issue I’ve had with any of their products is a black hoodie I bought before the 2020-21 season. It doesn’t seem to fit anymore… my wife says that’s more of a ‘me issue’ than a Fanatics one.

I also understand I might be alone in my good luck with their products based on what I read on the Reddit forums.

However, anyone who has seen their jerseys knows this is a different story. The replicas are notoriously cheap with terrible screened-on numbers and nameplates. The chest and shoulder logos are brutal prints that always look and feel so low quality. Those two things alone have led me to never purchase one.

When I was in Denver a few weeks back, I visited Altitude Authentics a few times during my visits to Ball Arena. I think I was most disappointed in the newly released vintage options that had: the Sakic and Roy jerseys from 2001 and the Blueberry MacKinnon from his rookie year. All three felt like the logos, lettering and numbers were made out of duct tape applied to the jersey with an iron. And they were being sold for $200.

The same is true for many of the other replica jerseys they’re selling there for this year’s Retro Reverse as well as the home jerseys I saw. The adidas ones are just infinitely better in terms of quality. I got a Makar one a few years back and it rivals the Sakic CCM jersey I got as a teenager. And the price of the adidas authentics are not too much higher than the Fanatics replicas, but offer a considerable step up in overall product.

Even after all those shortcomings listed, I’m going to give Fanatics the benefit of the doubt. I think that this being their first opportunity to put their branding on an on-ice/field product is a huge step for a company that was not anywhere near this level a decade ago, there is an understanding that they have to elevate their product to meet the standards of the consumer or the business model will fail.

And with that comes the rise of DHGate and the knockoff market. 

Fanatics needs to look at the last two jersey providers and examine what they did well and where they came up short.

Reebok, for my money, was a terrible choice for the league. They tried to streamline the look of the jerseys in both fit and style. The form-fitting design of the Edge jerseys took away the flowing beauty of a Mike Modano jersey as he skated down the ice. It also tried to force teams to have similar looks and deny individual styles that had become brands for some franchises.

Fortunately, teams like the Rangers, Blackhawks and Red Wings all preserved their iconic looks and told Reebok to pound sand (so to speak). Teams like the Avalanche embraced the Reebok vision that led to those awful apron string jerseys with the awkward captain’s C on top. A brutal final image for fans of players like Sakic and Peter Forsberg.

From a Colorado perspective, these are the worst jerseys in team history for two reasons: 1. They’re genuinely terrible looking (for real) and 2. They were worn during the worst period of the team’s Centennial State existence. The second point makes the first even more valid.

The Avs’ transition from stinker to team on the rise and eventual contender and champion coincided with the adidas era. As soon as the team ditched the apron sweaters and went to the re-imagined original look, things changed. That probably is more to do with the emergence of Nathan MacKinnon as a top-tier superstar and the the rise of Cale Makar as the best defenseman in the world than the jerseys, but both can be true, I guess.

adidas came in and allowed teams to be individual again, creating unique and distinct looks for all the clubs. They cleaned up the mess that was still present at the end of the Reebok era and gave every franchise the chance to wipe the slate clean. Since then, nearly every team has made moderate to significant improvements in their on-ice appearance.

I say ‘nearly’ because that’s not entirely true, but they’ve at least tried to fix issues from the 2010s.

So we have one year left of the adidas NHL era. I’m hoping that they continue to try things in the last year that made them the most successful manufacturer in memory, while also creating a template for Fanatics to follow once the transition is made. One that they can’t screw up… hopefully.

At the end of the day, jerseys are hugely important to a team’s brand, not just for how the players look on the ice, but for how their fans look in the stands, too.

RANKINGS!

All this talk of jerseys  — as well as a comment I made about the Coyotes jerseys last week — got me thinking about the best looks in the NHL. I made a few tiered lists  for the different looks around the league. Feel free to tell me how correct I am in the comments!

All-Time Avs Jersey Rankings

The Home Jerseys

The Road Jerseys

The Retro Reverses