NHL Ditched Its Dress Code. Hockey’s Fashion Era Arrived Quickly

Before Mikhail Sergachev laces up his skates for a Mammoth game, the 27-year-old Russian defenseman has already made an entrance. Sergachev has become one of the NHL’s most adventurous dressers this season, arriving at arenas in flared pants, mixed prints, and crisp double denim. 

He’s in good company: Players including Auston Matthews and William Nylander of the Maple Leafs have also embraced more fashion-forward looks since the NHL eliminated its mandatory dress code as part of collective bargaining negotiations ahead of the 2025–26 season.

Gone is the old requirement of “jackets, ties and dress pants to all Club games and while traveling.” Now, players must simply dress “in a manner consistent with contemporary fashion norms”—which is to say, just about anything goes. 

While hockey remains among the most buttoned-up sports in which an emphasis on individual over team is historically frowned upon, NHL tunnels have seen basketball jerseys, embroidered jeans, and more than a few designer handbags since the start of the season in October.

The change came after players repeatedly raised the issue with the NHL Players’ Association, citing the freedom and commercial opportunities their peers in other leagues enjoyed. Now, the NHLPA, teams, and agents are racing to capitalize—turning what was once a mundane walk from the bus to the locker room into a strategic new stage for brand-building.

With a looser dress code, “fans have an opportunity to get to know the players a little bit better, and that starts to open up opportunities in the fashion space,” NHLPA chief commercial officer Steve Scebelo tells Front Office Sports. 

For the first time, there are dedicated Instagram accounts tracking NHL fashion the way LeagueFits has chronicled NBA style since 2018. 

The timing is also fortuitous. Hockey is experiencing heightened excitement and a unique cultural moment. First, there’s the return of NHL players to the Winter Olympics for the first time since 2014, which means star-studded rosters and the world’s best competition. And then there’s also the runaway success of Heated Rivalry, the steamy gay hockey romance series. While the show is more sex than skating, it has introduced the sport to entirely new audiences—particularly young women, a demographic the league has long clawed to reach. 

The NHL is following a blueprint drawn by pro basketball. 

In the NBA, tunnel content is some of the league’s highest-performing on its social media platforms and app. The WNBA’s regular-season tunnel looks received far more engagement than NBA Finals content on LeagueFits during their overlap in 2024. A single arrival photo of DiJonai Carrington generated more than $95,000 in social value for the Minnesota Lynx, according to a report from STN Digital. Coach and Skims have signed on as official partners for the league, and the New York Liberty have inked deals with Off-White (“the official style and culture curator”), Away luggage, and Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty.

The NHLPA has already fielded interest from established fashion brands looking for partnership opportunities. Scebelo’s team is working to connect players with those brands and develop group-licensing deals that could benefit the broader membership.

“It’s important for players to know that you can be a really good teammate and perform to your best level on the ice, but you also can be an individual,” Scebelo says. “You can build an individual brand, and those two things can be in harmony.”

At talent agencies, the dress code change has sparked a flurry of activity. Jen Kardosh, head of hockey operations, marketing, and client management at CAA, has watched the shift firsthand over 14 years.

“When I first started, you were seeing the best players in the NHL get the deals,” she tells FOS. “More recently, it’s not necessarily been about being the best player, as it has been about having a great personality that you’re willing to showcase—which I think has historically been a knock on hockey players.”

That’s changing, particularly among younger athletes. CAA has connected clients with stylists, leaning on colleagues who represent NBA talent and entertainment figures. One stylist now advising 19-year-old Sharks rookie Macklin Celebrini also works with Clippers guard Chris Paul.

Current and potential brand partners have reached out asking about players’ style preferences and whether athletes would be interested in wearing specific labels. “A lot of brands—fashion brands in particular—have historically stayed away from hockey,” Kardosh says. “Now there’s a lot more interest in working with our players.”

The content is evolving, too. Ducks forward Trevor Zegras, 24, starred in a playful “Off Zeason” campaign for golf brand Greyson Clothiers over the summer, lounging poolside in his hockey helmet. Nylander filmed a video with Canadian luxury retailer Holt Renfrew, shopping for new outfits and discussing the dress code change. Eighteen-year-old Islanders rookie Matthew Schaefer just signed an endorsement deal with NoBull, the activewear brand co-owned by Tom Brady.

“Brands are starting to take a little bit more of a risk,” Kardosh says. “It’s not the same rinse-and-repeat hockey content. Now it’s more away from the ice and showcasing the players’ personalities.”

Chris Feniak, director of marketing and business development at Newport Sports Management, sees the change as an immediate opportunity for existing partnerships to expand. His client Connor Bedard has been a Lululemon ambassador since 2023—but under the old dress code, there was little he could do for the brand on game days apart from carrying a branded tote bag.

While the 20-year-old Blackhawks center isn’t one of the players who looks like he might be gunning for a front-row seat at Fashion Week, now at least his bomber jackets and track pants are recognizable—and lucrative. 

That visibility matters because, unlike tennis players or golfers, hockey players can’t showcase apparel during competition—they’re in full equipment, skating at high speeds, wearing helmets that partially shield their faces. The tunnel walk becomes one of the few moments when a player can consistently feature a brand in a high-profile setting.

Some teams themselves are taking advantage of the dress code change. The Ducks launched a collaboration with Orange County–based streetwear brand Ryoko Rain in November, which included a pair of bright-orange duck-foot clogs that players wore proudly into the arena. The shoes sold out the first day they went on sale.

Ducks CMO Merit Tully says the partnership emerged organically—21-year-old star Leo Carlsson was already arriving at games in Ryoko Rain gear before any formal collaboration existed. “They’ve got so much credibility in the fashion space that it allowed us to let them go a little bit wild with what inspired them,” Tully tells FOS.

Annie O’Donnell, an online hockey and fashion creator and the host of Cherry Bomb Hockey Podcast, has been tracking tunnel-walk content all season. While she says a lot of players “still look like they’re showing up to golf or going to a casual Friday happy hour,” she’s encouraged to see the increased embrace of unconventional silhouettes, more color, and eye-catching accessories.

Her posts regularly draw comments requesting her takes on specific players’ outfits. Teams have started polling followers on which arrivals to document. The traditionalists complaining about “professionalism” haven’t gone anywhere, but they’re in the minority. 

Hockey certainly isn’t at the NBA- or WNBA-level of fashion influence, and it’ll be a while until its impact is clear. 

The sports have different cultural contexts, different fan bases, and different histories with self-expression. The WNBA has transformed from players dressing like “athletic accountants” off the court less than a decade ago to becoming fashion’s favorite runway. Basketball’s broader relationship with style traces back decades—from Wilt Chamberlain’s flamboyant wardrobe in the 1970s and hip-hop’s influence in the 1990s to Allen Iverson’s defiant aesthetic, which prompted the NBA to institute a dress code in 2005. That code was relaxed in 2014, and tunnel walks have since exploded into a cultural phenomenon.

But the NHLPA is still betting the opportunity is real. Scebelo, who oversaw nine years of consecutive revenue growth at the NFLPA, sees fashion as one piece of a larger effort to grow hockey’s profile.

Right now is the experimentation phase. Some players are thriving with their new freedom; others are sticking with suits. Teams are learning what content resonates. Brands are assessing which partnerships make sense.

“In a sport that harps on perfection and staying within the lines, I really do respect and commend the players that are willing to experiment,” O’Donnell says. After years of watching other leagues make pregame content that travels, hockey is finally getting its shot at the runway—even if some players are still figuring out what to wear.