The NHL Hometown Remix jerseys will be the highest-grossing merchandise program that the league has ever had, according to projections by Fanatics.
All 32 teams revealed their new alternate jerseys on Monday morning, after weeks of buzzing fans scouring the internet for leaks and speculation. The design details draw on local landmarks, culture and tradition, while also nodding to classic looks from the franchises' history.
The Hometown Remix program will run for only one season, with teams wearing their uniforms several times in the 2026-27 regular season. In total, there will be 261 games that feature a Hometown Remix uniform, including 19 games in which both teams will wear their new gear head-to-head.
Brian Jennings, NHL chief branding officer, agreed that this collection of jerseys, hats, jackets and other merchandise could end up being the most lucrative the league has had for a "power of 32" campaign.
"There is a big commercial swing here, and it shows the potential when you do these things and do them right -- bringing strategically aligned retailers, along with our 32 member clubs under the tent early -- you have the potential to make something as meaningful as this. So, we're hoping that it's going to do all of that and more," he said.
Fanatics became the official outfitter of on-ice uniforms and authentic jerseys in the 2024-25 season, signing a 10-year contract with the NHL after its run with Adidas ended. It was expected that Fanatics would spend a couple of seasons making sure the in-game gear was up to standards before attempting any kind of "all 32" jersey program -- something their market research found fans were hungry to see the NHL do again.
The challenge for Fanatics: Finding a jersey campaign that could stand apart from the widely popular Reverse Retro series that Adidas put out in 2020 and 2022, remixing a franchise's previous looks in a spectrum of bold colors.
"We knew we didn't want to do a Reverse Retro 3.0. We wanted to create our own narrative, our own point of view," said Dom Fillion, vice president of creative, design and innovation for Fanatics.
Jennings said the first few concepts from Fanatics were "not ready for primetime" but something clicked with the "hyper local" inspiration for what would become the Hometown Remix jerseys.
Jennings said that the bookings for Hometown Remix jerseys are "four times" larger than they were for the second Reverse Retro jersey campaign.
Other sports have used similar local inspiration, like the NBA's "City Edition" and MLB's "City Connect" jerseys. Jennings said this "was a lane that hockey hadn't taken before," and that the complexities of NHL sweaters gave designers a more interesting canvas on which to create.
Among the notable jerseys in the Hometown Remix program:
Florida Panthers: Inspired by the sunrise in Sunrise, Florida, the Panthers' Remix sweater marks the first time an NHL team has a jersey with pink (or coral) as its primary base color. "We play hockey in South Florida, so there's just a lot of things that probably, in the traditional hockey lexicon, are just not natural," said Mike White, the Panthers' president of business operations, told ESPN.
Philadelphia Flyers: An ode to the Liberty Bell, with a jersey whose striping matches the iconic tourist attraction and that features the Bell's iconic inscription written on the sleeves. The hem of the jersey references America's 250th birthday.
Pittsburgh Penguins: While not explicitly inspired by Pittsburgh native Andy Warhol, this ode to pop art is a colorfully bold take on the Penguins' current jersey. Fillion said it "took some rounds" with the team before the pop art angle came up. "There's a storytelling area that's been heavily indexed within Pittsburgh," he said. "So, they wanted to take this opportunity to create something very different and to really kind of tell a narrative that hasn't been told in the past."
San Jose Sharks: Along with a revamped logo, the sleeves of the sweater are encircled by shark jaws. "An iconic part of [their arena] is the shark head that the team skates out of," Fillion said. "It's definitely a forward kit, but this is exactly what Hometown Remix is about."
Something else that defined the Hometown Remix program were leaks. Over two dozen images of the actual jerseys or graphical recreations of what they looked like were passed around by hockey fans on social media platforms before the release.
"It can feel like a gut punch. You put 18 months of work into this, and somebody starts to opine on two-dimensional artwork and starts to question everything about it," Jennings said. "The design consideration and markers that have gone into this program are extraordinary. I know fans won't like every single one, but they are absolutely phenomenal and I can't wait for the best players in the world to wear them under the spotlight and on the ice where you see the whole uniform system."
The Hometown Remix jerseys hit the ice for the time on Monday night, as the Panthers, Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks wear their new kits.