By Cameron Lee
February 7, 2024
Photo: Marc Prosper
To celebrate Black History Month, the Carolina Hurricanes revealed a new “Black Excellence” jersey designed by North Carolina artist, Mike Jones. The special edition hockey jersey quickly sold out following the release.
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The sleek black Adidas jersey features a multicolored rose which replaces the team’s primary hurricane logo. The numbers on the back of the jersey are detailed with 23 thorns, representing the number of players on an NHL roster. The inspiration for the jersey? Tupac Shakur’s poem, “The Rose That Grew From Concrete,” served as the main design cue for the logo.
“As I was looking at a rose, it kind of reminded me of seeing a hurricane on a graph,” Jones said. “A rose can symbolize many different things, including love and passion, and you have to have love and passion for the game.”
The rose has a deeper meaning as it relates to the sport of hockey. In 2022, the NHL released its first-ever comprehensive diversity and inclusion report, revealing roughly 93% of the league consisted of white players, with the 7% being Black, Latino, Arab, Asian, or Indigenous, according to Kim Davis, who joined the NHL as Executive Vice President of Social Impact in 2017.
Jones, who is a big advocate for pursuing dreams and supporting youth programs, sees the rose as sort of a motif for the NHL’s pursuit of diversity and inclusivity.
“A rose from concrete can be symbolism for not letting somebody deter you from blossoming or being successful, even if it’s in an environment where it doesn’t seem possible,” Jones said.
This isn’t the first jersey Jones has helped design for a professional sports team. Last year, he worked with Charlotte FC’s creative director Taylor Banner on their “Excellence Was Once A Dream” campaign that saw his designs on game-worn jersey numbers, and on the club’s June 2023 Scarf of the Month. It represented the North Carolina creatives who have inspired him to pursue his dreams. People like Victor Lytvinenko (Raleigh Workshop), who Jones considers to be a mentor and motivator in his fashion and design pursuits.
Jones now wants to help the next generation of creatives in North Carolina through his agency, VIOLET, by working on programs that provide photography students with camera equipment, laptops, and Adobe subscriptions in the near future. Proceeds from the sales of the “Black Excellence” jerseys, which retailed at $450, benefited Durham Success Summit, a non-profit organization that provides professional development experiences to young Black men from the ages of 16 through 24.
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Jones was recognized at the game on Tuesday night and presented the non-profit with the news.
“The whole experience was so overwhelming and warming,” he said. “It is truly a moment I’ll never forget, especially seeing the reaction of the Durham Success Summit after presenting them with the proceeds of the jersey.”
In addition to the jerseys, the Hurricanes are running an online book drive from February 5-19, benefiting North Carolina non-profit Book Harvest. Proceeds from books purchased on the team’s wish list (written by Black authors and/or about diversity and inclusion) will be donated to the organization.
You can follow artist and designer Mike Jones on Instagram and X (Twitter).
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