When Patrick Yarnell arrived at the Vancouver airport last month for a flight home to Winnipeg, he didn’t have to look at his ticket to find his departure gate. “I just followed all the people wearing Winnipeg Jets jerseys, hats and T-shirts,” he says.

There’s no question that Santa’s elves worked overtime this year putting the Air Force-inspired Jets’ logo on, well, just about everything that Winnipeggers and former Winnipeggers found under their Christmas trees. (During the festive season, people wished each other a “Merry Jetsmas.” Seriously.)

But it’s the sheer number of items that bear the National Hockey League’s new Jets’ logo that is staggering, even to those involved with the team. There are no firm figures on how many licensed products are on store shelves, but estimates range from hundreds to well over 1,000. By comparison, during the first run of professional hockey in Winnipeg from 1972 to 1996, there might have been a few dozen.

There’s the basic stuff like the aforementioned clothing, plus tuques, hoodies and sweatshirts — one of the most popular items for women is deep V-neck T-shirts. And then there are beer mugs, shot glasses, slippers, tattoo sleeves, stuffed animals, piggy banks, mini-sticks and cufflinks.

Hungry? How about a Jets doughnut at Tim Hortons, complete with an edible logo? Or a Jets toaster, which singes the team’s logo onto the bread just a little darker than the rest of the slice, or a Jets waffle and sandwich-maker?

When the team and Manitoba Public Insurance put Jets licence plates up for sale a couple of months ago, 20,000 were bought up in a week, leading the team to promise that another 5,000 would be made available shortly.

They cost $70, with half going to MPI and the other half to the Winnipeg Jets True North Foundation. Thanks to this, and the 50-50 draws at home games, the foundation expects to donate more than $1 million to programs for people in need this year.

The extent to which Winnipeggers are prepared to open their wallets has overwhelmed Mark Chipman, the team’s chairman and co-owner. “I’m not anywhere close to being numb to it. Every time I see [the logo], it brings a smile to my face,” he says.

“I was unaware of the breadth of licensed merchandise that’s available. Some of it is really cool. You can get it on a nice pair of cufflinks and some of it blows my mind. You can buy a dog jacket at pet stores.

“Now, we weren’t sitting around and thinking about buying an NHL team because we’ll get dogs wearing our colours,” Chipman adds. “But when you look at it after the fact, it’s really cool.”

And there’s a chance the retail frenzy could get even crazier. At some point, the Jets will unveil a third jersey using one of the logos from the city’s previous team, including its World Hockey Association and NHL eras. Those logos kept the hockey heartbeat going in Winnipeg for 15 years and are held dear.

So, when Dustin Byfuglien jerseys, featuring the same logo that Bobby Hull made famous, hit store shelves, expect nothing less than a stampede — possibly in time for Jetsgiving.  IE