The Anaheim Ducks, since their inception, have showcased a diverse range of jerseys, some of which have become iconic in the NHL. While some designs have been widely celebrated, others have been less successful. This article delves into the captivating and somewhat inconsistent history of the Anaheim Ducks' jerseys.
Initially known as the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, the team was established by Disney and named after the popular movie "The Mighty Ducks." Their inaugural jerseys featured a distinctive duck mask logo on a black circle and a jade green triangle, with purple and jade as the primary colors.
The Anaheim Ducks have worn quite a few jerseys during their relatively short history. Some of them have been among the most beloved in the NHL, while some have failed to flatter anyone. Their jersey history has been a bit more inconsistent than their on-ice performances.
The Ducks would start their life as an NHL franchise with a jersey design that can only be described as unique. Jade and eggplant were the dominant colors, strange choices for an NHL team, to be sure. And yet, when combined, they’re rather endearing. Paul Kariya, one of the greatest players in franchise history, wearing the beloved sweater from Anaheim’s early days, when the Ducks were still Mighty.
On a more technical note, the jersey’s novel diagonal striping was simple and well done, even if the jersey numbers did overlap with the tail package.
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In the 1996-1997 season, with Paul Kariya as their captain, the Mighty Ducks made it to the postseason, where they lost in the second round to the eventual Stanley Cup winners, the Detroit Red Wings.
The long-awaited and overdue return of the Ducks’ original color scheme will finally occur in the form of a 30th anniversary jersey, which will celebrate the team’s upcoming 30th season in the NHL.
They will debut this look in their home opener on Oct. Overall, it’s pretty good, though I can only imagine that the mindset when creating this jersey was simple: We cannot miss another chance to bring our original colors back.
Well, what’s old is now new again, as there shades of and references to their inaugural uniforms abound with this new, special-edition jersey. For starters, the plum and jade color scheme, not to mention the Wild Wing mask, have taken center stage, literally.
Merit Tully, Ducks Vice President of Marketing, said in an interview, “This jersey is a symbol of our journey the last 30 years, our successful history and a nod to our origins. Sounds like it was an organizational effort. They brought back the original colors and appropriately honored their roots on the eve of a milestone season for the franchise. All things considered, well done.
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The Infamous "Wild Wing" Jersey
However, during their third season, the infamous “Wild Wing” jersey (guess which one that is) made its debut. This jersey would divide fan opinion, and your opinion on this jersey was likely dependent on your age. Fans of a younger generation, like myself, loved this jersey, a calling to the team’s Disney roots, it’s clear to see why adults would hate these while kids adored them.
As you can see, the diagonal striping of the standard uniform set has been retained for the sleeves but has been made unnecessarily complicated and disjointed by alterations to the spacing and thickness. Meanwhile, the best part of this sweater - the beautiful jade background - is rudely interrupted by the stark-white, retina-piercing shoulder yokes.
While we’re on the topic of the jersey body, we must talk about the nameplates and letters. How anyone thought the Mistral font would look good on a jersey is a mystery to this day. It’s hard to read and unappealing to the eye, a big swing and miss from the designers of this jersey.
But who are we kidding? The worst part of this kit is the “Wild Wing” logo. The Mighty Ducks already faced an uphill battle for NHL respect, given that they were owned by the Walt Disney Company and named after a minor hockey team from a children’s movie.
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Alternate Jerseys and Color Scheme Changes
They aren’t the best-looking kits, to be sure; the jade one only lasted two of the three seasons mentioned. But they aren’t exactly offensive, either. Both feature full-length shoulder yokes made up of four different colors (jade, eggplant, silver, and yellow - a trim color likely added to complement the color of the hockey sticks on the primary crest), along with a different (less generic and overall better, in my opinion) typeface for the names and numbers.
Interestingly, for 1997-98 and 1998-99, the Mighty Ducks switched to black pants and helmets (the latter worn with the dark kits only), a change which looks rather good, lending aggressiveness and grounding the more unusual shades present in the Anaheim color scheme.
