The NHL announced on Tuesday (21) that beginning with the 2024-25 season, Fanatics will take over as the league’s uniform supplier, replacing Adidas. It’s the third company to make NHL jerseys since 2005, after Reebok marketed them for more than a decade.

“It just became, for us, really a natural evolution of our ongoing relationship,” said Brian Jennings, executive vice president of marketing for the NHL, referring to an agreement with Fanatics that dates back to 2005. partner who shared absolutely our commitment to innovation, performance and creativity.

This is the first time that Fanatics has manufactured its own branded game jerseys for one of the top four men’s professional sports leagues in North America. The company has been making Major League Baseball uniforms since 2017 for Majestic and Nike on the back of executive and entrepreneur Doug Mack, who says he helped Fanatics take that step.

“Our philosophy is that we don’t have to reinvent the wheels,” said Mack, Fanatics vice president and commerce CEO. “We are not going to change for the sake of changing, everything is as planned”.

Mack said the first step would be to solicit feedback from players and equipment managers. The company, which currently manufactures replica NHL jerseys, has already chosen the same Canadian factory to produce the same authentic jersey that Adidas uses.

In a note, Fanatics also said it was hiring experienced people at Adidas, Reebok and CCM to help with this transition.

(Image: NHL.com)