The NHL last night revealed the jerseys (but not the full uniforms, annoyingly) for this season’s All-Star Game, which will take place in Florida on Feb. 4. In keeping with this season’s Reverse Retro 2.0 program, the designs have a RR theme, hearkening back to the 1994 All-Star Game but with Miami Vice-style colors.
Here’s a look at the Eastern Conference’s original 1994 design, and the new RR version:
And here’s the same thing for the Western Conference:
Any way you slice it, it’s a pretty awful design, but giving it the RR treatment is clever and fun.
Here are some additional details on the jerseys:
In case you’re wondering: RR 1.0 took place during the pandemic-shortened 2021 season, but the All-Star Game was cancelled that year, so we’ll never know for sure whether they were planning to go RR for that game. In fact, that game was supposed to take place in Florida, so it’s possible that they were originally planning to go with these exact same designs and have just kept them on ice since then.
Count me as one of the few who thought they knocked it out of the park with this design. Miami colors, a classic all star game look, no other flim flam mucking it up, just a well executed design.
I agree. Maybe it is the nostalgia of those All-Star uniforms being some of my first hockey jersey memories, but I love them. I think the Vice color palette is starting to get played out, but as accents on these sweaters I think they work.
Interesting that the promo literature mentions ‘hits’ of the blue and pink rather than ‘hints’, or am I missing something?
“hits” is used a lot to describe a color used as an accent (I see it on social media accounts relating to sneakers and streetwear) but I also wondered if “hints” was the intended word but as more people use “hits”, it took on a life of its own.
I am totally down for this, no question. No messaging, no “story”, no PR double talk. And I agree with Graham-these are the All Star unis of my childhood, complete with this moment:
link
I love it, though the Eastern/Western conference branding is a bit odd considering the current division based structure of the ASG itself. Still, I’m far more tempted to buy one of those than any other All Star jersey in recent memory.
If there are four teams that each represent a division, how do two conference-branded jerseys work?
That’s the Million Dollar Question that I want an answer to, right there!
From the ESPN article on the jerseys: “There are two primary jerseys, but if the West meets the West or the East meets the East in the All-Star tournament final, there are dark and white versions for each conference.”
Okay, that is good to know that they did plan for that contingency. Odd, though, that the NHL itself did not include that nugget in their own release, that it has to be ESPN to note it.
Thank you.
Each conference actually has a light and dark version. They just showed off the dark for the East and the light for the West.
The jerseys are some of the best hockey jerseys I’ve seen. Normally, as a Red Wings fan, I’m more into the classic jerseys—I have three Winter Classics as part of my collection, one of which is Red Wings—but this is just so incredibly bad that it becomes incredible.
Note to anyone wanting to buy one, though: neither Adidas nor the NHL Shop have them available yet. They were supposed to go on sale at midnight today, but 8 hours later there’s still no sign of them! So, you may want to—or, in some cases, need to—consider going to a second hand dealer like Cool Hockey. They say they’ll have them available at 10 AM this morning, so we’ll see in an hour, I guess.
I just bought one on Lids.ca
Hoping the gloves have light blue and pink in them and are not just completely black.
If the NHL is going retro with All-Star uniforms, all I ask is to have these back. Early 1980s with all those stars:
link
Motion Seconded!!!!! Any of the 80’s designs would be warmly welcomed. Even the Rendez-Vous 87!
I always liked how the players head was the fifth point of the star, like a subliminal nod to being an All Star.
I think as evidenced by the fondness for digging out what were bad designs at the time (e.g., the original Yotes aesthetic), we’ve landed somewhere in the “so bad it’s good” zone. And considering Gen Z’s love for late 90’s/early 00’s fashion at the moment, I don’t think we’ll see the trend change anytime soon.
I never thought of it that way but that is clever!
Can’t decide if I love or hate these. I definitely prefer the Western version to the Eastern.
One thing that strikes me as a potential concern is differentiation. The Eastern jerseys have a lot of white on the back.
It’s still weird to me that as soon as the NHL ASG went to different uniforms, the Dallas Stars were like, “We’ll take these!”
