The NHL Needs To Go Full "Color Rush" With These New Hometown Remix Jerseys
A few NHL teams broke out their hometown remix uniforms for the first time last night. Obviously these Sharks uniforms are one of the craziest sweaters to ever touch a sheet of NHL ice.
Kavin Mistry. Getty Images.The teeth on the sleeves and the socks are one of the coolest idea ever executed when it comes to NHL style. It's a sport that usually shies away from innovation like that, but this looks awesome with the whole middle of the uniform being a shark's mouth.
Florida went full Miami Vice/Florida sunset with their sweaters.
Icon Sportswire. Getty Images.And then the Blackhawks just went with a green version of their normal uniform, but added some vintage gloves to the mix.
Michael Reaves. Getty Images.Nothing too crazy but it looks crisp.
The Hometown Remix jerseys on their own are all actually pretty clean. The more you look at them, the more you start to like them. Maybe when you see them at first you're a little thrown off. But once you see them in action, they grow on you.
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The only issue is that they look completely out of place when playing against a team wearing their traditional uniforms.
It's a great idea in theory. I'm sure that some of these jerseys are going to sell like crazy. The Sharks uniforms could end up having a similar cultural impact as Hornets gear had for kids of the 90s. Obviously not to the same extent because hockey is still hockey. But there are going to be thousands of kids all across North America who get a Sharks hometown remix jersey for Christmas this year.
But the idea just needs a little tweaking. It needs a guy like Jordie to come into the building and tell everybody how to do their job. In order for these uniform matchups to not look so ridiculous, you actually need to make them more ridiculous. There should be a few select Hometown Remix Nights per season where every team playing is wearing them. Basically just taking the color rush idea from the NHL. Both the home and away team wearing the remix jerseys at the same time. That way you don't have one team wearing a traditional sweater and the other team looking like a cartoon out there.
Is that an even better idea? Of course it is. Because it came from my brain. Obviously it would take a little strategic scheduling just because some teams have similar colors. There are a few teams with white remix jerseys, a few teams with black, and the Sharks and Mammoth are obviously too similar to be out on the ice against each other. So maybe it's not an idea you can get going for the rest of this season. But they should keep this one in their back pocket when it comes time to design the jerseys for next year.