Toronto Maple Leafs
For as long as there have been sports teams there has been a brand of loyalty that is transferred between relatives as if it were an old couch; born into instead of chosen. For many, that couch is striped blue and white. Leafs fans will not tolerate hyperbole, but bear with us. They’ve had their hearts broken more times than any human should subject themselves to and they keep coming back. Next season. And the season after that. Fuck it, even the one after that too. Buying a present for a Leafs fan is simple if you know what you’re actually purchasing. Sure you’re buying them a mug, or a jersey, or a fancy picture of something. But you’re also buying them the chance to wear that loyalty proudly.
We put this collection together with that fan in mind. Not the fancy who likes to talk about the team once in a while. We mean the real fan. The one who remembers specific games. Who can tell you about losses like they happened yesterday. The ones who probably need to delete certain highlights from their memory because they probably require therapy, not a YouTube tour. The ones who cannot help but react when someone dares to mention the playoffs.
Quality was our first concern, tribalism our second. There is a mountain of licensed sports apparel out there made simply because it can be. Clothes made from bad material, put together without care, purchased in bulk to be sold off at a mark up to fans that don’t realize they could (and should) be paying twice as much elsewhere. We didn’t want any of it. Every product listed here we would be happy to gift wrap and hand over to our dads. The kind of gift that doesn’t end up in a drawer three weeks later.
Range was another thing we considered. An older Leafs fan who is tackling their thirties will want different things than the teenagers who started listening to Murray on Hockey Night three minutes ago. Your truly hardcore will have most of these things already, so we tried to find stuff that would feel new to them. Overall we tried to cover all the bases properly here without just throwing in a bunch of shit to bulk up the list. Less is more. We always say that.
So if you know somebody who bleeds blue and white and clearly has no regard for their blood pressure, these are your gift picks. Start here.