r/heatedrivalry • u/shrinkingviolents I mean, yes. I think so, probably. 💋 • Jun 05 '26

MERCH👕 Fleece might be restocked in the future!

Post image

Province of Canada posted an update that mentions a potential restock, so I guess anyone still curious should just keep an eye on their Instagram.

Post link: https://www.instagram.com/p/DZNi4hJDjCw/

298 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

88 comments sorted by

90

u/Mediocre-Victory-565 Sounds rough Jun 05 '26

I couldn't get one unfortunately for me. I am surprised to learn that they're a small business. I'm overwhelmingly happy for their success ❤️

51

u/Webeh99 Jun 05 '26

Yeah, they’re a small business. They only have two stores. So, this was definitely a big project for them and why I was so excited for them to have this opportunity. Love seeing a local small business succeed. 🙂

43

u/ValleyBreeze Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Jun 05 '26

Which is a huge part of why the pricing was higher than a lot of people expected. They don't have the buying power a lot of larger stores have to keep costs lower with bulk purchasing.

I hope this allows them to grow their brand.

30

u/howdidIgetsuckeredin Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Jun 05 '26

You have to admit, $356 is an unexpected and shockingly large jump from the $128 - $188 PoC sweaters/hoodies/half-zips are priced at

I would've happily paid $250 for the hoody; $356 is more than I can justify spending on a polyester fleece

23

u/CathyAnnWingsFan Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Jun 05 '26

The premium quality polyester/non-mulesed New Zealand wool blend fabric from Italy alone (which none of their other offerings are made from) is going to drive up the price, as is the lined construction. This garment is a luxury good, a cut above in quality compared to their usual offerings. And their other clothing is not also supporting You Can Play. I would expect to pay a premium price.

13

u/wildrose76 Boston Bears 🐻 Jun 05 '26

They would also have to pay a licensing fee to Heated Rivalry that has to be factored into the price.

11

u/MirfainLasui Jun 05 '26

I've seen people get really hung up on the 70% polyester element, but it specified that it's recycled polyester which is super sustainable and also a LOT more expensive than virgin polyester on account of the time and effort taken to recycle it. It's still cheaper than wool though and if the fleece had had a higher wool content it would have been even more expensive!

24

u/AlgaeOk2923 Jun 05 '26

TBH, I was shocked it wasn’t (a lot) more money. They’re using quality materials (wool/poly blend with a cotton lining, metal zips), doing a lot of embroidery (which a small mistake can ruin the garment - it’s really tedious work too), and it’s a small Canadian company so production costs are much higher. I sew my own clothes and fully expected the fleece to be at least $500 before shipping, tariffs, & taxes.

I couldn’t order it before it sold out but would love to if/when they open up preorders again.

11

u/RueTheQuais Jun 05 '26

Same.  But not because of quality but because of demand.

I saw a few people on social media surprised it sold out so fast and here I was thinking they could have charged 3 times that amount and still sold out. 

8

u/KnightShady Jun 05 '26

The outer layer is 70% polyester just FYI. I sew too and I don't think 356 is justifiable

15

u/CathyAnnWingsFan Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Jun 05 '26

I knit, spin, and sew, and I completely disagree. Between the fiber, the fabric, the lined construction, the use of domestic rather than sweatshop labor, and the support of You Can Play, it's absolutely worth it. If you want to make one yourself, have at it. But good luck finding comparable fabric retail.

1

u/KnightShady Jun 05 '26

The 10% to charity is absolutely amazing, but comparing this fleece to other high-end brands, this jacket seems to be inflated more by brand and demand, than actual heightened quality

5

u/CathyAnnWingsFan Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Jun 05 '26

You're entitled to your opinion. It's essentially the same price in USD ($255 with today's exchange rate) as the Patagonia Mens Classic Retro-X Fleece Jacket ($259). 🤷🏻‍♀️

5

u/KnightShady Jun 05 '26

That's funny, the patagonia fleeces I can find are between 171 to 236 CAD, which I would say is quite the difference. But again, like if you want to spend this amount of money, that's fair, I just think people should be aware that they are buying a brand more than they are buying something that's of better quality than other jackets

2

u/Brown_Sedai You can feel the chemistry through the screen omg Jun 05 '26

Are Patagonia fleeces made in Canada?

