Caiti O’Neill and her sister Sela already were decked out head to fingernail in Blackhawks gear when they stopped by the team’s official store on Michigan Avenue on Monday to buy a commemorative puck.
“There’s just so much pride around the team,” said Caiti, 29, who sported a Blackhawks headband, a Scott Darling shirtsey (a T-shirt in the style of a jersey) and an impeccably detailed Blackhawks-themed manicure. She also has four jerseys and about 30 T-shirts to choose from at home.
Hockey fever has hit a high in Chicago for the team’s run at the Stanley Cup. Fans waited in a line stretching down three tiers of stairs just to enter the Blackhawks store on Monday afternoon before Game 3 against Tampa Bay.
Dave Ballard waited on the staircase with his son Will, 18, saying they were on a “pilgrimage” from Omaha, Neb., to see the game. He wanted a Jonathan Toews jersey to complement his son’s Patrick Kane gear.
“Father/son, Kane/Toews, I’m the captain, it makes sense,” Dave Ballard said. “I didn’t anticipate having to stand in line, but I don’t care.”
The phenomenally successful Kane/Toews pairing on the ice has translated into phenomenally successful merchandise sales. Kane had the top-selling jersey at the NHL’s online store for the 2014-2015 regular season, and Toews wasn’t far behind at No. 3.
All in all, the Blackhawks claim five of the Top 25 best-selling jerseys this past season, according to NHL spokeswoman Nirva Milord. While she declined to release specific figures, she said that for the past few years, the Blackhawks have ranked in the Top 5 of overall merchandise sales.
And merchandise doesn’t come cheap: At shop.nhl.com, for example, a red Patrick Kane jersey goes for about $130 in women’s sizes and $170 in men’s sizes.
Hockey is the kind of game that inspires devotion, especially when a team is as successful as the Blackhawks have been, said Dan Jones of sports marketing company Intersport.
“It’s no surprise that merchandise sales are spiking right now,” he said. “That’s very typical across any major sports platform when a team is having the success they’re having.”
And as an Original Six team, the Blackhawks can claim a fan base that goes back generations.
“If Chicago is more passionate about the Blackhawks than other cities, it’s likely more rooted in history,” he said. “The Blackhawks are an Original Six franchise [that has] loads and loads of history compared to a team like Tampa Bay or Columbus, and that certainly is going to lead to higher passion levels.”
It’s that kind of passion that led Sela O’Neill, 24, to get a custom-made Kane shirt covered in rhinestones—one that she won’t wash before wearing it to watch Monday’s game.
Her sister Caiti will wear the Andrew Shaw jersey she was wearing in 2013 when the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup. And the family Yorkie will wear its own little dog-sized jersey, the sisters said.
Will they be back to buy more Hawks gear before the Final is over? Probably not, Caiti said, but she wouldn’t rule it out.
“This is my second time here this week,” she said.
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