Has Fanatics already given up on the NHL?

[Nikishin al Gaib]

I know the official contract doesn't even begin for another 12 months, but its becoming increasingly hard to ignore just how poor the official player worn Draft and Championship merchandise has become over the last couple years. Lets just look at the official locker room hats of Stanley Cup Champions, which have slowly devolved to a collection of patches on hats, growing pathetically more generic by the year:

2018:

2019:

2020:

2021:

2022:

2023:

For the brand that is going to be handling everything about on-ice apparel and fan merchandise going forward, this is an incredibly worrying trend to be seeing playing out, especially as they're still charging a premium for these items.

For comparison sake with the other leagues:

 

[HockeyVirus]

God I hope so.

NHL shooting itself in the foot time and time again selling garbage quality items for insane mark up. Anyone who doesn't know about fantatics will know after buying one and likely never order another item again even if they change suppliers.

 

[Danarqhy]

LOL, that's terrible. To be fair to them they don't have much to work with either as the VGK logo is simple, bland and boring. Ditto for the colors. Just no pop and looks very corporate.

 

[OKR]

They’re basically the same in every league, besides NBA and that’s clearly the worst of them.

 

[IceManCat]

I can't stand Fanatics but I don't really see anything wrong with the design. They chose simplicity over gaudy.

 

[Nikishin al Gaib]

LOL, that's terrible. To be fair to them they don't have much to work with either as the VGK logo is simple, bland and boring. Ditto for the colors. Just no pop and looks very corporate.

I mean its not just Vegas. This was their entire aesthetic this year. Look at the division champs and conference champions gear this year:

Even the 2023 Draft caps are equal levels of dogshit for this summer

 

[Skip To My Lou]

Feel like a lot of it has to do with the NHL too. The people running things are still lost in the Stone Age.

 

[tuckerintensity]

The Vegas design is the only nice one. I dislike Fanatics as the retailer, but sweet lord those other hats ain't got no alibi, they ugly.

 

[hangman005]

I've seen the mockup for next years....

 

[GeeoffBrown]

I know the official contract doesn't even begin for another 12 months, but its becoming increasingly hard to ignore just how poor the official player worn Draft and Championship merchandise has become over the last couple years. Lets just look at the official locker room hats of Stanley Cup Champions, which have slowly devolved to a collection of patches on hats, growing pathetically more generic by the year:

2018:

2019:

2020:

2021:

2022:

2023:

For the brand that is going to be handling everything about on-ice apparel and fan merchandise going forward, this is an incredibly worrying trend to be seeing playing out, especially as they're still charging a premium for these items.

For comparison sake with the other leagues:

Hmm I like the NHL and NFL caps here and I think the MLB and NBA ones look gawdy

 

[Rich Nixon]

You can't "give up" if you never tried. Fanatics has always been a margins play: pump out the cheapest, most generic designs possible while still charging "Officially Licensed" premiums. It's a trash company.

 

[Super Cake]

Figures that my favorite teams first stanley cup win would be in a year where a shit company like Fanatics would be making the stanley cup champion gear.

 

[Hoverhand]

I mean its not just Vegas. This was their entire aesthetic this year. Look at the division champs and conference champions gear this year:

Even the 2023 Draft caps are equal levels of dogshit for this summer

God that Bruins/Avs/Canes design is brutal.

Black, White, and Grey with a random bold colour slapped in the middle

 

[Rob Brown]

It's a terrible brand in general. Nothing really looks good at all. The NHL was in a good spot with Adidas and blew it.

 

[Gil Gunderson]

Absolutely dripless.

 

[vegarover]

I mean its not just Vegas. This was their entire aesthetic this year. Look at the division champs and conference champions gear this year:

Even the 2023 Draft caps are equal levels of dogshit for this summer

That Dallas Stars one is terrible. The logo is totally off-center as if it's a production line error. All the draft ones are just so generic.

Are the draft ones even available for purchase? If so I don't see who would want one unless you were a family member of one of the players drafted.

 

[EGL22]

I have caps 10 years old in kind of rough shape right now but I would still rather wear them then spend cash for one of those new pieces of garbage.

 

[Cubs2024WSChamps]

The NHL has to approve these things.

Not really fanatics fault.

 

[Voight]

I said the exact same thing last year. The hat designs have been AWFUL the last 3 years.

Even going back before 2018, the designs were pretty good IMO

I can't stand Fanatics but I don't really see anything wrong with the design. They chose simplicity over gaudy.

The designs used to be somewhat original and creative.

Look above.

 

[jbron]

The NHL only looks at the actual team logos and NHL logo's for confirmation.
This is typical of any licensing agreement. Some companies can be quite stringent and others not so much. Based on the products Fanatics has there is no question that most would want the NHL to take a more active approach in their approvals and remove the junk Fanatics makes.
As far as the materials, colors, designs of the actual hat that's all on Fantatics.
They only have to comply with team logos and NHL logos. Fanatics as far as design and quality is just the worst. C grade in design and D grade in materials.

 

[vegarover]

The NHL only looks at the actual team logos and NHL logo's for confirmation.
This is typical of any licensing agreement. Some companies can be quite stringent and others not so much. Based on the products Fanatics has there is no question that most would want the NHL to take a more active approach in their approvals and remove the junk Fanatics makes.
As far as the materials, colors, designs of the actual hat that's all on Fantatics.
They only have to comply with team logos and NHL logos. Fanatics as far as design and quality is just the worst. C grade in design and D grade in materials.

I think the problem is the people making the design decisions on the NHL side have zero art or design background. I listened to Brian Burke on a podcast a few years ago explaining his thought process and the step by steps it took to create the Ducks uniforms and it doesn't surprise me that they are one of the worst in the league.

 

[CookiesAndMilk]

LOL, that's terrible. To be fair to them they don't have much to work with either as the VGK logo is simple, bland and boring. Ditto for the colors. Just no pop and looks very corporate.

Yeah no. Since when is Gold not a poppy color? Gold has to be one of the best colors to do celebrations stuff with. The logo is a bit bland I give you that but not doing anything with the rest of the color set is just not using the potential.

 

[StreetHawk]

I think the problem is the people making the design decisions on the NHL side have zero art or design background. I listened to Brian Burke on a podcast a few years ago explaining his thought process and the step by steps it took to create the Ducks uniforms and it doesn't surprise me that they are one of the worst in the league.

The Ducks rebrand from the original eggplant purple tot he Black was meh.... I get moving off the cartoony hockey mask duck if they were no longer associated with Disney, but it left a lot to be desired. The webbed D is really more of a shoulder patch than a main logo.

Only reason to keep hockey logos as simple as say the NFL is because you factor in merchandise like caps, beanies/touques, mugs, etc. smaller items. But, NHL is also the only league where the logo is on the jersey and it's prominent. So, having one with some detail makes sense.

I mean, most NFL logos wouldn't look that good on an NHL jersey. Logos like Cowboys, Bears, Packers, SF, etc. look too plain.

 

[BaconNater]

That fanatics sucks Twitter account is terrifying! Why does fanatics suck so bad? Why did the NHL partner with them? Will we ever be able to buy fun and nice apparel/gear anymore?

 

[AvroArrow]

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