Bauer to Launch ‘BauerX’ Micro Collection With Don C
Bauer is entering the lifestyle space with its first micro collection, BauerX, a streetwear vertical launching May 13 that the brand says is based on research, form, culture and legacy.
The hockey brand that will celebrate 100 years this decade teamed with streetwear designer Don C to design a capsule within the micro collection, which includes a cobranded leather hockey jersey and T-shirts with portraits of Canadian ice hockey goalie Gerry Cheevers. The collection includes crewnecks with the Bauer name upside down and backward across the shoulders with a wire-frame globe motif nodding to the Unisphere at Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, N.Y., socks with stitch details and lambskin and snakeskin goalie masks.
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“Having done a deep dive into the history of hockey culture, the Gerry Cheevers goalie mask resonated and aligned most with the brand ethos that we’re building for BauerX,” the team said. “The original mask was designed with actual stitches, a literal representation of Cheevers’ many sustained injuries throughout his hockey career. Metaphorically speaking, those stitches showcase the perseverance and endurance of Bauer as a nearly 100-year-old brand, also a touch point of building strength in the face of adversity.”
The launches will be a mix of micro collections and collaborations, as well as three in-house capsules to roll out this year. Prices for the first BauerX drop range from $65 to $95 for the BauerX micro collection and $135 to $900 for Don C’s capsule. The collection will be available on the BauerX website with limited pieces at RSVP Gallery.
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Bauer aims to make hockey more “accessible and aesthetically appealing to a broader audience” with this line. BauerX taps into hockey’s secret affair with streetwear. Jerseys have long been a staple in streetwear, namely basketball, baseball and football jerseys, throwback jerseys in the late ’90s and early 2000s, and soccer jerseys more recently around Virgil Abloh and Kim Jones’ soccer collaborations with Nike.
For hockey and streetwear, late rapper Tupac Shakur notably wore the Detroit Red Wings jersey to a court hearing in 1994. Decades later, the Los Angeles Kings snapback cap would become more popular among hat aficionados.
“We decided to develop BauerX as the fashion side of the heritage hockey label Bauer because firstly, no hockey label/brand has ever ventured into the fashion industry intentionally,” the team said. “There is a lot of interest in obscure sports and fashion today. Hockey is by no means obscure, but by and large a sport that was okay with appealing to its audience within its arena. With this venture our hope is to reach that audience and beyond.”
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