As the Vegas Golden Knights advance in the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs more and more fans are searching for ways to display their support of the team. That need to display fandom results in the wave of Golden Knights merchandise we currently see flooding into stores across the Las Vegas valley.
There's also those who prefer to shop online, which opens up a plethora of different avenues for fans to purchase team gear and merchandise.
The problem – how do you know what is real or fake?
The NHL wants to help fans spot counterfeit merchandise before they spend hard-earned money on cheap products.
“Counterfeiting negatively affects local retailers and the local economy, and it also hurts the overall fan experience,” said Tom Prochnow, group vice president, legal and business affairs for the NHL. “Fans want and deserve genuine merchandise that will last as long as their memories of the Golden Knights’ Stanley Cup run. We want to ensure that Vegas fans understand what’s real and what’s not by supplying them with tips so that they can reduce the risk of purchasing inferior products.”
Here are few things the NHL says fans should look for when purchasing merchandise:
- Look for an NHL hologram sticker or hangtag on retail products.
- Check for a sewn-in or screen-printed neck label identifying a licensee that has been authorized by the NHL to produce “officially licensed” merchandise, and make sure that any sewn-in tags or labels are intact and not ripped.
- Look at the overall quality of the product before making a purchase, i.e. make sure player and team names are spelled correctly and team colors appear accurate, and assess the quality of the embroidery or screen printing.
- Purchase merchandise from established retailers such as The Armory at T-Mobile Arena or Shop.NHL.com.
These are just a few tips to keep in mind while shopping for Golden Knights merchandise.
If the team makes the Stanley Cup Finals official merchandise will become quite the collectors item and it'd be a shame for a fan to find out years later that their Stanley Cup champion hat, jersey, or memorabilia was counterfeit.
