The Olds Grizzlys have a little more black & gold team spirit as part of their uniforms for this season.
Kevin Watson, Manager of Business Operations for the Olds Grizzlys, says they are the first team in North America to add a sponsored custom team themed skate wrap to their look for the 2024-2025 Alberta Junior Hockey League season.
They were designed by a local artist, entrepreneur, and goalie. Adam Beukeboom from Sundre is the owner/creator of Studio Beuksy. He started his custom art on helmets and has since moved onto skates. Beukeboom says “I think when I was in University that was the first time I tried painting one of my helmets. I had always wanted to and I gave it a go, just hand painted it. Turned out pretty good. So I kind of kept doing it. All of the sudden I got into the air brushing and started figuring that out and then next thing I knew people were asking me to paint their helmets and, yeah, that has kind of progressed into something and all of the sudden I’m an artist, which is kind of cool. Always joke about it when you’re a kid but it is a nice thing to have in the back pocket, especially as an aging hockey player, you know.”
He and his wife then came up with the idea to start doing skate wraps. Beukeboom says “it’s pretty quickly turned into a legitimate thing. We tested them out and they work great and, yeah, so we’ve got a pretty cool product right now.”
Beukeboom hopes now that the Grizzlys have their custom skate vinyls on, that it will catch on with other teams as well. He says “you’ve got all your minor hockey teams around those teams that they start seeing it. Yeah, so it’s I think one of those things that I think this year will be starting slow and, you know, making sure everything is working smoothly as it has so far. Then hopefully as the ball starts rolling we can be ready to step up to the plate too.”
Check out his custom skate vinyls online at studiobeuksy.com.
The 30-year-old Beukeboom will start his third season with Germany’s Adendorfer Ice Hockey Club this week. He says “in my first year with Adendorfer, actually, I had a teammate ask me to paint his skates because I got into air brushing and had been doing helmets and all sorts of stuff for a number of years now. I painted his skates and they turned out great. He was super happy, put them on social media and pretty quickly it kind of blew up a bit. I had friends and other people from all over the world asking me to paint their skates, which was super cool but mid-season it is not the best thing to ship a pair of skates around the world, being in Germany at the time.”
Beukeboom’s hockey resume also included time with AJHL’s Drumheller Dragons, plus a championship in 2022 with New York’s Watertown Wolves in the Federal Prospects Hockey League.
Check out Galen’s full conversation with Adam Beukeboom on our 96.5 CKFM – Olds Facebook page.
