The NHL is having a bit of a red-carpet moment—and it’s not just because of the success of Heated Rivalry and hockey romance novels.
Like their counterparts in the NBA and NFL, pro hockey players have been upping their fashion game, arriving at arenas in custom suits and flashy accessories that fuel sports fans’ growing obsession with “tunnel walk” style.
For their sartorial swagger, many NHL players and coaches turn to Tom Barnett New York, a Buffalo-based custom design and tailoring house with additional locations in Manhattan, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.
Ever since founder Tom Barnett designed a suit for Buffalo Sabres owner Seymour H. Knox III more than two decades ago, the brand’s reputation has spread throughout the league. Lately, it’s been aided by a healthy sense of one-upmanship among players, says Tom’s son Oliver Barnett ’14, the company’s brand strategist.
“Those guys are competitive. They see themselves now on the team’s Instagram page and think, ‘Man, I’ve gotta clean up my act,’ or ‘Maybe I need to go in a different direction here,’ or, you know, ‘I saw another guy wearing this. Is this something we can do?’
“We’re willing to push boundaries,” says Oliver, who earned a degree in finance from Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business in 2014 and joined the family business two years later, after attending graduate school at Georgetown and working briefly for the Washington Capitals. “If someone has an idea, we will find a way to make it happen.”
Helping NHL Stars ‘Own Their Moment’
Among the players Tom Barnett New York has outfitted are Alex Ovechkin, the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer. For the Washington Capitals’ star forward, they designed a jacket commemorating all the goals he scored on the way to breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record in April 2025.
They also made veteran defenseman John Carlson a suit honoring Navy football legend Roger Staubach and the U.S. Naval Academy, where his Capitals played the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2018.
“Everyone that works with us is family,” says Oliver, whose mother, Lisa, and brother, Cloogie, also work for the company. “We take so much pride in [the players’] moments, in their accomplishments. You watch a game differently when you know somebody personally.”
This spring, the brand will launch a series of customizable ties, pocket squares, and scarves. They’ve also been developing some more casual, ready-to-wear items like polos and hoodies, says Barnett, who helps source materials for the company.
Whether outfitting NHL stars, business people, or those just looking for a wardrobe refresh, Oliver says that Tom Barnett New York’s mission has always been “to understand the client’s vision and bring that to life—to help them own their moment.”
Business—and People—Skills Honed at Fordham
Oliver says the business acumen and personal touch he brings to his work with Tom Barnett New York is tied directly to his time at Fordham.
“You have a great campus in the Bronx, and you have everything you could ever imagine at your disposal,” he says, recalling his classes in accounting and real estate, plus “great internships in finance” at places like Merrill Lynch.
“I found out pretty quickly what made sense for me and what didn’t—where my strengths were, where my weaknesses were, things that maybe I could get a little bit better at.”
And while those lessons were instrumental to his career, the connections he made on campus have proven even more powerful.
“I certainly didn’t know that the friends I made day one at Loschert Hall, I would be in their weddings or that I would be working with them years after graduating, making them tuxedos or helping them get ready for their job interviews,” he says.
