Everything Ben Weiner worked toward culminated in one moment.
“It was a dream come true,” the 28-year-old Massachusetts native told NESN.com.
Weiner’s creation, a custom jacket for Boston Bruins captain Brad Marchand, took B’s social media by storm this week. The white satin jacket with gold sleeves commemorated Marchand’s recent milestone of 1,000 career games.
What Weiner didn’t know, though, was that Marchand would wear the jacket to TD Garden on Monday ahead of Boston’s ceremony honoring Marchand’s milestone.
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“That was a total surprise to me,” Weiner said. “It was an incredible experience for them and for me.”
Weiner said the idea for the jacket actually came from Marchand’s wife, Katrina. She reached out to Weiner, who has two friends in the Bruins communications department and expressed his desire to work on customs for players’ wives. Those customs are popular for wives during the NHL playoffs, he said.
Katrina, though, reached out with her own request: She wanted something special for Marchand’s 1,000th-game celebration.
“It kind of just took off from there,” said Weiner, the founder of “Jeanius Jackets.”
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Weiner started with an order of four customs for Katrina and their three children, Sloane, Sawyer and Rue. All four wore their matching jackets during Monday’s ceremony. Katrina later requested one for Marchand himself.
“I was all for that,” said Weiner, who called Marchand his favorite Bruins player post-Ray Bourque. “I’ve been playing hockey since I was 3 years old so the Bruins are No. 1 for me.”
After going back and forth on a few designs, Weiner landed on the white satin look with gold sleeves. It featured a Bruins logo on the front with a “1,000” within the spoked B. The backside included “1,000” in a vintage Bruins logo with “MARCHAND” below it. Weiner also used gold to highlight the “C” in Marchand, a nod to the first-year captain. The names of Katrina, Sloane, Sawyer and Rue were stitched on the right forearm and Marchand’s career highlights were displayed on an inside patch.
From design to stitching, Weiner estimated the five jackets took him approximately 50 hours.
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“It was something I really wanted to do,” he said.
The Bruins’ social media account posted a video and photos of Marchand wearing the jacket as he walked into TD Garden. Black and Gold supporters immediately took to the comments and shared how much they loved it. Many shouted out Weiner, specifically.
It was a surreal moment for Weiner. As he saw Marchand rock it for the first time in real-time, he couldn’t help but reflect on his own journey.
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“Really all that hard work felt like it paid off in that moment,” Weiner said.
A 2017 graduate of the University of Maryland, Weiner worked in content marketing after college. But not long into that career, shortly after Weiner got his first sewing machine, he gained a passion for creating custom work. Living in Dorchester at the time, he turned a second bedroom into a workshop — “It was a mess in there” — and worked his day job just to get to his night job. His passion project routinely kept him up until 3 or 4 a.m. ET.
“I got tired of starting my job tired,” Weiner recalled.
That led to a life change in June. He walked away from his full-time job in content marketing and opened up a shop in Plainville, Mass. He currently lives in Plainville after growing up in Holliston, Mass., where he attended Holliston High School.
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“It was a really cool experience to see the Bruins recognize my work. And to see Brad and the family appreciate what I did, I’m just very grateful for the whole experience,” he said. “This was just a golden opportunity to do something really special for the Marchand family, and they paid it back to me by having Brad wear it into the game.”
New England sports fans surely have not seen the last of Weiner’s customs.
He was shown on the NESN broadcast holding a custom “Marchand 1,000” jersey during Marchand’s 1,000th game against the Tampa Bay Lightning last week. He created that jersey for himself and plans to keep it, but also will be making another for the Marchand family.
In addition to his work on the Marchand customs, Weiner created a “Player of the Game” jacket for PWHL Boston. Both the organization and Weiner showed it off on X on Monday, ironically the same day as the Marchand craze. Weiner said he reached out to PWHL Boston before the season started to see if the organization wanted to collaborate during its inaugural season.
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“I know this is a very special thing being one of the Original Six and I just wanted to give them something they could all celebrate together,” Weiner said, referencing the dark green jacket with cuffs resembling the stripe pattern of Boston’s jerseys.
Weiner also has collaborations lined up with the American Hockey League’s Henderson Silver Knights and Ontario Reign. He’s gained interest from other NHL teams as well.
But it’s safe to say the Marchand custom jacket and ensuing unveil might never be topped. It perfectly intertwined Weiner’s two biggest passions — the Bruins and custom work — into one.
He lit the lamp with his golden opportunity.
Featured image via Mari Murby/Boston Bruins
