The Vancouver Canucks, along with the other 31 NHL franchises, teamed up with Adidas to drop new jerseys for the 2020-21 season, which will hopefully be underway in January.

Adidas labeled them the Reverse Retro jerseys, implementing a retro look onto a modern jersey. Whats that term? What’s old is new again? Well, for some teams, they absolutely nailed it. But for most of them, I think they got it all wrong. Some jerseys look like warm ups. Some look like knock offs and some just look like they didn’t change a thing.

Let’s look a bit closer at the Canucks Reverse Retro jersey. They went with (for whatever reason) a jersey from the 2001-02 season which featured a gradient dark blue to maroon coloured jersey with the staple orca logo on the front. I actually really liked this jersey growing up. In fact, it was the first Canucks jersey I ever owned. The Reverse Retro jersey is the current Canucks colours of mostly blue and green gradient with white trim, and the upgraded, larger size orca logo in the middle.

Now, I know the Reverse Retro jersey was revealed to the public almost a month ago, but I’m still trying to figure out if I like them or not. At first there was no way I was on board with them. They looked cheap, knockoff style, something you’d find out of a guys van with the name plate falling off. Pictures and videos on the internet did no service to this jersey. It was a lost cause, and I was okay with it.

The jerseys finally went on sale to the public a few days ago, and some people I follow on Twitter were some of the first in line to buy one. Honestly, they don’t look so bad when fans are wearing them.

Ultimately, what it comes down to though, is interest of the fan. And like I said at the beginning of this article, what’s old is new again. The Canucks played a few games last season with the “Flying Skate” jersey (if you know, you know,) and I think it’s a pretty heavy majority that want that jersey brought back over a jersey like the Reverse Retro. People have no attachment to the 2001-02 team with an updated blue to green gradient look.

Adidas, the Canucks, the NHL, whoever was in charge of designing these jerseys missed a huge opportunity to give the fans a wicked jersey with an old school touch that people old and young could be happy about. Reverse Retro Flying Skate being worn by Petey, Quinn and Brock is something I think this entire fan base could get behind.