SABRES UNVEIL 2018 BRIDGESTONE NHL WINTER CLASSIC UNIFORM
BUFFALO, N.Y. (November 22, 2017) — The Buffalo Sabres today unveiled the team’s uniform for the 2018 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic® outdoor regular-season game against the New York Rangers at Citi Field in New York on Jan. 1, 2018.
The uniform combines design concepts from the franchise’s early years with modifications of the team’s current logo and elements from the team’s 40th anniversary jersey to create a unique look that recalls the Sabres’ 48 years of history. The NHL Winter Classic jersey will be available for purchase on ShopOneBuffalo.com and at the Sabres Store starting at 5 p.m.
“The NHL Winter Classic is a celebration of hockey’s rich history and we wanted our jersey to signify that with a tribute to the early days of Sabres hockey,” Sabres President Russ Brandon said. “This uniform combines our franchise’s great historical look with some new elements to celebrate the uniqueness of the event.”
Buffalo will wear a primarily white jersey with blue and gold accents and a slightly modified version of the team’s traditional crest, which features a charging buffalo between two crossed swords. In addition to minor illustration adjustments to the logo’s buffalo and swords, the initials “NY” have been added as a marker of the interstate matchup. The crest itself is executed in felt and faux leather materials as a nod to historical “hockey sweater” material construction.
The shoulders and collar are contrasted in blue, which is in line with many of the team’s past white uniforms, and the collar is executed in a modern adaptation of sweater knit rib material. The blue throughout the uniform has shifted from the Sabres’ current navy blue to a royal blue reflective of the team’s original color scheme from the 1970s. The jersey striping was inspired by the team’s 40th anniversary uniform. However, when applied to the white body, each pair of blue stripes has a contrasting gold stripe between them instead of the white ground color.
The pants are also blue, matching those of classic Sabres uniforms, and feature a vertical gold stripe along the sides. The white accent pant stripe from previous uniforms has been removed to better align the color patterning to the jersey and sock color patterning.
In addition to the crest, the uniform features three secondary marks. The first is a newly designed shoulder patch that has abstracted the Buffalo from the crest and filled it with the team’s name, and is executed in a throwback chenille material. The second is a pair of crossed swords, also abstracted from the crest. This mark, which appears on the pants, has featured on Buffalo’s helmet in recent years. Lastly, the Buffalo script wordmark featured on the team’s 40th anniversary jersey is located on the helmet.
The jersey’s number design is derivative of the one worn on the team’s 40th anniversary uniform. The numbers on the official game jerseys are executed in felt with unique tonal stitching detail, in homage to how numbers were applied in the early days of hockey. Nameplate letterforms were inspired by the ones the team wore on their uniforms in the mid-1970s.
The Sabres will face the Rangers in the 2018 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic® on New Year’s Day at Citi Field, home of the New York Mets. The game will be broadcast live on NBC, Sportsnet and TVA Sports at 1 p.m. ET. The 2018 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic® continues the tradition the League established in 2008 of hosting a regular-season outdoor game at the onset of the new year, with this year’s edition marking the 10-year anniversary of the first NHL Winter Classic® in Buffalo. Fans can join the conversation on social media by including the hashtag NHL #WinterClassic.
