The Vegas Golden Knights and Seattle Kraken have revealed their jerseys for the 2024 Winter Classic, with designs inspired by what the teams’ sweaters might have looked like if they existed in the early 1900s; the Kraken drew inspiration from the Seattle Metropolitans’ 1917 sweaters, while the Golden Knights featured a gray “V” from their primary logo.
‣ The Vegas Golden Knights and Seattle Kraken have revealed their jerseys for the 2024 Winter Classic, designed by the NHL and Adidas.
‣ The jerseys are inspired by what the teams’ sweaters might have looked like if they existed in the early 1900s. The Kraken used the 1917 sweaters of the Seattle Metropolitans, a former NHL franchise, as inspiration.
‣ The Golden Knights’ jersey features a gray “V” inspired by the team’s primary logo and a less shiny gold tone, named “Gold Dust”. The team will also wear gloves with a throwback brown leather look and seven stars on the back of the neck to signify their seventh year of existence.
The Vegas Golden Knights and Seattle Kraken have revealed their jerseys for the 2024 Winter Classic. The battle will take place at T-Mobile Park in Seattle. In the past, teams like the Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, and New York Rangers have designed jerseys influenced by teams of the past for the Winter Classic. But this year, according to ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski, the NHL and Adidas took a different approach.
Why the change? Well, a throwback nod wasn’t exactly an option. The Golden Knights only started playing in the 2017-18 season, and the Kraken had their inaugural season in 2021-22. So, the league and Adidas had to get creative. They tried to imagine what the Golden Knights and Kraken’s jerseys might have looked like if the franchises were around in the early 1900s.
Now, the Kraken weren’t an NHL franchise in the early 1900s. But the Seattle Metropolitans were. They played in the NHL from 1915 until 1924. So, the Kraken used the Metropolitans’ 1917 jerseys as inspiration for their Winter Classic jerseys. It’s a significant nod to Seattle hockey history, as the Metropolitans were the first US team to win the Stanley Cup in 1917.
The new jersey has striping in “Kraken Midnight Blue, Ice Blue and Red Alert”. It also features some off-white, a nod to textiles used in the 1920s. The “S” logo on the front of the jersey spells out “KRAKEN” instead of the usual tentacle. This is a throwback to the Metropolitans, who had “SEATTLE” within their logo in the 1910s and 1920s.
The Golden Knights, on the other hand, didn’t have any history to draw from like the Kraken did. So, they used a gray “V” on the front of the jersey, inspired by the “V” in the team’s primary logo. The Golden Knights’ traditional gold jerseys are very shiny. But the Winter Classic sweaters are a bit less flashy.
Adidas director of sports marketing and hockey, Nic Corbett, told ESPN that the gold tone is being called “Gold Dust”. It’s less “shimmery” than the team’s usual gold jerseys. The Golden Knights jerseys also have a cursive “Vegas” on the back and on the players’ pants. The team will also wear gloves with a throwback brown leather look, as a nod to the sport’s early days. And finally, the jersey will have seven stars on the back of the neck, signifying the seventh year of existence for the franchise.
