ST. LOUIS — Taking your first look at the St. Louis Blues jersey for the 2025 Winter Classic, you’ll notice something is missing.
For the first time in the franchise’s 57-year history, there’s no Blue Note on the chest.
That’s no accident. The team chose a design for its game against the Chicago Blackhawks at Wrigley Field on Dec. 31 that will instead have “St. Louis” across the front of players’ jerseys.
“The Blues logo is iconic and one of the most recognizable in sports,” said Steve Chapman, executive vice president and chief revenue and marketing officer with the Blues. “Yeah, we could have put the Note on the front of it.
“But for us to proudly display the name of the city that we’re from, that was really our approach. We just feel like this reflected the moment, the event, and will showcase the city well. It was something we really wanted to do.”
The Blues revealed the jersey Wednesday morning, but The Athletic got a sneak peek Tuesday afternoon and interviewed the staff members who were in charge of its creation.
In addition to Chapman, Brenda Wilbur, the Blues’ VP of brand, retail and creative services, led the project. She said it was the NHL that originally presented the idea of a Blues’ jersey without the Blue Note on the chest.
“We loved it,” Wilbur said. “I just love that it says ‘St. Louis’ on the front. We’ve never done that in such a bold way. This really clearly states ‘This is our team and this is our jersey.’ It falls in line with the prior two Winter Classics but still has its own distinct and feel.”
While there won’t be a Blue Note on the front, there is one on the top of the left shoulder. There is a Winter Classic logo on the right shoulder.
“The NHL (version) originally didn’t have the Note on the top,” Wilbur said. “I said, ‘You’ve got to have the Note.’ When you’re doing that first transition away from having the Note on the center of the jersey, you definitely need it on the shoulder.”
The Blues will be the visiting team in Chicago, so the color of the jersey will be the road white, or beige in this case. There is a wide blue stripe across the chest with “St. Louis” written in yellow and outlined in white, and the same goes for the striping on the shoulders.
“We had some options with the royal, which is our traditional primary color, but we just felt staying within the Winter Classic colorway, that heritage colorway, was what we should do for the Winter Classic,” Wilbur said.
The font style of the jersey — both on the chest and the shoulders — is similar to the Blues’ 1966 prototype jersey, which they used for their yellow reverse-retro edition.
“So that kind of ties into that as well,” Wilbur said.
The Blues got high marks for their previous two Winter Classic jerseys — an off-white base with colored striping when they played against Minnesota at Target Field in 2022 and a heritage-style lighter blue with yellow and white striping when they hosted Chicago at Busch Stadium in 2017.
They chose to stick with that traditional classic look.
“The first one, I won’t say it was easy, but it easily came to our minds,” Chapman said. “The second one was the road version, which was our first chance to step outside of that path a little bit. I think every team has a personality, and ours was to stay classic and true to history. I think the St. Louis Blues are a classic look, so I think this accomplishes that. We’re playing at Wrigley Field. From an overall feel, when you’re playing in the ‘Friendly Confines,’ you want to reflect the moment a little bit, so that was part of it.”
The NHL and Fanatics worked with the Blues to make sure their eventual choice fit the style of the Winter Classic uniforms and was a match to what Chicago will be wearing.
“The design team was great,” Chapman said. “They listened and understood where we were coming from. It’s a collaboration. It’s a league event and you do need to play off each other — the two teams. You can’t just say, ‘Well, we’re going to go off on our own way.’ It was a real strong collaborative effort and they were great to work with.”
Now that the jersey is out of the bag, the Blues hope fans like it as much as previous ones.
“So far, everyone we’ve shown it to internally, which includes a lot of St. Louis people, have loved it,” Chapman said. “I think it’s going to resonate. I’ve been here for 10 years and (have) been educated on the history, and I just think it’s a cool addition.”
(Top photo of Brayden Schenn courtesy of Fanatics)
