Pure Hockey Purchases HockeyGiant

[dsjunior1388 81]

http://www.prlog.org/12498666-pure-hockey-acquires-california-based-hockey-giant.html

Pure Hockey, LLC announced today that it has acquired all of the assets and ongoing business of SportsGiant, LLC. Sports Giant includes ice hockey retailer Hockey Giant and online property HockeyGiant.com (among other online properties). HockeyGiant.com was one of the original online sellers of hockey gear and related product and remains among the largest online retailers.

[JGraz15 53]

Wow...this seems like a big deal. Wonder how long it will take until the websites are integrated.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Hopefully this makes both of them better.

[chippa13 1844]

This took longer than I thought to go public

[EBondo 233]

As an employee of HG, anxious to see where this takes us.

Things have been pretty hectic over the past month, month and a half. With HockeyGiant opening a new location in PA, to this acquisition, there's been a lot of things going on. Anxiously excited for the future.

[GunRunner 28]

Hockey Giant was by far my most favorite online retailer, there customer service was second to none and usually fast shipping since they shipped from the east coast. Hopefully Pure Hockey is just as good if not better, I've never dealt with Pure Hockey before.

[EBondo 233]

From what I've been told, it made sense for HG because a majority of our business is online, whereas Pure's footprint was in the retail market. Hopefully the best of both worlds comes into play here.

[Chadd 916]

From what I've been told, it made sense for HG because a majority of our business is online, whereas Pure's footprint was in the retail market. Hopefully the best of both worlds comes into play here.

I've been in two Pure stores and was impressed with their quantity of product, but not their staff or display logic. Having gloves 20 feet up in the air and no staff willing to get off their ass to help a customer was disappointing.

[Burning Bear 76]

If I'm not mistaken, didn't they also acquire EPuck years ago? I miss the old EPuck. They used to include some sort of southern spice packet that you could put in soups or whatnot in every order. I love when businesses do little things like that to stand out.

(Edit: Never mind. I was thinking of HockeyGiant, not Pure Hockey.)

[IPv6Freely 2092]

For me, there's only a 10 minute drive between hockey monkey and hockey giant, and the hockey giant isn't very good retail-wise (they have by far the worst site of all the online vendors, too), but fantastic customer service that almost makes up for it.

At the same time, Pure's website also stinks. So hopefully like I said this makes them both better. Competing with monkey both online and offline.

No pure or Total stores anywhere near here so giant has really only ever had monkey as a competitor here.

However as far as online goes, nothing beats IW. Free overnight shipping? Yes please! I just wish they had a bit more selection. Specifically their goalie gear is pretty lacking.

Back to the point, i think this will be a good thing for both companies involved!

[DarkStar50 679]

I look forward to the day when Total Hockey buys all of them.

And JR trains every staff employee in retail across North America!

[Stewie 721]

I look forward to the day when Total Hockey buys all of them.

And JR trains every staff employee in retail across North America!

because JR needs more things to do at work ;)

[beerleaguecaptain 999]

I've never been impressed with Pure's merchandising, product knowledge, service or the diversity of product offerings. In fact, at my Pure the staff doesn't even know how to properly bake skates and doesn't bother to read the instructions on the box!! They do, however, have an amazing return policy!!

[A2rhino 62]

When I lived in San Diego HG was my first choice being that I could drive to their warehouse and pick my order up that day. Was never a fan of their shipping and fee's otherwise.

[knobdy 1]

I'm disappointed in this. I was at 2 Pure Hockey's within 2 weeks of each other. No new Sherwoods, barely any Warriors, and none of the sales reps knew a damn thing about the W71 or W16 curves.

I literally spent 10 minutes speaking with a sales guy and felt like I was teaching him about his products...

[IPv6Freely 2092]

When I lived in San Diego HG was my first choice being that I could drive to their warehouse and pick my order up that day. Was never a fan of their shipping and fee's otherwise.

Yea. Once that went away there was no point in shopping at HG anymore. If you were going to a store HM had better selection and if you were buying online then IW was the best choice overall anyway. Now we have Tron! (Hahahaha yuck.)

I'm disappointed in this. I was at 2 Pure Hockey's within 2 weeks of each other. No new Sherwoods, barely any Warriors, and none of the sales reps knew a damn thing about the W71 or W16 curves.

