Fanatics will replace Adidas as the ’s outfitter of on-ice uniforms and supplier of retail jerseys starting in the 2024-25 season, the league announced Tuesday. Here’s what you need to know:
- Fanatics and the NHL have a 10-year agreement. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- The deal marks the first time the Fanatics logo will appear on game uniforms in professional sports.
Adidas has been the NHL’s official on-ice uniform outfitter since 2017-18. However, Fanatics and the NHL have partnered together for several years on fan apparel, headwear, replica jerseys, licensed memorabilia and more in stores and onlinetickets on sale vancouver canucks. Despite that, the Fanatics news has sparked outrage from fans who have long complained about the poor quality of the company’s apparel.
Each NHL game jersey is made in a factory in Saint-Hyacinthe, Que., near Montreal. The NHL said Fanatics will continue to use the same factory “and even some of the same fabrics, at least at first.”
The Athletic’s instant analysis:
The league was always going to be stuck in a tough spot when the current on-ice apparel deal expired. Adidas decided to get out of hockey. Nike has other priorities that’d move the needle a lot more than NHL jerseys. Hockey legacy brands like Bauer and CCM probably were going to struggle to meet the asking price. Other brands — Under Armour and New Balance — don’t have much of a presence in the sport. Plus, with the NHL, inertia tends to win out, and they had a pre-existing relationship with Fanatics. Combine that with the company’s growth and greater ambitions, and here we are. — Gentille
The issue here is that fans have had their own Fanatics experiences, and too many of them have been bad. Complaints about the quality of items are vast and many, and that’s a major issue when you’re talking about a big-ticket item like a hockey jersey. Tuesday’s news, even though those quality issues are unlikely to pop up for players, is a huge, long-term reminder of a bad retail experience for a huge chunk of the league’s core fan base. — Gentille
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