Sturgeon Lake business owner, supporter of Indigenous hockey culture featured on Hockey Night in Canada

Smudge the Blades was established in 2020 shortly after the beginning of the pandemic. After seeing hockey games and tournaments being cancelled at the time, Kingfisher saw some people needing something to do with Indigenous hockey. He thought it was be a great time to launch some of the ideas he had.

“I threw a couple designs together that I’ve been working on the last couple of years, and I just launched my brand, and it just took off,” he said. “Within a month CTV picked up my brand, they wanted to do an article on it, and after that it’s been amazing. The support from across Canada’s been crazy.”

The local business owner explained he created the business to celebrate Indigenous hockey culture and bring laughter and pride to those who wear the clothing. Some of the apparel features messages in Cree language and English such as ‘ever sick dangles’ or ‘real deadly hockey player.’

“I try and use my platform to showcase Indigenous hockey players, Indigenous excellence and also bring up things that aren’t the best to read on social media. I do talk about racism; I do talk about all that kind of stuff. So, you see on my social media (you) see people happy, they’re proud to wear my stuff,” he explained adding people send him stories of who they are and where they’re from and sharing it with his audience.

He said the meaning behind his designs is in Indigenous culture he said everyone is quite humourous and wanted to create more laughter, which is something he’s seen in Indigenous hockey tournaments he’s attended.

“That’s why I wanted to create these designs like this because I want to create conversation. People when they look at a sweater of mine, they see a design and it makes them laugh and they say, ‘hey, where did you get that?’ The Cree designs, someone will look at the Cree hoodie and be like, ‘hey what does that mean?’ It creates conversation and, in a way, it also keeps the Cree language alive.”

Indigenous kids and adults wearing his brand he said goes a long way in bringing Indigenous hockey to the forefront. He’s also had non-Indigenous people repping the brand and even current NHL players.

The brand also gives back to the community in other ways through financial aid. The proceeds from every sale goes to help First Nation children purchase hockey gear or for registration fees. Since he first started the company, he has helped hockey teams and numerous children play the game they love.

“Why I wanted to do that was because when I was younger, I obviously played hockey growing up but there were times when I didn’t have equipment that fit and my dad would just go to the pawn shop and get me some gear,” Kingfisher said. “There were times where I’ve had friends who were really good hockey players, but their parents couldn’t afford it, so they stopped playing hockey.”

He also started a hockey scholarship program. Kingfisher gave $4,000 last year to two athletes who are playing university hockey.

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Ian.Gustafson@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @IanGustafson12

by Ian Gustafson

Sturgeon Lake business owner, supporter of Indigenous hockey culture featured on Hockey Night in Canada

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