How Ducks did not shy away from Disney origins for Hometown Remix

ANAHEIM, Calif. – When the NHL unveiled all 32 of the league's Hometown Remix alternate jerseys on Monday morning, the bright pops of a green, purple and yellow color palette caught the eye of everyone getting their first full look at the Anaheim Ducks' entry.

It was an inspired reference to the team's origins and local culture that everyone could agree on, right Fanatics?

"Inspired by the fresh green of the parks we love to roam," the league jersey-supplier's press release said, "and the gold of our sunsets over the water, this jersey is an homage to the good life of Orange County."

You sure? You're certain it's not an ode to the District 5 Ducks uniforms of the 1992 cult classic Disney movie The Mighty Ducks –the namesake of the very NHL franchise on display?

If it walks like a Mighty Duck and talks like a Mighty Duck, well then "Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack Mr. Ducksworth," it's a Mighty Ducks jersey.

"They're certainly an ode to our past," Ducks chief marketing officer Meritt Tully said."That is pretty clear."

For the first time in their 33 years on NHL ice, the Anaheim Ducks will reach all the way back into their pre-history and don the same colors that Charlie Conway, Adam Banks, Connie Moreau, Lester Averman, Greg Goldberg and the rest wore today against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Honda Center. It's the first of 10 nights the team will wear the uniforms, including Tuesday against the Nashville Predators.

Leo Carlsson models the Anaheim Ducks' Hometown Remix uniform.

It was a bold decision for a franchise that turned fully into its "Orange Country" branding just two years ago, so how did these Hometown Remix designs come to be?

Tully explained that it was an 18-month process with the league and Fanatics, but even in that time there were only "small, minor changes" to the concepts Tully, Jillian Reddin–San Diego Gulls director of hockey operations and daughter of Ducks owners Henry and Susan Samueli–and other Ducks staff first saw.

The inception of this concept goes back even before that 18-month Hometown Remix timeline, when the Ducks and Fanatics were developing Anaheim's current orange-centric brand with the updated Mighty Ducks logo.

"We've talked about what are some of the things that we would want to bring into our color palette, as our brand begins its new evolution from when we rebranded a few years ago," Tully said. "We had conversations about when the time comes. Now, Hometown Remix wasn't a program at that point."

"We just knew that at some point, we're gonna want to really dive down deep into the history, celebrate the history of our franchise."

Now, 33 years in, when it comes to celebrating that history, there are varied and clashing looks to parse through. Again, although the team has never worn these exact shades of green and purple from the Disney movies, there are the original eggplant and jade classics, which transitioned into the black and gold Stanley Cup championship uniforms and again into the webfoot "D" logo with the larger inclusion of orange–not even including the various alternate sweaters.

As previously mentioned, for a team that has leaned all the way in on the orange in the last couple seasons, any change to a previous palette would provide a jarring juxtaposition, particularly the green.

"We talked a bit about that," Tully said. "We've rallied around a color in a significant way with that rebrand, and should that slow us down from, I'll call it creativity, and the ability to also incorporate elements of our brand that we know the fans would love? And in our minds, as we talked about it as a collective group, we don't want to stifle our fans' enthusiasm or creativity in the name of trying to be too rigid."

So, to break that form of rigidity, the Ducks and Fanatics went all the way back to where they've never gone before on the ice to suit up Anaheim in these District 5-inspired threads.

Charlie Conway as portrayed by Joshua Jackson in The Mighty Ducks (1992)

"We know we have a super unique history," Tully continued. "The only team that's born from a movie, right? And as we've looked over the past few years and just the fans kind of positive response to that history, as we've celebrated our 30th anniversary, and and then even beyond that our rebrand, we had a pretty good thought that people were gonna, people were going to like this, especially a certain set, were gonna like it."

That "certain set" brings up the elephant in the room whenever the Ducks produce a jersey of any kind, particularly one with historic nods.

It's the question asked by thousands across social media, whether they're on the nostalgia train because they lived it or because the '90s are trendy again: why won't the team simply wear true Mighty Ducks throwbacks?

"You're certainly gonna see the awesome part of all of these things is people have a passionate love for our organization," Tully said, "and they have thoughts on what they believe to be the right look and feel for who we are."

The last time the team wore full Mighty Ducks throwbacks was the 20th anniversary season, but it's not as if the team has shied away from the look while trying to serve multiple masters. The 25th anniversary featured an adjusted Mighty Ducks jersey with a black base and jade shoulders, and the 30th anniversary sweater was full eggplant and jade in a new design that included the old Wild Wing shoulder roundel as the crest.

Over the previous two league-wide Reverse Retro jersey initiatives, the team touched on that Mighty history with a white version of the 1996 Wild Wing sweater and an orange version of the original 1993 home sweater.

"For every time we do something that is an orange jersey, we hear that we should go back to the originals," Tully said. "You go back to the originals and somebody says that they love the orange or they love the old black or, hey, why don't they ever do the green?"

"I love the dialogue. There's certainly no end to it."

While the team is still fully committed to the color orange as they look to the future, there has been a more full and open embrace of the team's history over the last several years, especially as '90s culture has come back en vogue.

Even beyond the steady stream of throwback merchandise in the team store, Anaheim has done many activations with the movie actors–a few of which will be on hand Sunday and at future Hometown Remix nights–including bringing Joshua Jackson and Marguerite Moreau to the NHL Draft two summers ago to announce the selection of Roger McQueen.

Anaheim's chosen social media hashtag is #FlyTogether, referencing the inspirational intermission speech from D2– "When the roosters are crowing and the cows are spinnin' in circles in the pasture?!"

Heck, Disneyland is the team's helmet sponsor this year.

For a franchise that once dropped the Mighty name and the original color scheme in a deliberate break from the Disney era, this is all a pretty open embrace of elements that were derided as unserious or–in apt phrasing–"Mickey Mouse."

"If you've been around for a while, you remember the days where it wasn't always a positive thing to be a Disney owned franchise, and so it's really neat to kind of come full circle," Tully said. "I think of it like growing up. There's a lot of things that you do that are kind of maybe embarrassing when you look back in pictures at that, and when you grow up and you're old enough to have the confidence and enough in the rear view and mud on the tires, if you will, you can look back with that and enjoy the memories that there were, and embrace new ones."

The new memories can already include an overwhelming response to the Hometown Remix sweater, which saw the Ducks team stores highest single-day jersey sales numbers since the franchise's very first jersey sales in 1993.

They also move forward into the first of those 10 Hometown Remix on Sunday, which will have their own look beyond the jerseys on the ice and in the stands.

"I'm gonna leave a little bit to the imagination," Tully said, "but certainly, when it comes to the board and some of the entertainment elements, they will be catered to our Hometown Remix, the nights will have their own feel with the team and the way it looks. We're gonna change what the bowl looks like pretty significantly."

And for one last tease, fans can look to the skies on a future Hometown Remix night, as Fly Together may take on a new meaning.

"As far as our in-game elements, we're gonna be sure that we've got five ducks flying each of these games coming up," Tully said. "So we're excited about that. I don't want to give too much away, but we may have a special surprise, not Sunday night, but maybe a few hometown remix games from now with those ducks."