By Riley Maracle [1], Shelden Rogers [2] and William Proulx [3]
BELLEVILLE – A local company is trying to do something that most brands have yet to achieve – make and market an unbreakable hockey stick.
Colt Hockey [4], founded in 2013, has partnered with Integran Technologies of Toronto to create a stick coated in a high-tech metal. The coating, called Nano, makes the stick almost impossible to break.
Integran invented the Nano metal, which has been used by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration for aerospace technology.
The material is lightweight and very durable – which is why Belleville native Joey Walsh and his partners thought they might be able to use it on hockey sticks to make them last longer.
Walsh is the head of sales and marketing for Colt Hockey. His father, Peter Walsh, is the co-owner of the Hockey Stick Man shop in Belleville, which sells the Colt Hockey Stick.
Peter Walsh said he thinks it’s the best available.
“It may be the most durable stick on the market,” he said.
[5]Graphic by William Proulx
The idea behind the Colt stick is simple: it’s a basic composite hockey stick, with the difference being that it is dipped in the Nano metal from the midway point of the shaft down to the toe of the blade.
Like many young hockey players, Joey Walsh broke a lot of sticks when he was growing up, his father said. The family spent spent hundreds of dollars every couple of months replacing broken sticks.
“Hopefully this saves a lot of kids and parents a lot of money,” said Peter Walsh.
Colt Hockey was featured Wednesday night on an episode of the CBC show Dragons’ Den [6]. It was offered $500,000 for 49 per cent of the company. The partners accepted the offer on the show, but later decided to decline it.
Peter Walsh said there is one way that the company could really gain some traction in the market: for players in the National Hockey League [7] to start using the stick. The kids who come into his store want the sticks that they see their favourite players using, he said, and if Colt Hockey can get players to use its stick it will take off.