Bauer OD1N Project

[JR Boucicaut 3799]

Bauer hosted a press conference today to discuss their OD1N project; the name odin means 1 in Russian, and since this project is centered around the 2014 Sochi Olympics, it's fitting.

Two Junes ago, the Bauer team got together for their product camp, which they have twice a year; where they discuss product and where it is and where it's going. All of the category teams were issued a challenge - from R/D, Product and Marketing, that if there was an absence of a budget and limitations in current production methods, what would they create that would be the highest-performing product in their category.

They assembled into teams and 3 weeks later, they had to present a concept. The concept had to show how it was innovative, the core benefits of said concept, and create a "budget" for it - they discovered that by going over their current budget by 3-4x, it really got the creative juices flowing. At the end of the day, the whole idea was to learn from it and have things trickle down to future product.

Mind you, Bauer already does this; they have a 3 to 5 year period in which they have been working on the next thing. This was much more accelerated, obviously.

The three categories that won were skate, protective and goal.

Skate -

It is a brand new skate from the ground up. The Supreme MX3 weighs at 695g at a size 8. It has 5 layers of Curv composite, then foam. The OD1N skate comes in at 500g - essentially a 200g weight reduction from the lightest skate on the market currently. 3 layers of Curv, new foams, and the ankle sheet internally is Curv as well. Supreme-style tongue (but if a player, such as Ovechkin, likes his double felt, he's got that on the boot) and a newer injected facing. The skate does not have an outsole; it is integrated into the holder, which is a carbon fiber holder with a molded, thinner blade, which is sharpenable, however, not serviceable.

The holder is designed to last for the Olympics, and that's it. They can get 30 sharpenings out of it; Bauer collaborated with Blackstone to build a special jig to be able to sharpen it. The players' equipment managers on their respective NHL and country's teams will have the jig.

What's even more interesting is that every holder is laid up differently. They worked with every player and their equipment manager; their preferences are dialed into the holder; so for instance, if Backstrom skates with, say, a 11' radius and down forward 1/16", and likes a stiff holder, that's what he's on. If Toews likes the complete opposite, his holder comes like that out of the box.

Protective -

What the protective team discovered is that 54-58% of the weight the average player carries on them during a game is in protective. They took it down to the simplest of thoughts - how does a player get dressed, and what does he put on? They put on a base layer, then multiple sets of pads with multiple layers of material within said pads - up to 8 layers in some. So they shot for a 40% weight reduction without sacrificing protection, all the while making it efficient.

They invested in 3d scanners and mapped out every player, and built a suit to their spec. It starts with a base layer with a new style foam as the base, integrated into the base layer. Then the team designed outer plates of Curv composite as the outer layer, which are the carbon pieces that you saw them strap on in the video. They did have to add foam on top to meet IIHF spec. They brought it down to 46% weight reduction; reducing 19% of the player's carrying weight, and an overall 35% weight reduction.

Goal -

I couldn't get the goal team in on the conference call, but was filled in; it's a molded foam construction, which is exposed completely. Henrik Lundqvist has been wearing it skinned as a T1 NXG pad for the past 2.5 weeks; he wanted to use them immediately after the first time he used them. They are 50% lighter than any elite level conventional pad on the market; they were able to quantify what the weight savings did for him; they calculated a 1.5" travel reduction - so, basically he gained a width of a puck in distance traveled based on the weight.

Now, here's the kicker. This is for the Sochi Olympics. THIS WON'T BE A RETAIL PRODUCT. I know there's been a TON of misinformation being spread out there (and I bit my tongue) about this being a retail line. It isn't; the chances are extremely high you'll never see, let alone touch this stuff. This project was created to see what is the craziest thing that can be created, and have a purpose. It's similar to concept cars in the auto industry; you make something crazy and then throughout the years you start to see some of the concepts trickle down to retail. What Bauer discovered throughout this was that they could actually take it further than a concept and actually apply it to on-ice use, validate it and show a marked improvement in performance.

Special thanks to Keith Duffy and John Davidson for taking the time to have a conference call with me today; I have an excellent relationship with them and when I talked to them in October I can tell they wanted to say more but just couldn't. I had a general gist of the project, but I knew that a lot of what was being spread out there wasn't true. And I didn't press it, because I knew that they'd do right by me when the time was right to.

[Netminder32 32]

Posted by Perani's Hockey World on facebook so I assume it's ok here....

https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1514571_10153637464955578_935884765_n.jpg

[icewalker_bg 126]

This will either get locked, you get banned or warned, or JR will finally shine some light on us with all the new Bauer products coming out.

[laserrobottime 149]

The Bauer OD1N line of gear was announced today, the press conference just ended. Something tells me JR will have a lot more information ASAP.

[Netminder32 32]

If they are having a press release and a major retailer is already advertising it I hardly think it's a secret anymore...

https://www.facebook.com/peranishockeyworld/posts/10153638166145578:0

[EBondo 233]

500 grams for a skate...that's just absurd. But I just got giddy from everything. I'm not even a goalie, but I think the goalie pads intrigued me the most of the three. They looked so thin, like there was nothing to them!

[Gummer12 134]

It's not a secret anymore... This thread is live now with JR's write up.

[iceman8310 105]

WIll the skate boots carry over after Sochi or like the holder that's it? It's a great idea. Formula One for hockey

[Law Goalie 147]

JR: is the foam on the pads exposed everywhere, or only on the non-sliding surfaces? If they've found a foam that will slide as well as Jenpro... yikes. Any changes to the gloves as well? Stirkes me that a blocker could be made along the same lines, though a glove might prove tricky...

