NHL suits up like never before

MONTREAL -- The National Hockey League is hoping a dose of high-tech design and a dollop of fashion will help revitalize a sport deemed too dull by many fans south of the Canadian border.

During the dark days of the NHL's 2004-05 lockout season, Reebok International Ltd. began poring over hundreds of prototypes for new uniforms, from a Robocop look with protective gear on the outside to jerseys neatly tucked into pants. With NHL players hard to come by during the lockout, Reebok tapped retired athletes and minor leaguers to try uniforms on an ice rink here and hired researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Central Michigan University to conduct thermal and wind-tunnel tests.

Today, the Boston Bruins will unveil the new Reebok uniform, the first NHL team to show off the sleek look with tighter-fitting jerseys and advanced moisture technology. The Bruins also are one of six teams that are using the introduction of the uniform to change their logo and striping, bringing back a vintage look reminiscent of the Bobby Orr era and showing that the redesign is about profit as well as performance.

For the NHL, the makeover is part of the league's effort to create more interest in the struggling sport, a distant fifth in popularity to football, baseball, basketball, and stock-car racing. The transformation began after the strike with rule changes, such as shootouts to resolve tie games, aimed at adding a jolt of excitement and luring fans into staying longer at games or staying tuned to their televisions.

Reebok's initiative, meanwhile, represents the first significant overhaul to the basic hockey uniform since the league's inception in 1917 and the first time any of the four major professional sports leagues in North America has redesigned uniforms for all its teams at once. While the final design is much less radical than some of the prototypes, the new closer-fitting jerseys will better show off the physiques of hockey players, hidden for years under bulky jerseys, and the uniform's technology is intended to allow players to move faster and more freely.

"There's a need for us to recapture existing fans and reach out to a broader audience," said Brian Jennings , NHL's executive vice president of consumer products marketing. "The recent rule changes, and now these new uniforms, are allowing us to come out of a dark period in the league's history."

For Reebok, the uniforms represent the chance to cement credibility with the hockey world and seal the Canton company's reputation as the leading outfitter in professional sports (Reebok also makes the uniforms for the National Football League). It also is a huge business opportunity. In 2006, the US and Canadian retail sales of NHL licensed merchandise was $750 million, compared to the National Football League with $3.3 billion in retail sales and Major League Baseball with $3.2 billion, according to the Licensing Letter, an industry newsletter. Already, Reebok said, jersey orders from merchants are up 50 percent, with the new authentic jerseys costing consumers 25 percent more at $250. This fall, Reebok and the NHL also are opening the league's first retail store, in New York City.

"There's a lot more interest from retailers," Matt O'Toole , chief executive of Reebok-CCM Hockey, said at his office in Montreal. "This is the business we're in, and how we make the market grow is by creating innovation and improving performance. If we can make a better product, consumers will reward us."

Positive attention for the 30-team NHL couldn't come soon enough, with some hard-core fans still angered by NBC's decision to switch from a playoff game last month during the Stanley Cup playoffs to broadcast a prerace show for the Preakness Stakes horse race. Facing underwhelming television ratings and lingering fan resentment from the strike, the NHL needs every boost it can get, according to some sports marketing analysts. Although hockey jerseys and merchandise were fashionably in style during the 1990s, particularly with the introduction of teams like the San Jose Sharks, the sport has suffered tremendous fallout in recent years, said John Canaday of GMR Marketing in Charlotte, N.C., which specializes in sports marketing.

"With hockey lacking a significant roster of household names, it's been difficult to grow licensed sales," Canaday said. "But the flux of rising stars now entering the league, Sidney Crosby being the most prominent example, should somewhat boost sales and generate interest in the sport."

As the NHL tries to showcase the talent and finesse of its players, Canaday said, a lighter and more water-resistant jersey will help aid this shift. If the players move more freely, it may lead to a more offensive style of play and open up the game to more scoring, which may reel in new fans or bring back old ones.

The customized uniforms feature four lighter fabrics in the jersey, pants, and socks to keep the players drier and increase durability of the uniform. The sleeker fit reduces unnecessary fabric that weighed down players (and made it easier for opponents to grab them) and the stretch mesh in the underarms and back provides additional range of motion and increased ventilation. The newly designed socks allow players to use Velcro straps, instead of the decades-old tradition of using garter belts to hold up the socks -- although hockey traditionalists will be allowed to keep their garter belts.

"The uniform is obviously an adjustment. It's a little tighter than we're used to. But after a couple of tries, you feel really comfortable and you get a full range of motion," Patrice Bergeron, a Bruins center and a Reebok endorser, said in an interview. "It's nice to see new technology to improve performance. It should be good for us, and good for the game."

Reebok first got into the hockey business in 2004, after acquiring the Canadian firm, the Hockey Co., best known for its CCM brand of hockey equipment. Through the purchase, Reebok inherited a 10-year deal to be the exclusive supplier of NHL uniforms. After the strike, Reebok did unprecedented testing with players and made extensive presentations to general managers, finally gaining approval for the design last summer. Despite initial resistance by some players to change, which was especially strong because hockey is steeped in tradition, Reebok is convinced the uniform will meet success and avoid the negative fallout that beset Spalding, the sporting goods manufacturer based in Springfield, after it introduced a synthetic basketball to the NBA last fall. Following months of complaints by many players, the NBA ditched the Spalding ball and went back to the old leather ball it had used for 35 years.

Charlie Jacobs , executive vice president of the Boston Bruins, said Reebok went to great lengths to test the uniforms and get player approval. For the Bruins, the new uniform is an opportunity for the team, which hasn't reached the Stanley Cup finals since 1990, to remind fans of its better days with touches of jerseys from 1927 and the team s in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Bobby Orr and the big, bad Bruins were the toast of the town.

"We're out there to get attention for ourselves and get the right kind of attention. It's a battle," Jacobs said. "What's good for our business is to have our fan base look at our jersey and be really proud of it. But no matter how special our jersey is, we have to deliver the goods on the ice."

Jenn Abelson can be reached at abelson@globe.com.