Blackhawks Uniform Voted Greatest in NHL History

The Chicago Blackhawks uniform is number one, so says the results of a month-long head-to-head vote held on NHL.com

Following nearly six million votes cast between November 28 and December 31 the Blackhawks home and road set, worn with only minor tweaks since 1959, came out on top of a list of one hundred others pitted against each other.

From the press release (these words feel so familiar to me)…

A slight update to their previous look, the Chicago Black Hawks entered the 1959-60 season with a new logo and a patch moved up the sleeve to the shoulder of their jersey. The new logo, based heavily on the previous logo, still featured the profile of a Native American head, but with bolder lines, redesigned feathers and a thick beige outline around the entire logo.

Chicago enjoyed success quickly with the new look, winning its first Stanley Cup® Championship in nearly 25 years in 1961. Although the overall design remained the same, the uniform was slightly modified during this span, with minor changes to the logo and collar. The Chicago Blackhawks® also changed their name while wearing this uniform, removing the space between ‘Black’ and ‘Hawks’ in 1986.

Hall of Famer, and former goaltender for both the Black Hawks and Canadiens (he’d know a good uniform), Tony Esposito shared his feelings about the award-winning design:

“If you line up NHL jerseys, the Blackhawks stand out. I don’t know why, the colour maybe? The big Native American head? It’s clear, it’s precise, it’s not helter-skelter. Maybe that’s what I like, the clarity of it. The red jersey is so bright, and I think that’s what makes it stand out.”

The Chicago Blackhawks uniform was voted greatest NHL uniform of all-time (Photo: © David Banks-USA TODAY Sports)

While it doesn’t appear that a full final rankings list has been released, Twitter user @YaleKolin posted a snapshot appearing to show the leaderboard — it lines up with some of the results we had seen early on:

I can’t disagree with the Blackhawks finishing first; for a long time if you’d asked me what my favourite hockey uniform of all-time was I’d instantly answer “Blackhawks red”… I’ve since replaced it – but it’s close – with the Red Wings white and Canadiens reds (apparently I like red uniforms?); at least both the Wings and Habs look to have cracked the top ten.

One thing I still love about the Chicago Blackhawks uniform, despite all the changes to jersey manufacturers over the years and with more and more teams opting to alter how they construct their uniform to make it as light as possible – the Blackhawks have stuck with the chain-stitching technique:

Yup, still on the new Adidas ADIZERO uniform (which both the photo above and below are from). Some teams don’t even stitch their shoulder patches anymore, the Blackhawks will have none of that: