When did hockey fans start wearing jerseys

[Speed220DChalavan]

Seems like in the 80's it was rare.

90's more and more but the majority did not wear jerseys at the rink

So when did it become mainstream and what factors contributed to it?

Click to read more...

 

[ForsbergForever]

It definitely took off as a phenomenon around the mid-'90s, as for contributing factors it comes down to NHL marketing. The league stumbled on to the idea of having fans buy $100+ shirts from them instead of fans wearing their own clothes at games and hence a huge new revenue stream was created. Nowadays you're not considered a real fan unless you have a jersey with your fav player's name and number on it.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

The first time I noticed jerseys being nearly omnipresent and worn by what looked like the vast majority of fans may have been during the Flames run in 2004. I think Calgary has had a higher % of jersey-wearing fans than many other teams at least since then (perhaps even before, not sure).

I suspect that the onset of online retail has really advanced this trend, but there were some pop cultural elements, too, maybe.

I remember seeing Cameron (played by Alan Ruck) in 1986's classic Ferris Bueller's Day Off wearing a Gordie Howe Wings sweater which looked pretty cool. But it being a retro jersey and worn by an unusual fellow makes me think it was more meant to be seen as a whimsical thing for the character (and a way for director John Hughes, who was from Michigan, to give a nod to the Wings).

In 1994, there was the Friends episode where they went to the Rangers game and Joey wore a Rangers sweater, but none of the extras or other characters do. So I guess at that point in time it may still not have been *the* thing to do, but certainly seen as an option for 'hardcore fans'. There was also a Seinfeld character who was a hardcore Devils fan and wore a Devils sweater though this was meant to show what a lunatic this guy was.

I also know hockey sweaters for a few years in the mid to late 90s were nearly obligatory fashion items for rappers. That definitely spread the visibility of them beyond hardcore fans of hockey. I think it also made a lot of kids that generation (i.e. people now in their late 30s/40s) figure that wearing a hockey shirt can be quite fashionable and not dorky, so maybe this was actually a big part of it becoming popular.

Personally, I still don't really like it and think it looks corny.

 

[Doctor No]

There was also a Seinfeld character who was a hardcore Devils fan and wore a Devils sweater though this was meant to show what a lunatic this guy was.

Yeah, it was the sweater that made him look like a lunatic...

 

[Night Shift]

Yeah, it was the sweater that made him look like a lunatic...

View attachment 140249

Scott Wedgwood when he was with the Devils attempted to make the "Face painter" into a mask but I think the nhl denied it for copy right..

 

[sharkhawk]

Late 80s. It was probably 50/50 in my section in the old Chicago stadium when I first got season tickets in 88

 

[FerrisRox]

Seems like in the 80's it was rare.

90's more and more but the majority did not wear jerseys at the rink

So when did it become mainstream and what factors contributed to it?

It was definitely not rare in the 1980's. I remember seeing a ton of Mike Palmateer and Rick Vaive jersey's throughout my public school and you would see tons of them when you went to Maple Leaf Gardens. While Vaive and Palmateer jerseys were the most popular, there were plenty of Borje Salming jersey's as well. The arrival of Wendel Clark in the mid 80's led to a ton of his jersey's filling the rink and Allan Bester's rookie season also led to a ton of his sweaters too.

 

[FerrisRox]

Scott Wedgwood when he was with the Devils attempted to make the "Face painter" into a mask but I think the nhl denied it for copy right..

No, he wore it.

 

[Night Shift]

No, he wore it.

Uh yeah...There were other devil goalies over the years who tried to wear that mask but were denied due to copy right..the only reason I know that was watching a Pens Devs game a couple years back (on the devils feed)where Wedgwood wore it.


Sorry, that is what I meant

 

[Normand Lacombe]

It's been around since at least the mid 80's. Probably earlier. I remember being in the Spectrum for many games and seeing Lindbergh, Poulin, Propp, Hextall and Zezel jerseys. Ed Snider was no fool and saw dollar signs in jersey sales before many other owners. The Flyers sold jerseys like hot cakes in the Spectrum and sporting good stores, which also sold other team jerseys.

 

[Jets4Life]

If you look back at 90s pop-culture, many hip-hop and rap artists started wearing team jerseys around 1990. MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This." may have started this trend, wearing SF Giants jerseys. By around 1993, several rap artists, including NWA and Snoop Dogg wore hockey team jerseys in their videos, I think some West Coast rappers wore LA Kings gear. Tupac Shakur was notorious for wearing a Detroit Red Wings sweater, when out and about. Snoop Dogg has a hit "Gin and Juice" while wearing a Pittsburgh Penguins and AHL Springfield Indians jersey.

