AHL SHOW – 2026
We’ve been longtime partners and friends of the American Hockey League. If you’re unaware it’s the primary developmental league for players hoping to fulfill their dreams of making it to the NHL. Along with that they’re some of the most creative, fun, hardworking people on the planet. Every year the league does a business development trade show to bring together all the teams and their partners.
We’re based on the west coast, and these shows typically fall somewhere in the Midwest or on the east coast but it doesn’t matter, we would travel to the moon if they held it there. To make sure we got all our bags for the show we decided to go direct flight to Detroit and make the drive rather than connecting through Minnesota and praying the bags join us. This was a great choice as we got to try the local faire from an establishment called Sheetz (fantastic) and get on the road. Michigan is a beautiful state so the drive flew by and in no time we were in Grand Rapids.
Show setup went very easy and quickly as expected so we decided to take a walk to find lunch and see what downtown Grand Rapids had to offer. We found an unreal local burger spot called Nonla and it blew our minds. Fantastic spot. We then stumbled upon the Gerald Ford Presidential Library and made the group decision… “If it’s less than $40 I’m in.” Well, we were in luck. Fourteen bucks and we were ready to rip. We keep forgetting that we’re locked into Midwest pricing out here and it’s unreal. Quick hot lap to see the former presidents most prized possessions from his term and it was time to go meet the teams.
Most of these clubs have become great friends of ours so at this point the trade show is more of a reunion then it is a stiff business trade show. Spent the next four hours catching up, hearing how house projects have been going, seeing photos of how old the kids look now, and of course chat new ideas for the upcoming season. Needless to say if you’re a fan of one of our AHL clubs you’re in for a great season of merch!
We really enjoyed all of our time in Grand Rapids and hope to be back to visit in the season when we have some new gear in the store and some new friends to meet!
