Blues design team going with theme of 'St. Louis' to highlight tradition, accentuate city for NHL's showcase game to be played Dec. 31 at Wrigley Field
ST. LOUIS -- The NHL and Fanatics revealed the 2025 Winter Classic jersey of the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday with a hint of something unforeseen on a Blues sweater ever.
"This is the first time in Blues history that the words 'St. Louis' appear prominently on the front of the sweater," said EVP, chief revenue and marketing officer Steve Chapman. "That was something that we really wanted to do. Obviously being the road team, but one thing about St. Louis, people are very proud of where they're from and that's usually universal, but we have found it particularly to be true of St. Louis. So for us to proudly display the name of the city that we're from and represent in a way that will harken back to a time, that was really our approach. We just feel like this reflected the moment, the event, and will showcase the city well."
"We're playing at Wrigley Field. There was some feeling of wanting to reach back to a classic look, a classic style. From an overall feel, when you're playing in the Friendly Confines, you want to reflect the moment a little bit, so that was part of it.
The Blues will be playing the Blackhawks in their third Winter Classic on Dec. 31 (4 p.m. on TNT). They hosted and defeated the Blackhawks at Busch Stadium Jan. 2, 2017, then faced the Minnesota Wild at Target Field in Minneapolis and won there, 6-4.
Both jerseys feature special details including city-specific elements in the necklines, and helmets, and the "NHL Winter Classic" designation on the bottom hem.
One thing similar in each of the Blues' Winter Classic jerseys?
"The beige is what we've done throughout all the Winter Classics, so this is the same color as our other two Winter Classics: beige, blue and yellow," said Blues VP of brand, retail and creative services Brenda Wilbur. "We also have the felt in the lettering.
"We worked really closely with Fanatics and the NHL in developing this, who are also thinking about the Blackhawks jersey when they're designing our jersey so that there's a match. Winter Classics, we try to go with that classic feel as opposed to some of the other outdoor games.
"I think it was the NHL presented us with about four different options and that was something they came to us with, and we loved it. This will be our first opportunity to have a jersey that doesn't have the Note as the center element, and just really proudly stating St. Louis on the front. We did keep the note up in the corner. The Note is a little bit different than the heritage Note, but still very close."
The Blues logo is on the left shoulder and the Winter Classic logo will go on the right.
"The Blues logo is obviously iconic," Chapman said. "It's one of the most recognizable in sports. There's some different iterations that we've had, but if you're talking about from a design element, there's not a lot that you can do ... you can't animate the Note ... there's not something that really makes it different. Yeah, we could have put the Note on the front of it. But this was something that we felt was still within our style, our design culture so-to-speak, but really put the city forward."
Of course with the beige, or off white as may would call it, there's the classic heritage blue striping with the vintage yellow.
"We had some options with the royal, which is our traditional primary color, but we just felt staying within the Winter Classic colorway, that heritage colorway, was what we should do for the Winter Classic," Wilbur said. "The font style, this jersey is pretty close to that 1966 prototype, which we used for our reverse retro jersey, so that kind of ties into that as well."
We all know what the Blues wore at the 2017 game, arguably one of the best Winter Classic jerseys made:
And of course the 2022 version, at least from a color scheme is concerned, looked a bit like the current version, but there is a distinct difference.
"The first one, I won't say it was easy, but it easily came to our minds," Chapman said. "So the second one was the road version. This was our first chance to step outside of that path a little bit. I won't call it a challenge, I think it was more of an opportunity. I think every team has a personality, and I think the easiest way to frame that is college football. Oregon has a sweater personality and Penn State, Alabama have a sweater personality and they're vastly different. They're both easy to buy into if you know what the culture of your organization is. Ours was to stay classic and true to history. I think the St. Louis Blues are a classic look, so I think this accomplishes that."
Of course, it came with the league's help.
"The NHL showed us a few trendy options and there were a few things that just didn't feel like us," Wilbur said. "This, I love it, because it falls in line with the prior two Winter Classics, but still has its own distinct and feel.
"I just love that it says 'St. Louis' on the front. We've never done that in such a bold way. We've had that with the retro Note, but this really clearly states 'This is our team and this is our jersey.'
"The NHL originally didn't have the Note on the top. I said, 'You've got to have the Note.' When you're doing that first transition away from not having the Note on the center of the jersey, you definitely need it on the shoulder. That's why we made sure that we had it on there."
"They gave us about four concepts to look at to start out, and none of them were drastically outside of what we would consider. It was good to see some other options."
The Blues’ Winter Classic jerseys are available for purchase now at STLAuthentics.com, and 10 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. today at the STL Authentics Team Store at Enterprise Center.
Additional NHL Winter Classic merchandise, including winter hats, outerwear and more, will also be available beginning today with more items launching in the lead up to the game. Information about extended holiday hours at the STL Authentics Team Store is available at STLAuthentics.com/pages/location-hours. The jerseys will also be available beginning today across the Fanatics network of sites, including NHLShop.com and NHLShop.ca, and the NHL Shop NYC flagship store.
"The design team was great," Chapman said. "They listened and understood where we were coming from. It is a collaboration. It's a league event and you do need to play off each other -- the two teams. You can't just say, 'Well, we're going to go off on our own way.' It was a real strong collaborative effort and they were great to work with.
"So far, everyone we've shown it to internally, which includes a lot of St. Louis people, have loved it. I think it's going to resonate.
"I just think it's cool. I look at it ... I've been here for 10 years and having been educated on the history, it's a cool addition to it."
