NEW YORK — Arena arrivals might just be the Tampa Bay Lightning’s interpretation of walking the red carpet.
“I will say, hands down, the best-dressed team in the league,” Tom Marchitelli, custom menswear designer and stylist, said.
Marchitelli would know.
His Hoboken, New Jersey-based company, Gentleman’s Playbook, crafts these suits for several Lightning players.
“When I first started reaching out to Tampa guys, Ondrej Palat was the first guy to accept an appointment with me,” Marchitelli told ABC Action News sports anchor Kyle Burger. “He did a few suits, then Victor Hedman must have seen him walking into the locker room and I connected with him, too.”
“When it comes to suits, we wear them every game so you want to look pretty sharp,” Hedman said. “Tom is the guy. He’s a big name in the business.”
Marchitelli’s client list includes 300 professional athletes, even Tampa Bay Buccaneers stars Mike Evans and Rob Gronkowski are on the roster. But Hedman was one of Marchitelli’s first big stars.
“You see him walking in impeccably tailored head-to-toe every single game and he’s also the hardest guy to fit in the entire NHL because he is gigantic."
“He’s 6-7 and also very muscular. He’s not the skinniest guy,” Marchitelli said. “He has huge legs, but he wants the pant as fitted as possible. The first couple of fittings I did with him, ‘can you sit down?’ He’s like ‘yeah, I can and I want them tighter.’ I said ‘ok. As long as you are comfortable.’”
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Hedman stands tall and his style is to stand out on and off the ice.
“He wants the big, bold, more bold the better,” Marchitelli said.
“He’s done my tuxedos for award shows, weddings,” Hedman said. “The amount of different stuff you can get you head spinning a little with the kind of patterns you can choose from.”
Marchitelli travels to his client's homes all over the country for measurements and fittings. He keeps his eye on teams’ social media pages to catch a glimpse of his work.
"I watching these videos and pictures that you’re talking about, if I see a jacket or pant that is a little too tight or a little too loose, I will adjust the next suit without even telling them,” he said. “They think both are perfect. I am so meticulous. I’m OCD in a good way.”
His clients are also meticulous in their work. When they put on a Marchitelli suit, it’s game time.
“In the playoffs, you have that one suit if you’re winning you keep using it,” Hedman said. “Good luck suits.”
Nikita Kucherov, Zach Bogosian, and Steven Stamkos are also clients of Gentleman’s Playbook. In fact, Stamkos added two new suits to his collection for the postseason run.
