Alabama football’s “Cold Summer” was paved by a pretty cool idea.

Anyone paying attention to the Crimson Tide’s torrid recruiting run has probably noticed an unusual fashion trend developing in Tuscaloosa. Since the beginning of June, the Tide has landed 11 commitments and hosted several other highly-rated talents on campus. The majority of those recruits have donned an Alabama hockey jersey at some point during their visit.

The new style was sparked by a simple favor and has now snowballed into one of Alabama’s unlikeliest collaborations. It all started with Joe Hughes looking for a way to put his team on the map.

Hughes is entering his junior year at Alabama and serves as the goaltender for the university’s club-level hockey team. Coming out of high school, the New Jersey native spent a couple of years playing junior hockey before being steered toward Tuscaloosa. At that point, he knew two things about Alabama — it was a name-brand school, and it had an excellent football team. Over the past two years, he’s learned that if you dig deep enough, the state has room for some hockey interest as well.

The difficult part is getting the word out. Alabama hockey wouldn’t have found its way into football photo shoots if it wasn’t for a bit of recruiting from Hughes himself.

The goaltender has been thinking of ways to partner with Alabama football for a while. After pitching the idea to a couple of friends on the team, he was introduced to Alabama assistant director of recruiting Robbie Proano, who informed him about the Tide’s “Cold Summer” recruiting theme. From there, the wheels in his head started turning.

“Most people, when they think of hockey, they think of cold weather,” Hughes said. “I knew I could help them out by giving them some of our old alternative jerseys with the “Frozen Tide” saying on the front of them. They match the theme they were doing, and I figured that would be pretty useful.”

Sure enough, they were.

Alabama football’s Cold Summer theme originates from the eight-ball the Crimson Tide was placed behind from a recruiting standpoint. Taking over for legendary head coach Nick Saban in January, Kalen DeBoer and his staff had a lot of catching up to do to achieve the No. 2 ranked class it currently holds. That was never going to lead to a typical summer for the Tide.

“From a cold standpoint, it was more like we’re going to surprise a lot of people, we’re going to flip a lot of guys,” said Walt Brock, Alabama’s director of creative and production. “Instead of it being a hot summer, it’s more of a cold summer because a lot of our guys are going to surprise you.”

Brock joined Alabama in March from Crossovr Collective, a sports branding company he co-founded. The San Francisco native also has experience in sales with the Oakland Raiders as well as fundraising for Columbia University and California-Berkeley. He also previously held a role in Conference USA’s office. Brock knows a good marketing idea when he sees one, and it didn’t take long for him to realize he had a winner on his hands when Hughes presented him with the hockey jerseys.

“Obviously they have the script A jersey, but then I saw one that had the Frozen Tide on it. After I saw that one, I was like, ‘Oh man, this is meant to be,’” Brock recalled. “We always want to do different things for our recruits… From a fashion standpoint right now this is kind of in. A lot of people are wearing the hockey and lacrosse jerseys, so it’s been a huge hit. They really added that additional flare to the recruiting weekends and really put an emphasis on that Cold Summer.”

It’s unclear if Keelon Russell was the first recruit to don an Alabama hockey jersey this summer, but he certainly played one of the biggest roles in spurring the Tide’s new fashion statement. The blue-chip quarterback posted a picture of himself rocking the Alabama hockey script A shirt during his official visit on May 31, four days before he flipped from SMU to Alabama.

“When we saw that, we were like, ‘Oh, no way. This is pretty sick. This is kind of big for us.’” said Will Zeek, Alabama hockey’s general manager. “We were kind of shellshocked.”

Even Hughes was a bit taken back upon seeing his plan finally play out.

“It was like, ‘Oh wow, this is actually working,’” he recalled. “When I saw a five-star recruit wearing my jersey it was kind of crazy. From there it was one recruit after another after another. Every recruit who wore the jersey it was like, ‘Woah, this is really taking off.’”

It’s hard to keep track of all the Alabama jersey sightings that pop up over Instagram stories and other social media posts. Four-star linebacker Dawson Merrit posted a picture of himself in the jersey and also had it included in his commitment graphic. Rivals100 cornerback Dijon Lee Jr. also posed in the jersey before committing to the Tide last week.

Current Alabama stars are also getting in on the act. While serving as a recruiting host for Rivals100 back Akylin Dear last month, Alabama freshman running back Daniel Hill posted a picture of himself and Dear in hockey jerseys. Dear was currently committed to Ole Miss at the time but decommitted last week and is now leaning toward the Tide.

Among Alabama’s current players, Kadyn Proctor might be the biggest fan of the new trend.

“He literally lost his mind when he saw the jersey,” Brock said. “Fortunately, we had one that actually fit him. I think it was probably one of the goalie jerseys.

“The jerseys have been a huge hit for the team. It’s to the point where during the recruiting weekends we would have a lot of the guys who are hosting the recruits stop by and want to try them on. They were like, ‘Wait a minute, how do we get these?’”

Don’t worry, that’s already in the works.

Hughes might have netted Alabama hockey its biggest win to date, but the Frozen Tide’s recent exposure is just step one of his two-part plan. Since contacting the football team, the goaltender has also been collaborating with Brock and several others to come up with a football-themed alternate jersey for the coming season.

While the project has yet to be finalized, the new jersey is set to be released sometime in September. Hughes, who served as the jersey’s primary designer is keeping the details under wraps for now but describes the look as a hockey twist on the Crimson Tide’s timeless football tradition.

“We didn’t go too crazy with it where there are a million things going on,” Hughes said. “It’s a nice, clean, hockey-style jersey with a little football theme in it. When we officially release it, I think everybody’s going to love the design.”

Alabama football also plans to return the favor for hockey’s help in recruiting. Along with giving the Frozen Tide a shoutout over social media, several football players are set to play a part in the new hockey jersey’s unveiling when it is eventually released.

“At the end of the day, the script A is so powerful, man,” Brock said. “The family here is tight-knit. Whenever there are opportunities to do something that is unique but also can support multiple programs and put Alabama athletics in a good light across the board, we’re going to pursue that.”

Alabama hockey’s official schedule is set to be released Monday and will see Louisville, Oklahoma and Oregon all making trips to the team’s home rink in Pelham, Alabama. After stepping into the spotlight this summer, the Frozen Tide is hoping to draw a few looks from fans this fall.

“It’s a huge opportunity for us to just get Alabama hockey more noticed and for more people in the South to recognize the sport,” Hughes said. “Everybody knows Alabama football, so for us to have the honor to be partnered with them is something our team will forever be grateful for. I can’t wait to see my team wearing this and everybody on my team being a part of this.”