By Stampeders.com staff

It was two decades ago that the Stampeders made a profound impact on both the football and fashion worlds.

These days, alternate, retro and special-occasion uniforms are commonplace but, back in 1994, Canadian Football League teams had two sets of attire — one for home games and one for the road — and that’s all there was to it.

That’s until the Stamps pulled off a surprise sartorial switcheroo at the Labour Day Classic on Sept. 5, 1994. After warming up in their regular jerseys, the Stamps returned to the locker-room to see new black jerseys with red numbers and a crossed-pistols patch on the sleeve.

“You could feel the energy lift in that room,” Vince Danielsen, a receiver for that 1994 Stamps team, recalled. “We put on the jerseys and we looked different. For an athlete to get a new jersey, and that it was black, made a huge difference.”

The new-look Stamps took everyone by surprise when they took the field with their new jerseys. Maybe the Eskimos, too. Edmonton had won eight of the 10 previous Labour Day Classics but in 1994 the black-clad Stamps whipped their provincial rivals 48-15.

Calgary went on to win its first nine games wearing the alternate jerseys including the 1998 Grey Cup on a dramatic field goal by Mark McLoughlin on the final play of the game.

Twenty years after the Stamps became the first team to take the field with alternate jerseys, history will repeat itself in 2014 as the Stamps will debut a new uniform set — not just a jersey, but also a head-to-toe look including helmet, pants and socks — at the Labour Day Classic on Sept. 1.

Calgary’s latest new look is part of a CFL Signature Uniform series launched across the league this season.

Jon Cornish, the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player in 2013, is one of the few individuals who has seen the Stamps’ new alternate uniform. While he’s sworn to secrecy about the details, he’s confident fans will be pleased.

Will the uniform maintain the Stamps’ “Back in Black” Labour Day tradition or is the team going in a completely different direction? Tune in on Sept. 1 to find out.