Sharks bring back Heritage jerseys for 30th anniversary celebration

Back by popular demand, the San Jose Sharks Heritage jerseys are making their triumphant return for the upcoming season.

The Sharks announced the news with a video of the jersey washing ashore on a beach with the tagline, "Look what the tide brought back."

The Heritage jersey, which will be worn on designated Heritage Nights during the season, is part of the Sharks' 30th anniversary celebration in partnership with SAP Sports that will take place all season long. The team's plans include fan voting on three all-decade teams, and special videos and appearances from fan favorite players from throughout Sharks history.
Forward Patrick Marleau, who is in his third stint with the Sharks and has spent most of his 22 NHL seasons with San Jose, promises to be integral in the celebration as well. He and his family already started by modeling their new tops in front of their Christmas tree.

San Jose also has unique experiences and content planned for its subscription-based global fan organization, 1991 Club, which includes fans from more than 20 countries. And through the process of digitizing old footage, they've uncovered forgotten stories they'll be bringing to the forefront.
"We just feel like (the 30th anniversary) just gives us a great platform to celebrate our past players, front office folks, coaches and fans," Doug Bentz, Sharks vice president of marketing and digital said. "And as an organization, we just think that's important to kind of always keep that history in mind. So there was there was never any doubt that the 30th anniversary season was going to be something we celebrated no matter what the season looked like."
But the big splash is the jersey. The Sharks wore the same teal jersey with gray, white, and black striping from their inaugural 1991-92 season until an alternate teal jersey became the primary design in 1998-99.
With different designs being introduced over the years, and especially with the new adidas Reverse Retro jerseys, the original became more sought after. The Sharks had been collecting tweets from fans clamoring for the Heritage jersey and posted them on Twitter as part of the announcement Tuesday.

Unlike the original hockey stick-chomping shark logo, which was designed by
Northern California-based artist Terry Smit
, the anniversary logo was the work of a team of Sharks' in-house designers.

The anniversary logo is a described as, "influenced by the classic, art deco-inspired type and crest, as well as Sharks historic gray and modern teal," and will be at center ice at SAP Center, on player jerseys as a patch, and on select merchandise. It's the only significant change to the jersey that Sharks faithful couldn't wait to see again.
"We contemplated what we could do maybe a little bit differently," Bentz said. "But there was just so much demand and want for (the Heritage jersey) from our fans that it was really just giving the fans what they wanted."