Stuart Skinner seems to be finding his game of late, and he’s looked good doing it.
Much has been said about the Edmonton Oilers’ goaltender in terms of his play over the past few seasons, but you can’t deny that Skinner has a great sense of style on the ice. The 26-year-old has had some memorable equipment throughout his NHL career, including a Grant Fuhr-inspired Heritage classic set, as well as last year’s Mike Smith-esque set of gear.
Skinner did it again with a brand-new design for the team’s alternate jersey this season. It’s a retro-inspired set of equipment, complete with a cream white base that carries a sharp-looking vintage CCM logo alongside a darker hue of blue with a hint of orange.
It’s a beautiful look, and Skinner told Daily Hive how it came to be.
“Gerry Festa, the rep at CCM, has helped me with my equipment since I was 16,” Skinner said. “He came up to me and was talking about the third jerseys, he was able to see them even before I did, so he had a little bit of a taste of what colours we should go with and whatnot.
“He sent me a few different types, and we kind of tweaked it from there. He made a really good call on making it all dark blue on the backside, instead of white, and I think it’s made it look so good and so clean. We really enjoy doing retro stuff.”
Stuart Skinner’s 2025-26 alternate jersey set of gear – @nuggyyybabyyy/X
According to Skinner, the bulk of the design work was handled by Festa. Daily Hive asked how involved he gets in the design process, to which Stu admitted that he’s not the one calling all the shots.
“I’m not really the pushy type,” Skinner admitted. “He knows my style at this point, so we just kind of chat about it. It’s not really a type of conversation where I absolutely need something. The main thing I need is just the pad to stop pucks.”
Outside of the alternate gear, things have taken a bit of a change for Skinner in his regular setup. He has ditched the separate home/away gear this season in favour of one main set that he will wear for just about every game.
This year’s design is a bit more subdued, being mostly white except for a little orange accent.
“I think I learned my lesson last year from doing a home and away set,” Skinner said. “Sometimes the sets can actually feel different. Here at home, the gear is a little bit more crusty. When you’re away, sometimes the gear feels a little bit better just because of the moisture in the air and whatnot.
“That’s why I’m doing one set this year, and it’s made a really good impact just on how the gear feels everywhere. It’s more consistent that way.”
Stuart Skinner’s 2025-26 setup – Jerome Miron/Imagn Images
There have also been some changes in the material that Skinner uses with his equipment this season. He explained that several new things have been implemented into his gear, including a new type of leather for the actual pads.
“CCM helped out a lot this summer, just testing a couple of new things with the boot, new channel with the leg’s strapping system, how tight I want it, how loose I want it,” Skinner said. “I really dove into gear this past summer and really tried to figure out a few things just to feel the best out there.”
Some might be sad to see the bold two-tone blue and orange set be retired after only one season. It was a departure from the usual for Oilers goaltenders and looked extraordinary on the ice.
Skinner liked that set as well, but found that he felt more comfortable playing in the white set last season and wanted to give it full-time treatment this year.
“I just liked the feel of the white gear a little bit better [last season],” Skinner said. “I decided to go pretty well all white this year. Just feels good.
“That’s the fun part of being a goalie. You can go with an all-dark set, or you can go all yellow, like [Jusse] Saros. I could have done random colours. I just felt like this is the way I wanted to go this year.”
Stuart Skinner’s 2024-25 home set of gear – Perry Nelson/Imagn Images
There has been some speculation that maybe it was new Oilers goalie coach Peter Aubry who might’ve suggested the switch to a white set, but Skinner denied that being the case when asked.
It’s clear that Skinner loves the fashionable side of being a goalie, but his top priority is making sure pucks continue to hit the gear, no matter the design.