Ovechkin on the cutting edge of skate art
WASHINGTON — Alex Ovechkin is the first National Hockey League player to lace up custompainted skates, though in a sport that discourages freedom of expression he may not be much of a trendsetter.
The Washington Capitals superstar was celebrating the team’s Russian Heritage Night Thursday with skates bearing Moscow’s St. Basil’s Cathedral and the U.S. Capitol. He could only wear them for pregame warm-ups after receiving special permission from the NHL, and is a pioneer of sorts for just doing that.
“Obviously, I want to play with them, but the league said no, so we’re just going to do warm-up,” Ovechkin said. “I think they’re sick. They’re pretty cool. It’s something new. Nobody’s done it before. It’s nice to be first guy.”
Ovechkin is following football players, who have embraced custom cleats for everything from breast cancer awareness to Odell Beckham Jr.’s tribute to late basketball broadcaster Craig Sager. The National Football League fines players for wearing unapproved cleats, but also instituted a My Cause My Cleats week where players were encouraged to express themselves with their footwear.
If that day is coming in the NHL, it won’t be any time soon. Outside of goaltender masks, the league has very strict uniform rules, and deputy commissioner Bill Daly said he doesn’t expect that this will result in more widespread exceptions being made.
Ovechkin, who wore custompainted skates at the 2010 and ’14 Olympics, isn’t your typical buttoned-up hockey player, so it’s no surprise that he and agent David Abrutyn were interested in being on the cutting edge of custom skates.
They reached out to Buffalo artists Napoleon (Polo) Kerber and Nicholas Avery, who do cleats for dozens of NFL players including Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Antonio Brown and Bills running back LeSean McCoy, and after some consultation they agreed on a pair that honoured the Russian winger’s homeland and city he has played in since 2005.
“They just wanted to do something that was very bright, very flashy and something that had never been done before,” Kerber said by phone Wednesday.
“Ovechkin, I think, was perfect to do it just from the standpoint of even by him wearing his yellow laces, he stands out a ton.”
Ovechkin’s skates will be auctioned off, with the money going to the American Special Hockey Association.
“It’s a good thing,” Ovechkin said. “We do it for charity, and all the money goes to kids.”
A few other players have reached out to Kerber to express interest in custom skates, but he said they — and even owners and executives aware of the Ovechkin project — wanted to wait to see the reaction.
Inside the Capitals’ lockerroom, the reaction was positive.
“The football players, they get slapped on the wrist, too, for doing something on their cleats, but it’s an expression of who you are,” defenceman Kevin Shattenkirk said. “A lot of times it’s a tribute to something, and I think that’s very cool. In the NHL it’s a little more uniform and everyone kind of has all the same gear, but any way you can kind of stand out and do something that represents you, I think is a good thing.”
Kerber and Avery didn’t have any templates or other artists to turn to, and after trial and error with figuring out the dynamics of how skates differ from cleats hope to do more in the future.