Players on a New Jersey youth hockey team have been threatened with suspension over a viral custom wardrobe scandal.
A group of mothers associated with the Hitmen’s 10U major team had their own custom jackets made using team branding, according to Bobby Reiss, owner of the Jersey Hitmen and the Ice Vault rink in Wayne.
Reiss went on to send a threatening email to the parents on Tuesday, stating the Hitmen logos and trademarks were used without permission, which is spelled out in all Bandit and Hitmen contracts.
“I cannot permit or tolerate these actions,” Reiss wrote. “Therefore, the parents on this team and their children are suspended until restitution is made to our organization.”
The owner also was seeking a 15% royalty.
The email and photo of the parents have since went viral online.
Reiss told NJ.com the players were never suspended and all of them attended practice on Wednesday as scheduled.
He claims the warning was only intended to get the attention of the players’ parents into addressing what he deemed a violation of the organization’s guidelines.
Additionally, he said none of the parents were forced to pay royalties at this time.
“Did I write that they would be? Yes, I did,” Reiss said. “But that was to get the attention of the mothers.”
“The only way parents deal is through their kids,” he went on. “When their actions (cause) potential issues for their children, then they’ll deal with the issue at hand….That’s why I used that terminalogy [sic]: ‘I’ll suspend your kids.’ The only way I can get their interest.”
In the past, Reiss has allowed parents and families to create certain merchandise if the Hitmen organization could not produce the item itself, which he deemed as a “different story” than what occurred this week.
“They didn’t explore that with me. They never gave me a shot,” he said.
He hired people to produce team merchandise for the organization and argued that using the trademarks without permission took business away from those who make the apparel. Reiss initially stated the 15% royalty in the email because he felt it was comparable to licensing fees charged by larger organizations.
“All I want people to do is respect the boundaries that you agreed to,” he said. “We provide a service, they partake of the service, but within that service, there are restrictions.”
Reiss has not spoken directly with the parents, but he emphasized the playes would not be punished.
“The kids will never be affected,” he said. “Let me make that perfectly clear.”
