Goalie Gear Nerd's 2023 Gift Guide

After a couple of years off we are very excited to announce the 2023 GGN Holiday Gift Guide!! These 9 items (no, we couldn’t think of 10) are things we know every goalie gear nerd would love to receive this holiday season.  Full disclosure: we didn’t tell any of these companies that they would be included, so they didn’t pay to be on the list.  These are all products we legit love and recommend.

Bauer Konekt HF2 – anyone who has worn the Konekts can tell you how unique they are compared to every other goalie skate on the market.  Unreal feel and flexion.  And with the release of the HF2 they’re now available at 2 price points!

Bladetech Steel – customizable, high quality steel. Big fan of the Flex Force technology.  GGN Jr. is obsessed with his gold blades. 

Brrrn Sliding Board – one of our favorite off-ice training tools, Brrrn workouts not only work your legs but also your core and arms. Every hockey player should be training with Brrrn.

CCM AXIS XF Mask -  admittedly we’ve had the AXIS XF for only about a week but already we are VERY impressed.  The NEST-TECH liner feels extremely comfortable and the sightlines are unreal. Predicting .

Pure Goalie pre-Black Friday Sale – Pure is knocking an extra 25% off their clearance gear BEFORE Black Friday.  There are some unreal deals to be found.

Sparx Hockey SDR Wand – if you’re a goalie gear nerd, you probably are already have a Sparx (and if you don’t, you definitely should as they’re $100 off right now). So if you’re looking for a good stocking stuffer, pick up their new SDR Wand.  This will keep you from having to drag the vacuum out every few weeks to clean shavings out of the bin.

TRUE Project X Stick – TRUE’s lightest stick yet, the Project X has a unique flex profile thanks to the INVRT technology.  This lets goalies load more power into the stick before snapping off that perfect sauce pass or gunning for that one-in-a-lifetime empty net goal.

Vizual Edge – Goalies cannot stop what they cannot see.  Vizual Edge is widely regarded as the BEST vision training tool on the marketplace. All you need is a laptop or iPad and VE will send you the training glasses.  Every goalie should be training with VE. Use our link for special pricing and, until November 27th, enter in BF2023 for an ADDITIONAL 45% off.

Warrior G6 – at every size and price point, Warrior G6 gear is among the best in their category.  Insanely light pads with incredible sliding.  Two amazing gloves.  They even offer two unique blocker designs.  And as an extra bonus, Pure has started marking them down in preparation for the G7 line. So grab some G6 gear, at an even better price, while it’s still available.

Thank you for reading and Happy Holidays!

TRUE Hockey Acquires Lefevre Inc

TRUE Hockey and Lefevre Inc (aka Lefevre Goalie) officially acknowledged today they are joining forces, with the former acquiring the latter. Rumors of this union started shortly after Lefevre’s design contract with CCM concluded at the end of 2019, and it’s a match that makes strategic sense for both companies.  TRUE enters the goalie equipment segment with one of the most famous names in goalie gear and Lefevre gains access to TRUE’s expansive R&D resources, supply chain and capital. As TRUE’s Corey Gregory explained it to use, “we believe we control the 3 biggest segments within hockey equipment: stick, skate and now goalie equipment.” After acquiring VH Hockey in 2016, TRUE already has > 65% of NHL goalies using their skate boots as well as a number using their goal sticks including this year’s Vezina winner, and TRUE ambassador, Connor Hellebuyck.  Lefevre has had their own success since going solo, with a number of NHL goalies using their unbranded gear this past season including Corey Crawford, Carter Hart and Semyon Varlamov among others.  Goalie gear design legend Michel Lefebvre said in the announcement "We are thrilled to be starting this endeavor with TRUE Hockey…It was important to us that we continued with a company that's as eager to improve the player experience as we are.”  

GGN has confirmed there will be NHL goalies with TRUE branded goalie equipment next season, though the exact timing is unknown.  We also expect some type of co-branding with Lefevre (e.g. “Powered by Lefevre”) on the equipment itself. Other operational decisions such as how to scale their products for retail are still being determined. Regardless, this announcement marks TRUE’s arrival as one of the largest goalie equipment brands in all of hockey.

CCM Creates Full Head Protective Hood

Source: @CCMHockey (Twitter)

CCM Hockey has undertaken a 2nd initiative in the fight against COVID-19, this one arguably more ambitious than their initial pledge to fund 500,000 surgical masks (read more here). 

Source: @CCMHockey (Twitter)

 Montreal-based oral and maxillofacial surgeon Dr. René Caissie brought CCM a prototype of a “full-head protective hood” which he created in his garage (literally) due to his very high risk of COVID exposure (maxillofacial surgeons operate in extremely close proximity to the face and mouths of their patients). The system inflates via an air-purifying respirator and completely encloses the head providing superior protection to setups with separate mask, eye and head protection.  The system’s positive pressure pushes virus particles away the wearer and is rated 10x more protective than N95 masks.

Source: @CCMHockey (Twitter)

Since completing the design, CCM has converted its NHL Pro Custom Equipment facility (normally reserved for tailoring to the specific need of pro clients) into a biomedical production facility to build 150 of the protective hoods per day.  CCM has also open sourced the design, making the manufacturing specs available to any company who desires to produce the systems. CCM CEO Rick Blackshaw told Newswire Canada “Meeting the logistical challenges of implementing such a change is daunting, but to do so in the face of personal stress, imposed personal isolation and extreme time constraints shows what a committed and resourceful team we have."  The units are expected to be produced by CCM for as long as needed.

