Reacting to Tampa Bay Lightning, NHL’s new Adidas-branded jerseys

The NHL revealed its new line of Adidas-branded jerseys with much anticipation on Tuesday night, and the Tampa Bay Lightning displayed their new threads, which were greeted by mixed reactions.

For years, the National Hockey League rolled with its line of Reebok-branded jerseys, and those seemed to be a favorite among fans. But now, there’s been a change in style and design. The NHL revealed its newest line of jerseys in Las Vegas less than a day before the Vegas Golden Knights present their roster at the NHL Awards. The Tampa Bay Lightning is among those with new threads.

Popular sportswear company Adidas, parent company to Reebok, is the new designer of the NHL’s jersey, which will make its debut for the 2017-18 regular season. According to a release from the NHL, “the new ADIZERO Authentic NHL jersey takes the hockey uniform system and hockey jersey silhouette to the next level by redefining fit, feel and lightweight construction.”

This new style of jersey is meant to be lighter, cooler and stronger, and it will feature a drop in material weight percentage in several categories, Adidas “Clima®” technology to “deliver breathability and enhanced performance,” and overall improved durability and strength. Just by the looks of them, these jerseys appear to have less bulk and are more streamlined.

Adidas is the world’s second largest sports manufacturer in the world and is very popular in Europe. Though soccer is one of its main target areas, hockey figures to become a prominent feature in the company’s products, especially since the NHL announced a seven-year partnership with Adidas in 2015.

“Adidas will become the authentic outfitter of on-ice uniforms as well as an official supplier of licensed apparel and headwear for the League starting with the 2017-18 season.”

Partnering with a global sportswear brand could be a positive move for a sport trying to market itself more around the world, especially in the United States. NHLPA Chief of Global Business Strategies Sandra Monteiro said, “Adidas is a brand recognized worldwide for innovation and technology investment, creating constant innovation in high performance apparel.”

Laces out, Dan!

Overall, fans didn’t seem too keen on the design and look of most teams’ jerseys, but many people still had positive reactions on them. For Tampa Bay Lightning fans, the missing laces, featured on the now “old” Reebok jerseys and removed from the new ones, are a big thumbs down. If you don’t recall, the former jerseys had laces on the front side of the collar just below the neck, and the Lightning were one of the few teams to have those on their jerseys. They will indeed be missed.

I think you get the point. As you can see, many fans already miss the laces, and it doesn’t look like they will be returning on these jerseys anytime soon. Though the Lightning revealed their home blue jerseys, they didn’t leak their away white jerseys which are slated to be unveiled at a season ticket member event this Friday.

As reported by The Hockey News, no teams will have a third, alternate jersey for the 2017-18 season. Weekend games just won’t be the same without those sharp black third jerseys with the diagonal “BOLTS” logo.

As for the rest of the league, the Nashville Predators seemed to have the least liked jersey of them all, and fans took to social media to bash the designer of the jersey. Take a look for yourself.

https://twitter.com/Benstonium/status/877308099127889927

Next: Tampa Bay Lightning side deal with Vegas Golden Knights not surprising

They could be better, and that’s all I’m going to say. And as for the Golden Knights’ first set of sweaters, they look clean and use the color palette from their logo and team colors fairly well. You can take a look at them here.