All NHL Teams Switch to Primegreen Jerseys, Introduce “Dimensional Embroidery” to Crests

The National Hockey League and Adidas dropped a league-wide jersey change on us this morning, and while the primary focus was on the new more environmentally-friendly construction of the sweaters, there was some interesting new design features incorporated as well.

They’ll be known as Adidas ADIZERO Primegreen jerseys, made with a minimum of 50% recycled content while still retaining their high-performance materials. The new jerseys will be worn by all 32 teams on the ice beginning with the start of the 2021-22 regular season two weeks from now.

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Recycled content in jerseys is a great thing of course, but this site being a sports logo and uniform design focused site we’re just going to roll right on to that side of things.

Note this nugget buried in the press release:

“Each team jersey will maintain its classic stripping and logo, while boasting dimensional embroidery that draws attention to their sustainable materials, and a two-layer twill that underscores the product’s authenticity.”

Dimensional embroidery?! They didn’t even make up a brand name for it, I love it.

So every one of the NHL’s 32 teams is having some sort of “dimensional embroidery” technique added to their jersey, though we have seen this in the past with the floral pattern added to the shield of the Vegas Golden Knights logo back in 2017.

Most teams incorporated this in an extremely subtle way, others, however, went a little further. Here, I’m going to pull out what I consider to be the most interesting of those changes, presented, as always, alphabetically…

CALGARY FLAMES

The Calgary Flames added a little embroidered embellishment to their logo by way of new markings within the flames of their jersey crest, both on the inside of the flames themselves and around the outside of each.

CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS

The Chicago Blackhawks added some new raised embroidery to their already chainstitch heavy jersey crest (note the feathers and hair, this is not new); for 2021-22 the Blackhawks logo now features raise markings on the face of their logo, the forehead lines, the eyebrow and eye, as well as the facepaint are all now raised rather than flat as it had been forever.

DETROIT RED WINGS

Of this bunch, the Detroit Red Wings change is the most subtle. The second red line down from the top of the logo has been raised off of the crest, giving it depth over the rest of the logo.

EDMONTON OILERS

The Edmonton Oilers tweak may be my favourite of the group, the dimensional embroidery technique has been used here inside the orange oil drop as well as at the bottom of each of the letters in “OILERS”, as the name suggests, adding dimension to an otherwise flat (not a critcism) jersey crest.

MINNESOTA WILD

Another highlight is the Minnesota Wild who have used this technique similar to Calgary and Edmonton. The dimensional embroidery has been added to the right sides of each of the evergreen trees on their crest as well as outlining the entire animal head/forest scene.

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

Another more subtle addition here, the Pittsburgh Penguins will incorporate raised embroidery on the hockey gloves of their familiar skating penguin jersey crest.

SEATTLE KRAKEN

Followers of our social media accounts were already aware of this one, the Seattle Kraken jersey crest will contained embroidery to give some detail on the tentacle that creeps its way up the side of the “S”.

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING

Your back-to-back Stanley Cup champs are toying with the hockey gods by making a change to their jersey crest here, as subtle as it may be. Note in the bottom right of the circle around the logo there is some “dimensional embroidery” to add a little bit of depth to this part of the crest.

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS

The Toronto Maple Leafs, on the other hand, hope to end their 50-something year drought with this new raised embroidering on both the veins of their maple leaf crest as well as on the lettering within the logo. Simple, but effective.

VANCOUVER CANUCKS

The Vancouver Canucks focused on one tiny bit of their logo to apply the raised embroidery technique, the bit of broken ice at the top next to the fin is raised while the rest of the logo is not.

WASHINGTON CAPITALS

The Washington Capitals added some dimensional embroidery to the inside of the t/hockey stick within their jersey crest, it’s most visible in the blade of the stick.

I’m certain there are a few examples I missed, I just had to catch these changes myself as teams released their photos. Please share others in the comments.

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Another change we noticed was applied league-wide and that was the UPGRADE of shoulder patches from that flat almost print-like style we saw on teams like Columbus and Tampa Bay to an actual embroidery-style across the board.

Some examples: