RMNB released its first hockey sweater in December to celebrate our 12th anniversary as a blog. The jersey was so popular that we decided to design another through our partners, Men’s League Sweaters.

This time, we’re honoring our diverse community of readers and several of our important contributors over the years with a pride sweater. There is also a donation component for two LGBTQ+ charities.

RMNB’s Pride sweater can be preordered for $125 though Men’s League Sweaters here.

The RMNB Pride sweater comes in black and the design is accented with rainbow colors. The RMNB puck design includes the phrase Hockey For All.

The bottom of the jersey includes the DC skyline in dark grey.

The back of the jersey will be customizable and include your name and number.

The jerseys are sublimated and print in excellent detail (as we learned in our first project).

RMNB’s pride sweater was designed by KP Design, a talented jersey concept designer who we are now lucky enough to call a contributor on the site.

The sales and production of RMNB jerseys are handled by Men’s League Sweaters, which is based out of Michigan.

The sizes available include unisex sizes, small through 3XL. Kids’ sizes and goalie cuts are also available. There’s a helpful size guide on the Men’s League Sweaters website that should answer all of your questions. The jerseys run a little big so they can be worn over hockey equipment. To use Ian as an example, he usually wears XL shirts, but he fits better a size down in a large RMNB jersey when he wears the sweater casually.

The RMNB pride sweaters are inspired by two recent events.

On February 14, 2022, Doug Johnson — a talented journalist and hockey blogging pioneer — passed away at the age of 57. The news was personally heart-breaking. Doug, along with his husband Craig Brownstein, created the trailblazing hockey website Puck Buddys in 2010 and the duo eventually contributed pregame articles and features to RMNB. Puck Buddys covered hockey teams in 20 different cities.

Articles on Puck Buddys were always fun, witty, smart, and heartfelt. The blog was a safe place for LGBTQ+ hockey fans to congregate and featured voices and experiences the community could identify with. Boys Who Like Boys Who Like Hockey, read the tagline at the top of the site.

Doug and Craig also notably created a series in which they communicated the experiences of a gay high school hockey player who had not come out and went by the pseudonym Zach. Entitled The Thin Blue Line: A High School D-Man’s Story, the series got national attention from the New York Times.

If you knew Doug, you were a lucky person. Even on his worst day, Doug would always flash a warm smile, give you a warm embrace, and make a joke or observation that would make you laugh or think. He was also unbelievably articulate.

“A question we get a lot here is ‘What’s it like to be a gay hockey fan?'” Doug once wrote on Puck Buddys. “We’re never quite sure what people expect the answer to be. Are they curious if it’s hard, if we feel ostracized or just not quite the same as everyone else, if we just don’t fit in? We rarely have a snappy answer at the ready.”

In honor of Doug, a portion of the sales of the RMNB pride jerseys will go to SMYAL – an organization that supports and empowers lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth in DC and its surrounding communities.

RMNB is also inspired by Miranda Rosenfelt, a passionate reader turned exceptional contributor, who led our coverage on Instagram during parts of 2020 and 2021. Miranda recently came out as trans and had top surgery, documenting their experience on social media.

Guess who survived top surgery pic.twitter.com/JovJiSlzTF

— (((anxious M))) (@KuzyBeCackling) March 29, 2022

“It’s safety in numbers a little bit, if people can see other trans folk thriving it makes it a little bit easier for whoever is coming next,” Miranda explained.

In Miranda’s honor, a second donation will go to Casa Ruby – an organization whose mission is to create successful life stories among transgender, genderqueer, gender non-conforming, gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals.

The RMNB pride sweaters will be available this week only – until Friday, April 22 at 11:59 PM. You can preorder one on the Men’s League Sweater website here.