I literally spent 10 minutes speaking with a sales guy and felt like I was teaching him about his products...

It shouldn't be disappointing, then. It can only get better because of it.

[badger_14 601]

Pure Hockey has been okay in my experience, but there are some issues with getting help from staff (particularly if you don't appear to be someone capable of purchasing products on their own). Now that I'm a goalie, I don't go there because they decided to move all their goalie equipment to the Marlborough and Braintree locations, and I don't feel like traveling 2 hours roundtrip to get anything, especially when the staff has been less than helpful.

They seem to handle the youth hockey market well, and on weekends during hockey season it is always jammed with young kids and their parents getting some basic thing. Their beginner packages in hockey and lacrosse are a pretty good deal.

[chippa13 1844]

I can say that the guy who handles all of their goalie knows his stuff, and he isn't a bad goalie himself.

[badger_14 601]

I should've clarified, I haven't dealt with their goalie people, mostly because their goalie equipment is now all very far away from me.

At the other end of the spectrum, I've spoken with staff who don't know what suspenders are.

[kesamj 6]

There are no Pure Hockey brick & mortar operations here and the in-store experience at the local Hockey Giant has always left much to be desired. The online experience was also underwhelming. I'll give them another shot in a few months once things are settled but it'll take a big change to convince me that I should give HG another dime. Until that happens(doubtful), Player's Bench/Total Hockey will continue to get my money.

[Changingplatforms 0]

Yea. Once that went away there was no point in shopping at HG anymore. If you were going to a store HM had better selection and if you were buying online then IW was the best choice overall anyway. Now we have Tron! (Hahahaha yuck.)

It shouldn't be disappointing, then. It can only get better because of it.

HM has will call available in Corona, fyi, but it's not immediate since the warehouse doesn't have all the products they sell online, but it's convenient because free shipping. You can't process returns through the warehouse anymore though, which is annoying. Even if you pick up the item at the warehouse you still have to ship it to the one in Texas (I think?) because that's the only one processing online returns/exchanges.

I've had terrible luck ordering from HG online and refused to do it anymore, I had to contact them (like a week after the order) to find out the helmet I ordered was sold out.

IW's free overnight for California is blessing.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

HM has will call available in Corona, fyi, but it's not immediate since the warehouse doesn't have all the products they sell online, but it's convenient because free shipping. You can't process returns through the warehouse anymore though, which is annoying. Even if you pick up the item at the warehouse you still have to ship it to the one in Texas (I think?) because that's the only one processing online returns/exchanges.

I've had terrible luck ordering from HG online and refused to do it anymore, I had to contact them (like a week after the order) to find out the helmet I ordered was sold out.

IW's free overnight for California is blessing.

Heh, I would definitely not drive all the way to Corona to pick something up. At that point I might as well just drive to Monkey.

There are other things about IW that are also a blessing, but those probably shouldn't be discussed in public :)

[GeeZa32 0]

HM has the worst online experience for me. On far too many occasions I have combed their clearance section looking for something and added literally dozens of items and gotten the "this item isn't in stock" message. Dozens of items, a handful of hours wasted looking around their website. How hard is it in 2015 to get an accurate inventory system?

I've only ever been to the HG in Bloomington and a Pure Hockey location somewhere in Mass, but I greatly preferred the experience at Pure. HG's layout was far too scattered and I couldn't get assistance at all for anything. Pure was more cozy, reminded me of the typical "LHS". I've also only cruised the Pure website and wasn't impressed with them either.

Overall, I'm hoping something good comes from this.

Edit: And then I just found out the HG location isn't even an HG location anymore and it's a standalone Bauer store... Wow... Oh dear...

[JBL_infojunkie 0]

For me, there's only a 10 minute drive between hockey monkey and hockey giant, and the hockey giant isn't very good retail-wise (they have by far the worst site of all the online vendors, too), but fantastic customer service that almost makes up for it.

Full disclosure, I currently work in the web department at Hockey Giant. Would you mind being specific about the issues you've encountered on the Hockey Giant site? We're always looking to make improvements and would be interested in hearing some feedback since the topic was raised. "by far the worst site of all the online vendors" is relatively heavy-handed, IMO. Though 4 years ago, before a substantial redesign, I would have agreed. Feel free to PM if this forum isn't the appropriate place for this topic to continue.

Much appreciated.