OPS Technology

[DolomaticDangles 13]

That's probably the easiest way to describe it. They kick like a stiffer stick and load like a softer stick.

My old shop had a lot of breakage problems with the ones they got last year.

Really? Ive had mine since February of 09 and its still going strong, except the toe of the blade is chipping. The blade is still as stiff as when I got it. Most durable stick Ive ever had by far

[DarkStar50 679]

There is a saying inside the industry that Easton would get skates "right"(since Bauer dominates skates) before Bauer would get OPS "right" (since Easton dominated OPS). It didn't really work out that way, did it? Bauer pushed and pushed on OPS while Easton flubbed along in skates. Bauer just does hockey and their R D & D proves it across all categories. Easton has so many other interests besides hockey.

[Scotty 8]

I'll just say that if anyone could produce a stick with a blade like the One95 that was a touch lighter and balanced on a shaft like Easton's SE-series, a lot of us would be sold.

TBLfan, I will agree that Easton should be much further along. The elliptical hosel was a revolution, but really isn't doing much besides simply looking different. Considering when the original Stealths and CNTs were made, they should be improving on that stuff and blowing away everyone else like they used to do so well.

[DolomaticDangles 13]

so.... The Total One?

[chippa13 1844]

Heck, I'd be happy if they just produced the original Stealth grip, forget the advancements.

[DEATHTRON 19]

Why seemingly focus on one and ignore the other? We know there was an issue with the SL blade, so Easton re-released the stick with new graphics and strengthened the heel, enter the SE. So the SE apparently wasn't durable enough, so just slap on some weight and make it more durable, Ugh. Now the stick feels a little blade heavy, so lets add weights to the end plug. ... but how does the king of the industry justify letting a major player like Bauer make a move for their throne? Especially at a point where a new player came in and took the industry by storm with flamboyant advertising, catering to the pro demographic and lots of financial support to lure pro, amateur and rec athletes.

I dont think easton ignores any problems...the SE didnt really have an advancements over the last runs of the SL (with their more traditional blade), and the se16 with the weights was for balance purposes, not to increase durability. Easton wanted their sticks to feel a little more blade heavy as far as I understand it.

Concerning the SL: Did Easton specifically stregthen the blade? Or did they just drop the whole CNT blade thing, and went with their more traditional construction? I seem to remember it being that, due to the cnt blade having poor durability.

How is Easton going to stop someone like Bauer or Warrior selling sticks? Just because they were/are the leading manufacturer in the market does not mean that they can somehow magically stop another manufacturer from coming in and offering money/better service to players. Last I heard, some pro's like/use Warrior because turn around time was very quick. Kyle Turris comes to mind....he was shipped from Wisconsin to PHX with 2 easton's, and Warrior was able to get him sticks the fastest. Look at Philly, its been mentioned on here many times that their rep (I believe he is on the forum somewhere...) Lives close to Philly, and has been said to "live" in the philly lockeroom. Easton is not going to be able to own 100% of the market.

Zach

[TBLfan 25]

I think you've stepped out of your league here... You should back up your comments with FACTS before you spew.

Are you talking about "not enough margins" through hearsay and not first hand experience? You should know that the margins on TPS OPS were on par with what Easton's were at the time.

Lack of exposure? How so? TPS had close to 175 NHL players using the stick; nearly 30% of the NHL. What more exposure was needed? Fucking Mats Sundin threw his up into the stands at the ACC after his stick broke which gave us even more exposure; good or bad!

Limited sales? Who gave you this info? The XN10 was the #2 selling stick in the high-end category at the time.

Margins for small dealers wasn't exactly high if they were trying to price competitively.

By lack of exposure I meant actually handling the product. I'm curious to see how many smaller shops stocked XN10s compared to larger shops. Grafs are rare skates to see in Tampa because there is a lack of exposure in our area, if we had a dealer that stocked Graf that number would surely go up. I wasn't aware that many pros were using the XN10 but obviously based on those numbers it had a lot more pro exposure than I recall.

Genuine question: How many of those sticks were sold in large bulk orders to large retailers in certain parts of the US and Canada? I wonder if it may have skewed those numbers since there were large stores selling intermediate, junior, LH and/or stiff flex XN10s for a looong time.

I dont think easton ignores any problems...the SE didnt really have an advancements over the last runs of the SL (with their more traditional blade), and the se16 with the weights was for balance purposes, not to increase durability. Easton wanted their sticks to feel a little more blade heavy as far as I understand it.

Concerning the SL: Did Easton specifically stregthen the blade? Or did they just drop the whole CNT blade thing, and went with their more traditional construction? I seem to remember it being that, due to the cnt blade having poor durability.

How is Easton going to stop someone like Bauer or Warrior selling sticks? Just because they were/are the leading manufacturer in the market does not mean that they can somehow magically stop another manufacturer from coming in and offering money/better service to players. Last I heard, some pro's like/use Warrior because turn around time was very quick. Kyle Turris comes to mind....he was shipped from Wisconsin to PHX with 2 easton's, and Warrior was able to get him sticks the fastest. Look at Philly, its been mentioned on here many times that their rep (I believe he is on the forum somewhere...) Lives close to Philly, and has been said to "live" in the philly lockeroom. Easton is not going to be able to own 100% of the market.

Zach

The SL split a lot in the heel, as far as I can tell all they did was strengthen the heel, change the graphics and call it the SE.

Easton isn't going to stop any company from coming into the market or bettering their own previous products. Easton CAN advance their own technology making it harder for another company to come along and surpass their stick performances and that is my point.

[chippa13 1844]

Genuine question: How many of those sticks were sold in large bulk orders to large retailers in certain parts of the US and Canada? I wonder if it may have skewed those numbers since there were large stores selling intermediate, junior, LH and/or stiff flex XN10s for a looong time.

