Montreal Canadiens Habs Adidas Reverse Retro jersey
Sports

The new Habs x Adidas Reverse Retro jersey taps into Montreal Expos nostalgia

by Lorraine Carpenter

The jersey colour is a callback to the city’s long-gone but never forgotten baseball team, where the Canadiens mascot Youppi! got his start.

The new Montreal Canadiens jersey features a light blue that may be familiar to fans of baseball and vintage local branding. Yes, the new Reverse Retro collection from the NHL and Adidas finds the Habs logo juxtaposed with Montreal Expos blue. The neckline features “1979,” the year the Habs won their fourth consecutive Stanley Cup and Youppi! was inaugurated as the mascot for the Montreal Expos, a post he occupied until becoming the head of the Habs’ cheering section in 2005.

The Canadiens will wear the new Reverse Retro jerseys during eight games this season, between November and February.

The new Habs x Adidas Reverse Retro jersey taps into Montreal Expos nostalgia

All 32 NHL teams are releasing mash-up jerseys featuring their logos and nostalgic design elements from their club histories and cities.

The first Reverse Retro NHL collection from Adidas dropped in Nov. 2020 and reportedly had limited participation and public appeal, partly due to the effects of the pandemic on the 2020–21 season.

“This time, every team kind of leaned into that and said, ‘All right. I get it now.’ They went all in and I’m excited for them to get the full realization of it.”

—NHL Chief Brand Officer / Senior Executive Vice President Brian Jennings

Priced at $210–$260 at the Adidas and NHL websites as well as team stores, the Reverse Retro jerseys will be released on Nov. 15. The Canadiens jersey is available for pre-order as of noon today from Tricolore Sports.

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Posted in Sports

by Lorraine Carpenter

Editor in chief
Lorraine Carpenter was born in Montreal and studied communications and journalism at Concordia. She co-founded Cult MTL in 2012 following 12 years at the now-defunct Montreal alt weekly the Mirror, where she worked in editorial as copy editor and music editor. She’s dedicated to supporting the cultural scene in Montreal.