Smith Hockey No More?

[DangerIsGo 0]

There were heavy rumors floating around on GSBB that Smith was bought out by Warrior. My trainer told me that he heard the same thing. So I emailed Pete asking him if he was accepting any more new orders due to the heavy rumors floating around. He responded with:

I am sorry but we are not. Details on the future of Smith Hockey will be public soon. Thank you. Pete Smith

Pete Smith

Smith Hockey

50 Clinton St.

Brockport, NY 14420

585-637-8660

www.smithhockey.com

:(

[camhockey16 5]

did anyone else find out any more info on this yet - i actually wanted to order a set of equipment in the next few months but now i don't know if it will be possible to get smith equipment anymore.

[Gwyren 0]

If it is true it is too bad. I would guess it will lead to paying $500 more for the same. less customizable pad. Which may also be made offshore.

Good for Pete, possibly bad for the rest of us.

[Gwyren 0]

If it is true it is too bad. I would guess it will lead to paying $500 more for the same. less customizable pad. Which may also be made offshore.

Good for Pete, possibly bad for the rest of us.

[kozie39 0]

It hasn't been officially announced but when the Warrior rep was at my store he announced that Pete had joined the to head their goalie dept.

[Gummer12 134]

Good for Pete, AND GREAT for Warrior. Will this put an end to the Smith brand due to time constraints, or will he still do both projects?

[Law Goalie 147]

Smith Hockey was NOT purchased by Warrior.

Pete Smith, however, was hired by Warrior to head up their goalie product.

I'll consider that confirmed.

Brilliant, brilliant move by Warrior. They could not have chosen a better designer for their next development cycle, nor a better guy to work with. I hope it works wonderfully for all concerned.

I am a little curious as to whether the seamless pad design is part of the deal. There was some unsubstantiated rumble about Vaughn buying some aspect of the business.

It is my understanding that Smith Hockey will cease operations as soon as all of his orders are complete.

Exactly so. That was, I believe, the same deal Warrior had with their previous goalie designer, who's recently upped his efforts.

I'm not clear on whether Pete is actually liquidating the shop and moving north, or whether he's staying in Brockport and keeping the studio on a smaller scale. Either way, he's gained first-class industry backing and Warrior's gained a genius.

Back into the archives I go...

[camhockey16 5]

so for anyone who was thinking about getting smith equipment they are probably going to have wait a year for the warrior/pete smith hybrid gear to come out?

if he is not taking orders anymore i would assume that is the case.

[Harv 86]

Win for both sides.

Pete gets a major company with unlimited resources, Warrior gets a Goalie pad guru with an already strong customer base.

[DangerIsGo 0]

It's official:

http://www.smithhockey.com

Looks like the Warrior Ritual line will be Smith's design.

[Axxion89 32]

Very interesting restructure. Love the Smith acquisition and am very surprised that they would have an SBU Manager dedicated to helmets alone (Player and Goalie I am hearing) but that is more likely to ensure success of the new line

[Law Goalie 147]

Interesting -- so it was ultimately an acquisition of Smith Hockey as well as the hiring of Pete. Presumably they acquired some mixed portfolio of intellectual and real assets leaning heavily to the intellectual. This would seem to suggest that the Ritual will be a development of the 6000 line using Warrior materials and art, with a few design tweaks including those required to make the pads fully NHL-spec (a superficially defined boot-channel, for one); that makes sense given their relatively short timeframe.

Axx, I think it's a bit of a stretch to think that Warrior is getting into goalie masks at this point. If Itech were still in play, that would make some sense; there really isn't a comparable acquisition opportunity out there. I mean, there's no reason they can't pay the NHL fees and have, say, Matt at Promasque start branding Roloson's masks as Warrior, or target another mid-sized, unaffiliated builder like Warwick or Sportmask, then try to get a few more out there on pro's heads, but that seems like more of a mindshare play than a major move. On top of that, the requirements for player and goalie helmets are so utterly different that putting them together in the same unit doesn't make much sense. I would imagine that getting into player helmets, cages and visors is way, way more important to them than goalie masks in terms of visibility and profit, especially given the tradition of goalie masks being individually painted and best made by extremely gifted individuals rather than companies. Then again, if anyone can figure out how to mass-produce a good goalie mask, it could well be Warrior.

One thing is for certain: the Warrior Ritual will be the most intriguing and hotly anticipated goalie gear of the year.

[Axxion89 32]

Interesting -- so it was ultimately an acquisition of Smith Hockey as well as the hiring of Pete. Presumably they acquired some mixed portfolio of intellectual and real assets leaning heavily to the intellectual. This would seem to suggest that the Ritual will be a development of the 6000 line using Warrior materials and art, with a few design tweaks including those required to make the pads fully NHL-spec (a superficially defined boot-channel, for one); that makes sense given their relatively short timeframe.

Axx, I think it's a bit of a stretch to think that Warrior is getting into goalie masks at this point. If Itech were still in play, that would make some sense; there really isn't a comparable acquisition opportunity out there. I mean, there's no reason they can't pay the NHL fees and have, say, Matt at Promasque start branding Roloson's masks as Warrior, or target another mid-sized, unaffiliated builder like Warwick or Sportmask, then try to get a few more out there on pro's heads, but that seems like more of a mindshare play than a major move. On top of that, the requirements for player and goalie helmets are so utterly different that putting them together in the same unit doesn't make much sense. I would imagine that getting into player helmets, cages and visors is way, way more important to them than goalie masks in terms of visibility and profit, especially given the tradition of goalie masks being individually painted and best made by extremely gifted individuals rather than companies. Then again, if anyone can figure out how to mass-produce a good goalie mask, it could well be Warrior.

One thing is for certain: the Warrior Ritual will be the most intriguing and hotly anticipated goalie gear of the year.

Agreed fully with what you said about the Goalie mask, I heard some people mention a possible Warrior mask possibly on the GSBB so I was curious to see what other would think/know. Warrior is definitely making some major moves within this year and hopefully all of these come out or can be seen at Summer Jam this year!

[Law Goalie 147]

People say a lot of things on GSBB... If it isn't Marcelo, Miseaujeu, or a handful of others, pillars rather than grains of salt are required.

I hope for omegagoalie's delight (and ours!) they do have something for the SJ - if only a demo set of 6000s - but that seems mighty tight, especially if Pete is moving.

My understanding is that the only reason Itech did even moderately good business in goalie masks at the retail and pro levels was because of total saturation, with credit due to Jerry Wright for designing a couple of iconic shells. There really seem to be three ways to do masks these days: one company with absolute ubiquity (Itech), dedicated small businesses with somewhat regional markets (Sportmask, Promasque, Hackva, latterly Van Velden, etc.), and pure craftsmen, often fronted by big labels (Wright for Itech, Lefebvre and then Doganieri for THC/Reebok, Malerba for Bauer and now Itech, etc.). I don't think Warrior has much interest in the second of those three options: the third is low-risk and good exposure but not great value-for-money given the fees and the requirement to push them to every pro goalie (again, mask art trumping branding), and the first option (which they would certainly prefer) would require an enormous push to unseat a company that has owned the mask business pretty much lock stock and barrel since helmet/cage combos died out for goalies.

An interesting route for Warrior to take might be, for example, to buy out a wire-cage company like OTNY and get their branding on every goalie and youth/amateur player's face that way. Cages are cheap, commonplace, go right on the front of the player's face, and aren't generally well-marketed. If they made some kind of innovation in the chin rig and/or the configuration of the bars, that would probably be enough to get them in there.

Ah, idle speculation...