Black Out: Islanders third jersey to go bye-bye in Adidas takeover per reports

The NHL will start its deal with Adidas next season, as the Run DMC-approved shoe manufacturer becomes the league’s jersey producer for the next seven years.

But in year one of the pact, teams will only have home and road jerseys with no alternates as a way to make the transition smoother. Or something.

Per Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

Multiple sources tell the Star Tribune that all NHL teams will be permitted to have only home and road jerseys next season as Adidas takes over for Reebok as the official outfitter of NHL uniforms.

There will be no third jerseys, in order to make the initial implementation of new sweaters easier.

The No Alternative move was confirmed by Chris Creamer of Sportslogos.net, one of my go-to rabbit hole sites and breaker of all types of jersey and logo news. That means that teams with multiple jerseys need to decide which two they’re going to go with for a full season. Russo reports the Wild will have to choose between their red and green colored jerseys and other teams might want to make their alts full time.

So what does that mean for the Islanders and their divisive all black alternate uniforms?

For once, the team is making things easy on us:

Personally, I didn’t mind the black uniforms, especially relative to some of the other alternates the team has worn over the years. I didn’t love them, but they were fine for an occasional wear over the course of a season and on the list of things that make me mad about this team, a third jersey probably doesn’t even break my Top 20. I still kinda like the “BKLYN” logo with the team’s “NY” stick in there that’s on the side of the helmets.

That said, shelving them and going blue-orange-white all the time is the right call by an infinite degree, which is not generally what the Islanders are known for. So kudos to whoever made that call on a job... done.

As for us, if you want a black jersey, expect them to go on sale real soon. And let’s hope there isn’t a full scale Adidas re-design in the future.