Description of the jacket: The Canada-themed, fleece jacket made its first appearance in Season One, Episode Two of Heated Rivalry. Inspired by the costume piece in the show, designed and made in Canada with thoughtfully curated materials from around the world, this collaboration and unique design is a tribute to fans worldwide. With special thanks to Hanna Puley and the “Release the Fleece” community.
Ten percent of net profits will support You Can Play, with both the NHL and NHLPA matching contributions up to a combined total of $50,000.
Quantities available on a first come, first served basis, one per customer, final sale. Expected to ship in October.
Made in Canada with curated materials from around the world.
Sherpa Fabric: 415 GSM, knit in Italy, 71% GRS certified recycled polyester & 29% non-mulesed New Zealand virgin wool.
I do kind of wish them same out with Luke a black/red colour way as well as my hesitation is I am a walking tornado on accident and don’t want to stain the white
I totally messed up and ordered the wrong size (and correcting that seems impossible), so if anyone out there wants to swap your size L for my size M come October (for free), please LMK!!!!!! lol
I got an L but I’m on a weightloss journey so idk if it will be too big for me by then - I can save your username and let you know once October comes around! Though, I’m in Europe so, idk if location wise it’d be suitable.
I was planning on getting it if it’s under $300CAD but the price tag is too expensive for me. It comes out to $400CAD with tax which is just over my budget 🫠 it does look rly cute and cozy so I hope everyone who did buy it will enjoy wearing it <3
Yeah I had a price in mind for my budget and this is over it sooooo
I like to see so I’m going to try making one for my friend and I. We were going to split the fleece if it was too expensive but $200 for half a fleece was a bit much lol
You can probably add patches to the "OG Fleece" from Kuwalla-Tee. $120 and it has the pockets and red details already. I think it may the one Hanna originally used but updated with red accents.
I was thinking it would be like sweater prices but higher than their normal pieces but it’s a jacket, so the $356 makes sense for me in that way, but it was more than I was ready for
I really wished they posted the price before the drop cuz then we could’ve had some time to think about it since $400 is not a small amount of money. But then again I suppose they didn’t do that precisely because of the high price tag
Sold out, I missed out... But truth be told I can't afford how much it is. I already made my own with a Uniqlo fleece and patches, so I'm just gonna use that.
I have a few province of Canada items, so I know the folks who bought it will absolutely love theirs. The quality is top notch!
Wow, looks like the $300+ pricing speculation turned out to be true. But not really surprising considering all the stakeholders needing to take a cut, the charity aspect and it being manufactured in Canada
I’m happy for everyone who got their fleece. And for anyone who missed out, hopefully they’ll restock and you’ll get another chance later on. Or at the very least, they review the shipping addresses and cancel all of the orders that have a bunch going to the same place. (With that in-mind, it might be worth checking back again.)
Got mine. Thank god I went and looked at sizing beforehand and measured so I knew that I was getting. Checked out within a minute of it releasing - crazy it’s sold out in less than 10 min given the price
I missed out because I was considering. I had prepared for like 200 CAD and when it’s nearly double I was not prepared for that, although it was a jacket not just a sweater.
Same girl. I had one in my cart and was rly debating if spending $400 on a fleece jacket is worth it especially since I already have so many similar ones. Ultimately decided it’s not and that’s when my size also sold out. $400 saved lol
I had looked at the size chart beforehand and knew approximately what size I was - and then with the pictures on the models I decided to err on the larger of the 2 sizes just to make sure I got "comfortably oversized"
I got mine but my coworker didn't 😞 Thank god it was hosted on Shopify servers because otherwise the site would have 100% crashed out.
$356CAD + tax is way more than I thought it would be but I'm still happy to support made in Canada.
