I do product development as a living so I need to put this out there. The word innovation is overused. Doing something different is not innovation. Innovation is something new that changes behavior. You can find many definitions out there but ultimately it has to change some fundamental aspect of what exists and what is possible. Sure, there is the concept of incremental innovation vs. breakthrough innovation, but many things called innovative aren’t.
With such frequent revving of product lines, I think we are in the extreme throes of marginal innovation, and it is out of proportion with pricing. Shaving a few grams off of something in the retail space has no appreciable impact on performance for 99% of players. It’s just a spec war to market products.
So a good question is what are the big gaps in the hockey equipment world? What problem exists that, if solved, would be a benefit to the majority of players?