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"It's tough because we've moved to a new location and increased our stock. It's fair to say since Christmas it's been hard," said Hayward.
 Overlander Sports assistant manager Gary Tait dons some hockey gear while speaking about the cancellation of the NHL season. - Stephan Burnett/NNSL photos |
Head Gear specializes in sports clothing, selling hats, jerseys, shirts and other paraphernalia, much of it from NHL teams. He said he is lowering prices in an attempt to blow his hockey stock out and make room for non-NHL merchandise.
Throughout the Christmas period, Hayward says he would have sold 30 to 40 jerseys had the season been on. This year's Christmas sales were off by at least 50 per cent.
As early as Tuesday, Hayward was hopeful a settlement might be reached.
Hayward said that during the 1994 NHL lockout, between 40 and 60 per cent of licensed sportswear outlets went out of business.
Down south, Jersey City locations, similar to Head Gear, have been moving out their licensed sportswear and bringing in different brand names as a result of the strike, said Hayward.
On the other hand, Overlander Sports and Boston Pizza say they haven't been affected by the lockout and Wednesday's cancellation of the NHL season.
"We don't do very much in terms of licensed product," said Overlander Sports co-owner Sandra Stirling.
Overlander assistant manager Gary Tait said people are simply switching from being interested in NHL hockey to being more interested in local hockey.
At a recent women's hockey tournament Tait was surprised with the high level of ability.
At Boston Pizza, manager Yannick Larocque said the lockout and the loss of the season has not overly affected his establishment.
With the possibility the NHL players may still be off the ice come fall, Larocque said he was hoping to see some junior league games being aired on TSN for his hockey-viewing patrons.