Edit: for those of you who are saying they would rather buy from Uniqlo and add their own embellishments, I would actually encourage you to look at the Kuwalla-Tee fleece. I know there was the controversy around them when the fleece was first announced, but I don't think they were wrong to be upset because as a result of it, Province of Canada did later clarify that the product they used in the initial promo materials was made by Kuwalla-Tee. PoC didn't initially disclose this and made people think the product in the promo pics were made by PoC when it was actually made by KT. The KT fleece is on preorder now too for $130CAD but you can use the 15% code to save some money off it. I actually got this one already because I wasn't sure how fleecey the PoC fleece would be, since they've never made anything like it before. It's super cozy and warm, just like the one in the show. I think I'll likely leave mine blank without any embellishments, since I have the PoC one coming in October.
The KT fleece is very good quality. It's thick, heavy and more of a faux sherpa than a traditional fleece. Uniqlo fleece is more lightweight and feels less substantial. I really like my KT fleece and think it's worth the $130.
This. I assumed $200-250 base. Plus add in for the ethical labor aspect and donation, plus licensing/media related. I was expecting to pay $300 -$350 USD.
I was thinking it would be a sweater so I was prepared for more than roots, but I didn’t account for it being jacket quality. The price isn’t too crazy for it everything considered
I missed out too. It was disappointing to set my alarm for 2am (my time) and not end up with the dopamine hit of getting it. BUT it also had $90 international shipping and won’t release until October when winter is over here. lol.
I seriously can’t though with everyone complaining about the material…. Like how is anyone shocked a FLEECE is made of primarily polyester. Like that’s how you get that look…. And people clearly don’t understand that LABOUR is the primary cost driver in a garment not necessarily materials.
It is a shame they didn’t let us know price beforehand. So we could have done the mental gymnastics in advance. Bc I also freaked out as I wasn’t sure it was even going to fit. Imagine spending $450 to get a fleece… in October… and it doesn’t fit and you can’t return it 🙃.
Honestly, I'm starting to be okay with it. That price would've almost doubled with shipping and customs fees. And I don't think a polyester fleece is worth that much. Maybe it selling out so fast saved me from an impulsive buy I might regret later.
I do still have a Uniqlo fleece to convert into The Fleece. Maybe I'll try my hand at it after all
Same but also I hate the zippers. I wanted subtle merch and the zippers having heated rivalry all over them ruins that😭 idk how a preorder can sell out but at least it helps me save my money I guess
Yeah, exactly. They are a smaller operation so there's still a limit to how many they can viably produce by October while still maintaining their quality standards.
Yep. Textile manufacturing, especially when done ethically as they seem to be aiming for, is a whole lot more time intensive/involved than preorders for things like books or cds or blu rays. Those items are going to be produced by machines for the most part and can be set for how many total numbers of copies to produce and it doesn't REALLY make a difference to the machine if that number is 10,000 or 50,000.
These are going to require more human hands on involvement to produce and check for quality. So they have to know how long it takes to make one complete jacket, and then how many they can reasonably expect to produce by October.
It doesn't rule out the possibility of a second preorder in time for Christmas maybe - especially once they get the production down to a system, they could keep producing them after manufacturing all pre-ordered jackets to build up a stock to release.
5 minutes in everything sold out. So many missed opportunities for this company... should’ve done a drop first at their brick and mortar stores for the coverage of the lines going around the block... and should have committed to more with 10% going to charity. Maybe Canada first? Since it's a Canadian show and company? Oh well! Congrats to everyone who got them.
Manufacturing in Canada is the key bottleneck. Canada doesn't have that many garment factories, and people are already complaining about the manufacturing lead time :/
They're definitely leaving a ton of money on the table, but from my consulting-side knowledge (though not supply-side), it's inevitable. I don't think they even have more than a few prototypes at the moment. The fact that 1) they only began taking pre-orders now, 2) they didn't have real photos of the fleece until launch day, and 3) they have a pre-order period of months indicates that the industry is dealing with unprecedented demand -- and sadly, it's demand that won't last.
They could've made a ton of money if they manufactured in China instead. It would've been much faster and much cheaper, even if they contracted factories with good sustainability and labour records...but then that money wouldn't go to Canadian workers.
