Detroit Red Wings Winged Wheel Snowflake Ugly Christmas Hockey Jersey

Picture the Olympia in April 1952. Two brothers who ran a fish market, Pete and Jerry Cusimano, had carried an octopus into the building, and when it landed on the ice with a wet slap the crowd did not know whether to laugh or cheer. Its eight tentacles stood for the eight playoff wins a team then needed to lift the Cup, and the Red Wings won all eight without losing once.

The octopus became a playoff ritual, and the winged wheel never left the chest. Here it spreads across the front in white on Detroit red, with crossed sticks guarding a puck beneath the laced collar, smaller wheels on the sleeves and hem, and snowflakes in every gap.

Winged wheel and skyline in front, RED WINGS and a winged snowflake behind.

The winged wheel was a Motor City idea from the beginning

Detroit joined the NHL in 1926 as the Cougars, became the Falcons in 1930 and found its permanent name in 1932, when James E. Norris bought the club. Norris borrowed the emblem of a Montreal amateur club known as the Winged Wheelers and gave it new meaning in a city that was putting the world on four wheels.

Few logos in sport need less explaining. The wheel stands for the factories along the river, and the wings stand for speed.

The Renaissance Center and the Ambassador Bridge across the stomach.

The skyline stretches from downtown to Canada

On one side of the band across the stomach stand the round towers of the Renaissance Center, opened in 1977, and on the other the long span of the Ambassador Bridge, which has crossed the Detroit River to Windsor, Ontario, since 1929. Hockey crossed that river from the start, because the Cougars played their first season in Windsor while the Olympia was still being built.

On the back, RED WINGS runs over a snowflake that grows wings around a wheel hub, turning the logo into something you could hang on a tree. A band of tiny wheel medallions finishes the hem.

A snowflake with wings around a wheel hub, under RED WINGS.

Hockeytown runs on a handful of traditions

Detroit fans call their city Hockeytown, and they have the history to back it up. These are the habits that make the name stick:

• The octopus, sent sailing onto the ice during playoff runs since 1952.
• Mr. Hockey himself, Gordie Howe, who played 25 seasons in a Detroit sweater.
• Steve Yzerman, captain in 1997, 1998 and 2002, later back as general manager.
• Eleven Stanley Cups, the most of any American team: 1936, 1937, 1943, 1950, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2008.
• One hundred seasons, completed in 2025–26, from the Olympia to Joe Louis Arena to Little Caesars Arena.

Close up: the winged wheel, the laces and crossed sticks over a puck.

A hundredth season deserves a red Christmas

A centennial is the kind of birthday that runs through the holidays. This jersey suits the long middle of winter, at a Christmas party or along the glass.

Fans who count down to the holiday can add our Red Wings 100th anniversary advent calendar to the season. Between the two, the winged wheel gets the whole of December.

A black beanie, laces pulled tight, the ice behind the glass.

From a fish-market octopus to a century of red and white, Detroit hockey has always been loud and a little strange. Wear the winged wheel this Christmas and join the celebration.

Written by Dana Whitlock, Apparel & Print Specialist at DoesignUs.