RUMOR: New LA Kings Fourth Jersey for 2020-21 Season

Let the games begin.

No, not the action on the ice — we’re still a few months away from hockey returning — but rather the cat and mouse game of trying to figure out what the new LA Kings jersey will look like.

As we discussed on a recent Kings of the Podcast episode, teams around the NHL will be introducing a new sweater for the 2020-21 season. Originally referred to as the ‘Fourth Jersey’ program, this appears to now be going through a rebranding effort, where things are referred to as the Reverse Retro collection.

It’s important to note, these jerseys are being done in partnership between the NHL and Adidas, and less of a team-driven initiative. That doesn’t mean member clubs weren’t involved, because they almost certainly were. It simply means the bulk of the heavy lifting from a design standpoint was driven by people not working in Southern California. From what we’ve been able to gather, the Kings will be officially debuting their new jersey in about a month from now. In the meantime, we’ve been on the hunt to gather as much information as possible.

According to sources closely connected to this project, the Kings will be getting a purple and gold jersey this time around (yes, Forum Blue and Gold for all you longtime Kings fans). From all indications, this unique addition to their uniform kits will only be worn once or twice next season, and most likely against a rival team.

While it wasn’t immediately made clear which color will be the base color, we’re connecting the dots back to what we were first told regarding last season’s Stadium Series jersey. At the time, we reported they were working on a jersey that would include purple and feature ‘LA’ as the primary crest. Ultimately, the purple part went away.

Add to that item, the fact Vegas recently introduced a primarily gold jersey (albeit, as a third jersey, not part of the Retro collection), we’re going to assume the Kings new sweater will not be primarily gold — and will instead be the long-rumored purple we’ve been hearing so much about over the past year or so.

Now, when it comes to doing something in reverse, it’s rather difficult for the Kings to simply invert things from the early days. Both of their original purple and gold jerseys were basically ‘reversed’ already, coming in both home and road versions that were essentially the opposites of each other.

With the 1967 jersey, the pants featured white stripes, although the jerseys did not. The home/roads also had a subtle difference with the crowns – as the yellow jersey featured a crown with a purple background, while the crown on the purple jersey used yellow in the background. So, they could possibly add some white stipes to that original jersey and perhaps use the opposite crown, creating a minimal reverse look. We’re just not sure that’s enough for a casual fan to even notice.

Meanwhile, the 1986 jersey did have white piping, so they could create a jersey with more distinctive re-styling by moving the white onto the actual jersey area and using a yellow stipe instead.

There is something else they could do, if the Kings/NHL/Adidas wanted to get a little more creative… and it has to do with the crest.

Take a look at one of the earliest logos they ever used in the late 1960s (and one that hasn’t been featured on a jersey yet:

By the mid-70s, the logo had been updated slightly:

Combining all of the above information, we once again partnered with our longtime jersey artist Justin Cox to have him mock up a few possible designs.

To start with, here is a look at the two classic purple and yellow jerseys (for context):

Working on a potential crest:

Playing around with things several different ways…

Starting to hone in on something…

And a full look at a potential fourth jersey could be something similar to this:

However, things seem to be leaning this way though…

Again, all of the above concepts are mock-ups based upon information. We still don’t have all the concrete details… yet.

One additional bit of information we’ve gathered is that the Kings fourth jersey will not be a purple and gold version of the Burger King sweater. Scratch that idea off the list.

Finally, for what it’s worth, if the Kings were going with a black, white, and silver version of a retro design, we mocked up several different options back when they were designing the 50th Anniversary jersey – see this link.

IMPORTANT UPDATES – Thursday, October 22:

Since originally publishing the above article, MayorsManor was able to track down some additional information regarding the LA Kings upcoming jersey…

POLL: Which LA Kings Reverse Retro Jersey Design Do You Prefer?

Preview: First Look at LA Kings Reverse Retro Jersey

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