The Utah Hockey Club hopes to make its first jersey available to the public as soon as November, an impressive feat considering the tight timeline since the NHL created the new franchise on April 18.

“We want to make it our No. 1 priority to get our jersey into the hands of fans as quickly as possible so they can wear it with pride and enjoy it for as much of our first season as possible,” said the president of Utah hockey operations. Chris Armstrong said this on Friday.

Utah knows the jersey, which features the letters “UTAH” on the front, the colors Rock Black, Salt White and Mountain Blue, and a special meaning, is in high demand. The team’s brand identity will likely evolve next season.

“This is truly a moment in time, and in many ways the jersey will be a collector’s item,” Armstrong said.

The development and production of the jersey has been a complex process, illustrating the challenges Utah has embraced since acquiring the Arizona Coyotes’ hockey assets and quickly building a new team in a new market.

How hard is it to make an NHL jersey?

Remember, it’s typically an 18-month effort that includes design, trademark approval, raw material procurement, and ultimately production of game and retail versions. Thanks to parts such as the emblem, a hockey shirt is more difficult to manufacture than, for example, a football shirt.

Brian Jennings, the NHL’s senior executive vice president and chief branding officer, said the league will send a “change intent letter” to all NHL teams in March. If a team wants to change any part of its uniform, it must notify the league and the design firm – Fanatics or an outside company – must be approved by April.

A team that started the process this spring would have done so by 2025-2026, but Utah had to do it by 2024-2025, giving the team a year less time. The team decided to use a temporary brand identity for 2024-2025 and develop a permanent brand identity for 2025-2026.