Do we ever see the impact of sneakers in the NHL?

The question of why we don’t see a sneaker effect in the NHL isn’t hard to answer. The sport takes place on the ice and the sneaker has no reason to make an impact. At the same time, the idea of ​​a sport that promotes shoes in addition to its own footwear is not as strange or rare as you might think.

After all, the NFL has seen stars ranging from Dan Marino and Barry Sanders to Brett Favre and Richard Sherman. All the characteristic shoes on the market that had nothing to do with football in most cases resemble basketball or training shoes. Meanwhile, Yankee legend Derek Jeter was such a strong force in the acceptance market that he had his own Air Jordan line (one of whichsold for $ 40,000a couple of years ago!).

Even with these examples, it’s still a little hard to imagine anything related to hockey. Or at least it was before. Earlier this year onlinesneaker communitySoleSavy highlighted exactly what a sneaker-hockey crossover could look like. Community tweet incredibly cool, in the way of showcasing some of the most imaginative and interesting shoes out theredesign conceptwhich specifically attached the iconic Air Jordan 1 to a pair of hockey skates. Admittedly, they look a bit like the Red Wings or Hurricanes, for example, thanks to the classic Air Jordan 1 color. But not forgetting the uniform fit, they really look like they’re both stylish and functional skates.

Looking at this example, we have a simple question: Can anyone think of a reason why this doesn’t work or shouldn’t be tried?

For starters, such a sneaker-inspired skate would make for a really fun opportunity to bring together professional teams from the same cities or states. For example, following the New Balance shoe store Denver Nuggets star Jamal Murray confirmed that Avalanche could theoretically use skates based on Murray’s own shoe designs. New York teams could wear Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant’s footwear. Kings could take advantage of LeBron models or even reach back a bit to get inspiration from Kobe Bryant. There really would be all sorts of funny examples.

Alternatively, as in the NFL and MLB examples given above, sneakers-hockey crossovers could simply be used to identify and elevate NHL stars. In other words, we saw sneakers designed for Mikko Rantanen for Avalanche fans to buy and use on the street. Or we could see Nathan MacKinnon (who has already beencompared to MJ!) provided some sneaker-acting skates, such as the Air Jordan 1 examples, for use and advertising on ice. In any case, the idea doesn’t seem very far-fetched or weird when you really think about it.

Now, how all of this would work for NHL participation, clothing deals, and more is anyone’s guess. And there is (for the sake of clarity) no indication of suchwill happen anytime soon. But it’s also clear that it could, as well: some results can be really great.

Anyway, it’s fun to think about during the offseason!