Come Monday, all the suspense will be over. Adidas and the LA Kings will be launching a new jersey, as part of the NHL’s 2020-21 Reverse Retro collection. What this name means and some of the origins of the project were explained here. On October 22, we provided a sneak peek at what the new jersey will look like, courtesy of our artist Justin Cox. Earlier this week, he even mocked up one of the (possible) full uniform kits on an image of Anze Kopitar:
Then, when the Kings social media channels teased a few pics of the jersey yesterday they all but confirmed the designs we’ve been sharing over the past month. However, there was an interesting detail to one of the pics they tweeted out. It shows some of the detail on the sleeve:
If you’ve followed along in the series of articles we’ve posted about the jersey, you’re already seen the nearly 20 different variations we’ve put out — all with varying degrees of changes, some even extremely subtle.
Armed with the sleeve styling now, Cox went back to work. He has updated our original mock up to now feature white numbers on the sleeve.
We believe that’s the final jersey, and here’s why…
Start by looking at the NHL Uniform Database. While it’s true that all of the Forum Blue jerseys from 1967-1988 featured Gold numbers on the sleeve, there is one important thing to note – none of those jerseys featured numbers on the sleeve stripe. All of those jerseys had the number above the stripe.
From what we’ve gathered, the new Reverse Retro jersey is essentially supposed to be a Forum Blue and Gold version of the Kings 1988-99 jerseys. This line of thinking would also line up with how the numbers on the arms are presented:
Given that the numbers on the ’88-89 era Gretzky jersey feature the same colored numbers, we believe the numbers on the new Reverse Retro jersey will match the white numbering shown on the teaser image above.
Just for fun, we still asked Cox to mock up what the jersey would look like if it featured yellow numbers on the back:
Finally, we get the crest. It’s either going to be white or yellow. Stylistically, we prefer the white version. If you’re curious what the other version might look like, here you go (with both colors of numbers on the back).
Now that you’ve seen all four possible versions, which are you hoping is the actual jersey released on Monday, November 16?
Oh, and how is this for a teaser – coming up Monday on an all new Kings of the Podcast, we’ll be joined by AEG COO Kelly Cheeseman. He’ll give us the full background scoop on the new jersey, as well as talk about all the latest news regarding Staples Center and the NHL’s potential plans for the 2020-21 season.
RELATED CONTENT:
Original Reverse Retro Jersey article – context on the project
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When you have Cheese on, please ask about availability for purchase of this jersey… GO KINGS.