Why are championship rings so huge and everything else you need to know

When the Pittsburgh Penguins received their 2016 Stanley Cup championship rings earlier this week, it may have looked as if they were getting a flashy, one-of-a-kind piece. But to Jostens, the brains behind the bling, the jewelry amounts to much more than the sum of its diamond-encrusted, white gold parts.

“Our job … is to help the Pittsburgh Penguins, or any championship team, have their entire story come to life on a ring,” said Chris Poitras, vice-president of the professional sports division at Jostens. “For us, it’s helping them show different ways they can depict the entire story of the season with their brand on a championship ring.”

The Minneapolis-based Jostens — yes, the same Jostens you may recall from class photo day — has been in the sports rings business since 1952, working with all four major North American sports leagues at one point or another. In recent years, Jostens has produced the championship rings for the Kansas City Royals, winners of the 2015 World Series, the 2016 Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos and just on Monday, the Penguins.

When it comes to design, Poitras said, each organization has the opportunity to tell Jostens about key visual elements they would like to see portrayed on the piece of jewelry. For instance, among a number of requests, the Penguins asked that their logo be prominent, that the team's “just play” motto be featured, and that each ring be personalized.

After initial discussions, Jostens goes to work to create a physical sample that is then presented to members of the organization — usually an executive leadership team — to review. If approved, the manufacturing begins.

Depending on the league, the timeline for creation can vary, Poitras said. In the case of the Penguins, starting from about two weeks after the Cup was won, the entire process took about three months: four to six weeks to design, and another four to eight weeks to manufacture leading up to the final presentation.

In the end, Jostens delivered the Penguins a custom ring that included "over 300 diamonds totaling almost 9 brilliant carats," a press release said.

The tradition of rings dates back to 1922, when the New York Giants — now San Francisco — were awarded the first World Series rings, according to the Baseball Hall of Fame's website. While the practice has held strong, the look of the rings has drastically changed over the years, most obviously by their ever-growing size and detail.

How big can championship rings possibly get, you ask? Poitras, who has been at Jostens for seven years now, has already thought there’s “no way they could get any bigger” — and then they do.

Said Matt Murray, goalie of the Penguins, about the bling: “It's amazing, heavier than I was expecting.” the team reported via a tweet.

“Historically over the last five years, most of the world championship rings in the four major leagues have been anywhere from 75 grams to a little bit over 100 grams of gold, so the rings have grown in size,” Poitras said.

The reason why is threefold. First, that a team’s brand and logo have become paramount in the design has caused rings to grow.

“Now it is critically important for the team to represent their brand and their logo on the top of the ring. In order to do that, over a period of time, those rings have had to get larger and larger,” Poitras said, adding every element must use genuine stone, adding to the heft.

There is also the practical reason that as athletes increase in size and stature— as has historically been the trend — so must the jewels that wrap around their fingers. Plus, these are sports we’re talking about, after all, so of course there’s a competitive element with each team trying to outdo the champions before them.

“They all want to have a nicer, better ring than the team the year before or the team in a different sport,” Poitras said.

But rings go beyond just an aesthetic keepsake. Over the years, they’ve become woven into the fabric of sports culture. Players may spend their entire careers chasing a ring, for example. Or if a player’s legacy is up for debate, we ask: “How many rings does he have?” And how about if a player wants to taunt another? Well, he call simply suggest the other, "count his rings."

That rings and sports go hand and hand is not a point lost on Jostens or Poitras. And as long as there are championships to chase, there will be stories to tell, and rings to produce.