BY Cait Rohan
We caught up with New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist at the 2nd Henrik Lundqvist Foundation Unmasked Event Hosted by Samsung to talk about giving back, what goes into designing his famously creative masks, and his hopes for winning a Stanley Cup.
New York Rangers fans know that Henrik Lundqvist has a great fashion sense—and that stylish factor carries over to his on-ice look, too. Case in point: his artfully designed goalie masks. But, few may know the story behind the masks. The beloved goalie works with Swedish painter David Gunnarsson, a.k.a. DaveArt, to create eclectic takes on the protective headgear, many of which draw inspiration from the Rangers, the goalie’s home country, Sweden, and his love of New York City.
Lundqvist also gives back as the Garden of Dreams’ spokesperson, and through his own organization, the Henrik Lundqvist Foundation, which works to support in-need children and adults through education and health services. Last night (November 9), Lundqvist auctioned some of his artful goalie masks off, with proceeds being put toward his foundation. We were able to catch up with him during the event at Samsung 837 to get his thoughts on giving back, designing the goalie masks, and bringing the Stanley Cup back to New York.
What inspired you to start the Henrik Lundqvist Foundation?
HENRIK LUNDQVIST: I would say all the work that friends and teammates have been doing over the years. I’d been working a lot with the Garden of Dreams Foundation, and I’m still a spokesperson for the Garden of Dreams Foundation. They showed me the ropes for sure my first few years here in New York. I think over the years, I just [had] this futuristic hope of creating something on my own, with my family. Finally, we decided to do it and have had the opportunity to reach a lot of people back home [in Sweden], and different projects in New York. I mean, we really have two homes. Sweden obviously in the off-season, in the summertime, but here [in New York], is where we spend the most time, and we really enjoy it. It feels good to reach both places.
Take us through the process of creating one of the masks we see here tonight.
HL: All the masks here tonight are masks I’ve used myself throughout my career. I flew over, probably, 15 masks from Sweden that I’ve used during my early days, and then a lot of masks are from my time here over the last 11 years. So every mask is different and all of them have different stories—from the Olympics, outdoor games, playoffs, and regular season. The guy that paints them all will be here tonight, David, I’ve worked with him for 17 years now. We know each other pretty well; [he knows] what I like and what I don’t like.
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