Breaking:Vikings Unveil ‘Winter Warrior’ Uniforms Featuring White Helmets
Breaking:Vikings Unveil ‘Winter Warrior’ Uniforms Featuring White Helmets
EAGAN, Minn. – An early cold front is hitting Minnesota.
The Vikings on Thursday unveiled their new “Winter Warrior” uniforms, featuring white alternate jerseys and pants paired with the first usage of a white helmet in franchise history. The uniforms are accented with
Justin Jefferson used an ironic choice of words to describe the icy combo.
“It’s fire,” Jefferson said with a smile. “It’s beautiful. The gray, the purple, of course being all white, they’ve got that clean look.
“But you know, it’s a dirty game. So we’re definitely looking to get those jerseys a little dirty,” he laughed. “The matte white helmet with the gray strip, I mean, it’s beautiful. It’s fire.”
Jefferson, Jordan Addison, T.J. Hockenson, C.J. Ham, Christian Darrisaw, Brian O’Neill, Aaron Jones, Byron Murphy, Jr., Harrison Smith, Camryn Bynum, Josh Metellus, Jonathan Greenard, Harrison Phillips and Ivan Pace, Jr., participated in Winter Warrior photoshoots.
Goodness gracious,” he said upon his first look at the uniform, adorning a mannequin against an Arctic-themed photo set. “Our fans, they’ve gotta like these, right? These are sweet. I love the metallic. White helmets? I love it.
“Where’s mine? Where’s the coach’s head-to-toe white warmup jumpsuit?” O’Connell quipped.
The introduction of Winter Warrior caps a design process that started more than two years ago with initial concepts by Vikings Art Manager Jackie Ramacher. The Vikings debuted the “Winter Whiteout” uniforms during the 2022 season as a sort of market survey on the ultimate goal of a head-to-toe white look.
“We wanted to see, ‘Would people embrace wearing all-white? How would it go?’ Our fans loved it, and that’s how we knew, ‘OK, we really want to embrace this and use this direction for our new alternate uniforms,’ ” Vikings Creative Director Alicia Dreyer explained. “Some of the biggest feedback we got from fans with our Winter Whiteout was wanting to see an all-white helmet, but it’s a two-year process to actually create the new uniforms and new helmets – so we appreciate people being patient with us.
“This has always been in the works, and we’re really proud of what makes it unique,” Dreyer added.
Winter Warrior will join The Vikings Classic as Minnesota’s two alternate uniforms permitted by the NFL.
“We are one of 32 teams, we can all create alternate jerseys, and other teams do have white jerseys,” Dreyer acknowledged. “So we wanted to create something that we could uniquely own, that was solely the Minnesota Vikings.”
The Winter Warrior uniforms feature a number of design elements inspired by ancient Viking culture and the Northern climate, including the cool-toned color palette and subtle variation on the standard jersey’s numbers.
“By eliminating the gold from the uniform, we have removed all warmth,” Ramacher explained. “Metallic gray has not only taken its place but has become the star of the show. It is a nod to ancient Vikings armor, as well as to ice. Further supporting the ice theme, the numbers feature ‘dripping icicle’ accents that are a unique twist on our existing SKOL font serifs. We took a similar curved shape from our original number set but rotated it downward to emulate the look of ice drips, supported by the metallic gray outline.”
