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It’s not easy being a professional hockey player.

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The workouts, the travelling, the fans, the endorsements … wait a minute! OK, while it may seem like these professional athletes have it easy, there is one place a few players admit they have a struggle: shopping.

“Hockey players are known to have big butts,” Erik Gudbranson, a defencemen with the Vancouver Canucks, says with a laugh when asked about the common issues he faces in the fitting room. “And I happen to be 6-5, with extremely long legs, so finding that right fit is quite difficult.”

Sitting casually on a plush sofa inside the personal shopping suite of TOPMAN at the Hudson’s Bay in Vancouver, one ankle balanced easily on the opposite knee, Gudbranson looks anything but uncomfortable. But that’s because he has finally found a suit that fits straight off the rack — so, naturally, he’s wearing it.

“Finding something that fits properly and looks sharp is tough to do, but when you do, it makes all the difference,” he says.

Gudbranson says he’s “lucky” that most sport coats and suiting jackets fit his athletic frame, but it’s on the bottom where he runs into trouble.

“Most coats actually fit me,” he says. “The issue has always been with pants because I have such big legs.