Smarthockey vulcanized rubber blade tape?

[Jason 65]

I personally love the crisp, precise feel of composite. I wouldn't for a second think of going back to a wood blade that will get soggy and split after several ice times. I think if you adjust to the feel of composite and have good hands that they will only become better with composite because it is lighter and has a more direct, precise feel. Enough about how wood sticks have good feel. That's so early 2000's.

[asgoodasdead 74]

its also funny that after Gretzky said that about wood sticks, you see him using composite sticks in every alumni game he's played in

[ParabolicActivity 48]

If love to see Gretz get a hold of the flex and start snapping it.

[VegasHockey 1280]

On 1/31/2020 at 1:34 PM, Coldclay said:

so my 3 rolls for $15 order came in yesterday, just waiting for new stick to arrive then I can give a review...

Any update on this? Order arrived but I havent been back at the shop to grab it. I am super interested in hearing some feedback. 

[Above40 7]

Sounds great and probably is durable too. I'm interested. I have 40k miles on my tires and live in Wisconsin. Depending on additives during vulcanization process the rubber usually trades some of the "sticky" or softness for durability. They perhaps found a material or tape with the right performance characteristics from an industrial supply house and have rebranded it for hockey. Nothing wrong with that of course. Hopefully they get a better price for buying wholesale and bringing it to market! They may be sold out because the means of production is not under their control and have created unexpected demand for a product that exists already for various other applications. Clearly this happens for every material out there as it finds its niches. (totally surmising here)

Edited February 20, 2020 by Above40

[Coldclay 53]

12 hours ago, SkateWorksPNW said:

Any update on this? Order arrived but I havent been back at the shop to grab it. I am super interested in hearing some feedback. 

Ok, so I personally have only tried the Smart Hockey Tape in the garage, on a shooting pad, so my opinion matters little. But my 15 yo midget AA son have tried the tape in 6 practices and 3 games. By the end of the experiment, he told me he was going back to regular black cloth tape, pretty much saying SH tape sucks.

I paid $15 for what I thought would be 3 rolls of SH tape, but to my surprise, 6 rolls showed up, in two different shipments.

My kid taped his pretty much brand new Vapor Flylite 65 Flex Int (his second Flylite), the same way he normally does (it's actually more difficult to tape than regular cloth tape) and you sorta have to stretch the tape to make it taut and the very end of the tape (for us, ends at the toe since we tape heel to toe) almost always will not stay on the blade. He takes a strip of cloth tape to wrap around the toe to ensure Smart Hockey Tape doesn't get unraveled.

Feel: the smart hockey tape is almost a tad too thick... feels like it does give a slightly better cushion while receiving puck but my kid thinks it's too soft and doesn't feel crisp. He doesn't notice the SH tape being any stickier than regular cloth tape.

Weight:: This was the dealbreaker for him as he did not even use a full roll of SH tape and you can already feel a noticeable weight differences vs regular cloth tape, almost making his Vapor Flylite feel off-balanced.

Durability: Another big minus. The tape job fell apart after 1-2 practices, starting at the bottom of the blade. The ice is not kind to the rubber tape and just shreds the bottom up BADLY. Regular cloth tape lasts him waaaaay longer and never falls apart at the bottom, and even if it does wear at the bottom of the blade, the tape job doesn't completely falls apart.since cloth tape seem to stick a whole lot better than SH tape.

So he never really saw any benefits to using SH tape and frankly, neither did I. We really want to like it but we just can't... it's really nothing special and the tape needs to be a lot stickier to last longer on a blade.

[VegasHockey 1280]

On 2/20/2020 at 10:23 AM, Coldclay said:

Ok, so I personally have only tried the Smart Hockey Tape in the garage, on a shooting pad, so my opinion matters little. But my 15 yo midget AA son have tried the tape in 6 practices and 3 games. By the end of the experiment, he told me he was going back to regular black cloth tape, pretty much saying SH tape sucks.

I paid $15 for what I thought would be 3 rolls of SH tape, but to my surprise, 6 rolls showed up, in two different shipments.

My kid taped his pretty much brand new Vapor Flylite 65 Flex Int (his second Flylite), the same way he normally does (it's actually more difficult to tape than regular cloth tape) and you sorta have to stretch the tape to make it taut and the very end of the tape (for us, ends at the toe since we tape heel to toe) almost always will not stay on the blade. He takes a strip of cloth tape to wrap around the toe to ensure Smart Hockey Tape doesn't get unraveled.

Feel: the smart hockey tape is almost a tad too thick... feels like it does give a slightly better cushion while receiving puck but my kid thinks it's too soft and doesn't feel crisp. He doesn't notice the SH tape being any stickier than regular cloth tape.

Weight:: This was the dealbreaker for him as he did not even use a full roll of SH tape and you can already feel a noticeable weight differences vs regular cloth tape, almost making his Vapor Flylite feel off-balanced.

Durability: Another big minus. The tape job fell apart after 1-2 practices, starting at the bottom of the blade. The ice is not kind to the rubber tape and just shreds the bottom up BADLY. Regular cloth tape lasts him waaaaay longer and never falls apart at the bottom, and even if it does wear at the bottom of the blade, the tape job doesn't completely falls apart.since cloth tape seem to stick a whole lot better than SH tape.

So he never really saw any benefits to using SH tape and frankly, neither did I. We really want to like it but we just can't... it's really nothing special and the tape needs to be a lot stickier to last longer on a blade.

Thats a bummer. Didn't @thelaterskater also test this stuff out as well? 

Seems like cloth might be the better option with a light dusting of Flex Seal over it to help with waterproofing. 

[thelaterskater 16]

40 minutes ago, SkateWorksPNW said:

Thats a bummer. Didn't @thelaterskater also test this stuff out as well? 

Seems like cloth might be the better option with a light dusting of Flex Seal over it to help with waterproofing. 

Tried it last night for the first time. Snow built up like unwaxed tape so no benefit there. Definitely felt heavier and took some pop out of shots due to the softness. I did heel-to-toe full sock and it started coming off the toe after period and a half.

Only good thing was stickhandling, it definitely felt easier to keep the puck on the stick. But the downsides are way worse than that one benefit so I’m done with it.

[VegasHockey 1280]

4 hours ago, thelaterskater said:

Tried it last night for the first time. Snow built up like unwaxed tape so no benefit there. Definitely felt heavier and took some pop out of shots due to the softness. I did heel-to-toe full sock and it started coming off the toe after period and a half.

Only good thing was stick handling, it definitely felt easier to keep the puck on the stick. But the downsides are way worse than that one benefit so I’m done with it.

Bummer.