Jets debut RCAF alternate jerseys tonight

WINNIPEG – Tonight is a special night for many people.

The Winnipeg Jets will be wearing alternate jerseys inspired by the 1948 RCAF Flyers, who won gold for Canada at the Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland. There is a bigger story behind how it all came together said True North SVP and Chief Marketing Officer , Dorian Morphy.

“This one has been a long time coming. So, in the Manitoba Moose days 1.0, we used to wear different variations of military jerseys for appreciation night. We’ve worn different styles, honouring different teams. I think it was 2007, 2008 we wore the RCAF jersey honouring the 1948 RCAF Flyers. It was by far our most popular jersey, not only for the ones we wore for military nights,” said Morphy.

“Over a long time, this was by far the most popular and people loved it. We kind of made note of it. We’ve always had a great relationship with 17 Wing. We’ve had players visit the base on their way off to a road trip, we’ve had appreciation nights as long as I can remember.”

Tonight will be an unofficial kick off to the Royal Canadian Air Force’s centennial, which is April 1, 2024. The RCAF reached out to True North Sports + Entertainment two years ago telling them about their plans to celebrate 100 years and wanted to have an event to help start things off.

“It will start in December 2023 and end in November 2024. A yearlong celebration of different events. But we asked the league for special permission to wear it three times this year. No different with the Canadiens when they celebrated their 100 years, the Leafs, you can ask the league for permission to wear a specialty jersey for a shorter period of time and then you don’t wear it again, it’s a one-time thing,” said Morphy.

“We were very excited; we approached the league, and they were very receptive to it. We worked with adidas to develop the jersey, obviously there wasn’t ideation because we just wanted to honour the original pattern.”

Back in 2017, the Jets brought in one of three living members (at the time) of the 1948 RCAF Flyer team, Roy Forbes for Military Appreciation Night. Forbes, from Portage la Prairie, was 93 years old and wore the jersey that the gold medal winning side did in Switzerland. He passed away just over a month after that ceremony.

“I’ve got a picture of him and I before he went on the ice and it’s one of my most cherished pictures. He had brought his jersey and it had moth holes in it and it was so cool. You know, worn 69 years before that ceremony,” recalled Morphy.

“So not only is it the 100^th anniversary of the Canadian Armed Forces, but it’s also the 75^th anniversary of that Olympics. It was a 70-year-old jersey and he had it and wore it.”

The Jets have used this design before, obviously in 2007 with Moose 1.0 and again with the Moose in April 2022. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to replicate the colour of a jersey that was originally worn back in 1948 says Josh Dudych, Director, Creative Services, who had a big hand in the design.

“So, there's like thousands of shades of baby blue or blue of some sort. But when it comes down to the fabric that's actually available in a similar colour, you have to kind of go with the best, closest choice,” said Dudych.

“And then now you're talking about maybe a variety of five or six or 10 shades of blue that you have to narrow down, and you sort of pick, pick through that process, the best one and that's how we end up with the blue that we got.”

Because Dudych had a template, he and his team had to make sure the striping was right and figure out how the name bar and numbers should look. This is because they didn’t have name bars or numbers back at the 1948 Olympics.

“There's a little bit of like graphic design, type of graphic history and frame of reference for that and be like, ‘Okay, what numbers would have been available in this situation at that time?’ Pick the right font, pick the right treatment, make sure that the manufacturing detail with the felt and all that type of thing is considered you know, that all those details kind of help,” explained Dudych.

“So when you look at the overall piece you've got it looks good from afar, but then you look at it up close you really if you know about these things and really have that keen eye for detail, you'll notice that that level of thought has gone into it.”

Morphy said he worked with Jets equipment manager, Jay McMaster, on the details for the gloves and goalie equipment that will be worn with the jerseys. The Jets have worn the equipment numerous times during practice to break them in.

Tonight, will be the first of three times the Jets will wear the jerseys. Each time has its own special connection.

“We really wanted the debut of the jersey to be on a national broadcast so all the CAF members across the country can see it. The armed forces members will come on the ice and take a photo with the players after the game. I think 600 members will be coming so that will be a fantastic photo,” said Morphy.

“The second game is a bit of a tie-in as to why we picked the Leafs (on January 27). In 1924, the original, head of the RCAF at the time, his name was William Barker. He was from Dauphin, Manitoba. He was appointed the acting director of the RCAF in 1924 and after leaving the RCAF, he became the first president of the Toronto Maple Leafs. The third game is against the Los Angeles Kings actually on the night of April 1, which is the true anniversary of the RCAF.”