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Judging by the number of sticks that I've seen around the beer leagues around here, I'd say people are buying into True. That should translate into some early adopters into the gloves. I think what is helping True get the foothold better than some other "new guys" is that they can point to some of their OEM successes and draw people in. "Remember that {insert stick here} that you loved? That was us." Definitely helps.

It helps a little bit, but I think the biggest draw for them has been word of mouth, product performance, and value to be honest. Most people that I have talked with about their sticks have been completely clueless as to their heritage. They will pick one up in store and say "wow this feels great for the price", or ask to use my 6.0 for a bit on ice etc. I just picked one up to try in roller hockey (hoping to find a stick line that I like for both roller and ice) and off the bat some of the guys were impressed with the sticks feel and balance. When I told them I found it on sale for 70$ they were blown away (it's a 4.5).

Many guys I know would rather repalm than get new gloves. I think many in the market for new gloves will consider them for the easy palm replacement.

Best part about that, it kept the registration fee down to $100. :) That included: 3 games plus the potential for 2 playoff games, we got 1 playoff game. Gatorades/Beers/TigerMilk bars/Tape in the lockers before/after each game 1 Flex Fit tournament hat 1 Tournament hoodie (from Violent Gentlemen) 1 Ticket to a Ducks game (I'm a Kings fan, but who cares, it is free and I chose the game against Washington, so I will see J. Williams and Mike Richards play) 1 admission to the Tournament Kickoff Party at Honda Center with an open bar. So, not too shabby in my opinion.

Had a little play about with mounting a gopro on my stick, just a screenshot from that at training.

After looking at this pic and wondering why my shot was off, it's safe to assume my stick is a tad long.

15's will not be released with the others to start, but we are working on finalizing the sizing details. Tougher to do when you have to make sure the glove fits like a 15 and then you have to make sure the palms match. The durability of the gloves will be the same as most of the other high end gloves in the market. As far as the durability of the zippers, this has been tested at length and redone through the development process to make sure that the odds are low of zippers being an issue We are a high end product company and that is where we start from and then work our way down. Eventually we will hit the mid to lower glove price demographics with an option similar to this, but first and foremost we want to release the high end glove. The other thing that we are looking for is more the performance and custom aspect of the palms not mainly the capability to change a palm when its been worn through. We have had a lot of interest from the showings we have done on the performance aspect. As far as the Retail floor space, we are not saying every dealer has to do 50 palms of each, we have many different programs and if they only feel comfortable with 2 of each that is something they can do. Sure we would like them to have more, but we have to be realistic. We also understand that this is a new innovation and there will be concerns so that is why we have worked through concerns with dealers and will continue to do so moving forward. This is a product that we believe in and have already had a lot of people (consumers and dealers) jump on board with us on this product. We also have a long commitment of time to see that this works because like I said this is something that we believe in and know can work for most everyone eventually. Again, it is not only the matter of the palm needing to be replaced it is a way to change performance. Also again, we are not looking at this from a stand point that we are going to try this glove for a year or two and be done with it. As I stated previously, when we make updates to the glove lines we are making sure that new palms will work with old gloves and new gloves will work with old palms when the time comes to make those updates to the lines. As far as pricing goes, pricing is pricing and has to be set at some point. We believe we have products that can command that price for now, but we will always be evaluating and if there are tweaks to be made we will make them. Again, with new products and new legitimate innovations and concepts I/we know there will be push back and this is all understood. Once again we believe in this product, but we know it is something that we will have to work at to get the masses on board. We have made great head way on this front to start and we plan to continue making more and more headway. In our position we want to be as innovative as possible, but stick as close to the traditional looks and styling that Hockey equipment is and has been. This is a philosophy that will continue as we continue to develop products with the players in mind and strive to make the best possible products we can.

Just proud dad stuff... First, my son's first year of travel, just 3 years ago yesterday. Crazy when I look at the photo. He's proof, you don't need to push your kids. Let them go at their roll. It was all I could do to get him do more than go to practice(he just wanted to play games), but found love at around 14. Has done just fine. And the young one....who can't get on the ice enough. She bugs me when I don't want to go.