The Los Angeles Kings and Colorado Avalanche have officially unveiled their 2020 NHL Stadium Series jersey and uniforms. The unveiling confirmed the leaks we seen in December but we also learned a few new things too. Also, since this game will be held at the Air Force Academy both uniforms were heavily inspired by the Air Force which helped create very meaningful designs.
The LA Kings are going with white and silver gloves, stencil numbers and best of all, CHROME DOMES! That's right, for the first time in NHL history we get to see 100% chrome helmets. Not only that, but they even went with a brand new way to display helmet numbers. The uniform design is inspired by the P-51 Mustang which is a World War II plane that was made nearby Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. The helmet decal resembles the P-51 Mustang logo, the chrome helmets represent the metal exterior of the plane, and the checkered stripes on the inside collar come from the yellow and black pattern on the plane's tail.
These jerseys contain so much meaning between the Air Force Academy, their city roots and team history while all tying it together with their current branding. The diagonal stripes that go upward across the jersey and their slanted crest represent a plane taking off. They use the streaking lines coming out of the two letters to capture movement which are pulled from their old "KINGS" logo from the "Gretzky era" (which is seen on the inside collar). And then tying it in with the team's current font style makes this crest design very successful.
REVIEW: 9/10. Their first of a kind helmet and their unique crest which successfully ties together meaning from the Air Force Academy, their city roots and team history, while still being visually pleasing, makes this uniform set worth high praise.
The Colorado Avalanche on the other hand, had a much tougher time bringing together everything for a successful aesthetic design. They went with a giant "A" across the chest which they are proudly claiming to be the biggest crest ever on an Adidas NHL jersey. The crest ties together the letter "A" for Avalanche, their triangle Colorado Rockies logo and their Colorado mountain landscape. The blue shoulders represent the blue skies, the white stripes represent the snowy mountain ice caps, and the burgundy triangles represent the red rocky mountains.
The Avalanche press release also explained “the triangular shape is modeled after the Air Force's Cadet Chapel... the sleek, angular lines of the campus’ buildings and its jets has been blended with the Avalanche’s DNA to create a hybrid with the Air Force.”
REVIEW: 4/10. I really enjoy the meaning behind this jersey but at the end of the day it doesn't hold up visually. The gigantic "A" design feels unsatisfying & unprofessional and the construction of the jersey furthers that point. The bottom piece of the crest looks like it was slapped on and does not blend properly, while the numbers on the back appear all wrinkled where the stripe lies beneath it. I give it an A for effort but an F for design and execution.
However, I did see a stand alone logo version of the crest which looks much better than what we get on the jersey so I recreated it for you to see below. If they could have found a way to make it look more like this one and include the triangle in the background it would have done wonders! Maybe we'll see this version of the logo one day down the road.
Here are the two jerseys in our template below. You can download our jersey template here and make your very own jersey concepts!
And that is all for the NHL event jerseys this season! We may still get a couple more alternate jersey before the season is out including a brand new gold Vegas Golden Knights third jersey so stay tuned!