Greg Wyshynski
Multiple Authors
The Carolina Hurricanes are officially hanging up their “beer skates” for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The novelty drinking mugs shaped like a Hurricanes hockey skate are completely sold out and won’t be restocked, according to Adam Hoffman, vice president for food and beverage at Lenovo Center. The plastic skates were introduced at Game 1 of their playoff series against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night and instantly went viral on social media. The skates sold out with eight minutes to go in the second intermission.
Hoffman said there won’t be any more “beer skates” available for purchase for the rest of the NHL postseason. The team ordered the skates through a specialty promo item vendor and “there’s just no way to turn it around that fast” to get more of them, Hoffman told ESPN on Monday.
“We really thought we had purchased enough and then this thing just blew up. Fans went crazy for it, which is great. We love that we created something that they wanted to have,” said Hoffman. “I don’t want to say we weren’t prepared for them to buy as many as they did, but obviously we didn’t think it was going to blow up exactly the way that it did, which is just so awesome.”
According to WRAL-TV, the Hurricanes sold 4,687 skates during Game 1. That started with 300 sales at their fan plaza party before the game. Staffers went to the arena’s warehouse and brought their entire inventory of skates to Game 1 once it became obvious that the demand was outpacing the supply.
Now that they’ve sold out, the skates have become an instant collectors’ item. There were eBay listings on Monday that had the skates priced between $150-$200.
The mug holds around 28 ounces of liquid. It was sold for $19 on its own. With a beverage, the skates cost $12 plus the price of whatever drink was put inside of it. Hoffman said he believed that fans who purchased skates at Game 1 weren’t allowed to bring them back to be refilled at future Hurricanes home games, per arena policies.
Hoffman said he didn’t anticipate the skates becoming this popular, this fast.
“No, we certainly did not. If we had, we would’ve purchased more of them to start,” he said.
The Hurricanes created the “beer skate” after having had success with other hockey-centric beverage vessels like a “beer hockey stick” and a “beer Zamboni.” Working with their supplier, the hockey skate — with the liquid filling up where the skate blade would be — seemed like the next logical evolution.
“Honestly, people have been drinking beer out of boots for quite some time,” said Hoffman.
The process to create and produce them took months, including getting approvals from the NHL to brand the skate with Hurricanes colors and logos.
The Hurricanes “beer skate” was one of several novelty items that created fan buzz during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Buffalo had the “beer sabre,” which sold briskly. The Utah Mammoth introduced the “Tusk Mug,” a collectable mug shaped like a mammoth tusk.
While they won’t return for the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Hoffman wouldn’t rule out another run of “beer skates” in the future for Carolina.
“We have already started talking about that. I don’t know that I could say one way or the other whether or not that’s going to happen, but there also could be similar iterations. Maybe that’s the best way to call it,” he said. “Do we try to do something a little bit different with it or do we just run it back? Is it just so popular that we feel the need to just release the same thing again? So we’re trying to figure that out right now.”
The Hurricanes face the Flyers in Game 2 of their series on Monday night in Raleigh.
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