For those who don't know, the textile shell of a goalie pad is a *huge* percentage of its total weight. Losing most of that, along with moving to a lightweight strapping system (i.e. not leather straps and metal buckles) would yield *at least* the 50% reduction they're claiming, if not more.

[kovalchuk71 212]

So the skate is comparable to the custom Speedo suits the swimmers get? After 30 sharpenings, the skate is toast?

[JR Boucicaut 3799]

We hope to get a press kit with images and more info pretty soon.

[Wolfpack_1986 154]

So pros won't be able to use it after Sochi?

Personally I wouldn't be surprised to see the goal pad make it to market in the near future. The player protective being custom molded rules that out, but I don't see why some of the materials won't make their way down quickly. The boot probably will at some point, and the holder probably wont.

So the skate is comparable to the custom Speedo suits the swimmers get? After 30 sharpenings, the skate is toast?

It looked like the steel was like fusion steel... But with carbon fiber as the inner material. If its all integrated and not serviceable... Yes.

[laserrobottime 149]

The goal pad looks to be disposable. The sliding surfaces are covered with synthetic leather, but the rest of the pad is just bare foam. Knowing what my running shoes look like after a few scrapes on concrete, I doubt these pads will hold up to a season's worth of use.

[Beleafer 14]

The goal pad looks to be disposable. The sliding surfaces are covered with synthetic leather, but the rest of the pad is just bare foam. Knowing what my running shoes look like after a few scrapes on concrete, I doubt these pads will hold up to a season's worth of use.

Lundqvist has been using them in the NHL for the past 3 weeks rebranded as NXG pads apparently. He liked them so much that he made Bauer do that for em.

[markush 12]

Hope some of these concepts make ist to retail - as in the car industry. Think especially weight reduction in protectives has much potential.

[ibeck 38]

The goal pad looks to be disposable. The sliding surfaces are covered with synthetic leather, but the rest of the pad is just bare foam. Knowing what my running shoes look like after a few scrapes on concrete, I doubt these pads will hold up to a season's worth of use.

Don't think that will be a problem because pros go thru multiple pairs in a a season

How exactly do the customize the carbon finer in the holders? Is it like re-enforcing the inside walls of a stick for heavy players? For example do they just re-enforce the front given the ovechkin example?

[Wolfpack_1986 154]

Don't think that will be a problem because pros go thru multiple pairs in a a season

They could also cover the foams and still have a pad lighter than anything else.

[Law Goalie 147]

Lundqvist has been using them in the NHL for the past 3 weeks rebranded as NXG pads apparently. He liked them so much that he made Bauer do that for em.

For rebranded, read skinned; they do have some kind of covering, as far as I can tell. The rest of the pad is the same.

The goal pad looks to be disposable. The sliding surfaces are covered with synthetic leather, but the rest of the pad is just bare foam. Knowing what my running shoes look like after a few scrapes on concrete, I doubt these pads will hold up to a season's worth of use.

Fair point, perhaps, but speaking broadly, the faces of pads rarely take much abrasion. The odd skate cut, sure, but bare foam would handle elegantly enough.

The real question is whether the rotational energy of a really heavy shot would rip the foam, or whether, once tiny knicks set in, the surface would get chewed to bits.

[nyntwun 2]

Bauer did this wrong. The skate should've been in the Neiman Marcus XMAS catalog at $25k/pair.

All joking aside (and I'm not really joking), I'm very impressed. Not so much by the presentation, but the fact that Bauer came out with this project and today has shown why they are far and away, not only the top brand in hockey, but the innovation leader.

Is it possible that Nike is still involved with Bauer in some capacity? You look at the recent trends in Nikes product lines and its focused on similar weight reduction products and materials.

[Wolfpack_1986 154]

Is it possible that Nike is still involved with Bauer in some capacity? You look at the recent trends in Nikes product lines and its focused on similar weight reduction products and materials.

Every sporting goods company ever does this.

[Wolfpack_1986 154]

Any word on when the TotalOdins will be out? Two years?

[Buzz_LightBeer 969]

I'm interested to see this skate in action. The weight is intriguing. In my retail area Bauer steel has the highest rate of breakage, and at NHL/Olympic levels, broken steel now means new skates...? I'm sure they tested the resiliency of this holder and steel or they wouldn't be releasing it at this level.

It will be interesting to see how this technology trickles down to mass produced skates because this is a retailers nightmare.

[Wolfpack_1986 154]

Either the runner will need to be serviceable, or the holder/runner will need to be serviceable to the boot

[Law Goalie 147]

Blocker and trapper appear to be standard construction, though the bindingless thumb is worth pointing out... But I'm a little surprised by some aspects of the pads, namely the leather toe-tab and boot-strap. I get that when you're releasing a revolutionary product, you need to keep *some* aspects of prior cycles intact in order to not seem completely out of the loop (warning: strained metaphor detected), but that boot-strap and its metal buckle are probably a significant chunk of the pad's total weight, and they are *totally* unnecessary. It's also unfortunate that the primary friction and wear-point on any pair of pads -- the medial (inside) edge along the boot) is unchanged and will, I expect, fare predictably.

[chippa13 1844]

How has this thread gone this long without a single Thor reference?