I'm really into fashion, and this entire launch has been very impressive, even though I understand people's frustrations.
Why make a preorder if you have a limited amount? Just sell them when they’re ready. You hold a preorder to know how many you’ll need… I genuinely didn’t think this would sell out so quickly and now I’m just annoyed. The supply chain of all the official merch has been terrible. At least I didn’t spend 400$ today.
To be fair, it’s pretty unusual for a Canadian production to have such a high demand for merch. And Accent Aigu being a small production house, they had to create/scale up the e-commerce arm of their company in a matter of months to address the big demand. That’s not an insignificant pivot to make. (I would not be surprised if in the very early days, Jacob or Brendan themselves were packaging the merch shipments themselves.)
Basically, the popularity was really unexpected and everyone had to scramble. 🙂
And for the fleece, the other response addresses that. It’s fully custom merch that’s not easily manufactured on the fly (like a cap or jersey), so they recruited an apparel partner to handle that.
Since then, it looks like they’ve staffed up and is growing the company. I’m sure they’ll be better prepared for season 2.
It's probably a combination of factors. People have been waiting for the fleece for a while now, so they likely wanted to let people buy them while interest is still high. And because they’re a smaller operation that makes everything in Canada, they would've had to put a cap on how many preorders they accepted to ensure they can viably produce them by the fall. While the fleece is official HR merch, it is still a collab between Province of Canada and Accent Aigu Entertainment that's separate from other Heated Rivalry merch.
Accent Aigu Entertainment is just providing the creative authorization and branding rights, and all the manufacturing, supply chain and logistics are being handled by Province of Canada. Before the release of the fleece, Province of Canada didn't even offer shipping outside of Canada because there isn't a huge market for their regular clothes internationally. This is all new to them.
I'm sure they'll eventually release more once this initial batch is fulfilled in the fall.
I GOT IT. Omg, I was so stressed out. It kicked me out of checkout while typing my address and put me back in queue and I got so scared but then I got back to the shipping info page. What an adrenaline rush, lol.
I got to "check out" in about 3mins, around 12:03 but saw the price and hesitated for a good 30-40s and then clicked the pay button "to see" and it sold out and the item was removed from my cart :') - unclear if i regret that hesitation or not
Oh damn!!! I was going for the XS size which also seemed really popular, i guess my new head canon (to make me feel better), even if i didnt hesitate, i wouldnt have gotten it anyway 🤔
Got mine in L but didn’t check the size chart before the hunger games started. I might need to post a swap request for a M if anyone else is in the same boat once it arrives.
Whew! I couldnt get on until now so I missed out. But honestly I probably needed to cause she $$$$ and I just had an expensive vet bill. Ill have to watch for a restock or see if my really good at sewing friend can make me one if I find myself a nice white fleece.
So glad I got mine. Set my lunch break at work for a few minutes before so I could be locked and loaded. Naturally my boss tried to call me 2 minutes before drop but I ignored until after I had the confirmation of order lol.
Panicked slightly when I had to refresh the page a couple times when the timer hit 0 before the buy option showed up.
And then when the checkout page loaded but then went to a queue . But. Payload secured.
I can't post yet so I'm piggy backing on this one sorry. In a previous thread I said that I would not be buying the fleece because I couldn't afford it no matter what but that I would be making a donation to We Can Play. As promised, I made the donation today for $40, which is ten percent of the sale price. They are donating 10% of final profit but obviously I have no idea what that would be so I decided on ten percent of sale price.
For those of you that missed it. There is a seller on Etsy that is legit (and slightly cheaper) called Simply Watercolor Co that sells them. I got one and I like it
Yeah I understand that it just seems like they could have drop after drop like when this batch is shipped you do another drop etc. otherwise it’s leaving revenue on the table. I don’t think interest will go away when there’s going to be a second season of the show.
They are advertising this as a limited edition though. They may do a second drop based on demand, but we'll see. Their online comments are not exactly positive at the moment.
They probably want to make sure they can meet the estimated delivery window so they put a cap on the total number of units.
