Sabres find style: Team's new clothing line is fashion forward
The Buffalo Sabres have a new third jersey this season, but something else has been brewing he inside Buffalo HSBC Sabres Arena have the last few months: plans for a new fashion clothing line.
No, make that fashion-forward. Designed in-house and aimed at the age 15-to 25-crowd, sabrestyle – as the limited-edition collection of women’s and men’s “lifestyle gear” is called – links the ice with the street.
The goal: “Mixing Sabres identity with some of the latest looks in graphic Ts, prints and hats,” said Frank C. Cravotta, director of creative services for the Sabres.
He’s talking hoodies, distressed hats, fitted long-sleeve shirts and more. Pieces from the new apparel and hat collection will be in the Sabres Store during tonight’s opening game – with more on the way.
More Abercrombie & Fitch than locker room, the styles echo current fashion trends.
The debut collection includes 14 pieces of apparel — six for women, eight for men. These include two hoodies for guys, one for women. There also are seven hats including one design that is clearly feminine — a pink, white and black plaid pattern with button detailing.
“I’ve used elements of the old logo, and I’ve used the current new logo and a lot of font styles and outlines,” said Cravotta, who created the designs using Adobe Illustrator.
One thing the collection is not: blue and gold.
Instead, the color palette is dominated by muted blues, grays, beige and a lot of black. The graphics patterns resemble the look of tattoos and graffiti. The apparel is silk-screened with some additional flocking on two of the hoodies.
Another graphic represents a cityscape; closer inspection reveals HSBC Arena — of course — and Buffalo City Hall.
But there are hockey references as well.
In addition to “Sabrestyle,” “City of Hockey” and “Bflo Sabres Girl” incorporated into the designs, the popular phrases “Dump and Chase” and “Cross Checker” also are part of the edgy typography. A custom “sabrestyle” tag and a little silver sabre pin on hats add distinctive touches as well.
Cravotta began working on the designs during the summer, after looking into such popular brands as Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister and Juicy Couture and also observing the clothing styles favored by young fans.
“We wanted a designer feel but with a more affordable price tag — although it certainly is not cheap,” he said.
Hats are priced $25-$35. T-shirts are $28 (men) and $30 (women). Long-sleeve shirts are $35-$42 (men) and $42 (women). Hoodies are $89-$92 (men) and $68 (women). Available sizes: medium-XXL for men; small-XXL for women.
Noted trends analyst Tom Julian finds the concept interesting.
“This concept is distinct because it is one part lifestyle clothing; one part youth culture and one part local personality, and these elements allow for a feeling of teen retailers American Eagle, Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister,” said Julian, president of Tom Julian Group, a New York-based brand consultancy.
“Historically, licensed sports apparel was always limited to official merchandise, logos and institutional statements. Sabres offer more originality and relevance with artful illustrations and cool phrases — more relevant to youth culture,” he said.
The Sabres teamed with the Buffalo-based New Era Co. for the hats and Old Time Sports, of Massachusetts, for the apparel. The sabrestyle clothing bears the Old Time Hockey brand label.
Cravotta initially designed about 40 different graphic “layouts” and whittled it down to about 10, he says.
Once he turned his work over to the vendors “I let their designers have fun with it . . . using my designs but doing different configurations with it. They would take the art and change an element, as far as scale and placement on the apparel,” he said.
“Give us a design, and we will come up with 100 different ways to make that design work on a baseball cap,” said Dana Marciniak, corporate communications manager for New Era.
“We have such a great relationship with the Sabres that they are willing to give approval on out-of-the-box ideas that we come up with. They know people are willing to buy things that are a little crazy because it’s their hometown team,” she said.
And, from what vendors tell them and the research they have done, the Sabres believe they are the first professional team to do this — the internal design and distribution of a fashion line.
It’s also an opportunity for the Sabres to expand its clothing line with something unique. The goal is to offer a limited-edition collection annually.
You can get other Sabres merchandise at stores such as Wal-Mart and CVS, Cravotta points out.
“We wanted to have something you could only get in our building that was promoted by our players,” he said.
The Sabres Store at HSBC Arena is located at the west end of the pavilion. It is open 10 a. m. to 5 p. m. Monday-Friday and during all Sabres home games. e-mail: smartin@buffnews.com
