IceHL Jersey: From Fantasy to Reality

Today I'm thrilled to announce that for the first time ever, you can place an order for an Icethetics-branded product — and it's all thanks to our new friends at RinkGear!

Over the last several weeks, we've been conducting a series of polls to determine the most popular IceHL jersey design. And as you can see, the winner was the Milwaukee Lagers. And as of now, RinkGear is accepting pre-orders for this jersey!

If you're new to this party, the IceHL is a fantasy hockey league created from the by the Icethetics community, who wanted a creative avenue to fully brand a group of hockey teams from the ground up. And we did. The project began in 2008 and hundreds of polls have been conducted along the way to make sure the community is driving the decisions. For more on The IceHL Project, download the Yearbook.

The Milwaukee Lagers logos were designed by Joshua Frederick and the jersey was assembled by Matt Madore. Congratulations to these guys on seeing their work go from a computer screen to the real deal!

The Lagers sweater is being sold as part of RinkGear's Geeky Jerseys line and costs $95 — customization included. As far as the quality you can expect, here's what the company promises:

Your handmade jersey will feature high quality embroidered front, shoulder, and IceHL chest crests, lace-up neck, digitally sublimated stripes, plus a custom cut and sewn name and number of your choosing.

I have yet to see a RinkGear jersey for myself, but from everything I've read, they have a lot of satisfied customers. And the fact that this sweater features an embroidered crest and shoulder patches says a lot. Sounds to me like quality matters to them.

Obviously, the Lagers jersey was popular with voters but so were a lot of other IceHL designs! So if you're hoping to see another one go into production, place your Lagers order now. RinkGear will consider doing more IceHL jerseys depending on how this one sells. If it's a success, there will be more. And for my part, I'd like to own a North Carolina Nighthawks jersey!

By the way, for all you fantasy geeks, check out The IceHL page for weekly league updates. Listen, just because there's no NHL doesn't mean there's no fantasy hockey. The IceHL is currently in action and being powered by AHLers instead. (But of course we're keeping our fingers crossed that the NHL resumes soon.) You can follow along this season right here on Icethetics all year long!