OT: Test rides in other sports...

[benb]

So I bought some new Hockey Skates yesterday.

We just had a new flagship Bauer store open right near where I work. This place is incredibly cool, there are only 2 of them in the US and the 3rd is apparently going to be in Canada when it opens. (Bauer was owned by Nike for a while and is now independent again so maybe that's why they're opening them up.)

Anyway what was so amazing was they actually have a miniature rink in the store and they let you demo the skates. Huge huge help for me, I'd bought my previous skates at the big hockey/lacrosse chain store in this area and they had really steered me wrong on fit.. awful experience.

I suppose it is not crazy when you compare to cycling shoes but hockey skates are getting close to $1000 for top of the line stock skates. (Anything above about $200 gets heat molded to your foot though.) They outright say the top of the line stuff is not to be bought unless you're skating every day though... not like cycling at all.

[ntb1001]

My son's skates were $900.
It would be a great idea to have a way to try them out before plunking down that kind of cash. Same for the sticks...my son brings 3 to a game and they're $300 each...every time he buys a different one to try out the feel. If you could have an opportunity to really try out the gear, I would support that store.

[jmoore]

Pre-buy tryouts are always a great idea. They do this with golf clubs a bunch as well. They will setup a demo day and you can hit a stack of different clubs to get a feel for what works. Of course they are not all perfectly fit to your swing, but there is plenty of feedback to make an informed decision.


I'd like to see this with baseball bats. My son wants yet another bat. And this is after I just plunked down a few Benji's for a "2 year bat" this summer.

[Waldo]

OMG, $300 sticks? When I played, custom (wooden) sticks were $45 apiece and I ordered by half-dozen.

My son's skates were $900.
It would be a great idea to have a way to try them out before plunking down that kind of cash. Same for the sticks...my son brings 3 to a game and they're $300 each...every time he buys a different one to try out the feel. If you could have an opportunity to really try out the gear, I would support that store.

[djg21]

My son's skates were $900.
It would be a great idea to have a way to try them out before plunking down that kind of cash. Same for the sticks...my son brings 3 to a game and they're $300 each...every time he buys a different one to try out the feel. If you could have an opportunity to really try out the gear, I would support that store.

Hockey sticks are $300? I never played organized hockey, but the wooden sticks we used on the pond when I was growing up were probably less than $20. Are they that much improved? i imagine they frequently break and need to be replaced?

[benb]

$300 sticks?

I went to the Boston Bruins/Toronto Maple leafs game saturday night.

You could pick up Bruins players game-used sticks for <$150 in the Pro Shop. Unless they were somehow broken (they looked brand new) it's hard to believe they could be so much less.

Sticks are Carbon fiber now right? I never owned one that was anything but wood.

[ntb1001]

Hockey sticks are $300? I never played organized hockey, but the wooden sticks we used on the pond when I was growing up were probably less than $20. Are they that much improved? i imagine they frequently break and need to be replaced?
Yeah...they break. My son broke 2 last month. He is only 15, but 6'1 and very strong.
I do shop around, and I have found a spot where I can get the surplus pro stock for 1/2 price but supply is hit and miss
Sticks indeed are carbon, and just like cycling very expensive.

[Waldo]

At $300 per stick, I'd say it's time to ban slapshots.

[fuzzalow]

At $300 a stick, for amateur use, I'd say that was a piece of high-tech equipment with negligible effects and results to any amateur player using it. But it plays quite well to the persons who are in to it and want to extend themselves the best equipment. But I'd doubt the stick itself is the gamechanger for anyone using it.

This is not a rail against spending money on high-tech, high-end good, It is a sanity check for what anyone using one might think they can get outta using a $300 stick. When I was a kid playing roller hockey a Victoriaville stick from Gerry Cosby's in Madison Square Garden cost around $15, I liked Rod Gilbert's sticks which had the lie and blade I liked.

I don't now play hockey so I've never used a carbon fiber hockey stick.. But I can tell you that were I using Raphael Nadal's Babolat racquet or Tiger Woods irons or driver wouldn't make a ding of difference to how well I can hit 'em. Because equipment, past a certain point, makes very little difference to any amateur level of play. But it does fuel consumerism and there's nuthin' wrong with that. But I am not in favor of the example it sets of this kind of consumerism for kids.

[gemship]

Carbon hockey sticks for 300$ make the Ring Brothers 65/66 Mustang wide body kits made of carbon fiber a relative bargain at 37k. Heck any carbonfiber bike makes that kit a bargain. :rolleyes:

[ntb1001]

At $300 a stick, for amateur use, I'd say that was a piece of high-tech equipment with negligible effects and results to any amateur player using it. But it plays quite well to the persons who are in to it and want to extend themselves the best equipment. But I'd doubt the stick itself is the gamechanger for anyone using it.

