WingsUp! showcases its community spirit through a partnership with Hockey Diversity Alliance
By Joelle Kidd
Sports fans know the allure of a few pounds of chicken wings while watching the big game. But for WingsUp!, the chicken wing franchise that has been serving customers across Canada since 1988, the connection runs a little deeper.
The brand has recently partnered with the Hockey Diversity Alliance (HDA), a grassroots organization promoting diversity and inclusion in Canada’s most popular sport through child and youth programming that increases accessibility and opportunity within underserved communities across the country.
WingsUp! joined the festivities for SummerFest 2025, the HDA’s recent event in Toronto, providing wings for the event volunteers and celebrities participating in a charity ball hockey game.
“The mission of the organization really resonated with me, personally,” says Tanner Johnson, marketing director at WingsUp! “I thought, what a great partnership—hockey culture and wing culture just naturally go together.”
But the alignment goes deeper than that, too. As Johnson notes, diversity is an important part of WingsUp!’s corporate philosophy. A majority of WingsUp! franchisees—Johnson estimates around 70 to 75 per cent—are newcomers to Canada. The inclusive messaging, as well as the power of community sports to help integrate newcomers into local communities, makes the Hockey Diversity Alliance a great fit for the brand’s charitable initiatives, he says.
Inclusion goals
The HDA was founded by eight current and former NHL players in 2020. The organization’s mission is to foster inclusivity, combat discrimination, and advance diversity in the hockey community, its website states, ultimately “promoting a more equitable and diverse sport.”
Among the organization’s programs is the Grassroots Original Hockey League (GOHL), a community league that provides free equipment, ice time, and coaching to underserved communities. Programs offer a space for kids to play and youth to volunteer, as well as mentorship and free trips to sports, arts, and cultural events.
The Hockey Diversity Alliance also produces educational content about the history of hockey, the impact of BIPOC players, and diversity and unconscious bias in the NHL.
The first annual SummerFest, which took place August 16 in Toronto, was a new addition after the popularity of a similar WinterFest event, Johnson says. Featuring ball hockey and a kids’ carnival, SummerFest was a celebration of diversity in the sport.
There were also appearances by the players behind the Hockey Diversity Alliance: Akim Aliu, Trevor Daley, Anthony Duclair, Matt Dumba, Nazem Kadri, Wayne Simmonds, Chris Stewart, and Joel Ward.
WingsUp! had the perfect practical offering to help make the event a success: “We wanted to actually bring high quality food to the volunteers,” Johnson notes. They enlisted the help of a nearby franchise partner, Omar Sherazi, owner of the 22 Bathurst St. location in Toronto, to supply the “Cater ’Wing.”
“Omar is one of our newer franchise partners—he had just taken over the location about six months [prior] at the time, so he was a little bit nervous about preparing that volume of food,” Johnson shares. Sherazi and his team rose to the occasion and scored big, serving up an estimated 120 pounds of wings to more than 100 volunteers, the celebrity players, coaches, and families.
“Omar was the perfect partner. because he and his brother actually enjoyed playing hockey as youngsters, but always faced challenges and sometimes didn’t feel excepted in certain arenas,” says Johnson—a perfect fit for the HDA and its mission to increase inclusion for youth in the sport.
WingsUp! sticks up
The brand is hoping to continue their partnership and find further opportunities to work with the Hockey Diversity Alliance. “We just love everything they do—scholarships, education, a focus on anti-discrimination,” says Johnson. “Those are all big things that resonate with us at a head office level. So we’re looking forward to building on that relationship.”
Giving back is a key part of the WingsUp! brand, Johnson notes. “The brand doesn’t have a national charity, per se—we really push [our franchisees] to establish partnerships on a local level.”
For some franchisees, this means sponsoring community teams or kids’ sports. Some locations partner with local hospitals; one location recently donated one dollar per pound of wings sold to a local hospice care facility.
Although franchisees typically choose their own causes, “sometimes we’ll connect the dots for them or open some doors,” says Johnson, “something that’s close to their heart or an initiative they resonate with, and then we support them on a head office level.”
The Hockey Diversity Alliance and other youth sports sponsorships connect with many WingsUp! franchisees, he adds. “It resonates with them because a lot of them are newcomers [to Canada]. They have kids they want to put through sports. It just helps with inclusion, getting them involved in school programs.”
To amplify these initiatives, Johnson says the brand mostly uses its social media platforms. It’s all about bringing community together, he notes. “What we love about the HDA partnership is, it’s a free event for the community. For us, we think the more the merrier. We push it out to local communities and say, ‘Come out and take part!’ That’s the angle we take.”
It’s this grassroots feeling that makes the organization such a fit for WingsUp! to support, Johnson adds. “We really like what they stand for, we like where they’re going … We feel that they are making a difference.”
And WingsUp! is making a difference too. At the end of the day, Johnson notes, the brand wants it to be known that their doors are open to everyone, no matter where they come from—as long as they share the same passion for chicken wings!
Learn more about franchising with WingsUp! Restaurants