Yup, there were some who wore NHL jersey prior to the 90s to games, but it did not become fashionable until it became part of hip hop culture in the 90s. I never saw people going out to clubs decked in jerseys until the mid 90s.

 

[CharasLazyWrister]

I’ve definitely noticed in archived footage from 30+ years ago that jerseys in the crowd was pretty rare. Especially anything remotely authentic to what is worn on the ice.

Personally, I own a couple jerseys but rarely wear them. They are not comfortable just out and about and feel like something that is supposed to be worn only with equipment under them. Because...they are.

 

[Jets4Life]

2Pac circa 1995

Lil Jon

Craig Mack circa 1994

Nelly

Method Man

 

[Jets4Life]

A Tribe Called Quest (Devils)



Snoop Dogg (Penguins, Springfield Indians)



Mobb Deep (Sharks hoodie)

 

[Uncle Rotter]

 

[The Panther]

Yeah, I never really understood the hip-hop thing for NHL jerseys... could any sport be more 'white' than hockey?

Anyway...

I remember my 9th-grade teacher wearing her Boston Bruins jersey to the 1990 Cup Finals in Edmonton. So, if female school-teachers from farms were doing it in 1989-90, I'd guess it was pretty common before 2004, lol...

Here are some fans at a game in the Saddledome in 1986:

But a quick look at photos a few years earlier and it seems more rare...?

Here's Trottier firing up the Nassau crowd late in the 1983 finals. One guys has an Isles' T-shirt on, but I don't see any jerseys...

 

[Uncle Rotter]

Can anyone identify the "Jets" jersey Bill Wallace is wearing?

 

[DJ Man]

I had a pro-looking jersey that I used to wear playing hockey circa 1970.

However, I bought it at a sporting goods store, and had to acquire the team crest, the back numeral and the sleeve numerals separately at other sporting goods stores, and get my grandmother to sew all of these in place.

 

[VanIslander]

The original Towel Power of my Canucks at Pacific Coliseum was about waving the white towel and my family only had white towels with thick brown stripes at each end and I waved them in our living room with a jersey on. That was in junior high back in 1982. I recall seeing jerseys at games back in the 80s after that but I can't think of en masse jersey wearing at games until the Jets white outs in Winnipeg.

 

[HHHH]

Not hockey, but Nigel Tufnel got into the jersey thing in the mid '80's

 

[streitz]

I'd rather sports be the type of event where you wear a suit and tie to attend games but it is what it is.


Whenever I attended games I never wore a jersey and frankly always looked down on people who did.

 

[Doctor No]

Whenever I attended games I never wore a jersey and frankly always looked down on people who did.

That seems like an awfully weird thing to look down on someone for.

You're at a hockey game, for Pete's sake. You're supposed to be enjoying yourself, and you're spending a portion of your brain saying "wow, those people sure are worse than me, because they're wearing jerseys to the game"?

 

[streitz]

That seems like an awfully weird thing to look down on someone for.

You're at a hockey game, for Pete's sake. You're supposed to be enjoying yourself, and you're spending a portion of your brain saying "wow, those people sure are worse than me, because they're wearing jerseys to the game"?

I also dislike when people refer to their favorite sports team as 'us'(even if I slip and do it occasionally on accident on here). To me it's the difference between vicariously living through someone else ie pretending to be them and viewing something like pro sports as entertainment. Wearing jersey's are symbolic to this type of culture to me.



I watched hockey because I found it entertaining, not to pretend I was Dale Hawerchuk.

 

[Doctor No]

If it helps you any, I can assure you that when I wear a sweater to an Avalanche game, I do not believe that I'm Mikko Rantanen, Ron Hextall, Hardy Astrom, Sarah Tueting, or anyone else other than me, watching a game and rooting for the Avs.

 

[DowntownBooster]

Can anyone identify the "Jets" jersey Bill Wallace is wearing?

It was the jersey from the Winnipeg Jets of the Western Canada Hockey League (junior level which is the same as today's WHL, OHL and QMJHL). The name and colors were carried forward when team owner Ben Hatskin purchased a franchise in the newly created World Hockey Association. Following the 1972-73 season with 2 teams named Winnipeg Jets, the junior team was rechristened as the Winnipeg Clubs.