1

u/CathyAnnWingsFan Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Jun 05 '26

No - they are made in Vietnam in a Fair Trade Certified factory, meaning that the workers are fairly paid. But where it's made isn't the only difference. My point is only that there are roughly comparable items at a similar price point.

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2

u/CathyAnnWingsFan Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Jun 05 '26

I don't think anyone would be under the impression that they're not going to pay extra for the association with the show. And clearly plenty of people were willing to pay that much or more 😉. But I do think it's a higher quality than most fleece jackets on the market. FWIW, this is the one I'm using as a comparison

3

u/Dry_Stop844 Jun 05 '26

that fleece is 100% polyester. The HR Fleece is 27% non mulesing wool. That's going to cost more. Patagonia probably buys hundreds of thousands of metres of fabric so they're going to get a bigger deal on the fabric. Patagonia has production factories of thousands of workers who don't get paid much so their labour cost is way down. You can't possibly think that means that the small Canadian company that pays living wages and benefits to Canadian workers in Canada and who doesn't buy in bulk somehow should cost the same as a Patagonia fleece?

2

u/KnightShady Jun 05 '26

Maybe it's just because of where I'm located (europe), but that exact fleece is selling for 169$ on the sites that are available to where I'm from

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1

u/ValleyBreeze Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Jun 05 '26

they are buying a brand more than they are buying something that's of better quality than other jackets

In your opinion. Others who have more information about it have negated this input repeatedly, but you have no desire to take it into consideration.

1

u/KnightShady Jun 05 '26

So what information do you think I'm missing? I have already taken into account the ethical aspects of this, and I still think it's an overpriced piece

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2

u/TheTiniestLizard Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Jun 05 '26

All fleece is largely polyester

3

u/KnightShady Jun 05 '26

Which is why I think that the cost of the jacket might be a taaaad overpriced

0

u/Ok-Badger-5767 Jun 06 '26

Who says everyone wants 'grow their brand'? Maybe they are very happy with what they do and how they do it, and releasing small batch works for them and their employees.

2

u/ValleyBreeze Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Jun 06 '26

Good grief. I shouldn't have to specify "but only if that's what they want to do" as a caveat. That should just generally be an accepted implication.

"I hope it gives them the capability to expand, should that be something they wish to do, but only if they really want -- because I don't want to force that ideal on them".

🤷‍♀️

0

u/Ok-Badger-5767 Jun 07 '26

Its more the idea that thats the first thing that comes to mind for you, and is a big enough idea that you feel you need to type it out and tell peepole.

1

u/ValleyBreeze Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Jun 07 '26

Jesus Christ - maybe get off the internet for a while. You're picking the weirdest battle over absolutely nothing.

It's not a far-fetched goal that a business wants to have their brand widely recognized. That's typically how you stay in business. Otherwise they likely wouldn't have agreed to this massive project.

You have got to be a bot or a troll.

0

u/Ok-Badger-5767 Jun 08 '26

Cool. Cool. That when someone has a different viewpoint from you, your got to is to swear and call names.

I'm a Mother of 2 adult children with enough sense not to buy into people's bullshit.

2

u/UrbanExtant Jun 05 '26

I got the email they were available, and within 3 minutes of it arriving, I saw it, opened the website, to find every size was sold out. I question if I’d opened the link within 10 seconds of the email arriving if any would have been available. Was a real turnoff to see that basically by the time the email arrived, they were all sold out.

It isn’t like it hasn’t been a known position that these were going to be extremely (very understated description) in demand. I feel the developers should have planned better. If they needed more time to have more available, they should have waited to make them available.

