I have 13 year old twins, both play hockey and soccer at an elite level. A couple of years ago, my son discovered and started wanting to buy and wear GongShow gear. I looked into the brand and its history and saw that it was started by a few guys who wanted to reflect the culture of Junior and beer league hockey in Canada. Suffice to say the brand did not reflect the culture for my daughter and her teammates in female sport. She wanted some attitudinal gear too.
The more we looked around, the more we realized the attitudinal female sports apparel on the market was mostly a few token pieces from a male perspective than branded with a real understanding of what makes a female athlete tick … we couldn’t find a mainstream brand that truly reflected the modern female athlete. The gritty, determined, intelligent, hard working female athlete of today is a far cry from the gong show.
So we used focus groups of female hockey and soccer players and came up with a brand that the players thought reflected them and we called it “Can’t Check This”. The brand name originated from the non-checking nature of female hockey … yes at 40, all their teeth will still be their own … and embodied the movement of female equality and sport … can’t check (stop) this.
We printed a few tee shirts embodying the spirit of these athletes and we test marketed it at a few minor sport tournaments and with some varsity athletes. The response was overwhelmingly positive from the athletes and their moms and dads. So, the female sports apparel brand, Can’t Check This was born. After much time, energy, trial and error, Can’t Check This is now a trademarked brand in both Canada and the United States and Canada’s own Haley Wickenheiser has some gear and yes, she has tweeted about it.
