, The history of the NHL jersey dates back almost 100 years. With it\'s long sleeves, large numbers and stunning logos, the hockey jersey has long been a statement of pride Jersey NHL for hockey fans of all ages. NHL fans buy NHL gear including jerseys and wear them to games and at home to show their support for their local team. While all 30 NHL teams now have home, away and sometimes alternate jerseys to wear and sell, that was not always the case.
The NHL started in 1917 with five teams. Their uniforms were originally made of heavy wools and cottons to keep players warm and they were not very appealing. For the first decade of league play, teams only had one uniform they wore for both home and away games.
The main characteristics of their NHL jerseys were long sleeves and stripes. The Toronto Arenas were the only team to sport a solid blue jersey with white trim.
The league slowly made its way to the United States in 1924. The first team in the states was the Boston Bruins. The NHL jerseys associated with this team was a solid brown color with gold trim. At this time, the Hamilton Tigers wore an NHL jersey with thin lines of black and gold on their sleeves.
In 1927-28, the Toronto Maple Leafs unveiled a new blue-and-white logo that included a heavily striped jersey for home games and a rather simple white jersey with a blue leaf logo for away games.
As the 1930s rolled around, ultra-skinny lines of alternating color were seen in teams, such as the Chicago Black Hawks and the Detroit Falcons. Stars highlighted the NHL jerseys of the New York Americans red, white and blue color scheme.
During the 1940s, the New York/ Brooklyn Americans folded and the NHL was reduced to only six teams. It is now that we see the emergence of more and more colored pants, as well as a variety of home and away NHL jerseys.
In 1950, the Black Hawks moved from a barber pole appearance in their black NHL jerseys to a red jersey with an Indian head on front. This is the start of the official NHL merchandise we see associated with the Black Hawks of today. It was in 1955 that the Bruins Jersey NHL became the first team to introduce the color gold in their NHL jerseys.
In 1951, the NHL mandated white jerseys at home getting the Rangers to create a new uniform. However, that changed four years later, and colored uniforms became home jerseys until 1970, when it changed again. It would change several times during the next few decades.
The league expanded in 1967 to 12 teams and kept adding teams every few years until the mid-1970s, leading to more styles and more colors being added to the NHL collection to the joy of fans who buy NHL gear in support of their team.
Names first appeared on the back of jerseys in 1971, but only home teams wore them. However, by 1978, all teams were wearing names on the backs of the jerseys. The Toronto Maple Leafs were the last team to conform, but did so with protest. The team put white letters on the white jerseys and blue letters on the blue jerseys, because the team\'s owner, Howard Ballard, feared he would lose revenue from game programs if fans knew the names of players.
The Montreal Canadians wore three different jerseys during the 1946 season. Third jerseys didn\'t get used again until 1995 when the league added the idea of alternate jerseys to help bring in profits. Most of the teams have used a third jersey at one time or another since then, and the Canadians remained Jersey NHL pioneers by using five jerseys in the 2008-09 season in honor of their centennial celebration. The NHL jersey is just one example of showing team support and pride when fans buy NHL gear of their favorite team.
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