No other professional sport wears a sweater they all don a jersey, Hockey players from its coldest beginnings have always worn a sweater, obviously when outside ice skating or when playing Hockey you need to dress warmly.
European football clubs (soccer teams) have quite literally turned their professional team jerseys into sandwich boards advertising any and everything for the correct amount of funds.
Earlier this week the Montreal Canadiens displayed their newest sweater that includes a bank advertisement affixed to the front because all 32 NHL teams passed a resolution that created a new rule allowing for up to two 3 x 3.5-inch advertising patches on team sweaters.
There are six more NHL teams to engage in patch advertising on their team sweaters this upcoming season which include the Penguins, Capitals, and Wild.
The bean counters, chief business officers, and other executives that monitor the bottom line for their respective NHL teams have assessed a five to 10 million dollar profit for each team through this means of corporate advertising.
There is a wonderful animated video on YouTube of a short story by Roch Carrier and directed by Sheldon Cohen (also illustrated book in 1979) poignantly highlighting what a Hockey sweater means to those of us who wear them.
I will miss the aesthetic beauty of NHL sweaters and if the visual advertising becomes so overwhelming and distracting…I have always enjoyed listening to Hockey on the radio.
Buffalo Winter 