When it comes to jersey designs and concepts, all you have to do is look at social media to see the ideas that fans have come up with, whether they’re using AI or they’re actually a graphic designer.
Islanders jersey promoNew York Islanders
But what if a team actually listened to what the fans wanted, especially when it comes to an alternate jersey?
Well, that’s exactly what the New York Islanders are doing.
On Wednesday, the Islanders announced the launch of a fan-driven contest that will allow Islanders County, as well as hockey fans in general all over the world, to submit a design for what will be the Islanders’ new third jersey for the 2027-28 NHL season.
It’s the first time in NHL history that a franchise will have the fans create an official team sweater.
“It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time in the NHL,” said Kelly Cheeseman, the President of Business Operations for the Islanders and UBS Arena.
Fans have until July 24th to submit their designs at www.islesjerseybuilder.com. As of Wednesday afternoon, there were more than 30,000 submissions and the designs will eventually be trimmed down to a final five concepts that go to a fan vote.
Cheeseman, who used to work for the Los Angeles Kings, joined the Islanders organization last November and one of the first things he was charged with was getting the process going to create a third jersey, which takes two years.
“Ownership was very receptive to it,” said Cheeseman of his idea for the third jersey. “We had to go through it with the NHL to think about how we actually do this so we don’t trip up any legal policies.”
To design the jersey, the fans get to select the jersey striping, primary and accent colors, logo, shoulder patch, along with the nameplate and number style and color.
If you’ve ever said to yourself “this is what I’d like to see the Islanders do for a third jersey”, then this contest is for you.
“You get a lot of ideas on social media and people have a lot of opinions,” said Cheeseman. “Hopefully, we come up with something that’s really fan-driven and the fans get a vote on and, ultimately, I think that will be something that you can’t lose with.”
Once all of the submissions are in, the Islanders will get to work finding the best designs. They will lean on people, from top to bottom, in the organization including ownership, General Manager Mathieu Darche, Head Coach Peter DeBoer, and the players.
The more input, the better.
“I like to involve as many people as possible,” said Cheeseman. I want as many points of view and then we’ll get an executive team to nail that down to the five.”
And then the fans will vote on the third jersey for the 2027-28 season.
This was a remarkable idea by Cheeseman and the Islanders. On a July day, with the league past the draft and the start of free agency, the Islanders found a great way to engage, not only their fans, but fans all over the hockey world.
And there were even some other NHL teams who had some fun with the contest.
“To see the inspiration and passion from Islanders fans in the market and around the world but also hockey fans and engagement with other teams and things like that where they’re having fun with it,” said Cheeseman.
Fans have been sharing their designs all over social media and many of them have been impressive. There have been a number of submissions, including from me, that feature a primary color of orange which would be a throwback to the third jersey that the Islanders had from 2002 to 2007.
But regardless of what the winning design turns out to be, the Islanders scored a hat trick with the idea to give their fans a huge voice of what the new third jersey will look like.
