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Horrible News: Adidas Lands NHL Jersey Deal Starting In 2016-17

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TSNThe National Hockey League appears poised for radical changes to its team jerseys in the wake of a deal that may pave the way for advertising on team uniforms.

Adidas has won a long-term deal to make uniforms for the 30 NHL teams, beginning in the 2016-17 season. For Adidas, the NHL deal is a big, if curious, win. The company beat out rivals Under Armour and Bauer Hockey for the NHL jersey contract, three people familiar with the matter told TSN. The NHL’s deal with Reebok pays the league about $35 million per season, a source said. The new deal with Adidas will see the rights fee double, the source said.

A source told TSN that the deal would surely mean big changes to uniform designs, perhaps with Adidas’s familiar three-stripe trademark being added to some or all team jerseys. “The NHL might not want big changes like that, but for the money Adidas will pay, they’ll be pretty aggressive pushing to make the NHL jerseys identifiable with their brand,” the source said.

Pretty sad day in the life of hockey jersey aficionados everywhere as it would appear that the hockey jersey as we know it will be dead once Adidas gets their grimey little paws on it. They’ve already been working with college teams like Michigan, Wisconsin and Notre Dame and so far they haven’t put out the absolute worst jerseys in the world. But Adidas can suck a fat one and if the damage that they’ve done to basketball jerseys are any indication, the NHL is royally fucked.

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Hideous. Atrocious. Vomit all over the place. Actually, that’s the only plus side to Adidas landing this deal with the NHL. Because starting in the 2016-17 season, every time you watch a game you’ll want to throw up at the sight of this monstrosities and then you’ll be skinny. So I guess that’s a win but still. Everything Adidas touches seems to turn into a heaping pile of shit. And with a few exceptions, jerseys in the NHL right now are perfect. Senators, Ducks, and maybe Penguins could benefit from some re-designs. But if anyone ever tries to touch the design of an Original 6 jersey, they should be shot on site.

Also, this probably means that the move to go with on-jersey advertising will be next. So it’s only a matter of time before this starts to happen.

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Thanks a lot, Adidas. There’s only thing that can happen now that could possibly make this deal worth it and not suck so damn much. And that’s if Adidas starts getting into the equipment game and they come out with a pair of shell-top skates. Because those would be pretty fucking sweet. Everything else Adidas can go suck a butt. Shell-tops were the shit though.

P.S. – I’m not that great at math but I have to imagine that Adidas will be paying James Harden and the NHL roughly the same amount of money.