It’s sweater weather in an August heatwave.
The Islanders whittled down the number of public-designed submissions for the team’s 2027 season alternate jerseys from 80,490 to eight – and a “March Madness-style fan vote” is on the way for what’s become a passion project for the players and staff alike.
“We had (Matthew) Schaefer, (Bo) Horvat, (Kyle) Palmieri, (Ondrej) Palat, (Jean-Gabriel) Pageau, (ryan) Pulock, (Mathew) Barzal, (Alexander) Romanov all actively involved in this process,” Isles president of business operations Kelly Cheeseman told The Post.
“Many other alumni reached out…[Bryan Trottier] and Matt Martin and some of those guys were actively involved in it.”
The final eight designs include two of four logo styles: a lighthouse, a fisherman and the words “Isles” or spelled out “Islanders.”
That is in addition to the “NY” hockey stick without the traditional backdrop of Long Island, which was featured on the team’s previous alternatives that were retired in 2024.
One fisherman jersey is navy, similar to the Islanders 2022 reverse retro style, but includes teal trim instead of white. Its alternative is orange with a lighter shade of blue.
The lighthouse designs follow suit, but its navy iteration has a noticeably electric teal drop shadow around the numbering.
The “NY” options are either a navy with a white logo and trim or an orange jersey and blue “NY” logo.
Both designs for the “Isles” and “Islanders” are navy, orange and cream white.
The same two types of jersey crests, like fisherman vs. fisherman, will be pitted against each other in a quarterfinal vote from Aug. 12-14.
Final four ballot boxes open from Aug. 15-17, and then Aug. 18-20 for the remaining two.
“I had in my mind that 3,000 to 5,000 [entries] would be a home run, and 1,500 would be a success,” he said.
“I definitely did not see this coming, and it’s just exciting.”
Cheeseman added that the lighthouse logo, which was only worn as a shoulder patch on the team’s “wave” style jerseys of the late 1990s, led the way with 26% of fans submitting it as the main crest.
Navy and orange-colored jerseys, like that of the team’s early to mid-2000s look, came in at 19%, while traditional Isles blue comprised 21% of entries.
“I would love to see an orange,” Cheeseman confessed of a hopeful winner. “I think that’s a great brand addition.”
He also said that predominantly white or cream-colored jerseys, while popular with fans, posed a logistical challenge for away teams on road trips that could cut into their ice time.
“You can’t wear those at home as much,” Cheeseman said, “because you’ve got to get the other team to come in with their darks.”
The organization also gave fans incredible free rein to concoct a tarp that didn’t have to conform to the team’s traditional color sets. Other teams like the Devils and Jets teased the Islanders on social media by making jerseys in their own palettes.
A healthy scratch was immediately given to nearly 30,000 “that were different colors and irregular, off-brand” – like a franken-jersey of purple, green and yellow that The Post designed to test the competition’s limits.
Still, that left about 50,000 seriously considered submissions that fans worked up in the near two-and-a-half-week window. Plenty of folks bypassed the design website the Islanders created as well.
“I received many FedExes and passionate emails from people that did their own designs and AI designs or their own creative designs,” Cheeseman said.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t use those. But just seeing the passion of the fans to really get behind this and submit their ideas and their concepts was really rewarding to me.”
