As is true of almost all property types, sports IPs have increasingly been collaborating with designers and fashion brands. These are collections that are more fashion-forward or otherwise innovative, and typically more premium-priced, than traditional licensed fanwear ranges. Hockey—which is, in North America, currently deep in the first round of the National Hockey League (NHL) playoffs—tends to be more under the radar than the other major U.S. league sports when it comes to this trend, but it is active as well.
Four examples of deals from this year and last, involving the NHL, clubs, and current and former players, illustrate:
- Game 7, a property tied to the Amazon Prime sports anthology series of that name co-created by former NHL star Mark Messier, announced last week that it was working with Centric on an apparel brand. The partners say the new venture will offer elevated licensed sports apparel for a variety of U.S. pro sports leagues, including the NHL. The brand, which boasts several other pro athletes as investors, takes its name from the do-or-die importance of the seventh game in a playoff series. Products will launch exclusively on Amazon, starting with an NBA collection featuring high-quality unisex t-shirts, hoodies, and fleece bottoms. The NHL, colleges, and WNBA are on tap for future collections.
- New York-headquartered fashion and lifestyle brand Kith partnered in January with the New York Rangers for a custom collection for adults and kids that brought together Avirex leather jackets, caps from ’47, and Mitchell & Ness jerseys, as well as Bauer apparel and hockey equipment (sticks, helmets, and gloves) and Inglasco pucks. Imagery integrating the Kith logo into Rangers iconography, such as 1994 Stanley Cup Championship artwork and the Rangers Crest logo, was featured on suede coaches’ jackets, rugby shirts, cardigans, nylon pullovers and pants, and other items. A Kith Night at the Rangers home rink, Madison Square Garden, accompanied the venture. Kith previously offered a similar collection in partnership with the New York Knicks of the NBA, for which Kith founder Ronnie Fieg is creative director.
- October’s Very Own (OVO), co-founded by singer and Toronto Maple Leafs fan Drake, paired with hockey equipment maker Sherwood for a joint collection of apparel and equipment in January 2025. The same month, OVO announced an apparel collaboration with NHL star Wayne Gretzky, encompassing a range of items from hoodies and t-shirts to varsity jackets. The capsule was dubbed “The Great One” in homage to Gretzky’s nickname. OVO also built on its existing relationship with the NHL for a Winter ’24 “All-Canadian” collection, announced in November 2024, featuring the seven Canadian NHL teams (Montréal Canadiens, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, Vancouver Canucks, Winnipeg Jets, Ottawa Senators, and Toronto Maple Leafs). OVO has done collaborations with everyone from the NFL, MLB, and NBA to Disney and Be©rbrick.
- The Snoop Dogg-owned record label and fashion brand Death Row Records introduced a Death Row Hockey jersey collection in collaboration with five current and former players in June 2024. The jerseys focused on images integrating the likenesses of Arber Xhekaj, Chris Nilan, Ryan Reeves, Denver Barkey, and Georges Laraque, all of whom also helped promote the drop. The five players have in common reputations as on-ice enforcers with plenty of penalty minutes. Snoop Dogg is famously a hockey fan and is often seen wearing hockey jerseys.
While fashion-forward ventures such as these are proliferating, most fans continue to gravitate toward core NHL-licensed apparel and accessories. Fanatics, which has worked with the league for more than two decades, signed a new 10-year licensing agreement in 2023 to become the official supplier of on-ice uniforms and authentic jerseys at retail, starting with this season. Those categories were added to the NHL fan apparel, replica jerseys, memorabilia, performance and training products, e-commerce and retail operations, and more that Fanatics already was overseeing.
Some other key NHL apparel partners of note include Lululemon, which connected with the league in October 2024 through a sub-licensing deal with Fanatics and is making a line of team-identified athleisurewear sold through Fanatics retail channels; Mitchell & Ness, which became an NHL licensee for vintage and other apparel, headwear, and accessories soon after it was purchased by Fanatics in 2022; and New Era, which became an NHL headwear licensee in July 2024 after announcing the acquisition of long-time league licensee ’47 in a deal completed in August.
Note that there are also licensing programs involving women’s pro leagues, including the Professional Women’s Hockey League in the U.S.
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