Just for reference, about 2/3 of the players in Canada and New England are LH.

[Chadd 916]

The ones with RTM blades played far better than the sticks with pre-preg blades.

Better feel and better durability at the same time. The early pre-preg blades split badly at the toe if you looked at them the wrong way.

[gxc999 7]

Apologies if I digress, but I LOVED the xxx-lite. The pure performance was outstanding. I loved the puck feel, wrist/snap and even the slappers. It's surely in my top 5 all time. I really thought it blew the SE out of the water. The only downside was the durability, and it was a tad short for my liking. If we can ever convince a company to make another batch of an old stick...

Anyway, I'm really thinking we're at, or past, the point of diminished returns. It's like Baskin-Robbins, they've already made the ice cream, now you're just tasting more flavors. I've yet to see anything the past couple years that even hints at a total reinvention of the wheel that pans out in terms of performance. I simply don't think there are significantly better materials to make sticks with and since they only come in one shape. Maybe I'm way off base

[Chadd 916]

Apologies if I digress, but I LOVED the xxx-lite. The pure performance was outstanding. I loved the puck feel, wrist/snap and even the slappers. It's surely in my top 5 all time. I really thought it blew the SE out of the water. The only downside was the durability, and it was a tad short for my liking. If we can ever convince a company to make another batch of an old stick... Anyway, I'm really thinking we're at, or past, the point of diminished returns. It's like Baskin-Robbins, they've already made the ice cream, now you're just seeing more flavors.

XXX-lite is called the Mac Daddy/Kronik. XXX-lite was just a copy of the XXX and that was the Inno True-1.

[gxc999 7]

XXX-lite is called the Mac Daddy/Kronik. XXX-lite was just a copy of the XXX and that was the Inno True-1.

Are ya sure? The vapor 30 was repackaged as the Mac Daddy, but I think the XXX-lite wasn't because it was not made by Inno.

[TBLfan 25]

As Chadd said the XXXlite was an attempt to copy (and improve) the Vapor XXX. It wasn't made by Inno, it was too blade heavy and not durable enough to be an Inno high-end product.

[gxc999 7]

As Chadd said the XXXlite was an attempt to copy (and improve) the Vapor XXX. It wasn't made by Inno, it was too blade heavy and not durable enough to be an Inno high-end product.

That was one more thing I didn't know. Thanks.

[Chadd 916]

We're really getting off topic and this has all been covered before.

Having a dealer sell the R2XN10 for $13 over wholesale led to a number of dealers not carrying it. There were similar pricing issues with other TPS products at the time. It made no sense for smaller dealers to carry or sell TPS product and that hurt the company in the long run.

I couldn't agree more that bad buying is the biggest problem dealers have and have always had. A good example:

A shop only has Warrior and RBK as their two main brands. They have thousands of dollars of Warrior product on the shelf and in the storage room. The owner goes out and buys a few thousand dollars of MF2 Warrior knockoffs. Now he has two products that look identical. One is cheaper, the other is part of a line for one of his major vendors. Fast forward a few months and he's still sitting on some of the Warrior gloves and complaining that he has thousands of dollars in leftover warrior product and people must not want them. In reality, he screwed himself when he told people the MF2 was just as good (they're not) and cheaper. Why did he do that? Because he made an extra couple % profit when he sold the MF2 compared to the Warrior.

That's called shooting yourself in the foot.

Like seemingly every other retail business in America, it appears that the future will be large chains with very few standalone or specialty store left in the end.

[DarkStar50 679]

C'mon Chadd, get it back on topic!!

I think if the guys here ever had the opportunity to sit in on a vendor OPS complete line presentation they would learn that a lot of what they think they know is incorrect. The technology and business side of the OPS have to come together at some point in the process.

[mack 44]

What the fuck is an xn10

[DarkStar50 679]

An urban legend among OPS whores.

[Chadd 916]

An urban legend among OPS whores.

Overrated too. It works for some people and not for others. As much as I love them, it's just a stick.

[shooter27 116]

3) Wouldn't it be fair to say that all companies sold the majority of their sticks at the time in large bulk orders to large retailers in certain parts of the US and Canada? Do you think the same is true today? Have you ever sat in ANY sales meeting where it is discussed how much the top 20% of the clients buy?

Without getting myself into this argument, as I know basically nothing about the retail business of hockey equipment, I would guess that sticks - and most gear - follow the 80/20 rule: 80% of the product is bought by the top 20% of customers.

[kovalchuk71 212]

For those looking for XN10s, I found a dealer that has some if you want to message me.

Sublitwill, I just PMed you. :)

[Chadd 916]

Without getting myself into this argument, as I know basically nothing about the retail business of hockey equipment, I would guess that sticks - and most gear - follow the 80/20 rule: 80% of the product is bought by the top 20% of customers.

From a manufacturers standpoint it's less than 20% and more than 80%. Monkey, Giant, Forzani, Pure Hockey, etc...

[Scotty 8]

PM sent SubliTWILL.

PM sent SubliTWILL.

[Law Goalie 147]

Back to the OPS technology, I'd love to see a true OPS, solid one piece mold like the Busch, come back into the marketplace with today's materials and technology. We're already pushing $300+ in Canada on OPS and what's the $ figure on TOTALONE skates there? Say what you want, but, with the dollar roughly at even with US, can you imagine paying that for a stick or high end skates? WOW!

I'd love to see this too. TrueTemper could probably turn out something pretty phenomenal.

[Justin Liedloff 13]

I love my XN10 stiff flex. That's all I have to add.

A lot of the posts in this thread = :facepalm:

PS: That goal stick in my profile pic was made in California.