As a sport that involves men colliding at high speeds, bare-knuckle brawls, and a fair number of players with missing front teeth, ice hockey is not commonly linked to high fashion.
But SP Apparel, a Canadian company based east of Montreal that makes the jerseys worn by all 32 National Hockey League (NHL) teams, says superior material and meticulous craftmanship have kept it at the top of the game.
“It’s like haute couture,” Steve Berard, president of the company with 260 employees in the city of Saint-Hyacinthe in Quebec province, told AFP.
SP Apparel has been making jerseys for the NHL for 50 years, through nearly half the league’s 107-year history.
For the last 25 years, it has also made the uniforms for all national ice hockey teams competing at the Olympics.
Being based in a hockey-mad nation, which has consistently produced many of the sport’s top stars, has helped …