Third jersey
Some teams have exceeded the limit; the 2017 Baltimore Ravens were an example, wearing their all-black uniforms twice that season, and the less-frequent black jerseys on white pants once.
Ole Miss was one of the earliest programs to use two different jerseys, wearing the school colors of navy blue and red depending upon the game.
The team wears either white or navy blue for most games, but occasionally special kelly green jerseys with gold numbers, evocative of the "Fighting Irish", are chosen for a major contest.
Third kits traditionally started in European competition as a way of marking the occasion and existed in association football at least as early as the 1930s.
Among such designs that were also tested were third jerseys, to break the traditional mold that baseball teams wear white uniforms at home, and gray on the road.
The Yankees wore three different jerseys in 1911, 1916, and most recently in 1943 according to the Dressed to the Nines database maintained by the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Third jerseys otherwise remain popular in baseball today, either as an alternate design or as a throwback known as "Turn Back the Clock Night."
In 2017, to celebrate Canada's 150th anniversary, the Blue Jays wore alternate red jerseys and caps for every Sunday home game.
When they changed their name to the Rays, they introduced an alternate navy blue for home and away games to go along with their white and gray uniforms.
The Philadelphia Phillies introduced an alternate cream-colored uniform (with a blue cap to complete the look) in 2008 and currently wear it for all afternoon home games.
The Baltimore Orioles wear alternate black jerseys (with a cap showing the "O's" script logo) every Friday, regardless of whether they are home or away (home games against the Red Sox would force the latter to wear their regular grey uniforms rather than their navy Friday uniforms), and in 2012 they introduced an alternate orange jersey to be worn during Saturday games.
The San Francisco Giants wear a different version of their road grey uniforms, featuring the interlocking "SF" instead of the city name in full.
The trend toward multiple uniforms of the same color can also lead to on-field mix-ups: in 2011, Brewers pitcher Zack Greinke, making a pinch-hitting appearance, accidentally wore the "Bierbrauer" jersey the night before German Heritage Day,[30] while in 2014, just three games into the first season where the alternate was introduced, outfielder Junior Lake played the first inning in a "Chicago" jersey while the rest of the team wore "Cubs".
[32] While some teams complied with the rule, including teams such as the Seattle Mariners and Tampa Bay Rays replacing their gray road uniforms with colored tops, MLB allowed the San Diego Padres to keep their two Sunday camouflage home uniforms in order to maintain their tradition of honoring the United States Armed Forces.
In 2021, Nike and Major League Baseball introduced the City Connect series, in which teams unveil alternate uniforms that were a reflection of their community.
The 1994–95 season brought the first wave of third jerseys in the NBA, as the Hawks, Charlotte Hornets, Detroit Pistons, Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings released new alternate uniforms.
The trend continued in the 1995–96 season with the Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks and New York Knicks introducing their own third jerseys.
The Canadian Football League first introduced the use of a permanent third jersey on September 6, 1994, when the Calgary Stampeders wore black uniforms for the Labour Day Classic against the Edmonton Eskimos.
Despite teams having no restrictions with third jerseys, only the Stampeders chose to wear them during the 1990s, presumably due to the league's financial struggles during this decade.
[36] Calgary introduced the third iteration of their black uniforms while the Alouettes wore a blue jersey with red numerals.
[39] The Winnipeg Blue Bombers also wore their alternate gold jerseys as the away team for their playoff game against the host Toronto Argonauts.
[40] The Toronto Argonauts were the last CFL team to wear a third jersey as they wore alternate Cambridge blue uniforms on July 26, 2007.
Following the league-based retro initiative, the league then turned its attention to a modernized take on all nine teams (including the expansion Ottawa Redblacks) by introducing Signature uniforms mostly in the 2014 season.
When New Era became the league outfitter in 2019, only Calgary, Edmonton, and Saskatchewan wore third jerseys and all three were holdovers from the previous three seasons.
The sublimated dye process allows for more complex stripe and graphic designs than were possible or practical with traditional manufacturing methods.
Third jerseys as a whole began to skew more to traditional stylings and throwback designs, especially for teams who more modernized looks in the Edge redesign.
The only teams that have not had a full-season third jersey since the beginning of the current program are the Detroit Red Wings and the Montreal Canadiens.
[72] Once a team has been granted permission by the league to use their new design, they will request and be allowed ten to fifteen games during the season in which they may use their third sweater.
The Mighty Ducks' third from that season, featuring mascot Wildwing bursting through a sheet of ice, was also considered particularly garish.
Examples of teams who wore third jerseys in the playoffs include the Dallas Stars (in 1999), the San Jose Sharks (from 2011 to 2014), the Anaheim Ducks (in 2014), the Minnesota Wild (from 2013 to 2017), the Washington Capitals (in 2015), the Toronto Maple Leafs (in 1999), the Philadelphia Flyers (in 2001 and 2009), the Pittsburgh Penguins (in 1997, 2016, and 2021), the Edmonton Oilers (in 2017 and 2021), the Calgary Flames (in 2019), the Arizona Coyotes (in 2020) and the Carolina Hurricanes (in 2019, 2020, and 2021).
