In the case of skilled sports activities, the Nationwide Hockey League typically will get overshadowed by the Nationwide Soccer League and Nationwide Basketball Affiliation. However Lululemon is out to alter that by partnering with Fanatics on a brand new line of attire focused to the hockey fan.
The gathering, which can launch on Oct. 29, will embrace a few of the model’s hottest males’s and girls’s merchandise together with the Scuba Hoodie, Outline Jacket, Align Pant, Regular State Crew, Metallic Vent Tee and All over the place Belt Bag embellished with staff logos. For the 2024-25 season, 11 groups will likely be supplied, together with the Chicago Blackhawks and New York Rangers, and all 32 groups will likely be supplied the next season.
This partnership follows on the heels of Lululemon’s current signing of Connor Bedard, a middle for the Chicago Blackhawks and the NHL’s rookie of the 12 months. Bedard was the primary NHL participant to grow to be an envoy of the Lululemon model and is featured within the marketing campaign for this new assortment.
Lululemon ambassador Conner Bedard within the new fan gear.
Courtesy of Fanatics
“As a proud Lululemon ambassador and longtime fan of the model, Lululemon is my go-to gear for coaching, and an off-day,” Bedard mentioned. “It’s thrilling that Lululemon is partnering with Fanatics and the NHL to introduce extra followers to the model.”
As a approach to publicize that the gathering provides each males’s and womenswear, Bedard will likely be joined by John Tavares of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Matty Beniers of the Seattle Kraken, Dylan Larkin (Detroit Pink Wings), Seth Jones (Chicago Blackhawks), Morgan Geekie (Boston Bruins) and Mark Stone (Vegas Golden Knights) who’re photographed alongside their feminine companions.
John Taveras and his associate are a part of the marketing campaign.
Courtesy of Fanatics
“We’re proud to have a good time the beginning of an thrilling new season with the launch of this assortment with Fanatics and Lululemon,” mentioned NHL chief model officer and senior govt vice chairman Brian Jennings. “With a singular marketing campaign that includes our gamers and their companions, we’re assured the elevated product choices coming to staff shops, choose Lids shops and nhlshop.com will delight our followers.”
Andrew Low Ah Kee, chief govt officer of Fanatics Commerce, mentioned he grew up in Vancouver and has a “deep, lifelong attraction” to the sport of hockey and believes the crop of proficient younger gamers helps the game discover extra followers.
And this take care of Lululemon is just anticipated to boost the recognition of the game, he believes. “It’s an thrilling second for followers of the NHL to have licensed product from an organization like Lululemon who’s now dipping its toe into hockey.”
Low Ah Kee mentioned Fanatics has seen that followers need a broad assortment of merchandise from their favourite groups, whether or not that’s duplicate on-ice merchandise or extra way of life choices. “Some need genuine merchandise and others need attire they will put on to different locations that also has an actual connection to the groups they assist.”
And the skyrocketing curiosity in girls’s sports activities, led by the WNBA, can be anticipated to supply a lift to the ladies’s-specific merchandise. “Girls are large sports activities followers and girls’s sports activities is having a second,” he mentioned. “And feminine followers are demanding extra from the licensed class.”
The inclusion of ladies within the advertising and marketing can be distinct and anticipated to assist join extra intently with feminine hockey followers, he mentioned. “It’s not simply product, however storytelling,” he mentioned.
“We’re thrilled to deliver this partnership with Fanatics and the NHL to life,” mentioned Celeste Burgoyne, president, Americas and international visitor innovation for Lululemon. “We’re all the time exploring new methods to introduce our model and merchandise to new customers, from our direct-to-consumer strategy to our partnerships with native studios, faculty campuses and different companions. This Assortment not solely broadens our model attain however will deepen our group engagement throughout the sport, tapping into the fervour followers have for his or her favourite NHL staff, whereas connecting them to our hottest males’s and girls’s merchandise.”
The gathering will likely be bought by means of the Fanatics on-line community within the U.S. and Canada, in addition to in Lids shops, the NHL Store NYC in New York and staff shops.