Given there were two separate third jerseys, one white and one dark, it’s reasonable to speculate the Mighty Ducks might have been testing the waters regarding potentially replacing their standard home and away kits. And that’s a shame, as the white alternate in particular shows real promise.
1999-2000 The jade alternate jersey is retired, leaving the Mighty Ducks with only one alternate -- the white one.
In 2003-04, the Mighty Ducks sought to do away with their cartoonish past by adding a more menacing third jersey to their aesthetic arsenal. Now, I’m not totally against the idea of black jerseys, even for teams for whom black is not a component of their color scheme. However, the execution of this example is excruciatingly poor. First, where’s the jade? Black is already a hard-enough color to work with as a jersey base, so keeping the dark eggplant and silver shades and eliminating the brighter jade just makes this kit utterly dull and dreary.
In its place, a handwriting-like script reads “Anaheim” and is topped with a “MIGHTY DUCKS” wordmark. The shoulder patch is even worse, composed of nothing but an overlapping “MD.” Real inspirational.
The Mighty Ducks tried to do something fresh, new, and exciting for their third sweater.
2003-06 After going without an alternate jersey for three seasons, the Mighty Ducks try yet again with one -- this time, it's black with eggplant and silver trim -- totally devoid of jade.
In 2005, Susan and Henry Samueli would purchase the franchise from the Walt Disney Company. After this sale, the team would rebrand themselves, dropping the “Mighty” from their name, becoming just the Ducks.
After a change in ownership in 2005, the team announced they would change their name. After briefly considering Condors and Bears, the club ultimately decided to keep the heritage of the team in their identity, removing the Mighty and going forward with the name Anaheim Ducks.
A new colour scheme of orange, black, and bronze accompanied the new logo, a D in the shape of a webbed foot. The change came with some magic, as a Stanley Cup awaited the Ducks in their first season with the new name.
The Stanley Cup Era and Beyond
For 2006-07, the Ducks debuted a totally new uniform suite, which featured a heavy emphasis on black, along with gold and orange accents. These uniforms won’t be winning any awards for their aesthetics, but they will forever be remembered in the team’s history. Their greatest achievement came in this jersey, as they hoisted their first Stanley Cup while wearing these sweaters.
These jerseys are still dull and devoid of energy, but the Ducks took some steps in the right direction, aesthetically speaking, in 2006-07. Oh, they also won the Stanley Cup. (Illustration by Andrew M.
2006-07 No longer "Mighty," the newly-named Anaheim Ducks change their colors to black, gold and orange (an ode to the county they play in -- Orange County).
2007-10 The Ducks carry over their new design to the Reebok Edge uniform system.
While these kits were a big improvement on the team’s last attempt at black jerseys, they still leave plenty to be desired. They aren’t bad kits by any means, just a bit boring. The swooping, five-component striping that adorns the sleeves and tail of both the home and away uniforms is a modern take (though reversed in orientation) on the Ducks’ historically diagonal striping.
There’s certainly no problem with being taken seriously, either; the heavy use of black in the jerseys, pants, and socks, to go along with the subtly dangerous - yet still duck-like - names and numbers make for an undeniably aggressive look.
However, again, the logo is the problem. An “ANAHEIM DUCKS” wordmark, even if the “D” is styled to look like a duck’s foot (or a duck in flight?), just isn’t cutting it. I also feel they could’ve used other colors besides black and white for the bodies of the numbers to sharpen things up a bit.
Modern Jerseys and Throwbacks
For 2014-15, the Ducks made the alternate kit they wore from 2010-11 through 2013-14 their full-time home uniform, creating a white edition of said template for the road. This time, I have to say, I really think they’ve got it right, at least in the context of the Reebok Edge uniform system.
That said, if there’s one jersey set on which it totally works, it’s that of the Ducks. Obviously, horizontal striping would be preferable but, in the context of what was going on in the NHL at the time, this is as good as it gets. Lots of color, no random piping (though the tracing around the shoulders can probably go), and no perpendicular intersections.
