Utah Mammoth starting goaltender Karel Vejmelka is generally a quiet, reserved person — but you wouldn’t know it by looking at his hockey equipment.
Vejmelka debuted his new goalie pads at the first day of training camp Thursday, and they quickly caught fire on social media. They feature a zoomed-in Mammoth logo on each leg, as well as the glove and blocker.
“I actually (knew) right away what it should look like because I love the new logo,” Vejmelka said when asked how the idea came about. “It’s one of the best logos I’ve ever seen in (any) sport.”
He co-designed it with the folks at Brian’s Custom Sports, one of the premier goalie equipment manufacturers.
“I had a couple ideas that we actually talked about, and they just sent me a couple of options and I just picked these ones,” he said.
“They’re sweet,” said Mammoth defenseman Nate Schmidt after seeing them for the first time. “Both our goalies have great setups.”
Vejmelka’s goalie partner, fellow Czech Vítek Vaněček, also sported a new setup on Thursday, having switched teams this summer.
Vejmelka used a dinosaur-themed mask for part of last season. This year, continuing the prehistoric theme came naturally: He has a cartoon mammoth on one side and the Utah Mammoth logo on the other. As always, he also has a Czech flag and a cross on the back.
How do NHL goalies design their equipment?
Goalies are the only NHL players with creative control over their visible equipment. Most of them utilize more basic designs for their pads, but nearly every guy treats his mask as a canvas.
Painted goalie masks span back almost as far as non-painted ones. The first NHL goalie to wear a mask was Jacques Plante in 1959, but they weren’t made mandatory until 20 years later.
As mask technology evolved, so did the intricacy of the designs. Here are just a handful, though there are hundreds of cool ones.