In NHL.com’s Q&A feature called “Sitting Down with …” we talk to key figures in the game, gaining insight into their lives on and off the ice. This week, we feature Harlan Kingfisher, a former junior and college player, who is supporting the Indigenous hockey community in Western Canada with his apparel company and providing financial assistance to those in need.
When Harlan Kingfisher had the idea for an Indigenous hockey clothing line, the former junior and college player never imagined how popular it would become.
The success of Smudge The Blades apparel has allowed Kingfisher to advocate for Indigenous hockey and provide financial assistance to players.
Kingfisher will be attending the 45th Annual Kilrich Yukon Native Hockey Tournament in Whitehorse from March 20-23 as a featured guest. The event will showcase more than 50 Indigenous teams from around Western Canada in various age categories.
“When I launched it, I didn’t expect it to grow as fast as it did,” Kingfisher told NHL.com. “With the support from the community, this was a way to enjoy Indigenous hockey games by wearing this gear.
“Now, to see people wearing it all over at tournaments and laughing when they see the designs, it just kind of grew from there.”
Kingfisher, 41, grew up in Sturgeon Lake First Nation, Saskatchewan. He played junior hockey for the Waywayseecappo Wolverines of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League and then the OCN Blizzard before playing for Augustana University in Camrose, Alberta.
Now a power engineer living in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Kingfisher launched his apparel company in 2020. The success of company has allowed him to provide grants and scholarships to indigenous hockey players totaling approximately $25,000 per year.
“When I first started it, I had no idea what was going to come out of it,” Kingfisher said. “It was my friends and family buying first, and within the first hours my webpage got a bunch of views because other people wanted to support me too. The orders started coming in and basically a week later, after I started showing the product more on my social media, it really picked up.”
The apparel caught the attention of former NHL defenseman Andrew Ference, who shared it on social media. The success of his company soon attracted the interest of mainstream media in Canada, providing sales an added boost.
“When my sales started to grow, I realized that this was bigger than me and I needed to do something more, so I created an Indigenous hockey scholarship fund for Indigenous players playing university hockey to help them with their school fees,” Kingfisher said. “I also reached out to parents who needed help with hockey equipment and hockey fees, so I’ve been doing that for the last four years with my sales.”
NHL.com spoke with Kingfisher about his clothing line and his work with Indigenous youth.
How do you come up with the designs for your clothing?
“Basically, my design ideas were funny sayings within the Indigenous culture that I knew people could relate to. I take a phrase and put a hockey twist to it. A lot of my designs when I started were all just words, and then I started to use some logos and I tried to incorporate the Indigenous culture within the logos. Every design relates to something differently and they all work, and it’s been amazing seeing them. I thought some would take precedence, but I’m getting sales on all of them, which is really cool.”
Why did you call your company Smudge The Blades?
“Back when I was playing U-18 hockey, I got cross-checked in the back and it happened to be in Game 1 of a two-game playoff series. We ended up losing and I got stretchered off the ice; it was that bad, I couldn’t move my back, couldn’t do anything. My mom said we were going to see my grandpa, I call him my ‘mosom,’ that’s what we call our grandparents in Cree. My mosom was a powerful medicine man named Clifford Sanderson, people came from around the world to get healed. At that age I was skeptical, but he performed medicine on my back, and he tapped me on the shoulder he said something in Cree. I didn’t understand, but my mom said that Mosom said I was good to play the next game. The next morning, I could move my back with no pain or anything and I played the game. After the game, I went and saw my mosom again and he told me before hockey to smudge my equipment, smudge my gloves, smudge my shoulder blades, smudge my hockey stick, smudge my skates, smudge the blade, and I started laughing. That’s where I got the idea from. I wanted to pay respects to my mosom and carry that teaching with my clothing brand.”
Did you smudge your equipment from then on?
“Yeah, right after that I did it and even with my kids I’ve passed it on. Before any big game, I tell them to smudge their equipment. It doesn’t take long; you take some sweetgrass or sage, whatever they want to use to smudge their equipment. After I told that story about my clothing brand, I got so many messages from parents and kids that they would tell me they do that with their gear as well. That was really cool to hear as well. A lot of people in the community to do that, and I think that’s really awesome.”
Why did you feel it was important to create a scholarship fund?
“When I was playing university hockey, it was tough with money and even to buy books. I thought it was an awesome program to start because we have so many Indigenous youths out there playing sports, so we go out there and support a few of them to help them succeed in their journey. It’s been awesome because when I started doing that, other business started supporting us as well. That was really cool to see that business saw what I was doing and wanted to get involved.”
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