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SALT LAKE CITY — The knockoff jersey makers are getting some competition.
On Friday, official Utah Hockey Club jerseys will be available to the public for the first time.
The team's initial stock of jerseys will include players Clayton Keller, Dylan Guenther, Lawson Crouse, Logan Cooley, Nick Schmaltz, Mikhail Sergachev, Liam O'Brien and Connor Ingram.
Fans can also customize any blank jersey with their favorite player's name — or any name/number they want. Both home (black) and away (white) jerseys will be available, but only from the premium line of the Fanatics jersey collection.
Most of the first batch will be blank to allow the team to get them out in the most efficient timeline. For now, only adult sizes will be available; youth-sized jerseys will drop in the coming weeks.
So how much will one of the first jerseys cost?
A blank jersey will run $200, a player jersey — including player customization — costs $250, and a personal customized jersey is $275.
The jerseys can be purchased on shop.NHL.com starting at 8 a.m. MST on Friday morning. A sale for Utah Hockey Club season ticket holders will be held from 8 a.m. to noon on Friday morning at the team store at the Delta Center. The general public can pick them at the team store beginning at noon that day.
A limited number of jerseys will also be sold at the NHL flagship store in New York City beginning Friday, as well.
There is a perk to buying them from the Delta Center, though. Only jerseys purchased at the team store will feature the inaugural season patches on each shoulder.
Utah has accelerated the usual timeline to get jerseys available this quickly. Usually, it's around an 18-month process to get jerseys on the racks. The team got it done in about six months. The normal timeline, though, begs the question: Is next year's version already in the works?
Utah Hockey Club president Chris Armstrong mostly played coy when asked, but he did hint that next year's jerseys might not be all that different.
He said the reception — from players and fans alike — has been so good to the club's inaugural jersey that similar design elements will likely remain in future seasons. A Utah jersey (regardless of what the long-term team name ends up being) would follow the Jazz's latest rebrand where three of the four jerseys have "Utah" on the front.