I love these jerseys. Unironically and unequivocally.
Hopefully this gets the “Vice” thing out of the Panthers/NHL’s system. I keep hearing a suggestion for the Panthers to get a Vice-colored 3rd and it just doesn’t make any sense. They haven’t played anywhere near Miami (from a local standpoint) in 25 years. A nice navy blue alt with the updated leaping Panther logo would do just fine.
In this context it makes more sense, as a throwback to the mid-90s, when the Cats started off at the Miami Arena which inspired the Heat’s Vice color scheme.
With the Panthers playing so close to the Everglades, I would think green and blue would be an interesting alternate color palette to try as an alternate. I love the Vice look for the Heat but that doesn’t mean it works for every team in South Florida.
I’m surprised so many of you like these. I don’t love the originals, and for some reason the pastel/pink which normally works well for Miami doesn’t work for me here. They look like those women’s jerseys where retailers just plop “feminine”colors onto a jersey and toss it onto the rack.
These work from a nostalgia prospective, and the Miami vice colors also fit in the 90s period the uniform draws from; teals, neon, and black.
It isn’t a good jersey/uniform, but is fun and enjoyable for what it is. That makes it better than a lot of other awful modern all star designs throughout the big four.
It might be a generational thing, but my first thought was Dallas Stars, not ’94 all stars. I had to double check that the all star game wasn’t in Dallas this year. I get the colors are Miami Vice, and I give those a thumbs up, but the actual layout of the jersey threw me off
Dallas took their “star” jersey design from the All-Star jerseys, which predated the Stars’ design by a few years.
Ugh, put me in the “dislike those” category. As someone else posted, the whole Miami Vice color scheme is worn out for me and I didn’t like that triangular look the first time. I can’t recall if they did this already with the varying incarnations of the NHL All-Star structure, but I would really like to see the former orange and black uniforms they used for a long time (classic, you might say). They couldn’t have Campbell and Wales anymore (or could they?), but that’s the look I would feel nostalgia for. I always thought the orange/black league logo and colors was great, immediately recognizable and different from the other major sport leagues color schemes (as in, red, white and blue).
I always thought USA Hockey should have adopted the design for the national team. Somewhere I have a red and white jersey with the flying S wordmark that I cobbled together.
For me, having so much white wrecks the look.
Maybe blue over black for one, black over pink for the other. In any case, the Miami Heat nailed it with the Miami Nights jerseys a few years back and the best versions were all blue, black, pink and no white.
I liked this original All Star template. I was a little more open to new ideas in the 90’s, but I grew out of it. I don’t particularly like the design, but I don’t hate these new threads as much as I thought I would.
I always thought it was wild that the Stars nicked the template. I wish they could have worn pointy lids to complete the star pattern.
And I wish the chest logo was just the NHL shield.
The vastly superior black/orange, upper left/descending right stripe shield logo, right?
Why they messed with that was…and is…a head-scratcher.
So… no thoughts from Paul at all on the Canucks’ black thirds that were officially revealed, and then worn, on Wednesday night? Or the Canucks’ tribute to Gino Odjick that same night? I mean, I know that at first glance one might say, “Oh, it’s just the black flying skate jersey again”, but it’s not the exact same, as there are elements taken from the 1970-72 and 2007-present uniform styles.
Well, there’s always Chris Creamer’s thoughts: link
Both of those were in yesterday’s Ticker.
The throwbacks had been teased and leaked for a while, plus I was busy on Weds night when they were surprise-released, so I didn’t have time for a full write-up. Sorry!
Actually, they were not in the Ticker, which is why I asked. There were three items, one for Frederik Andersen, one for Ryan Miller, and one for the Old Bay jerseys.
Shit — that’s seriously weird. I compiled that Ticker myself, and I *know* I added the Canucks news. But we’ve had some issues with items “disappearing” or not being saved in the Ticker interface, and that’s apparently what happened in this case. Mea culpa.
It should be noted the leak had been mentioned by Phil in Sunday’s Ticker. But I did honestly want your thoughts on the changes, subtle though they may be.
