Bruins
The team will bring back, with a twist, its dual-use, spoked-B uniforms it wore from 1948-85.
The Bruins will wear new uniforms this fall, with a design that says as much about the past as it does the future.
In other words, it’s about time for a change.
“For the past probably 10 years, various players have asked me over that time frame, ‘Why can’t we get back into the jersey from the late ’80s, early ’90s?’ ” said team president Cam Neely. “I never really felt it was the right time to do that.”
Now, it’s time.
The team will bring back, with a twist, its dual-use, spoked-B uniforms it wore from 1948-85.
The black home jerseys will have a gold “B” crescent and the road whites will use a black “B,” with each “B” keeping serifs that were added in 2007.
The team used the logos in its 2023-24 centennial season, and it reintroduced them on Monday along with the “Built By Boston, Powered By Tradition” tagline.
All the talk about a “new” look began when the club’s season-long 100th year celebration ended.
“Obviously, we’ve had a number of different uniforms, whether it’s from the Winter Classic or the Stadium Series or out in Tahoe for the Winter Classic, and we always have looked back deep into our rich history and what was worn in the early years,” said Neely. “I really feel like this is a jersey that a lot of people will be able to relate to and are very fond of.”
With the exception of the centennial season, the Bruins’ black home jerseys have featured the single black “B” since 1995.
Neely believes the return of the gold “B” will not go unnoticed.
“The first thing we all notice is the color of the ‘B’ — that’s very prominent on the jersey, right in the middle of the jersey and the crest, so my feeling is they’ll pick up on that right away,” said Neely.
The Bruins did not forget to include a video that accompanies every brand or uniform refresh in the 2020s.
Neely, his longtime friend Michael J. Fox, and a current Bruins player who’s almost unrecognizable under several pounds of makeup and a garish shirt, ham it up in the slickly produced clip that leans hard into the time-space continuum themes of the “Back to the Future” franchise that starred Fox.
The concept is that Fox has been watching a video clip of the 2004 uniform retirement ceremony of Neely, where Fox spoke about Neely, who wore his black home No. 8 jersey with the gold “B.”
Fox phones Neely to tell him “how cool it would be to go back,” which Neely somehow thinks is a suggestion that Neely should return to the ice.
“I’ve got four joint replacements, I can’t see — seriously,” says Neely.
Fox corrects him, and texts him a picture of the gold “B” black jersey.
“People love going back,” says Fox.
That prompts Neely to get on his office phone and order in the Bruins player to make Fox’s wish come true.
Without giving away every second of the spot, after some flashing lights and smoke, the heavy-breathing Bruins star hobbles into Fox’s office with a cane and presents him with the new black jersey, “a special delivery from your good buddy Cam.”
The spot ends with a famous but altered Emmett “Doc” Brown quote and the new Bruins logo.
“We have so many wonderful uniforms from our history, and if you look back, our uniform changes in history often signify a more significant transition, like from era to era, for example,” said Andrea Mazzarelli, the team’s vice president of marketing. “Coming out of the centennial is a big transition for our organization, and it just felt like the right time with that in mind.”
Also among the uniform changes: a new shoulder patch with a bear silhouette filled in by the word “Boston” on the road whites, and “Bruins” on the home blacks. There’s a new hem loop and a throwback stripe on the sleeve. The Rapid 7 sponsor patch stays on the right front of the jersey.
Looking ahead, that should do it, for a bit, on the Bruins’ uniform front.
“I can’t see a change any time soon, but if we’re involved in some other outdoor games, we’ll probably introduce something else,” said Neely.