Just around the time that Tyler Toffoli was polishing off Edmonton with his second goal of the night on Thursday, this danced across my Twitter feed and doused the celebration that comes each and every time the Oilers go down in Los Angeles:
Looks like the @LAKings 2020 #NHL #StadiumSeries jersey is the latest to leak! Definitely in the same vein as what we saw from the Avalanche last week.
More on the blog tomorrow, but for now I’m curious to see the reaction.#GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/eVNygpR3OF
— Icethetics.com (@icethetics) November 22, 2019
I’m trying to figure out this sweater and I just can’t. Yeah, yeah, I know some of you will say I’m nothing short of an idiot (like you do when I say not to trade someone or have faith in the Plan), but honestly, what is this monstrosity?
Last year, I took the Kings to task for the laziness of their alternate sweaters and outright plagiarism of their 50th Anniversary designs. But this Stadium Series sweater?
It’s a new level of disaster.
Seriously, these are what we have to watch while we freeze on the metal bleachers in Falcon Stadium on February 15th?
I mean who designed these? Bigger question: who approved them? This is the work of a fashion devil. More Zoolander than Prada. This is the worst sweater since the 1995-96 Canucks’ spaghetti skate number that was perpetuated on the entire NHL.
Oh Luc, I bought into the Plan , but why can we have nice things?
I thought maybe I was over-reacting but when I consulted my family, my daughter said the designer must have borrowed the idea from a weekend AYSO game. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?
Needless to say, the Kings latest foray into the NHL fashion will receive a massive side-eye response from many. Yes, they have already been widely panned since they were “leaked” across the Net, but I don’t think we’ve quite yet come to terms with how awful these really are. Give it time, though. The streaking LA logo—extremely funny considering the Kings are considered one of the slowest teams in hockey—is a direct rip-off shout-out to the Los Angeles Lakers logo (who share the Staples Center with their hockey brothers). Further, the white mountain that the logo is climbing must be on a collision course with the Avalanche coming from Colorado and their offensive machine that the Kings can’t seem to handle in recent games.
I’ve been very vocal about my stance on Adidas in the NHL. I don’t like it, and I’m not the only person to have that feeling. Here’s some of the, er, tepid responses from Thursday’s Jewels post on Twitter:
Where is the “Yikes” option —Freddy Garcia
Horrible and tacky as to be expected. —Mortifus
what’s the -kill it with fire option ? —ferretboy
Ugliest Kings jersey ever. Zero effort. —el Duderino
Given the Kings’ track record of committing atrocities with their specialty sweaters, I don’t think I’m crazy to say that they need to put a little more design intelligence into the threads they put on the players and expect the fan base to purchase in turn. Am I off base to say the Los Angeles Kings have little, if any, fashion sense? How can a team based in the entertainment capital of the world have such a low sense of what entertains on the ice? It’s downright perplexing.
In a rebuilding year, this would have been a perfect time to be all in with a fun, alternative brand. Go all in and give the fans something fun in what should be a fun afternoon of outdoor hockey. The braintrust in El Segundo looks to have gone lazy stripping out all creativity and leaving us with something so boring and bland you would never plunk down $189 plus tax to wear.
February 15th, 2020 is shaping up to be the worst dressed hockey game in the history of the sport. Surely Joan Rivers is rolling over in her grave and that’s a shame.
So, what do you think? Vote now…
Do you like the Kings Stadium Series jersey?
| Yeah! | 11 |
| No | 30 |
| Extra super no | 115 |
| I’m indifferent | 6 |