MN Brothers Bring New Meaning To The Phrase 'Hockey Gear'
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Ah, rink life. You could call it a Minnesota past time. In fact, some Minnesotans even make it a lifestyle.
Minnesotans, like brothers Evan and Eric Wenkus, made the most of their love of hockey by starting a small hockey apparel company in three years ago, Rink Life Apparel.
The Wenkus family backyard rink in Edina is very pristine, shining brightly in the sunshine flooded to perfection.
And it's this rink that the Wenkus brothers got their inspiration for their latest shirt.
"It incorporates going to the outdoor rinks," Evan Wenkus, Co-Founder of Rink Life Apparel, said. "I think we all have memories of throwing our sticks in the buckets and sticks in a pale outside."
For Eric Wenkus and his twin boys, Miller and Becker, spending time on the backyard rink consumes most of their free time away from school. For the older Wenkus boys, Eric and Evan, they've brought their love of hockey to the "screen" - screen printing t-shirts that is.
T-shirts and hats sales combined make up about 35 percent of apparel industry store sales .
"This was our very first shirt we did," Eric Wenkus, Co-Founder of Rink Life Apparel, said. "It's kind of the resembles old Wayne Gretzky helmet."
The shirt is a sky blue t-shirt with a black helmet in the center.
The duo started Rink Life Apparrel and has taken their favorite past time from their youth and turned into a little hockey hobby. Eric handles the finances and he leaves most everything else up to Evan.
"Sometimes it's Eric's design and it works, sometimes it's my design and it works. That's kind of the novelty of that," Evan said.
"I might be sitting here watching the game and have an idea and shoot him a text," Eric said.
Eric coaches the Edina Bantam AA boys team. And he certainly enjoys suiting up in his own gear.
"We wear them in the winter. We wear them in the summer. [We have] friends that wear them," Eric said. "If takes off great. If it stays small, that's ok too."
"It's definitely neat seeing other people wearing your stuff," Evan said.
For now, Eric says he's a little better at flooding the rinks then fashion.
"The backyard rink is easy; I'd say this [clothing business] is a little more difficult," Eric said.
Eric currently works as a wealth management advisor in the Twin Cities and Evan is in sports apparel.
To learn more about Rink Life Apparel, visit them online.
Watch the second part of the video below.
