It’s not uncommon for the hockey ignorant folks to dismiss the sport entirely, like Tiger Woods once did. Which makes me wonder, do the owners of local sporting goods stores and department stores not like hockey?
Many of the hockey equipment stores in the area have gone out of business, leaving skaters to instead shop at the expensive pro shops or online. Meanwhile, places like Dick’s Sporting Goods and The Sports Authority either have no hockey equipment, or equipment that not even a beginner would be advised to use. Perhaps these stores did extensive research and concluded that selling hockey equipment is not beneficial to the bottom line. Fair enough. We’d want salesmen with knowledge of the product to sell it to us, anyway.
But when it comes to local department stores, it’s puzzling as to why there is rarely any Capitals merchandise. The Kohls in Silver Spring, Md. has enough University of Maryland clothing to outfit the entire school. They also have Redskins jerseys, Texas Longhorn hats, and Notre Dame hats. However, it rarely has Capitals stuff, and I’m fairly certain it’s for no other reason than something to do with hockey ignorant people making the calls.
So I was recently surprised to see a rack of Winter Classic Capitals shirts and sweatshirts, with different types, colors, and sizes. It was the most hockey-related merchandise I have seen – combined – in ten years of shopping there. They’ve had the occasional T-shirt in the past, but nothing to the degree of what they have now. Anyone taking bets on if they’ll have more stuff after the Winter Classic?
We here at Capitals Outsider thank you, Kohls, for finally giving fans a choice of more affordable options for Capitals merchandise.