Perhaps most notably, orange has been used as a major component of the color scheme, rather than just an accent, on both the jerseys and socks. Anaheim’s jerseys were brightened considerably, perfectly balancing the darkness of the rest of the kits. Even the (duck foot? duck in flight? maybe both?) logo is a marked improvement over the rather dull “Ducks” that graced the Cup-winning design (although the shoulder patch features the Ducks’ original logo, so they probably just should have used that).
Anaheim stuck with the same typeface for the numbers and lettering, too, which utilizes enough flourishes to be interesting while still retaining legibility and professionalism.
That these complex jerseys are perfectly contrasted with the plain black pants - save for a single, thin orange stripe separating the orange of the sweaters and socks, only strengthens my conviction that Anaheim has one of the more balanced, sharp-looking Reebok Edge uniform sets in the NHL, one which has carried over into the ADIZERO era.
My only real qualms are that the main logo would function better as a secondary emblem and that the shoulder patch looks half-baked and thoroughly out of place. The original logo is back in the primary position, this time set upon a gold background to match Anaheim’s present-day color palette. Meanwhile, the ducky “D” logo is on the shoulders, serving admirably in its rightful place as a secondary crest.
The throwback logo on a backdrop of orange, gold and black is sublime. The Ducks’ alternate jersey is simply phenomenal and ranks very high on my list of all-time favorites. It doesn’t have the history of a Montreal or a Chicago but, judged on aesthetic appeal alone, how can you keep it out of the top ten? Come on, just look at it. It’s bright orange and flashy without being sickening. It’s complex without being busy. It’s new-age without being offensive to tradition.
2014-15 The Ducks' alternate home uniform that they wore from 2010-14, featuring the webbed "D" crest, becomes the basis for their new home and away uniforms.
2015-17 The Ducks introduce a new orange alternate jersey that pays homage to its original identity, complete with a recolored version of its original crest. The tail stripe pattern also harkens back to the original one, albeit no longer at an angle.
On January 25, 2014, the Ducks would take on crosstown rivals the Los Angeles Kings at Dodgers Stadium as a part of the NHL’s Coors Light Stadium Series. I’ll be honest here; I was not a fan of either team’s jerseys. The Ducks’ jersey felt overpowering in its use of orange, having only small accents of different colors to catch the eye.
Primarily orange jerseys can work, as we saw with the team’s previous alternative jersey, but I think these ones fell flat. My biggest issue with these sweaters is the logo. While the “D’ remained unchanged, the glossy finish did not come out well. The logo looked cheap to me, like they forgot to add them until the last minute and just added a poorly pressed logo. They weren’t all bad though, as I thought the “OC” logo on the shoulders was a nice touch.
Still, they were better than the Kings’ jerseys, and that counts for something.
2014 Stadium Series The Ducks take the ice wearing orange jerseys as they faced the Kings in their 2014 Stadium Series matchup at Dodger Stadium.
Unfortunately, Adidas couldn’t figure out how to hockey in time for 2017-18, so the Ducks - and the entire NHL - went without third jerseys for an entire season. Thankfully, they returned for 2018-19, and the franchise opted to go back to the “Mighty Ducks” well. They would bring back the original logo and some of the original color scheme.
It wasn’t a perfect return for alternative jerseys, but it could’ve been worse. The Duck mask logo was still beloved; however, the black base for this jersey left a lot to be desired. Keeping the same base as their home jerseys did little to set their alternates apart and did little to make them unique. In isolation, these jerseys were fine, with the context that they’re slightly disappointing.
Still not a terrible sweater by any means, but they could have been executed better.
Reverse Retro Jerseys
Before the start of the 2020-21 season, the NHL announced that teams would be debuting “reverse retro” jerseys. With this came a lot of speculation about what direction the Ducks would go in with these jerseys. Ultimately, they would give Wild Wing a surprise return.
There’s going to be jerseys that people don’t like. You can’t please everybody. You can’t make everybody happy. But for nostalgia’s sake and just pay homage to the history and the handful of games they actually wore the uniform, hey, go for it. Let’s have fun with it.