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In Vegas, the ice always wins.

If you ask the ol’timers, they’ll tell you Vegas hockey started in the 60’s. They’ll tell you about the Las Vegas Ice Palace. They’ll tell you about the 1991 exhibition at Caesars.

But I was born in the late ‘80’s, so if you ask me, I’ll tell you about the Thunder (best jerseys ever, and still my favorite color). I’ll tell you about the Wranglers ($12 tickets? Sign me up!) My relationship with the ice wasn’t just as a local hockey fan, though. My relationship with the ice was a 35 minute drive across town to Santa Fe Station for an open skate. It was that cold blast walking into Las Vegas Ice Center. It was talking my parents into renting the rink for my 13th birthday party. It was being thrilled that a rink popped up in a warehouse on Annie Oakley, even though it didn’t last. 

The desert has always been inhospitable for the ice. Like the gravel weeds, though, the ice keeps coming back. The rink on Annie Oakley might not have made it, but when our first professional sports team turned out to be an NHL team, youth hockey blew up. Now there’s 2 sheets 10 minutes from me, in the same area of town that used to require that 35 minute drive. 

I wanted my kids to have the option to enjoy Saturday nights similar to mine when I was growing up, hanging out at cosmic open skate with all of my friends. So as soon as they were old enough, I (and half the town, it seems) signed them up for Learn to Skate. They got dumped out on the ice with legs going every which way like baby deer. If you had asked me then if I expected my future self to be spending 6 days a week at the rink, I would have laughed. 

Several youth sports teams later, my husband and I are seasoned sports parents. We’ve ended up with team merch ranging from the nicest Adidas moisture-wicking apparel to the scratchiest, least comfortable sweaters with thick seamed wrist cuffs. Maybe it’s my inability to deal with any sensory discomfort, or maybe it’s that I want to be able to still wear cute things when it’s time to put on my team swag. Either way, wanting my own merch is what led me and my husband to start our own apparel journey. We’ve combined his expertise in graphic design and my expertise in printing to offer products that are both comfortable and fun. 

I used to think, maybe my kids won’t still like hockey in a couple of years. I would tell myself, maybe this will be their last season. But somehow, now my husband plays, too. Somehow, we’re all in on hockey. I’ve learned to embrace the #hockeymom life. We don’t have any choice, really. In Vegas, the ice always wins.