Staring down at the ice from inside the press box at the Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex, Lucas Gates could not believe his eyes.
Gates, 31, told his mother, if it was a dream, don’t wake him up. But he wasn’t asleep. She didn’t need to pinch his shoulder. It was real.
Goosebumps made the hair on his arms stand up.
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One-by-one, on a mid-February day, teenage and twentysomething hockey players emerged from the locker room dressed in a jersey specially made for this game. The uniforms were designed by Gates to get people talking about the invisible disability he has battled his entire life.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, is this happening? Is this happening!?” said Gates, repeating the sentence, perhaps as if he’s reliving the day all over again, and punctuating the words with a laugh.
Since childhood, Gates, who is on the autism spectrum, has been interested in jersey designs.
As an adult, he went into work in autism advocacy. But he never lost his love for graphic design, creating mock jerseys of his favourite hockey team, the Vancouver Canucks, and posting them online.
Earlier this year, Gates blended his two passions — autism advocacy and graphic design — and is now hoping more sports clubs will follow suit.
Gates, a self-taught artist from Vancouver, was asked to create jerseys for the Coquitlam Express ahead of the club’s third annual Autism Acceptance Game in February.
The invitation came after Tali Campbell, general manager of the Coquitlam Express, noticed a Vancouver Canucks autism-themed jersey that Gates designed on social media. Within minutes, Campbell reached out to Gates and asked if he would be interested in creating a specialty jersey for the Express ahead of their Autism Acceptance Game.
“Within a couple of days, he sent off his design to us and I loved it,” Campbell said.
The uniform colours — blue and yellow — were based off the Expo and Millennium SkyTrain lines, Gates said. The jerseys also included symbols to represent neurodiversity and the history of the Express.
“On the side of the [Express] train logo, there is the infinity symbol, which is representative of neurodiversity,” Campbell said. “I went back in the franchise’s history and used the design based off the Burnaby Express, a team that won the RBC Cup.”
The jerseys were a hit with the players and encompassed the team’s history, Campbell said.
“It captivated what we were trying to do on the night, it captivated our history,” Campbell said. “The entire jersey was really slickly designed.”
This April marks Autism Acceptance Month. At the beginning of the month, Gates reposted his Express jerseys on social media with the goal of making the specialty jerseys more common for professional clubs celebrating autism acceptance.
“It’s an idea to raise around the fact that it’s an invisible disability,” Gates said. “Every voice in our community is different and unique in their own way.”
Many NHL teams host a variety of nights throughout the regular season that honour communities or groups of people. The Canucks, specifically, held Diwali, Armed Forces and First Nations-themed nights in the first half of this season. Some of the special nights came with their own unique warm up jerseys.
Although one night is not more important than another, Gates said he believes autism-specific jerseys can reduce stigma around the invisible disability.
For example, he says, a child on the autism spectrum who is overwhelmed may act out in public. They may be labelled a “bad kid” by people, however, the reality is that they had a sensory overload and needed others to be patient with them before settling down.
A jersey — with symbols that represent larger meanings — could spark conversations about autism and build relationships with allies looking to learn more about the disability.
“I want more people to start asking us, ‘Hey, what’s our experience like?” Gates said.
Sports provide a platform to promote a variety of important topics, Campbell said, and one-time jerseys add an extra layer of awareness through designs.
“Specially designed jerseys bring more of an appeal,” he said. “People are talking more about the design, what the background is to it. It’s another step for us to showcase our support for families with children on the autism spectrum.”
While no plans are set in stone yet, Campbell expects to work with Gates again in the future.
Gates, meanwhile, said he hopes the Express design leads to more autism-specific designs with other professional teams in the Lower Mainland.
“I challenge all the pro teams in town, BC Lions, Whitecaps, Canadians, let’s get a design for autism by Autism Acceptance Month next year,” he said.