Athletes playing on professional sports teams have increasingly entered the men’s apparel market, especially through collaborations, proprietary brands, and direct-to-retail deals. These have included players known for their careers in football (e.g., Russell Wilson with his Good Man brand), baseball (Mo Vaughn with his MVP Collections), basketball (Russell Westbrook with his ongoing capsules at Barney’s and his new Honor the Gift range), and soccer (David Beckham with Kent & Curwen and H&M), among many others.
Players in the National Hockey League have been less active, sometimes serving as brand ambassadors but rarely getting into design. The deals are starting to add up, however, albeit very slowly. Here are three key agreements that have been forged over the past four years:
- Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers goalie, has been collaborating on seasonal capsule collections of underwear, bodywear, and casual basics with the designers of Swedish company Bread and Boxers since 2014. United Legwear distributes the line in the U.S.
- In 2016, P.K. Subban of the National Predators helped design a collection of suits and related pieces for RW&CO, a Canadian retailer, as part of an endorsement deal. Just last week, the chain announced that it was partnering with Erik Karlsson of the Ottawa Senators to serve as the ambassador for its fall 2018 suiting collection, although he did not design any items.
- In 2015, Wayne Gretzky, retired player primarily for the Edmonton Oilers and L.A. Kings, launched a line of better casual menswear under the No. 99 brand, exclusively at Sears Canada. The retailer, which had 172 stores at the time of the line’s introduction, shut down earlier this year after long financial struggles, ending the venture with The Great One.
Hockey players are not known for their personal style off the ice (with some exceptions), as many athletes in other pro sports are. And hockey ranks at the bottom among key sports in fan interest in many countries, including the U.S. A January 2018 Gallup poll noted that just 4% of Americans named hockey as their favorite sport, versus 7% for soccer, 9% for baseball, 11% for basketball, and 37% for football. (On the positive side, hockey was the only sport except soccer to see growth in its fan base; the percentage of fans saying hockey was their favorite sport sat at just 3% four years ago.)
As a result, it is probably not surprising that there are so few deals. In addition, it should be noted that all the initiatives listed here involve licensees in the athletes’ home countries (Canada and Sweden) and not in the U.S., although Lundqvist’s goods are distributed in the U.S. market. Canada and the Nordic countries, along with Eastern Europe, are known as hotbeds of hockey fandom.
We will not publish on Monday, September 3, due to the U.S. Labor Day holiday, but will be back to our regular schedule on Thursday, September 6.
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