Nike Unveils New Olympic Hockey Jerseys And They're... Well..

Nike unveiled new jerseys that the United States and Canadian hockey teams will be sporting when they hit the ice in South Korea early next year, and unfortunately they’re not exactly gold medal winners. Take a look:

Yeah, those are supposed to be bald eagle wings on the U.S. jerseys and that design that looks suspiciously similar on the Canadian jerseys represent a maple leaf, I suppose. And the font on the U.S. Jersey is about as dull as you can get.  It’s been said online already, but I think it’s the best description of these sweaters: they look like something a roller hockey team should be wearing, not the best ICE hockey players in the world. You’d think if they wanted the jersey to be so exciting that they’d throw wings on the sleeves, they’d finish the job and throw some sort of cool, aggressive “USA” on the front that we could all rally behind. Nope. It’s pretty clear that Nike had no clue what they were doing here.

But let’s face it, at least for the Canadian and U.S. Men’s squads, they won’t feature the best players from those countries, as most of their elite players are locked up under NHL contracts and won;t be able to compete in the Olympics anyway. 

So, when the puck drops on February 14th for the men’s tournament, we’ll get to see players who are not the best players from their home countries wearing jerseys that are the definition of sub-par.

Now THAT’S how you grow the sport of hockey internationally! Way to go!