Rumors have been swirling and a few designs may have been leaked, but earlier today, Adidas Hockey rolled out a new teaser for each team’s “fourth jersey” for the upcoming season. The concept, dubbed “Reverse Retro,” has been described as “retro, with a twist” — though the teaser hints at what that twist is.
The Anaheim Ducks released the teaser clip for their Reverse Retro jersey on Twitter:
#ReverseRetro @adidashockey pic.twitter.com/SaueM5rUG3
— Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) November 10, 2020
The short video shows a silhouette of a person walking, wearing a jersey and a backward hat, and offers two clues to the design. First, is the number on the back of the jersey, which is different for every team:
Every #NHL team just tweeted their #ReverseRetro teaser videos (except PIT so far). Confirmations across the board. Fun game to play this morning. Full jerseys coming soon! pic.twitter.com/UStIaYZtVH
— icethetics (@icethetics) November 10, 2020
The Ducks’ teaser includes the number 95 on the back of the sweater. When looking at every team’s teaser, there appears to be a pattern: these number reference a season in which the team was wearing a jersey with a similar color palette (clue number 2) to the jersey in the video.
In fact, you might even say that color scheme is the same, but in reverse:
The Ducks wore this Wild Wing sweater as an alternate during the 1995-96 season for just a few games before locking it away in the Disney vault. It has been long rumored that the Ducks’ retro-inspired jersey this season would feature the retired Wild Wing design, though initially they were thought to be in the team’s current colors.
Instead, as perhaps made most obvious by the name of the series, the Ducks appear to be swapping the color palette of the short-lived jersey. Though it’s possible the jersey may instead have been inspired by the primary jerseys that season, it seems unlikely, given the prominence of the jade in the Reverse Retro design and just a small use of eggplant.
What do you think? Would you buy one?