The NHLPA has announced five-year apparel agreements, highlighted by the continuation of its partnership with Reebok. The union is expanding its roster of apparel licensees to include Old Time Hockey, Knights Apparel and Elmau & Associates. The new player apparel deal with Reebok, which starts in July, sees the company maintain exclusive rights to produce replica jerseys and T-shirts. Reebok will also have non-exclusive rights to produce all other apparel featuring NHL players together with their team logos (NHLPA). The NHLPA said that the total value of the four partnerships is "in the high seven-figure range." NHLPA Dir of Licensing & Associate Counsel Adam Larry said, "The licensees we are bringing on board are looking at creative ways to use the personality rights to create new types of product.” SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Fred Dreier notes the "shift also opens up new retail opportunities for player-branded product with mass-merchant retailers." Reebok’s NHL apparel is "carried by Dick’s Sporting Goods, Modell’s, NHL.com and the NHL store in the United States, and Sports Chek, Pro Hockey Life and Jersey City in Canada." Knights Apparel "will sell its player-branded goods in Wal-Mart, Target, Meijer, K-Mart, Costco and Sam’s Club stores, and Sogo is carried by Canadian retailers Rona and Canadian Tire as well as Wal-Mart" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 4/4 issue).
