With the dog days of summer now upon us, it feels like the perfect time to share some updates on the Kings new third jersey. We’re still working on nailing down the specific launch date, final design, etc. However, we know most hockey fans are desperate for any news possible in late July, so let’s try to quench that thirst just a bit.
Most of what’s included below has been shared in some form on various Kings Of The Podcast episodes over the past year. However, we have worked through various sources to tease out a few new tidbits. To help bring everybody up to speed, though, we’ll try to effectively weave together the previous notes with some new nuggets.
Brief Notes on LA’s Third Jersey
- We’re likely less than two months away from the Kings debuting their new third jersey. As we reported a few weeks before the 2025 NHL Draft, they decided to hold off on sharing their new sweaters during June’s big event, largely because full-scale production wasn’t up and running. Unlike several jersey releases that have taken place across the league post-pandemic, we’re told LA brass wants the jerseys to be immediately available for sale to all fans interested in the new digs. Thus, they’re believed to be targeting a mid to late-September launch.
- More than a year ago we reported the crest is expected to feature the ‘current’ crown – meaning the updated crown that was included in last year’s logo rebrand. This was a slight tweak to the original 1967 crown.
- Speaking of the crown, we’ve even heard that Kings management have been kicking around the idea of eventually moving to the this as their full-time primary logo in a few years (rather than simply using it as an alternative crest). Something like this wouldn’t be completely unprecedented either. As many likely recall, the ‘home plate’ jersey started as a third jersey and then eventually became the team’s primary. If you looked closely last season, the Kings used the crown quite often in various marketing materials, merchandise, and other applications. There’s even been talk of changing the center ice logo at Crypto.com Arena to the crown. While we’re not expecting that to happen as early as 2025-26, it wouldn’t totally be surprising. Bottom line, expect to see quite a bit more of the crown in the coming years.
- Over the past decade or so, the Kings have become much more focused on their full uniform kit whenever launching a new jersey – and this time is said to be no different. With that in mind, there’s been a lot of work surrounding the helmet. As we noted around the time of last summer’s rebrand, there was an internal push to bring the chrome helmets back soon. While some admittedly don’t like them, there are plenty of people who love the look – and either way, there was a giant buzz nearly every time they wore them. Even so, we don’t think they’re coming back quite yet. Instead, our sources say they’ve been working to develop a different type of silver helmet; perhaps something akin to what the New England Patriots wear. We also think this will ultimately play into the jersey design (more on that next).
- Colors: While nothing is official quite yet, we aren’t expecting the jersey to primarily be purple. The Kings are committed to black, silver, and white to be their primary colors. It’s worth noting that those have been the team colors for the majority of their nearly 60 years in the NHL. Now, the Reverse Retro jerseys also sold much better than expected, so the team is said to be more open to using purple in the future. The next time they play in an outdoor game or overseas (either of which is expected to happen as early as 2026-27), we’d expect them to do some sort of a ‘throwback’ look that includes purple, and likely pays tribute to the original ’67 look.
- Then what will the new third jersey base color be? This is tricky. The team ran into a bunch of scheduling problems when they had their most recent white (with chrome) alternative jersey. Namely, it was a challenge to wear the jerseys at home – one of the best ways to spur sales along – because it required opposing teams to bring an extra set of jerseys on any road trip, as they’re typically the team in white. Ideally, the new thirds wouldn’t primarily be worn against teams like the Ducks and Sharks (who would have less of an issue bringing a different jersey to LA because those games are often just one-offs, not part of a full road trip).
- What about a silver jersey? For starters, the options could be limited. As we shared last year, at one point the Kings looked to create an all-silver jersey using material similar to the trim on their current threads (i.e. sparkly silver). However, it didn’t pass several TV tests and there were concerns about the durability of the fabric being used as a full shell, rather than just as a trim — so that’s out. This would likely leave a silver option used by the Sharks recently:
That’s actually more gray, similar to what the Kings used on their 50th anniversary jersey. Thus, if they want more of a silver, it could involve leaning into something akin to the materials used by the Predators in the early 2000s. Also note, neither of these options really align well with the current silver used by LA, which is yet another reason why we think there’s a low likelihood of either being used.
- Circling back to more of a silver helmet, this would also likely create more of a pop if it wasn’t against a silver jersey – but rather a black or white jersey, with some silver trim.
- Creating a new jersey with a largely black base would seem to make the most sense of the three options available. It’s still not a guarantee. Before somebody asks, we’ll put some odds on this. We’ll say there’s a 60% chance the Kings new third jersey will be black, 30% chance it’s white, and we’ll say 10% it turns out to be purple.
- Finally, while we believe LA’s new jersey will largely stay within the black, silver, white family of their primary colors, we’ve decided to also share some mockups with purple below just for fun. Although we asked our designer ALoImages to incorporate purple into a few designs, it just doesn’t seem to flow properly. One interesting incarnation could be a sort of Reverse Retro inspired black and purple jersey that uses a shell riffing off the early 2000s and features the new crown as a crest. At first blush, it’s not really a home run – in our opinion. And considering that whatever they use for the third jersey could potentially become the primary rather quickly… we just don’t anticipate purple to be included. Again, we’re thinking the purple will much more likely be saved for a specialty event, one-night only, jersey in the near future.
Round One Mocks – July 2025
Left on the Cutting Room Floor
Applying a chrome overlay onto the crown and just a totally different look for fun:
We should have more info on the Kings new third jersey and corresponding kit next month. If you really want to dive into some design aspects, take a look at our article linked below from a few years ago — it features mock-ups for days.
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