A tip of the hat to Mr. Eric McErlain, he of Off Wing Opinion, who just excitedly rushed into my office to inform me that the Boston Bruins have returned the entirety of their uniform systems to Reebok, because Bs’ players are drowning and suffering heat stroke in them, and Reebok is agreeing to replacing the entirety of the uniforms, made . . . of the old material.
(Eric and I actually man-hugged over the news.)
Well done, Commissioner Bettman, well done indeed. That experiment sure lasted a long time. NHL Commissioners don’t quite get libraries like U.S. Presidents do, but Bettman needs an Area 51-type hanger into which can be stored scores of Glo-pucks and now Reebok uniform systems.
The Bruins, friends, will be skating soon in those good old fashioned, lovely loose hockey sweaters. Bank on it.
The news broke buried in a story in yesterday’s Boston Herald. Take a lookey:
“According to sources in the B’s dressing room, Reebok has been unable to correct problems with the new jerseys introduced this season across the NHL and will replace them at the company’s expense with new uniforms made of the old materials.
“Players have complained since training camp that the new jerseys, which are supposed to be lighter and allow sweat to evaporate out through the shirts, have instead trapped water inside and gotten heavier. . . “
Now then. The Bruins most assuredly will not be the only team returning its players to comfort. But what will Reebok do for replacement uniforms for teams — such as the Caps — who performed wholesale redesigns predicated on the Reebok uniform system at least making it to Halloween? You may have noticed: The Caps’ new crest and nameplates are sized for smaller, tighter sweaters. This is going to get real interesting.
As is Reebok’s next shareholders’ meeting.
Update: After tonight’s game I had a chance to listen in on the opinions of three very prominent Washington Capitals about the conditions they’re enduring because of Reebok’s uniform system. You will find them interesting, I promise. Will be publishing them later this weekend.
6 Comments
Isn’t the issue about the material involved, rather than the cut of the jersey? That shouldn’t affect the new designs if they revert to the old fabric.
One thing I wonder about the jerseys is the concern that all this sweat runs down into the gloves. This may sound silly, but couldn’t they use old-style cotton wristbands to pick that up? Those could easily be swapped out between shifts or periods as they got soaked.
This smells of the New Coke vs Coke Classic scam of the 80’s.
Guys, this is not totally accurate.
This is clipped from Paul Lukas’s uniwatchblog.com:
“Update, 12:55pm: Just spoke with an NHL spokesperson, who told me that the Boston Herald report is incorrect. As it was explained to me, Reebok has informed each team that players who have “moisture issuesâ€? with the new jerseys (i.e., lots of water ending up in their gloves and/or skates) will be given the option to have the option to wear a jersey with a new front panel made of a different high-tech material. The spokesperson maintained that there was no league-wide move to scrap the new jerseys, nor was there any move back to “old materials.â€?”
Now that Comcast has turned on the NHL Network, I’m having great time watching these classic clips from the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s of players skating around with flowing, loose, and baggy jerseys where the home teams was always in white and the visting team always wore their dark jerseys….
Oh wait a sec…
pucksandbooks, you’ve got mail!
Nailed it. Great article, guys.
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