The National Hockey League has a new official on-ice jersey supplier — and a lot of fans aren’t too happy with the choice, nor is at least one former player.
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Fanatics, which has long manufactured NHL fan apparel, has signed a 10-year deal with the NHL to become its “authentic outfitter of on-ice uniforms” starting with the 2024–25 season. The company will take over from Adidas, which has made authentic and replica NHL jerseys since 2017.
It didn’t take long for fans to share their thoughts about the deal on social media. Some pointed out consistent quality control issues with pre-existing Fanatics NHL merchandise, while others criticized the optics of seemingly downgrading from Adidas.
Mike McKenna wore hockey jerseys made by plenty of different suppliers, including Adidas, during his long professional career. He shared his thoughts alongside Tyler Yaremchuk on Tuesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff Live:
Tyler Yaremchuk: The NHL has its new jersey partner. The deal with Adidas runs out at the end of [the 2023–24 season] and the league announcing today that they’ve agreed with Fanatics on a 10-year deal to be the exclusive on-ice uniform and supplier of authentic jerseys, both retail and on-ice as well. This was met with a lot of pushback. Fans are not pleased about this at all. The general sense around Fanatics, and this has been the case since they’ve been partnered with Adidas, is that they make the cheaper alternatives for the jerseys, the quality is not great as well. Some people have pushed back on the idea that Fanatics has, in a way, started to monopolize the NHL’s apparel game — and this leads to a bigger step towards that with a 10-year deal now. People are not happy. The PR of this is not good at all. And when you look at other major sports leagues, Mike. MLB, NFL, NBA, they all have Nike and Jordan and all these big brands supplying their merchandise. For the NHL to have Fanatics? I can’t tell if I’m making too big of a deal out of this or if this really is kind of a minor-league moment for the NHL.
Mike McKenna: I don’t think you are at all, Tyler, because this is one of those under-the-surface topics that, to me, is a big deal. Like … Fanatics. That’s not the same as Nike. It just seems Mickey Mousemontreal canadiens lineup tonight. It seems minor-league, there’s no way around it. And I think about the players who are probably going, “Fanatics? What? Don’t they make replica jerseys”? I guarantee the players are thinking, “These things better be decent quality.” The Adidas jerseys, they were a step forward. They were breathable, they were flexible, they worked pretty well. Mixed back previous to that. But at least Adidas carried some weight. And I think more than anything, Tyler, no matter how much money the NHL’s bringing in in terms of revenue, it does show that it’s still — at least in the United States — a second-tier niche sport. That’s what this means: you didn’t get a bid from Nike or Reebok or Adidas or any of these big companies. You had to go to the second class, which is a replica apparel company, and you hope it works out. So, we’ll see how it goes, I’m sure it’ll be eventually fine, but man — it sure wasn’t going over well on social today, and I don’t think it will amongst a lot of fans or players.
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Watch the full show here:
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