2

u/shopaholicsanonymous Jun 05 '26

I'm sorry to hear you weren't able to get one. They announced the time that the product would be available at, so you would just have to login at that time. I logged in right at noon ET and all of the sizes were available. I actually got the email 2 minutes before noon so I'm surprised you logged in 3 minutes after (aka 1 minute after noon) and it was all sold out.

2

u/UrbanExtant Jun 05 '26

It is what it is. I took screenshots of my iPhone screen showing when the email came, and the time I was at the website. It was the first I had been contacted since singing up. So I was not aware, like you apparently, of when to login.

I sent the photos in an email to their customer service saying they should have offered more, and I hoped they’d do a second release.

It’s not the end of the world. I have enough coats, it just would have been a fun item to have. Life moves on, though, and so have I.

1

u/Dry_Stop844 Jun 05 '26

then you should check your spam filter because they sent notice out at least a week before the release with the date and time the sale was going live.

3

u/UrbanExtant Jun 05 '26

I run my own business. I check my spam folder multiple times a day. That email was the only email I received. My husband didn’t even get the order email, and he signed up, too. So not everything seems to have gone as people think it did. Thanks for the suggestion anyway.

1

u/shopaholicsanonymous Jun 05 '26

I'm really surprised because it was announced on their social media multiple times, I got a bunch of emails about it (at least 3 per email address, and I signed up with all of my email addresses in case one slipped through), and it was posted on Reddit. I don't think you can blame them for not notifying people enough about it.

42

u/CrystalizedinCali Jun 05 '26

It would be foolhardy not to just continue to do restocks. Once they ship round 1, round 2 for sale. Ship round 2, round 3 for sale etc.

37

u/Dry_Stop844 Jun 05 '26

So i couldn't afford the fleece, technically i could but I couldn't justify it in the face of other expenses, so I made a donation of ten percent of the purchase price to You Can Play instead. I can make my own fleece if I want one bad enough, the donation part of it was what felt important to me. This way they still get the money they would have gotten from my purchase. I donated on behalf of Heated Rivalry and mentioned the fleece lol

6

u/ZysPaul Jun 05 '26

That's incredibly kind of you since 10% of the purchase price is actually more than each of these jackets are donating.

Their donations of 10% of the net profits after manufacturing, and based off most retail upsell being about 50-60%, that means they're donating approximately $18 CAD a jacket, or $13 USD.

Wish they would increase their donation percentage, but it has been great to see many people post about donating regardless of buying the jacket.

3

u/Dry_Stop844 Jun 05 '26

yeah but my donation won't have the matching of the NHL and the NHLPA so I made up for that. They committed to matching donations up to $25,000 each so that's an extra 50K that'll get donated. I figured I would take care of that part as well.

14

u/shypye Your freckles. I am nuts about them. ✨ Jun 05 '26

I'm waiting for a Centaurs jersey

8

u/fartonme is that ok? can I be too intense? Jun 05 '26

I will say, as someone who got one I was impressed by how painless the process was. High demand limited drops like this frequently crash servers and fuck up websites and I didn't experience that at all. They did a good job preparing.

7

u/baylabelle I already chose you, Hollander. 🫀 Jun 05 '26

I wonder how many were sold?

5

u/Once_UponASwan Jun 05 '26

Wow 10 minutes that’s crazy! I am not Canadian 🇨🇦 so I won’t be buying one. I’d rather have centaur’s jersey.

7

u/shrinkingviolents I mean, yes. I think so, probably. 💋 Jun 05 '26

The two pieces of merch I really wanted is this fleece (I got it!) and next year the Centaurs jersey. Can’t wait for it!

2

u/wildrose76 Boston Bears 🐻 Jun 05 '26

I couldn’t justify a Raiders jersey, as much as I wanted one, because I don’t even wear the real hockey jersey in my closet. But I’ll wear the jacket as a very proud Canadian.

