Supreme New York x Adler Mannheim?!

It's Thursday and we're buying Supreme or something similar. Today marks the first drop of the Spring/Summer 2022 Collection from the New York streetwear giant. And as we were scrolling through the preview last night, one piece did make us a little curious – the "Supreme Eagle Hockey Jersey." A large eagle adorns an ice hockey jersey in various shades of blue, covered with small sponsor logos that have been adapted in typical Supreme fashion to terms like "World Famous," "SUP," "MVP" & co. So far, so unusual for the worldly Supreme customer. For us Mannheimers, however, there's more to it than that. The template for this now probably globally sought-after piece is a jersey of the Mannheimer Adler from the 2001/2002 season, which Supreme has practically adopted 1:1 and slightly modified.

Source: Adler Mannheim Archive / "History"

While it was certainly common in the past for Supreme designs to be not only massively inspired by vintage pieces & older garments, but sometimes practically served as 1:1 copies, one wonders how it came about that the choice fell precisely on an old Mannheimer Adler jersey. As a consistent size in the DEL and 8-time German ice hockey champion, the Mannheimer Adler certainly enjoys supra-regional popularity, but that alone surely wasn't the decisive factor for the Supreme jersey. Perhaps it was simply the cool design, the popular eagle, or pure coincidence that Supreme brought the jersey from the early 2000s.