OK, so college hockey’s champions are not a Minnesota team. But they did wear jerseys from Minnesota.
The Business Journal reports Edina-based Gemini Athletic Wear made the jerseys worn by Union College when they defeated the University of Minnesota 7-4 in the men’s hockey national championship over the weekend.
Gemini’s owner and president, Chris Bonvino, was thrilled by the exposure Union’s victory gave the company. Gemini Athletic’s GA logo was at the bottom of the neckline on the team’s jerseys (sweaters, hockey purists still like to call them).
Bonvino told the Business Journal: “You can’t buy that type of publicity — the ESPN camera right in the guy’s face with the ‘GA’ logo.”
Is this starting to feel like somebody added insult to injury, Gopher fans? Well wait, there’s more.
Gemini Athletic also made the jerseys Clarkson University wore when they defeated the Gopher women’s team in that national championship in March.
The fact is Gemini makes hockey uniforms worn by lots of teams at the pro, college, and high school levels. This is the first season their jerseys hoisted both the men’s and women’s college trophies, though.
Last year the Business Journal profiled the company, which started in Bonvino’s apartment in 1991 and had grown to include eight employees by last spring.
In addition to professional and vintage styles, Gemini Athletic makes custom jerseys. For example, their Facebook page shows a design provided to a group of hockey-playing veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who call themselves the Minnesota Warriors.
As the Gophers learned this year, you can’t win ’em all … and the people who make jerseys have also been known to turn in the occasional clunker.
A few years ago a blog called Third String Goalie, which is devoted entirely to hockey jerseys, declared one made by Gemini Athletic to be the worst looking jersey they’d seen — calling it a perfect storm of bad ideas poorly executed.
And whose jersey was it that was so lambasted?
Um, that would be one that was custom-made for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers. Ouch again.
