Islanders unveil eight finalists for new third jersey, with fan vote to decide winner
The New York Islanders are opening up their future third jersey look to the fans, announcing on Tuesday that the community can vote on eight potential new looks in a bracket-style format.
By introducing a voting process for the jersey, the Islanders make NHL history as the first team to allow fans to pick what their team looks like on the ice. The initial process generated 80,490 submissions for potential jersey concepts, and a team committee including players and hockey operations staff narrowed the list down to eight finalists.
While excitement spread across the NHL, the selected jerseys won’t be ready for the 2026-27 season, but will instead be available for the 2027-28 season, allowing for appropriate production timelines.
“Islanders fans have once again blown us away with their incredible creativity and the sheer volume of participation,” said Kelly Cheeseman, president of business operations for the Islanders and UBS Arena.
“Both the passion of our fans and their overwhelming support throughout this contest have been extraordinary. From over 80,000 submissions down to our final bracket of eight, every step of this journey proves just how deeply invested Isles Nation is in the identity of this franchise.”
Many of the jerseys include updates to or pay homage to a previous era of the Islanders. The first-round matchups include two jerseys with the lighthouse logo, two with the infamous fisherman logo, two with the NY logo and two with the wordmark-based ISLES and Islanders sprawled across the front.
Cheeseman told the New York Post that he “would love to see an orange,” as a strong addition to the Islanders’ brand, and that the narrowing-down process cut out the cream and white jerseys, as they would have been too challenging to wear on home ice.
The first round of voting will run from Aug. 12 to Aug. 14, with the second round from Aug. 15 to Aug. 17. The final round will run from Aug. 18 to Aug. 20, before the hockey club unveils the winner and embarks on the process to design the rest of the kit, including socks, pants, gloves, and helmets, for use in the 2027-28 campaign.
