The Detroit Red Wings made a big announcement this week, changing the iconic winged-wheel jersey forever. It has since set the fanbase ablaze, and for good reason. The Red Wings announced that the team's iconic jersey would be changing.
The announcement came this week as the Detroit Red Wings debuted their newest sponsorship. The Red Wings partnered with a waste management company in Macomb County, Michigan, called Priority Waste. The company's logo will be displayed on Red Wings jerseys for the foreseeable future.
The patches will be placed on the top right side of the jersey, with a small "P" surrounded by a hexagonal shape around the outside of the block letter. It's small and will be blended with Red Wings colorways to fit better on the team's jersey. It was brought into action on Thursday as the team took on the New York Islanders in a spirited battle.
The Red Wings already made a move to ditch the Red Wings logo on their helmet, pursuing helmet advertisements instead. This season, the partner on their helmets is grocery chain Meijer. But now, their jerseys will also feature ads. The game of hockey just keeps heading down the inevitable road.
Detroit Red Wings have made some substantial jersey changes.
Outside of the introduction of jersey ads, the big thing to note here is the continued willingness to jump on these opportunities by Chris Ilitch and company. The Red Wings organization, like many others, continues to move toward an era of hockey that could end up with NHL jerseys looking more like European league jerseys -- littered with advertisements and sponsors.
This patch is only the beginning. While the team has already started adding them to their game jerseys, this has left fans outraged. It takes just a simple search on Facebook or X (formerly Twitter) to see the disdain from the Red Wings fanbase regarding this simple "P" logo.
Priority Waste is also slated to work with the Tigers when baseball season gets closer to starting up after Spring Training. However, their big splash for this year will be their addition of the jersey ads to the Red Wings jerseys. It's a huge change in Detroit and something that is going to catch the attention of fans.
The initial attention was not good attention. The unfortunate reality is that this is where the game is headed. Things are changing, but the changes to the sacred winged-wheel jersey hurt my heart a bit. I suppose it will become normal in due time, but right now, it just sucks.