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***sköldpaddor*** · 06-01-2024, 10:18 PM

FIRST THINGS FIRST! Happy Pride, SHL! It’s been another eventful year in the world of LGBTQ+ folks in sports - some of it good, some of it not so great. I won’t rehash it all here, because I am still determined to do everything in my power to make this a place where no one has to think about the hateful people in sports any more than we can avoid. While none of us can single-handedly root out bigotry in real hockey, I feel very strongly about making this small internet space somewhere that people don’t have to worry about that stuff.

There will always be bad apples, people who show up and say hurtful things before they realize that on the whole, we as a community aren’t going to put up with that. But as long as that latter part is true - as long as we as a community are willing to stand up to that stuff and make it clear that it’s not welcome, I’m proud to belong here. And I will continue to stand on that soapbox as long as I need to.

There’s been a little pushback on that front over the past year. There’s still a lot of “why should we have to say anything at all, it’s not a big deal, why do we need to talk about it” and I do sincerely wish that sports as a whole were so welcoming that queer people could just take it for granted that we are welcome and embraced for who we are. But that’s not the world we live in, that’s not the state of sports at large currently, and until it is, I will keep speaking out and keep being as vocally supportive as possible, and I will keep looking for ways for this community to do that as a collective as well.

Because it matters. Vocal support matters. And it matters because this is very much not a default in sports spaces (or even a lot of non-sports spaces) outside of this little corner. Every summer, you see the pro hockey social accounts share photos from player weddings, celebrating marriages, births, engagements. You see promotional nights across sports for a whole host of things - supporting various causes, occupations, etc. But it’s really not until teams host pride nights, or show support otherwise, that the bigots come out of the woodwork demanding to know “what this has to do with sports.”

Existing in a space where you are assured that you are welcome as long as you don’t express your identity is exhausting. It’s not especially rewarding, either - for every NHL player willing to stand up to silly rules by wearing the pride tape even when they’re told not to, there’s a Staal or a de Angelo just waiting to drop a slur or find any excuse to make themselves the victims of “woke cancel culture” because they faced the slightest amount of pushback to their bigotry.

This month is not about those people. This month is about us, it’s about embracing the love and community that comes with found family, about celebrating the spaces we do have to be ourselves, and to hype each other up to continue fighting for those spaces.

I am so proud of all of you, I am proud of us. I am thankful for the allies we have, for the people who are willing to stand up and put their own time and energy and privilege to work to make the world a better place for people who don’t have that influence. I am proud of everyone who is not afraid to stand up and have uncomfortable conversations, to call people out when they’re displaying prejudice and bigotry, everyone who has put in the work to help us get to where we are.

Now that we've gotten through that wall of text, here's a little roundup of fun stuff I've got so far for Pride this year! First, if you haven't noticed already, we have a pride banner in the rotation on the site as of last night - go refresh the homepage a few times if you haven't gotten to see it yet.

Secondly, I have been threatening for many months to move the merch store over from our current Redbubble setup onto Spring, due to some increased options and functionality available there. I am still in the process of that (and perusing other options, with the help of a very talented @Wally). The Pride Collection we launched last year is still available on Redbubble and I will not be removing it in the near future, but in the spirit of the season, I've got a little soft launch of some stuff on Spring for you over here!!

Things that you will be able to find on one or both stores now:

More affordable shipping on Spring for those who are not located in the US.
Updated pride logos for anybody who either didn't have one last time, or has changed their logo since last time
Pride merch for the Ottawa and San Diego SMJHL expansion teams (normal merch for those teams will be added soon as well)
S76 Championship merch for San Francisco on both stores (two designs!)
SHIRSEYS! You will not see the shirseys on there now, because they have to be created as needed (I am not just going to try and track down 800+ names and numbers to get every active player's number for their J team/SHL team myself). If you would like the option to purchase a shirsey for your player, please fill out the form here! (Please only fill it out if you actually think you might buy one - there's obviously no requirement to do so, but since I have to create each of these individually, I'd like to focus on doing that for people who are going to use it!)
This season's little SHL pride logo, a fun little doodle done by yours truly (last season's Fake Hockey Real Friends design is on there as well).

A couple of things to be aware of - there may be some price differences between the two stores. We have committed to selling things at cost (or as close as we possibly can; the VAT add-ins for some currencies outside the US make things off by a few cents here and there), so any price discrepancies between the two platforms are determined by the platforms themselves. Redbubble has a sale right now, for example, so the cost on there may be less, but for those outside of the US, the difference in shipping may render that difference negligible. Stickers are definitely cheaper on Redbubble if you're looking for those (but again, shipping may be rough if you're making a larger order, so do your research and figure out what works for you). I know it's a little confusing to have two shops, but we aren't trying to actually make money off any of this and I've just been trying to cover my bases to make sure we have as many good options (and best shipping options) as we can for anybody who might want to get stuff!

Okay that's all, HAPPY PRIDE, go forth and make bigots uncomfortable!

*Ruggsy* · 06-01-2024, 10:26 PM

Damn those are some nice designs

Troy_McClure03 · 06-01-2024, 10:43 PM

Love it!

Do we have any idea on the cost of the shirtseys?

**JamesT** · 06-01-2024, 10:44 PM

[Image: 925442238438309888.webp?size=96&quality=lossless]

***sköldpaddor*** · 06-01-2024, 10:51 PM

06-01-2024, 10:43 PMTroy_McClure03 Wrote: Love it!

Do we have any idea on the cost of the shirtseys?

Same price as the normal t-shirts (unless you want one of the fancy "premium" ones, which we can talk about if you're interested), so starting at about $16 USD!

***sve7en*** · 06-01-2024, 11:03 PM

(updated you belong for 36 teams coming soon)

***boom*** · 06-01-2024, 11:08 PM

Great stuff! As always, I wish real life pro sports were as accepting as this league is on the whole.

***Jexter*** · 06-01-2024, 11:11 PM

Woohoo! Great Stuff!

Are there examples of the Shirseys on the merch site?

***Reno*** · 06-01-2024, 11:27 PM

I cannot wait to spend more money on pride merch

***sköldpaddor*** · 06-02-2024, 12:07 AM

06-01-2024, 11:11 PMJexter Wrote: Woohoo! Great Stuff!

Are there examples of the Shirseys on the merch site?

For those who asked (cc @Troy_McClure03 because the price is a little higher than I thought initially, they start around 20 USD), here's one I just set up (thank you @Nokazoa for filling out the form so promptly).

I will try to make sure the color/border of the letters and numbers looks decent on a dark and light background, but some team colors may end up having more options there than others.

*lmao* · 06-02-2024, 12:08 AM

Very well said, and love this season’s logo! <3

Troy_McClure03 · 06-02-2024, 12:12 AM

06-02-2024, 12:07 AMsköldpaddor Wrote: For those who asked (cc @Troy_McClure03 because the price is a little higher than I thought initially, they start around 20 USD), here's one I just set up (thank you @Nokazoa for filling out the form so promptly).

I will try to make sure the color/border of the letters and numbers looks decent on a dark and light background, but some team colors may end up having more options there than others.