Carolina Hurricanes sold out of popular 'beer skate' mugs - ESPN

The Carolina Hurricanes are officially hanging up their «beer skates» for the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The novelty drinking mugs shaped like a Hurricanes hockey skate are completely sold out and won't be restocked, according to Adam Hoffman, vice president for food and beverage at Lenovo Center. The plastic skates were introduced at Game 1 of Carolina's playoff series against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night and instantly went viral on social media. The skates sold out with eight minutes to go in the second intermission.

Hoffman said there won't be any more «beer skates» available for purchase for the rest of the NHL postseason. The team ordered the skates through a specialty promo item vendor and «there's just no way to turn it around that fast» to get more of them, Hoffman told ESPN on Monday.

«We really thought we had purchased enough, and then this thing just blew up. Fans went crazy for it, which is great. We love that we created something that they wanted to have,» Hoffman said. «I don't want to say we weren't prepared for them to buy as many as they did, but obviously we didn't think it was going to blow up exactly the way that it did, which is just so awesome.»

According to WRAL-TV, the Hurricanes sold 4,687 skates during Game 1. That started with 300 sales at their fan plaza party before the game. Staffers went to the arena's warehouse and brought their entire inventory of skates to Game 1 once it became obvious that the demand was outpacing the supply.

Now that they've sold out, the skates have become an instant collectors' item. There were eBay listings on Monday that had the skates priced between $150 and $200.

The skate-shaped mug holds around 28 ounces of liquid. It was sold for $19 on its own. With a