Why doesn't NHL allow custom/signature skates like NBA does?

[snag]

Didn’t that happen with Yakupov? He used to wear his jersey sleeves tucked into some kind of spandex that he wrapped around his forearms or something like that? Not sure if management told him to stop doing that or he quit that on his own

Not sure. But you are right he wore something....but he did it with the Sting too and tried to match it to uniform colours. So I assume it to be function over style.

 

[Sugi21]

Not sure. But you are right he wore something....but he did it with the Sting too and tried to match it to uniform colours. So I assume it to be function over style.
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Yeah I don’t think it lasted long with Edmonton though

 

[Pizza!Pizza!]

Are Nike skates made with child labor like their shoes?

I doubt it, could imagine giving thousands of blades to slaves? It might lead to supply chain disruptions.

 

[Seanaconda]

Yeah I don’t think it lasted long with Edmonton though

So he started to suck when he stopped wearing them ?

 

[ricky0034]

Do people seriously think that the NBA players wearing crazy shoes is about "expressing yourself" and not about $$$? Those guys are either trying to sell a shoe, or are being paid to wear a shoe. And everybody buys shoes. What would be the purpose of custom skates? Skates are almost entirely functional, nobody buys skates for the look or aesthetics.

yeah the NHL would have custom skates in a second if there was even a fraction as much money in it as the NBA shoe stuff

 

[IWantSakicAsMyGM]

I think if one brand started to do it they would gain an edge especially from youth players,

Lots of the teenagers want to stand out with pink laces sticks or helmets being pretty popular back when I was younger like 10 15 years ago , rainbow selection of tape and laces always seem popular idk why skates if they preform the same as a comparable would be different


Its like how everyone wanted white skates like the Russians back in the day

To me, the difference is the cost of manufacture. Different color laces/sticks/helmets/etc. don't usually require retooling the equipment. Just use a different color material, and you get a different color product. But, that's more akin to making a current model of skate in a different color, and that's not what is being proposed here.

The idea here is that they would make a whole new "signature skate" for the star players, not just make an existing skate design in a different color. This design change means it's no longer just putting a different color material into an existing production line. How much does it cost to retool a production line to make a different model of skate? Or to build a whole new production line for each model? How much do any new workers for this new production line cost? How much does it cost to design everything (skate, production line, etc)? This all plays into whether the company can make money on a new product. If it costs more to bring to market than it will generate in added revenue, what's the point? The people who might buy them are still going to buy the model their favorite players wear.

I also don't remember anyone wearing baseball hats that sort of look like ice hockey helmets because they were available in pink, so I still have doubts about the crossover appeal of basketball shoes that sort of look like ice skates.