ABOUT OUR HOCKEY STICKS

SnipeShow sticks was created to fill what we believed to be a void in the youth hockey equipment market. A high quality stick designed from the ground up specifically for the junior player.

I’ve been a hockey fan for as long as I can remember. Growing up, sticks came in two flavors, lefty and righty. I would choose the lefty, and 10 minutes and $14 dollars later I was out playing hockey with my friends.

Fast forward 30 years and I take my then 8-year-old into a pro shop and I’m completely blown away by what’s on the rack. I learned quickly that I knew very little about the current state of stick technology and terms like curve pattern, flex and lie were completely foreign to me. And the sticker shock was also …well a shock. Feeling a bit overwhelmed and intimidated, I simply left the store.

At the time my son was about 60 pounds and after some advice from a coach we settled on a junior shaft stick with a 45 flex and nearly a $200 price tag. We had to cut the stick 6 inches and I noticed that when he went to shoot, he was flinging himself into the boards trying to get as much on the shot as possible. He was throwing every ounce of his body weight into the shot trying to lift the puck.

I asked some coaches about it and that’s when they explained about flex and how the newer stick technology works. It made sense that the lighter carbon fiber sticks flexed to allow the stick to do more of the work but all of the junior sticks at the time were 45 flex or higher and were all very long. So the shorter we cut the stick, the stiffer it became, akin to using an old wood stick. Naturally his form and technique deteriorated. And to add insult to injury, the heel of the stick started to crack and fray, and the feeling of $200 down the drain hit home. I’m sure this story sounds familiar

That’s when I decided to look into low flex hockey sticks specifically for the junior player. After months of research, design, and vetting of manufacturers, we came out with the original SnipeShow sticks which ranged from 20 to 50 flex and came in the appropriate length for each flex so that there would be little if any cutting required thus the stick played at its true flex. That was 2016. For 2019 we improved on the stick even more. We listened to parents and players and after working with engineers and computer aided designers, we lengthened the shaft so growing players can get more time out of the stick, but more importantly, we increased the blade height to the maximum allowable by USA hockey without lengthening the blade itself. This provides the developing player better control of the puck while shooting passing and stickhandling and decreases the chances of pucks flipping over the blade. But more importantly, by not lengthening the blade, there is no unwanted torque, which opens the blade face producing inaccurate passes and shots.

At SnipeShow, we take pride in providing the developing a player the highest quality stick, designed and built for them at a cost efficient price.