The big thing those jerseys evoke for me is EA’s NHL video games from the mid-90s, which are still remembered quite fondly by people in the 30 and 40-something range.
And those of us in our 20s with older siblings!!!!!!
I don’t live anywhere near Miami but we have very vibrant sunsets where I live Too. Does anyone else also have vibrant sunsets anywhere in the world?
These are fun to watch for a single game but not nearly nice enough to purchase (like most NHL seaters, unfortunately). For NHL ASG I am a total traditionalist: Black versus Orange or White verus Orange. I know, the shield is silver and black but it should switch back to black and orange during the ASG. Add some silver to remind us of the shield color change, that is OK.
I don’t hate these but I’m not exactly over the moon (over Miami?) about them either. The pastel theme is perfectly restrained. Any more and it would look ridiculously garish. Judgement will be reserved when I see them in actual gameplay, with the entire uniform of course.
All these positive comments make me feel even more old & grumpy than I already am.
In my eyes, these ASG uniforms are complete failures, from concept to aesthetics, to execution. I don’t see a single redeeming feature.
But then again, its also hockey, so…
Lee
These are great unis
So I really love these jerseys, even if none of it makes any sense to me.
• The 1994 All-star Game was in New York, so there is no regional tie, and also would be 29 years ago, not 30, so not sure why they landed on this? I mean, looking at both the 1993 All-Star units, they really look like Fliers jerseys, since Philly was the host.
• Tampa hosted the 2003 All-Star Game, but those jerseys are so boring, and ape early Lightning looks, they just do not work.
• I don’t think pastels are played out, but then again I bought a ‘reimagined’ Trapper Keeper with these same colors and a Delorean on it this past fall, knowing full well this look never existed in the 1980s, as the car was a never-was for much of the decade until BTF revived it.
• The colors of the jersey do not match the All-Star logo at all for 2023, which honestly I think is the biggest problem anyone should have. It shows this was not all thought out in advance (but I think they could recolor the logo and it would be excellent).
• Anyone else have equal San Antonio Spurs feel, as much as Miami Vice? To me, I always remember seeing the Spurs logo in the 1980s, and those streaks behind the word mark present in my head more than Miami Vice. Considering the Spurs had an orang in there too (for a basketball) I think I get that because of the darker orange in the NHL logo on the jersey….
Gotta point out:
* The 1994 unis were also worn in 1996 and 1997 (Boston and San Jose), and the colors were based strictly on the colors chosen for the conference logos that took effect in 1993.
* The 1993 game was in Montreal, and the jerseys were the same design as worn in Edmonton in 1989, Pittsburgh in 1990, and Chicago in 1991, just with the numbers changed from orange in all instances to black-on-white and white-on-black for higher contrast.
* The Philadelphia game was 1992, the NHL’s 75th season, and featured red, white, and blue throwbacks based on the 1947-1959 ASG unis.
* Florida, not Tampa Bay, hosted the 2003 ASG, and the unis were essentially the same as the 2002 ASG unis in Los Angeles, except the red jersey was changed to white due to the contrast issues between the dark red and dark blue jerseys in the 2002 game. Tampa Bay hosted in 1999 (using the same jerseys used in 1998 in Vancouver) and 2018 (using four jerseys whose colors were based on that year’s ASG logo).
* Pastel blue, pastel pink, and black are the definitive colors of the Miami Vice logo, which debuted with the show in 1984. Color variations were made, but those colors were everywhere on Vice merch. The Spurs didn’t adopt their Fiesta colors (turquoise, fuchsia, and orange) until circa 1989.
In fact, there’s one detail about the Miami Vice logo that I never really thought about back then, but noticed today: the black drop shadow beneath the “VICE” letters. I always noticed that those letters were segmented, in contrast to the “MIAMI” above it, but the drop shadow serves as a metaphor for the seedy underbelly of the city that the vice squad is trying to clean up. link
I don’t pay much attention to all-star unis in general, but I’ve been struck by several references in the comments to this theme or these colors being “played out” or “overdone” or whatever. That may be true in other sports, but this is a first for the NHL. No uniform in this league has ever had this color combination before.