Another season is soon upon us, and so too is another Pittsburgh Penguins alternate jersey. This season, the NHL will introduce the Hometown Remix alternate jersey program, a league-wide alternate jersey program in partnership with Fanatics. These jerseys will draw inspiration from local culture and team history, acting as the NHL’s equivalent to the NBA’s City Edition or MLB’s City Connect programs.
This program will be slightly different from the Retro Reverse jersey program that the NHL launched ahead of the 2020-21 season and then re-introduced for the 2022-23 season. Of course, it is hard to keep track of all the jerseys the Penguins have worn over just the past decade. If you include Stadium Series and Winter Classic jerseys, the Penguins have worn 10 different jerseys just since the 2016-17 season.
- There are the traditional road and home jerseys.
- In 2017, the Penguins hosted the Flyers for the Stadium Series game at Heinz Field. The jersey for the occasion was yellow with the skating Penguin, minus the golden triangle. The jersey also had large numbers very similar to the Steelers’ stencil font. Additionally, the jersey featured a large “City of Champions” patch inside a Pennsylvania “keystone” logo. The “City of Champions” logo featured five stars for the Penguins’ five Stanley Cup championships.
- The third jersey introduced for the 2018-19 season looked similar to the Stadium Series jersey from the previous season. The new design incorporated elements from the 2017 Stadium Series uniform with a nod to the history of gold jerseys worn by Mario Lemieux and the Penguins in the 1980s with the letters and numbering mirroring the regular home and away jerseys with the addition of numbers on the shoulders.
- The Penguins met the Flyers at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia in 2019 for another Stadium Series game, which meant another new jersey for the special event. The jersey was black with large gold numbers, letters and striping. The jersey was black and gold only, devoid of any white and also featured “A GREAT DAY FOR HOCKEY” in block letter stenciling on the back neckline as a tribute to former Penguins coach “Badger” Bob Johnson.
- The 2020-21 season saw the introduction of the Retro Reverse jersey program and the Penguins reintroduced a jersey from their past, but in a never-before-seen white version. For the first time since the 1996-97 season, the Penguins wore a jersey with a diagonal “PITTSBURGH” text on the center of the chest and the shoulders exchanged the “Robo Penguin” from the ’90s and early 2000s for the traditional skating Penguin, minus the golden triangle.
- The 2021-22 season saw the Penguins bring back a new version of a fan favorite, the black diagonal “PITTSBURGH” jersey. The jersey was the black version of the Retro Reverse introduced the prior season. Of course, the jerseys were a nod to the Penguins away jerseys worn in the 1990s and also made famous by Snoop Dogg in the “Gin and Juice” video. Again, the only difference with this jersey compared to its ’90s counterpart was that the shoulder patch featured the skating Penguin logo in place of the “Robo Penguin” that was on the shoulders in the ’90s.
- Retro Reverse was back for the 2022-23 season and for this iteration the Penguins brought back the controversial “Robo Penguin” from the late 1990s and early 2000s. The jersey featured a black remix with traditional gold shoulder yoke versus the V-shaped shoulder design of the jersey from decades earlier.
- The Penguins returned to the Winter Classic in 2023. The game was played at Fenway Park, so it only made sense for the Penguins to wear a “Pirates”-inspired uniform. However, the jersey was not inspired by the MLB Pirates from across town, but rather the original NHL team that called Pittsburgh home from 1925 to 1930. The uniform was inspired by the 1925 NHL Pirates with a Vintage White base featuring black and gold elements.
- Last season, the Penguins introduced a brand-new third jersey with a base color of “Penguins Gold.” One of the most distinctive features of the jersey is a new triangle shoulder patch, symbolic of Point State Park, that encompasses three river waves, a black monochromatic checker pattern and an igloo to pay homage to the team’s original home. There are also three black stripes on the sleeves to mimic the three rivers of Pittsburgh. Finally, the letters and numbers are inspired by the historic trolley car system of Pittsburgh.
- Not much is known about the 2025-26 Hometown Remix jersey yet. There is an unsubstantiated rumor that the jersey will have a base color of navy blue, which would harken back to the team’s uniforms of the 1970s. According to a team official, the “Penguins Gold” jersey introduced last season will continue to be in the rotation for this upcoming season.
While it can be hard to keep track of all the Penguins’ different uniforms and even harder to afford them all, you can continue to expect new jerseys every few years. New jerseys mean big money for the NHL. According to CBS News, the league collects roughly $30 million to $45 million annually in royalty and licensing revenues from jersey sales, which flows into a total estimated $100 million+ in broader hockey merchandise sales. New jerseys also mean big money for individual teams. For example, according to Sports Business Journal, just last season the Dallas Stars broke the league’s all-time single-game, in-arena merchandise record following the release of their highly anticipated alternate jersey.
You will have a chance to contribute to that $100 million+ in hockey merchandise when the Penguins’ 11th different uniform in the past ten seasons is unveiled in September, along with the other 31 teams’ Hometown Remix jerseys.
Categorized:NHL News Pittsburgh Penguins
