Winter Classic Jersey Review

On January 1st, 2014, the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs participated in a historic, record breaking NHL Winter Classic.  The atmosphere was unimaginable as fans packed the Big House in Ann Arbor, MI and set an NHL league attendance record!  Not only was this an amazing game, the classic sweaters that the two clubs wore were also pretty cool. Both team's jerseys captured the essence of the their organization's history and tradition.  Also, an NHL first, the league allowed both teams to wear dark jerseys (blue and red) as they felt it was the only way to fully complete the blast from the past.

Justin Abdelkader Scores in his Snazzy Uni!

Detroit Red Wings

The Red Wings had already participated in the 2009 Winter Classic, so the team had to come up with a jersey design/logo that was new, attractive, and even more memorable than before. The Wings succeeded at this as they launched a jersey and logo that featured a color scheme using their primary color of red and their historic manilla (off-white) color for the stripes.  Overall, this jersey is very attractive and it really stands out as the word Detroit immediately tells fans who they are and where they are from.  The classic font that the numbers and name have on the back create a very compelling/historic feel to the jersey as well.

Joffrey Lupul (left) and Dion Phaneuf (right) Chat before a Faceoff

Toronto Maple Leafs 

Unlike the Wings, Toronto was in their first Winter Classic so they had a little more leeway when designing their classic sweater, and "classic" is definitely the right word to describe it.  The Leafs kept their historic blue and white, but added a classic striping pattern up the sleeve and they even brought back their historic (differently shaped) logo.  Another aspect of the jersey that Leaf fans were rather unfamiliar with was the addition of a thin white shoulder yoke.  Just like Detroit, the Maple Leafs created a sweater that brought back so many old time hockey memories, the element of the jersey that created that feel was by far the old style maple leaf with the traditional font inside of it.  That logo dates back to when the team was first founded!

Both teams released arguably the best looking Winter Classic sweaters in the history of the event, so here at The Jersey Closet we could not decide on a winner... we want you to pick by voting in our poll located on the left side panel of the blog.

Thanks for Reading!