History of the NHL Jersey
The history of the NHL jersey dates back almost 100 years. With it’s long sleeves, large numbers and often fierce-looking logos, the hockey jersey has long been a statement of fasion and pride for hockey fans of all ages. NHL fans buy NHL gear including jearseys and wear them to games and at home to show their support for their local team. While all 30 NHL teams now have home, away and sometimes alternate jerseys to wear and sell, that was not always the case.
The NHL started in 1917 with five teams, but only four took the ice and only three finished the season. The start of the league was unremarkable, and so were the uniforms. Originally made of heavy wools and cottons to keep players warm, the early uniforms were relatively dull. For the first decade of league play, teams only had one uniform they wore for home and away games.
In 1927-28, the Toronto Maple Leafs unveiled new blue-and-white logo that included a heavily striped jersey for home games and a rather simple white jersey with a blue leaf logo for away games. The idea slowly caught on and by 1940 all teams except the New York Rangers were wearing home and away jerseys.
In 1951, the NHL mandated white jerseys at home getting the Rangers to create a new uniform. However, that changed four years later, and colored uniforms became home jerseys until 1970, when it changed again. It would change several times during the next few decades.
The league expanded in 1967 to 12 teams and kept adding teams every few years until the mid-1970s, leading to more style and more colors being added to the NHL jersey collection.
Names first appeared on the back of jerseys in 1971, but only home teams wore them. However, by 1978, all teams were wearing names on the backs of the jerseys. The Toronto Maple Leafs were the last team to conform, but did so with protest. The team put white letters on the white jerseys and blue letters on the blue jerseys, because the team’s owner, Howard Ballard, feared he would lose revenues from game programs if fans knew the names of players.
The Montreal Canadiens wore three different jerseys during the 1946 season, but that remained an anomaly for almost five decades. Third jerseys didn’t get used again until 1995 when the league added the idea of alternate jerseys to help bring in profits. The vast majority of the teams have used a third jersey at one time or another since then, and the Canadians remained pioneers by using five jerseys in the 2008-09 season in honor of their centennial celebration.
In 2007-08, Reebok unveiled new uniforms made of fabrics that were light and sweat-resistant that were to be used by every NHL team. The uniforms–dubbed “The Edge”–have met with mixed reviews and teams are still tweaking the designs.