This is not a rail against spending money on high-tech, high-end good, It is a sanity check for what anyone using one might think they can get outta using a $300 stick. When I was a kid playing roller hockey a Victoriaville stick from Gerry Cosby's in Madison Square Garden cost around $15, I liked Rod Gilbert's sticks which had the lie and blade I liked.

I don't now play hockey so I've never used a carbon fiber hockey stick.. But I can tell you that were I using Raphael Nadal's Babolat racquet or Tiger Woods irons or driver wouldn't make a ding of difference to how well I can hit 'em. Because equipment, past a certain point, makes very little difference to any amateur level of play. But it does fuel consumerism and there's nuthin' wrong with that. But I am not in favor of the example it sets of this kind of consumerism for kids.
As a amatuer hockey player...no he does not need the best stick, but who here needs a 3k+ carbon frame. Sometimes it's just nice to have.
As far as what equipment my son has, I get him the best I can afford...same for any sport he does. This is a big year for him in hockey, scouts are at every game, and if equipment is out of his mind, then he can just focus on his game. I'm sure the stick makes no difference, but if he likes the better sticks...so be it.

By the way...I've got carbon fiber frames and campagnolo including eps that isn't really needed either...but really nice to have.

[Ronsonic]

At $300 a stick, for amateur use, I'd say that was a piece of high-tech equipment with negligible effects and results to any amateur player using it. But it plays quite well to the persons who are in to it and want to extend themselves the best equipment. But I'd doubt the stick itself is the gamechanger for anyone using it.

Hmmm. Sounds a lot like the > $3000 bike.





Which of course I want.

[fuzzalow]

As a amatuer hockey player...no he does not need the best stick, but who here needs a 3k+ carbon frame. Sometimes it's just nice to have.
As far as what equipment my son has, I get him the best I can afford...same for any sport he does. This is a big year for him in hockey, scouts are at every game, and if equipment is out of his mind, then he can just focus on his game. I'm sure the stick makes no difference, but if he likes the better sticks...so be it.

By the way...I've got carbon fiber frames and campagnolo including eps that isn't really needed either...but really nice to have.

OK, valid point taken. I have no criticism intended or implied for what you've done. I was commenting on the free choices available for any of us and for what we choose to do - I almost always defend products that strive for excellence even if irrespective of expense.

The comparison of high-tech & high-end bikes bikes bought by the membership here is different from possible the possible overkill in this example of the hockey stick. Not because of what it is, but because of who it is for. Kids see everything. And every parental action implies values, principles and ethics in drawing a line that expresses and defines boundaries in the conciousness of a kid's mind. The line expressed in your post is in a different place than where I would draw mine but neither of us is wrong - we made decisions and choices.

We as adults purchase for ourselves nice, high-tech high-end bikes on this forum. Which is, to me, a very different condition from purchasing overkill done by parents in high-tech and high-end gear for sporting use by respective sons & daughters involved in amateur sports. These two worlds are falsely conflated by some replies in this thread and have nothing to do with each other and are not remotely similar.

I just hadda get this nuance into the thread, for the record - 'cos I'm a nudge. Mrs. fuzz calls me far worse.

[jmoore]

I know nothing about hockey equipment, so forgive my question if it is silly.


Is a 2-piece stick allowable? If so, seems like there would be a market for a stick that had interchangeable blades or handles, so they could be replaced if one breaks.


If not, then is it possible to repair them so they are useable again?

[ntb1001]

I know nothing about hockey equipment, so forgive my question if it is silly.


Is a 2-piece stick allowable? If so, seems like there would be a market for a stick that had interchangeable blades or handles, so they could be replaced if one breaks.


If not, then is it possible to repair them so they are useable again?
Nah....that's so 15 years ago.

The local sports shop actually was clearing out blades and shafts of that old stock....I bought a few of them for almost nothing for ball hockey.

[Wolfman]

Seriously, guys, how many times have we defended the $5000 bike here on the forum? Tons. The $300 stick is no different.

Perhaps the rub is that the chain store $200 bike is everywhere, but the $40 hockey stick isn't really a thing... I don't know, I don't shop for hockey stuff, so I'm not too sure.

I was actually shopping for kids baseball bats recently for a gift and was shocked at the prices; the $200 bat was a very common thing.

[gavingould]

yeesh $300 sticks. not surprising though, when i used to play hockey some 20+ years ago, Easton alu sticks were the hot thing. ~$75-100 a pop, the blades were replaceable...
had one of those but cheaped out on the skates with some low-buck CCMs

[majorpat]

I have a son and daughter playing lacrosse and stick prices are getting silly as well, though $100 is currently the start of "high end". Luckily my 8 year old is ok with $50 sticks for now but stubbornly refuses to play with my state of the art for 1988 Superlight II.