Lokomotiv Yaroslavl repeated as Gagarin Cup champions last season, capturing their fifth title in franchise history. Now, the team has inspired a league-wide change to the jerseys of reigning KHL champions.
“The KHL champion will wear a gold [shield],” the league’s media projects director Artashes Sargsyan told Championat.com, as translated by Google Translate. “Previously, such things were club initiatives, but now it’s official — starting next season, the champion will play in gold.”
Previously, the KHL shield on the collar came in silver and black.
Not only will Lokomotiv’s KHL shield be gold, but the team is also replacing the lighter accents on its home and away jerseys with splashes of the color. The team’s silver stripe on the neck is now gold, as well as the stripe on each elbow.
Quberten, a Moscow-based sports branding company, helped usher in the change after creating separate championship jerseys that utilized the gold KHL shield. The design firm also created special shirts, varsity jackets, and hats for the Yaroslavl-based club.
Quberten started the trend when it designed special championship jerseys for Avangard Omsk in 2021 featuring a gold KHL shield, gold numbers, and gold names.
Avangard wore the special jerseys throughout the 2021-22 season. Capitals prospect Ivan Miroshnichenko even rocked the sweater in promotional photos.
While the NHL has changed the color of its shield for alternate jerseys — the league’s logo, for example, went vintage orange for Adidas’s Reverse Retro program — it has never done anything similar to distinguish championship teams. Clubs wear special Stanley Cup Final patches on their chests during the league’s championship series, but the reigning Stanley Cup champion receives no special designation on its uniform the following season.
If the NHL ever embraced the concept, it could give fans another reason to buy jerseys while also adding a little extra significance to the defending champion’s games the next season.
Meanwhile, the KHL also released an updated logo ahead of its 19th season. While the mark retained its familiar shield and crossed-stick look, the KHL is going with a flattened and simplified design, replacing the metallic silver treatment with a high-contrast black-and-white look while thickening the internal lines, enlarging the lettering, and refining the shield’s geometry. The league also has new secondary logos, colorways, patterns, and digital graphics.
The KHL’s new season begins on September 5 with six games, including Lokomotiv’s season opener against Traktor in Yaroslavl.
