Minnesota Wild First NHL Team To Debut Snapchat Spectacles


In the midst of all the Snapchat Spectacles craze, the Minnesota Wild was the first NHL team to debut Snap, Inc.’s $129 mustard-colored sunglasses and give fans a behind-the-scenes view through a unique lens.

On Wednesday, the Wild partnered with advertisement agency space150 to bring first-person social sharing to life.

As the Spectacles’ embedded cameras wirelessly sent 10-second video clips to the team’s app, Wild fans caught a glimpse of the pre-game skate, got up-close-and-personal with a player getting his skates sharpened during warmups and hopped along for a Zamboni ride. Nordy, the Wild mascot, even wore the Spectacles when he shot his T-shirt cannon into crowd at the Xcel Energy Center.

Wild social and digital staffers shared content that they would arguably normally populate across various social channels, including Snapchat, but now it had that pseudo first-person feel with the use of the Spectacles.

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“Here in the State of Hockey, we’re always looking for new and unique ways to bring the action to hockey’s greatest fans while better connecting Wild fans with their team,” Phil Ervin, Digital Managing Editor and Content Strategist for the Minnesota Wild, said in a statement.

“We’re always looking for new ways to bring our fans closer to the team and the game. The Spectacles certainly delivered, providing a cool, new point-of-view that was really simple to execute.”

Added Greg Swan, Vice President of Brand Innovation at space150 in a statement: “We were thrilled to partner with the Minnesota Wild to bring the Spectacles perspective to hockey fans tonight — what appears to be the first time a pro sports team has tested these out.”

With 2017 merely weeks away, expect the Spectacles to be the trendiest technology product being utilized by sports teams during the first few months of the new year.