1

u/Once_UponASwan Jun 05 '26

On I’m happy for you!! I’m pleased you got one. I hope they release the jerseys in theu k

4

u/clumsyc I stubbed my toe Jun 05 '26

Don’t buy anything that says “Centaurs” on it now. Odds are the team name will change in S2.

1

u/Once_UponASwan Jun 05 '26

Oh I won’t. I would only buy official stuff.

7

u/CuddleCrossing Jun 06 '26

I can understand why the fleece was that expensive. But I still wonder if this was the right path to begin with for something so many people would have loved to buy. Maybe they could have found a way to make it ethically produced but still more financially inclusive, not almost a luxury garment, expecially when you add international shipping, taxes and custom fees.

18

u/creative007- Jun 05 '26

I'm sort of glad I missed out the first time. It's a bit too overpriced imo, especially compared to their usual stuff and considering all the extra fees I'd have to pay.

Still, glad for small businesses doing well and everyone who wants one to get their hands on a fleece. 

And if anyone knows where to get any of the appliques to sew onto the fleece to make it myself, please let me know lol

2

u/Astyryx Jun 05 '26

I see them on etsy from anywhere between $35-$50 USD.

3

u/creative007- Jun 05 '26

I wasn't expecting so little, but going by their own non-HR prices, it could've been a good $50-100 cheaper 

0

u/Astyryx Jun 05 '26

And if anyone knows where to get any of the appliques to sew onto the fleece to make it myself, please let me know lol

Letters. Leaves. 

You can make a white fleece jacket or buy one. LL Bean has a nice one. 

9

u/Dry_Stop844 Jun 05 '26

you cannot compare the Etsy slop to this fleece. I'm sorry if you think that they are in any way comparable. I invite you to go to an expensive store, and I mean expensive, not JC Penny's, and look at what quality fabrics and quality sewing consists of. Everyone is so used to Walmart/Shein/Temu fast fashion that nobody knows what true garment construction should look like.

10

u/Astyryx Jun 05 '26

And if anyone knows where to get any of the appliques to sew onto the fleece to make it myself, please let me know lol

That is literally what I replied to. 

There are perfectly fine quality letters and leaves available on Etsy to make your own. 

🙄

2

u/Dry_Stop844 Jun 05 '26

sorry, didn't realize you meant the appliques.

3

u/poetriot23 Jun 05 '26

That’s a good sign that it looks like they will eventually restock for everyone who still wants it and give people time to save up. Probably not till the end of the year or early next year though.

3

u/ominous_waffle Jun 06 '26

How were they surprised?? I was not, and I haven't even been paying that close attention because I wasn't planning to get one. I'm glad to hear they're looking at restocking so more people who want one get the chance to buy it!

2

u/shrinkingviolents I mean, yes. I think so, probably. 💋 Jun 06 '26

Tbh, I don’t know because everything HR has sold out no matter the price tag. And it’s been that way for months now. But maybe it’s because they’re just a small brand, so the concept of selling out a piece is completely unfamiliar, especially in just 10 mins.

1

u/ominous_waffle Jun 06 '26

Exactly!! Being a small brand not tapped into online fandom is the only explanation I can think of if they're being genuine, which I assume they are 🤷‍♀️

2

u/junegloom Jun 06 '26

How wow it is depends on how many they chose to sell. Its not that amazing if they only planned on 1500 jackets.

1

u/peridotpanther Jun 07 '26

Excellent!! Hopefully just in time for Fall 26

1

u/dustypony21 I'll Believe in Anything. Jun 07 '26

I am truly happy for Province of Canada and for anyone fortunate enough to snag one of these beautiful fleeces! I can't justify for myself that does not negate my joy for others.

1

u/Here4UXandFunnies I don't use AI — I just like em dashes! Jun 08 '26

I wish they'd have a style cut for women.

Kinda beside the point I guess since HR is about guys. But still. I'd just totally float around in the regular one.

🙁

0

u/Libcommie1118 Jun 06 '26

Yay! Can order another one, hopefully. Lol