The First Team To Do So

I'm quite certain this flew under the radar here in North America, and it likely didn't catch much of the news ticker anywhere else for that matter despite it being a pretty massive step forward in men's professional hockey. Örebro, where Friend of The Hockey Show Jared Aulin played, might be the first men's team on the planet to do something for women that, frankly, should have been done long ago. It has little to do with hockey, and everything to do with being a woman for those women who may work in and around the arena on a daily basis. And now that they've done it, I'm starting to ask why other teams hadn't done this before today.

Örebro Hockey, as a member of the Swedish Elite League, has taken a major step forward in becoming the first club in Sweden to offer its female employees and female players free menstrual protection through a company called Period Packs. Partnering with the Örebro-based female protection company seems like a no-brainer, especially when one considers how many women likely work in and around the game when it comes to both Örebro Hockey and the Swedish Hockey League itself, but it's a major step forward at any and all arenas I've ever seen.

It should be noted that Period Packs founders Amanda Mattsson and Lova Svensson recently received the award as Entrepreneur of the Year in Örebro after their company started in 2019 and has now grown to six staff members. According to Period Packs' website,

"We strive to increase the accessibility of sanitary protection in toilets at work sites, schools and in the public room. We do this by providing our customized dispenser, adapted for sanitary protections. We sell the dispenser to companies who in turn offer their female coworkers a container filled with free sanitary protection.

"We are solving a problem affecting half of the world's population. We, like most women, have been without sanitary protection in times when we needed it the most. Our vision and goal is to make sanitary protection in bathrooms as natural and accessible as toilet paper and soap!"

As a guy, I'll be very honest in never even thinking about this part of life when suiting up for a game or practice, but it seems more than apparent when Period Packs frames itself as "half the world's population". Obviously, I've never been inside a women's washroom being that I'm a dude, so I can't say whether other arenas are doing this. What I do know, though, is that Örebro Hockey will have the tampon dispensers installed at their front office location and at the women's team's locker room at Trängen.

Very cool, Örebro. Count me in as impressed with this move.

You might be asking what these dispensers look like, and I have to say that they're sleek while being somewhat discreet in terms of what they hold. As you can see in the images, there are two dispensers per wall unit, and one would push to dispense a free tampon if needed. By pressing the front dispenser, it's very much "as natural and accessible as toilet paper and soap".

There might be a segment of the population reading this thinking, "Who cares?", and that's fine if you have that opinion. If you follow this blog, HBIC makes no apologies for celebrating the accomplishments and achievements of women in the sport of hockey, and this move by a men's team in Sweden is one of those moves that makes me realize that I sometimes miss the forest because of the trees. As a guy, this is something you simply don't think about when getting ready to play or coming off the ice, and I'm glad to see Örebro stepping to the forefront when it comes to something like this.

If it leads to more SHL teams doing the same thing, that's even better. If that leads to more leagues doing it, we're on the right track. This is one thing women shouldn't have to worry about when working at the rink or playing the game on the ice. Örebro Hockey has my full respect for doing this, and let's hope they're the first of many teams to make this move to make the rink a little more inclusive.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!