The Calgary Flames have arguably one of the cleanest jersey sets in the NHL. The decision for the club to go full retro last year was one of the few bright spots of the season for many Calgary fans alongside hockey jersey lovers across the league.
The organization hit even more gold with the return of the infamous Blasty jersey which was brought back as part of the league-wide Reverse Retro jersey program.
With the league still likely looking to make back all the money it lost over the past year and a half due to the pandemic, there has been a lot of speculation among fans league wide that teams will keep producing new jerseys to make back some of that lost income.
The NBA for example has been capitalizing on jersey collectors and the profits that come with new jersey through a constant flow of new designs via their annual City Edition and Earned Edition jerseys which provides teams with at least one new jersey to wear every single season.
The Flames present a challenge on the jersey front
With that in mind,many hockey fans with design skills have been working tirelessly to try and come up with concepts that they hope the folks at adidas might see and take inspiration from. But when it comes to the Flames—who already have one of the best sets of jerseys in the league—coming up with new and good ways for the team to dress becomes even more of a challenge. Yet that doesn’t seem to have stopped many designers.
I myself am one of those designers trying my hand at giving the Flames a new look.
Last month I released a set of “Darkout Jerseys” which were primarily inspired by the Dallas Stars 2021 Blackout Jersey and the Edmonton Oilers Dark Alternate. The series also took some inspiration from some modern NBA jerseys.
Calgary Flames: Darkout Jersey
For the Flames jersey in the Darkout series, I took significant inspiration from the 2019–2021 Utah Jazz city jerseys, and the recent Phoenix Suns Valley jerseys. I wanted to really try and give Calgary a modern and fresh look unlike anything they already have in their already brilliant jersey catalogue, while still making it seem like something you could realistically see a NHL team wearing.
What do you think of the Flames Darkout jersey? Could you see the Flames wearing a kit like this on the ice? Darkout jersey concepts for the rest of the league and more can be found here.
Alternate designs
Here are some other fantastic Flames concepts by some of the best hockey designers on social media, so make sure to go give them the love they deserve.