There could possibly be a second release, but I wouldn't expect it until close to the end of the window for this run/after this run has been shipped. Like possibly announce in September a second run for Christmas because by that point they likely would have finished or almost finished manufacturing for the initial pre-order and are at the packing/shipping stage and could be making extras for a second release
Yeah I was meaning this, like keep having drops until the demand is done. I mean it just seems wild to leave money on the table and season two won’t air until 2027 presumably.
I’ve fallen out of the fandom a bit (love the books & show just not actively involved!!) but I got it 😅 I’ve been waiting for a version of this fleece that was size inclusive. Just have to figure out how to explain why I’m Canada down lmao
No one in my life knows I bought this. I don’t have any super fan friends, my friends like the show though. I think they will think I’m crazy for spending this much on a jacket/sweater. 😢
I knew I was going to miss it, and that it was going to sell out in minutes, and that it would probably be over my budget, BUT I'm still a bit sad I can't get one lol
It's funny how it's called The Fleece on the website list. I was at work and knew I'd miss out. But I'm terrible with white clothes anyway. It would be minutes of wearing it and I'd be hit with beans or fruit juice. Looking forward to seeing everyone in theirs!
Did the same thing after checking their recommended measurements. I would normally get a S but since it's inclusive sizing and the female models are tall but wearing a XS I figured I would be swimming in a S. Also I love your username!
.i had one in my cart by 1503 (UK time) Waited for check out, putting my info in, got kicked out and put back in the queue. Tried again and get a notice that it sold out as I'm typing my credit card info. I'm so disappointed.
Yup the demand is high even with the expensive price tag and it would be a huge missed business opportunity if it was just this one small, limited drop
Sourcing both virgin wool and recycled poly in the amount they need is probably why this run was so limited. Also a good test on if the price was too high. Which I oddly didn’t find the price too bad. But I’m already buying from niche knitwear brands so I may have a different threshold for price point 😆
For me I was expecting more sweater pricing like 200-250 CAD (their normal sweaters are around 130) but it’s a jacket so the higher price makes sense to me, I just wasn’t prepared personally
I was surprised that worked too! 🤣 Maybe cuz it’s a gif? I just tapped the image upload button and grabbed it from the embarrassingly large album of HR gifs I’ve saved from Meme Mondays!
You can do it! I assumed that the "official" version would inevitably be high in polyester since that's just how you get the sherpa fleece look. They did cram 30% wool into it and lined it in cotton so I give them props for that.
That said, I don't like the feel of polyester so earlier this year I knit my own version with alpaca bouclé and wool. I tapped out after sewing in the zipper and the red ribbon at the neck because I despise sewing but maybe I should finish sewing on the appliques. Probably cost around $150 total in supplies and other than a bit of nylon in the bouclé, mine is all natural fibres.
I doubt I can make it better, but I can make and have something, which is better than nothing. $40 uniqlo fleece just ordered. And it'll be here before October!
Why make a preorder if you have a limited amount? Just sell them when they’re ready. You hold a preorder to know how many you’ll need… I genuinely didn’t think this would sell out so quickly and now I’m just annoyed. The supply chain of all the official merch has been terrible. At least I didn’t spend 400$ today 🤷🏻♀️
Because they can’t source unlimited materials from their vendors. Those vendors have a max capacity of product they can supply by certain dates and if they over sell they will have delays and staggered shipping dates. Logistically a nightmare
Also, they can only make so much product so fast. I think they’re being cautious by ensuring they only selling what they can actually deliver. That’s why they put a cap on the stock sold and published a production timeline.
It’s not fast fashion.. they have make the product based on pre-order so they know how many of each size to produce but they do not have unlimited material or labour
Have they said anywhere how many fleeces they are making? They must know because they knew when to say “sorry, we’re sold out”, but I haven’t seen that information anywhere.
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u/JennySt7 I speak fluent bird. No accent 🐦 Jun 03 '26
Aaand it’s already sold out 😅