In a first for the franchise, the base of the jersey is gray, a color introduced during the Whalers' final five seasons in Hartford and the only color shared by both the Whalers and Canes. The Reverse Retro sweater is otherwise sculpted after the white threads worn by the Whalers in 1979. The jersey features blue, white and green striping along the waist, with angled blue, white and green striping on the arms. Numbers and letters are green with a blue outline, and the predominantly blue collar features the NHL shield at the base and thin, green piping around the neckline. Pucky the Whale adorns both shoulders while the centerpiece is, of course, the iconic Whalers logo.
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"We looked at a number of different design options with Adidas, some of which blended Hurricanes and Whalers branding together more explicitly," said Mike Forman, the team's Vice President of Marketing and Brand Strategy. "Ultimately we decided to try to maintain the brand integrity of each by sticking closely to the 1979 version of the white Whalers jersey and remixing it with a light gray base."
The league-wide Reverse Retro release is the culmination of a collaboration process that spanned more than two years. The result is a unique collection of remixed takes on classic sweaters.
"This has been a long, detail-oriented campaign driven leaguewide by Adidas," Forman said. "The design process for an individual uniform in the NHL typically takes anywhere from 18-24 months from ideation to seeing the product on the ice, so for the league to undertake this campaign for all 31 clubs simultaneously has been fun to watch from start to completion."
The Reverse Retro Whalers jersey will replace the green Whalers sweater in the Canes' uniform portfolio for at least a season. Each team will wear its Reverse Retro uniform in "multiple games during the 2020-21 NHL season, with special head-to-head matchups featuring exciting and renewed rivalries, both old and new," according to Adidas and the NHL.
"This program allows us to keep our Whalers Nights fresh while maintaining that we are first and foremost the Carolina Hurricanes and will only break out the Whalers jerseys on limited, special occasions," Forman said.
The Canes' Reverse Retro Whalers sweater will be available beginning Dec. 1, but
you can preorder yours today
.
