A bang on the boards for Eric Marvin; welcome Chris Marois!

[Law Goalie 147]

Just read over on GSBB (here) that Eric Marvin moved on from Warrior Hockey some months ago, heading off to pastures beyond hockey. I never had the pleasure of meeting Eric in person (I can only get to Summerfest; he always went to WF in Detroit!), but we corresponded quite a bit, and he was a terrific, terrific guy. He was, as Dr. Smith hints, instrumental both in bringing together Warrior's new Montreal goal design team and in subsequently introducing the Ritual line, both to the public and the pros. And as he 'retires' from the cold, familiar cocoon of hockey and takes off into the wider world, I just wanted to take a moment to salute someone who's been really important to the industry for the last few years.

And since there's always a roster spot to fill, Warrior poached Chris Marois from Reebok to be their new pro goal rep!-- so a big MSH welcome to him as well, as soon as he finds his way here...

[AIREAYE 248]

Cool, I wonder what industry he decided to join?

When pro reps move around lime this, do we expect their pro clientele to follow?

[Law Goalie 147]

Personal relationships are key, but Reebok's roots run very, very deep through the Lefebvre family and their supporters, whatever banner they're flying. Put it this way: Warrior is going to make inroads in pro goal, but I doubt it'll be through Reebok's guys. One technical reason, loyalties aside, is that medial gusset shape is a major determiner of 'feel' preference; it's not a discrete tangible quality to most guys, but it plays a very big, silent role in how the perceive pads. Reebok pads, all the way back through the Kohos and the family-name pads, have had round medial rolls; Pete Smith has always favoured a flat medial gusset for the pad to rest on, which was the basis of Vaughn's 'Pro-Fly' push in the Velocity line. The CCM renaissance gave the Lefebvre's their very first flat-gusset pad, but my guess is that Warrior will be making more inroads through Vaughn's guys, and maybe a few CCM in-house 'converts', than through Reebok itself. My guess is that anyone they'd hire to run their pro game knows this. Plus, there are massive opportunities in the European leagues, especially at the development level. Brian's biggest gains have been through Juukka Ropponen's coaching network.

Total speculation, supported by an iota of historical fact: thus rises The House of Rumour...