The best (external) hockey playoff tradition

Hockey fans really turn it up a notch in the playoffs. From custom sweaters to face paint, glittery beards and dyed hair, the obvious display of support for their favorite team reaches new heights, unlike on the ice. But no one does it as well as the partners of NHL players themselves.

Each year, the Dallas Stars’ better halves perform in playoff style that defines their group that season. But who decides what they wear? How can the design be released? Who can make such a high level of custom jackets and jeans with literally days notice (in some cases if the team doesn’t make the playoffs until the last day like last year)?!

I spoke with the better halves of Julia and Kristina, Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen and forward Roope Hintz before the start of Game 2 at American Airlines Center to find out how they made the group look so good as a supporting cast. from the playoffs.

This is the second year that Julia and Kristina lead the layout. “We love fashion in general, and both guys love fashion and clothes,” Kristina said. “We asked them what they thought [on the design]…but at the end of the day, we trust our intuition.”

These two hit an absolute home run in last year’s design, using the blackout shirt as inspiration for the look. “We thought they were so cool, so different. No other team has those colors, neon green and black,” Julia said. “So let’s get to it.”

The longest standard was to put the players’ name and number on the back of the jersey. Instead, Julia and Kristina wanted to mix it up a bit.

“We wanted to do something different, something no one has ever done before,” Julia said of their 2022 look. “We’ve both been here a little while, we’ve both been here five years, which is nothing in the NHL. We wanted to do something that the Dallas Stars have never seen.”

They then went researching designers working in the space and met Taylor Olson of TKO Paintings on Instagram. Olson has worked with other professional teams before last year, but Julia says he hadn’t really done a full line of jackets for a hockey team before. The duo said they like to use small businesses and artists to make their orders, which have often also been led by women.

Each partner chose their own leather jacket – since it was such a last minute team qualifier at the very end of the regular season, there wasn’t much time to get a group order together.

The logo was placed front and center back to really make it pop. Then they had each man personally sign the jacket. At first glance you might think “wow, that’s not exactly new, their autographs are all over the games.” But their partners don’t ask them for autographs at home. It was the way everyone had something special for the playoffs.

The players’ names were placed on the side in a font inspired by street art, which really fits the mood of the black leather and neon color. Each coat was hand-painted from a design idea that Julia and Kristina initially put together and then finished with Olson into the final product.

But painting by hand takes a lot of time, and the Stars weren’t in the playoffs…yet. Julia and Kristina are not superstitious. While they respected partners who didn’t want to commit to a plan until it was official, the Stars had made the playoffs, they were busy doing their due diligence and planning their future so that if (or in last year’s case, when) they were successful, they could just pull the trigger on the plan, when the seller is already ready.

It’s a bit of a gamble on both sides, to say the least.

“Depending on how many coats are requested, I usually need about 10 to 14 days because I’ve worked on the coats myself and they’re all hand painted,” Olson said. “So the timing can be tricky! The ladies at Stars actually reached out and sent me their jackets before they were officially in the playoffs. I followed the team while they were painting and prayed they would make it. I painted 12-15 hours a day and it took 10 days to finish them. I painted all 17 jackets as soon as they officially qualified for the playoffs.”

“I love how the final design turned out,” Olson said. “They sent me tons of pictures of them wearing them, which I appreciated so much. It was the best feeling to see them so happy wearing something I put a lot of work into.”

But how do you top last year’s design? Well, it turns out, it’s harder than it looks.

Julia and Kristina came up with the idea to use the players’ real jerseys as part of the jacket design this year. The vendor they were working with is a small company that does a lot in the area of ​​sustainability and often reuses or repurposes materials, so it was only natural for them to make a first-of-its-kind jacket using elements from actual jerseys. They really wanted to use a reverse retro design in the first place, but (good for the Stars, not so good for their design aspirations), those jerseys were sold out when they started trying to get them.

This season’s retro sports jacket features a primary Stars logo on the front. Opposite it is a smaller number of their partner and a pocket with black, white and green stripes from the bottom of the home jersey. One arm features a circular secondary logo shoulder badge from the shirt. On the back is the player’s name plate and number, genuine jerseys lined with silver thread.

Their goal each year is to ensure that it can be used again in subsequent seasons as well. When last year’s playoff jerseys were introduced, many affiliates wore them to this season’s games. Julia and Kristina are of the opinion that this design ethos suits people’s contemporary style choices.

Julia and Kristina plan to continue as leaders of playoff jacket design. And when the Stars appear in the NHL’s international series and get to play in front of their hometown crowd in Finland, you can count on them to bring out some great looks to make the event special.

“We already have plans. It’s planned,” they said. “We’re going to plan on making and dressing the girls. And Miro and Roope will definitely make the boys.”