I didn’t realize the NHL wanted to see team logos falling off the players jersey’s mid game. The NHL and Adidas have ended their lucrative jersey agreement as the NHL has moved on with Fanatics, the longtime E-Commerce partner of the league.
Is the NHL trying to intentionally annoy its customers and fans?
For those who don’t know, the NHL and Adidas’s jersey partnership, which started back in 2017 after the Reebok-NHL partnership fell through, officially is coming to an end when the final horn of the 2023-24 NHL Stanley Cup Finals sounds.
Just like how Reebok and the NHL’ s partnership only lasted a single agreement, the NHL is moving on without Adidas (or, more accurately, Adidas is leaving the NHL) after one agreement as the league has turned to Fanatics, the official E-Commerce partner of the league since 2005, to take over all professional and commercial jersey manufacturing starting in 2024.
Now, even though the leagues been around for well over 100 years, Fanatics would become only the fourth official jersey/sweater partner of the NHL as up until 2000, the teams would contract independent parties (Reebok, CCM, Nike, etc.) to make the sweaters.
So, Fanatics is making NHL history by not only being the first official jersey and E-Commerce provider, but also as the fourth contracted manufacturer to provided league-wide jerseys for the 32 NHL teams.
Nevertheless, the reason why this deal has a decent number of fans (including myself) annoyed is due to the lack of quality most commercial Fanatic NHL jerseys come with. Sure, Adidas has a hit-or-miss track record with making commercial jerseys themselves and they behind designed some of the worst Reverse Retro jerseys known to mankind (aka: Winnipeg, Toronto, New Jersey, etc.), but they generally came in good shape and quality.
Essentially, they weren’t made with cheap fabric, loose/thin fabric, they held up relatively well overtime, and they didn’t come with jutting, pointy, and/or uncomfortable edges. They were traditional, run-of-the-mill sweaters that nearly all fans could afford and acquire without much issue.
That’s not the case with the Fanatic jerseys.
I don’t know where the factory for Fanatic jerseys is or who is responsible for designing, picking out the fabric, and mass producing the jerseys, but they seriously need to be held under a microscope. Even though I’m not the biggest fan of the Adidas jerseys, they are far superior to the Fanatic ones as they hold up far better over time, the designs/style of the jerseys is generally better, and the logos don’t fade off completely.
Seriously, I had one Fanatics-made Boston Bruins jersey that had its shiny, cheap-looking center logo literally fall off only a few months after purchasing the thing. Reversely, I haven’t had a single Adidas jersey have even remotely the same issue. Moreover, if Fanatics has complete ownership over both the commercial and professional side of jersey-manufacturing, how will the league or fans be able to stop monopolistic practices?
If Fanatics decides to only make NHL jerseys that have their logo unappealingly plastered right in the center of the neckline, there’s no actual guardrails to prevent them from doing so. Right? I mean, it’s not like us fans can buy the new official jerseys from anywhere else once the 2023/24 season ends.
Anyway, we’ll see where this deal takes the NHL over the next decade as the league stupidly decided to sign such a long deal with the manufacturer.
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