Thursday, October 1, 2026
What started as a few minutes of experimenting with different New York Islanders jersey designs turned into a pretty big surprise for Sewanhaka High School graduate James Doyle.
Doyle submitted five concepts to the Islanders’ inaugural fan-driven third jersey design contest, trying out different colors, layouts and even a fisherman-inspired jersey. He wasn’t expecting much when he sent them in. He certainly didn’t expect one of them to become the team’s winning design.
But his “Navy Lighthouse” concept was selected by fans as the Islanders’ third jersey design for the 2027-28 season.
“I was just doing a bunch of different designs with the White House,” Doyle said, referring to one of the concepts he created. “I did, like, a white jersey. I did just, like, different colors. I did a fisherman jersey.”
The designs did not take him hours of painstaking work. Instead, Doyle said he would occasionally sit down, make a few versions and submit them.
“Honestly, it didn’t take too long,” he said. “It only took a couple minutes.”
Contestants were allowed to submit as many designs as they wanted, giving fans plenty of room to experiment with what they thought an Islanders third jersey could look like.
The winning design was not even Doyle’s favorite of the five.
Since winning, though, the design has started to grow on him.
The Islanders announced that 80,490 designs were submitted during the contest, making the winning concept the result of an unusually large fan response. The “Navy Lighthouse” design will now move beyond the digital concept stage as the Islanders and Fanatics work to turn it into an official NHL uniform.
The organization said it will review additional ideas submitted by fans during the contest as it refines the final jersey. The finished uniform will keep the core elements of the winning concept while being adjusted to meet NHL standards before its scheduled debut at UBS Arena during the 2027-28 season.
For Doyle, the prize goes beyond simply seeing his idea on the ice. The Islanders will give him a team-signed version of the new jersey and tickets to attend its official debut.
The contest also gave the Islanders a chance to involve fans in a part of the franchise that is typically left to designers and team officials.
“This contest was launched to break down traditional barriers, giving the fans a direct voice in shaping our new look,” Kelly Cheeseman, president of business operations for the Islanders and UBS Arena, said in a statement.
Not everyone has been enthusiastic about the winning design, however.
Doyle said he has seen some criticism on social media, including people suggesting he was paid by the team or that the design was created using artificial intelligence.
“They think I’m paid by the team or whatever, or AI generated,” he said. “It’s pretty funny.”
Still, he understands that a jersey is going to bring out strong opinions from fans.
“I know not everybody’s going to like it,” he said. “But I think it’s pretty cool.”
For someone who entered the contest by casually making a handful of designs every few hours, watching one of those concepts become the Islanders’ next third jersey is a result he never expected.
And perhaps the biggest surprise is that the design fans chose was not even the one Doyle thought was his best.
