Detroit Red Wings
There are hockey fans and there are Red Wings fans, and if you know anything about one then you already know the difference between them. Fans who grew up watching Yzerman kill penalties in overtime, who remember the back to back Cups in the late nineties like it was last week, who still feel a kind of pride about a franchise that makes it to the playoffs more years in a row than most teams have in their history. Shopping for someone like that requires care. You can’t just snag the first Hockey Name t-shirt you see and figure you’re done. They will know. Hell, they always know.
We put this list together because Red Wings fans deserve better than a screening-only jersey stuffed in a bin with every other team logo in the league. We wanted gear that actually meant something. Gifts that looked like they were picked by someone who knows what they’re talking about rather than your neighbour who googled “hockey gift” and hoped for the best. Anyone that’s ever accidentally given the wrong thing to a hardcore fan will understand exactly what we’re talking about.
Every single thing on this list was picked because we’d buy it for ourselves. Not because it has the winged wheel on it – though trust us that does matter – but because it’s really well made or considered or both. Red and white will cover absolutely anything when the quality of the item is there to match. Take away the quality and all you’ve got is some nacho remains of a gift idea with a logo pasted on it, and fuck me do diehard fans notice that.
Gift reasons for a Red Wings fan are plentiful. Birthday. Beginnings of hockey season. Someone getting their first apartment and having to explain which side they’re on. But honestly a lot of these products are ones that don’t need a reason at all. Grab something truly great for a Red Wings fan and they’ll know you cared enough to pick something special right away. It’s the entire goal and what every selection here aims to do.