Brett Perlini’s Custom Painted Skates - A tribute to his heritage and a symbol of ‘Better Days’ to come

Posted by Dave Hicks · May 04, 2020

Over the past few weeks, we have been working on something very special...

We have been fortunate enough to work with Exclusive Custom Cleats to produce these unreal custom painted VAPOR 2X Pro skates for GB forward Brett Perlini!

The skates named ‘BETTER DAYS’, were designed with Brett’s input by Cardiff based custom footwear artist Dan Hayes. Dan has previously worked with a number of athletes including Man Utd Marcus Rashford, Liverpool forward Divock Origi and GB Olympian Greg Rutherford.

Perlinin Skates

“When I first heard we were working with Dan I was really excited. To see his level of creativity and design on his other projects I couldn’t wait to see what he could do with a skate”.
- Brett perlini

Brett worked with Dan on a few ideas he wanted to incorporate in the designs. He wanted to include symbols that were close to his heart.

“I have a picture of my Nono Fred Perlini Sr. One of the best hockey players to ever come out of Sault Ste Marie. My dad’s retired #11 jersey from Guildford. The spartan head logo from my university Michigan State and the GB Lion who I’m representing” - Perlini.

The initial concept behind the skates was to create something special for Brett to rep during warm-ups at this years IIHF World Championships in Switzerland. Sadly due to the outbreak of the pandemic the 2020 Worlds were cancelled so we came together and chose to continue with the project to show solidarity and help spread some much needed positivity.

Dan stayed with the sentimental artwork Brett wanted, but put his own spin on things to incorporate the difficult times that we are all currently facing.

“I decided to do the background on one skate as a Storm to reflect that the whole world is going through a very tough time and on the other skate I opted for a blue sky and white clouds to show that BETTER DAYS are to come.

I hope you like the concept behind these customs. Thank you Brett for trusting me.” - Dan Hayes

Perlinis Custom Skates

Dan Hayes - “It has been an honour for me to work with BAUER HOCKEY UK on this project. As a young boy I learn’t to skate in a pair of BAUER Turbo quad rollers that I found in my grandfather's garage then switched to BAUER inlines when I started playing street hockey. Shortly after played a little ice hockey, so you guys have been a big part of my childhood, thanks for reaching out!”.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Dan for all his time and hard work that has gone into this project - go check out his work and sauce him a follow on Facebook / Instagram @exclusive_custom_cleats

Hopefully things will soon look a little brighter for us all and hockey will be back!

Stay safe.
Team BAUER