Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Sidney Crosby, Fashion consultant


Well, Sid the kid, is branching out! Not content to just fashioning up passing plays and scoring attempts, the Pittsburgh kid can add fashion consultant to his impressive resume.

While he wasn't sitting down to the sewing machine each and every night to make the all star break deadline, Crosby was quite involved in the design process for the much ballyhooed new look launched on Monday.

And as would be expected from a guy that gets a fair amount of coin from the folks at Rebok, Sid is pretty impressed with the new duds that he and his fellow NHLers will be wearing next year.

Eric Duhatschek of the Globe and Mail had the details on the latest creation from the House of Crosby.



Crosby a driving force behind new uniforms
ERIC DUHATSCHEK
Globe and Mail Update

January 23, 2007

Sidney Crosby was front-and-centre again Monday as Reebok officially launched its new RBK Edge uniform system. By then, of course, many of the details had already leaked out. USA Today ran a major feature, with accompanying pictorials; the league discussed the pros and cons of the new "system" with the Canadian Press, and Brian Jennings, the NHL vice president of consumer products had, according to Bloomberg News, suggested if players tampered with the design, as they are wont to do, they could face fines, in the same way that NBA, NFL and major-league baseball players do for not adhering to the league mandated dress code.

Jennings denied that that would ever happen and revealed that next year, when the system goes into regular use, players can wear whatever pants or socks they want, no matter who manufactures them.

Crosby, who has an endorsement deal with Reebok, said he worked with the company "pretty much all summer" on the new pants' design.

"I'm pretty picky, so I think I'm a good guy to test things out when it comes to equipment. Sometimes, I'm a trainer's worst nightmare. But I think it's important. I think all the guys respect that. They want to be better out there on the ice."
Crosby gave the new look a thumbs-up and said of the jersey: "It's a lot lighter and it's a bit tighter, but at the same time, it's moving with you instead of going against you. Selfishly, you think too that defencemen aren't going to be able to grab onto your jersey as much as they are now. They say they don't, but sometimes, they do. It's just nice to see the technology going forward.

"We're in a new era in the NHL. Why not do the same thing with the jersey?"

Reebok began experimenting with the uniform changes more than three seasons ago, according to Matthew O'Toole, president and chief executive officer of Reebok-CCM Hockey, to capitalize on the new materials available to them.

They cited innumerable statistics, suggesting the new pants would provide 61 per cent better protection for the hips and that the water-repellent technology would retain 76 per cent less moisture throughout the game.

Naturally, Alexander Ovechkin, Crosby's main foil in the new NHL, probably summed it up best. It may be about comfort and it may be about speed, but mostly, "it's about looking good."

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