Hockey Equipment Companies Join The Fight Against COVID-19

It’s been almost 80 years since the entire world has been at war and this time (thankfully), instead of countries fighting against each other, they all stand together fighting a common enemy: COVID-19.  And similar to WWII, companies are stepping up to give those “on the frontlines” the tools they need. Back in the 1940s it was companies like washing machine maker Maytag (who would make aircraft parts) and toy train builder Lionel (producing parts for naval combat vessels), while now it’s companies like Bauer Hockey making full facial shields for doctors and nurses, Brian’s and Vaughn making medical gowns and New Balance (Warrior’s parent company) making general-use face masks. Even street hockey equipment maker Mylec has gotten involved by producing flooring for medical tents.  Below we want to celebrate the efforts of each company and hope you join us in 

The first company to step forward in the COVID-19 fight was Bauer with their prototype for a full face shield often worn by doctors and nurses when interacting with highly contagious patients and/or situations where the there is high biohazard risk.  The initial designs were created in Bauer’s Montreal R&D offices and shown to an employee’s father who is a physician for feedback and modification. Since then Bauer has taken the production team normally focused on producing custom skates and retrained them to produce the shields. 

Bauer Face Shield

Bauer has priced the shields at cost, has already received over 1 million orders and has committed to making 2.5 million by the end of May. Importantly, Bauer has posted both the design and material requirements online, giving away the intellectual property to any company who has the tooling to produce the shields. Automated skate sharpening producer Sparx Hockey has taken up Bauer on their offer and is already producing their own face shields.

Sparx Shield

Not long after Bauer announced their facemask initiative, Brian’s and Vaughn (with partner GRAF Hockey) announced they would be producing medical gowns.  Brian’s has already secured an order to produce 18,000 such gowns for local EMS and many more are expected.  Vaughn is using both their London Ontario and Oxford Michigan plants to produce gowns.  The Michigan plant is already working on an initial batch of 22,500 gowns with another 10,000 pending.  

Big props to @VaughnHockey who has joined the fight against COVID-19 and has started to produce medical gowns. Great to see companies like this shifting their resources to help during this historic time. Very #GGNApproved pic.twitter.com/zEQX58ujQ1

— Goalie Gear Nerd (@GoalieGearNerd) March 30, 2020

Brian’s Order for Windsor-Essex EMS

 The skate lace by Graf on the gowns is such a great gear nerd touch!!

Vaughn & Graf Gowns

Skate lace!

Warrior’s parent company has taken a multi-pronged approach.  They first announced they would be producing general-use face masks at their Massachusetts and Maine production facilities, with the goal of producing 100,000 per week by mid-April. They are also in the process of developing gowns and foot coverings for medical professionals and have committed $2 million in grants to non-profits that can help with the pandemic.

Materials for New Balance masks

New Balance Masks

As one of the biggest names in hockey, CCM has known from day 1 that they wanted to help in the fight against COVID.  After considering several options, CCM announced today that, in partnership with their NHL and Women Pro players, they are donating 500,000 surgical masks which will be sourced via their network of production partners. They expect shipments to go out as early as April 27th.

Mylec has also lent a hand in the fight against COVID-19 by producing flooring for medical tents. The flooring, normally used for dek hockey rinks, is called DEKMAT.  DEKMAT can be fastened together without tools, handle heavy foot traffic and even be steam/powercleaned without loosing integrity.  

Mylec DEKMAT

Smaller goalie gear makers have also found ways to help, with Kenesky making face shields and Simons producing medical scrub hats.

Simmons Scrub Cap

Never before have companies so voluntarily railed to help fight a global pandemic.  Many of the companies expressed how proud they were of their employees who, while being technically classified as “non-essential” and not required to work, have volunteered to use the skills they have honed making equipment for a game, to fight a very deadly disease. The obvious hope is that the need for these companies’ healthcare products is short term, but our gratitude for what they are doing will live on forever. 

“But why don’t I see Warrior goalie gear in the NHL?”

The above question has been one of the most frequent messages and comments we’ve seen on our Instagram page. And for good reason. Warrior player equipment has a very strong presence among NHL forwards and, per our tracking, one out of three NHL goalies use Warrior sticks.  Coupled with the fact that Warrior gear was worn by NHL goalies as recently as 2013 and the very positive reviews of their goalie products, the question of “Why don’t we see Warrior goalie gear in the NHL?” is fair. But, like many things in life, the answer is complicated.  

In 2014 Warrior made the strategic decision to exit the NHL goalie gear market.  They continued to pay the licensing fee to have the Warrior logo displayed on their goalie sticks, but they would no longer court NHL goalies nor sent out goalie reps to support NHL pros. This decision to forgo having their gear in “the show” has substantial cost savings as the NHL charges a 6 figure sum, per equipment category (e.g. leg pads, blockers, trappers, masks) to have a company’s logo displayed. In lieu of allocating these funds to what is essentially marketing, Warrior has chosen to focus their resources on innovation and engaging with non-pro goalies.  

As Warrior put it to GGN “While the NHL is an exciting and traditional means of advertising products, we are proving that it is not essential to meeting our ultimate goal of building trust with goalies. While it is likely that we will someday choose to work with NHL goalies, we are currently working extensively with European pro goalies and North American minor league goalies. These pro goalies can continue to validate the performance, innovative features and durability of our gear under the most demanding conditions.” 

To that last point, Warrior has worked closely with a number of European professional goalies including Red Bull Salzburg who tested the R\G4, R\GT2 and R\G5 lines prior to launch.

Will Warrior goalie gear return the NHL?  Maybe. As their innovations continue to garner attention, it’s possible that Warrior will decide they’re willing to outfit a pro goalie with a logoless set of gear (they’ve declined offers from NHL tendies who have previously inquired about wearing their equipment).  It’s important to understand however that Warrior may continue to believe that NHL adoption is not a critical metric for their goalie brand’s success.  We’ve heard from some retailers that Warrior Goalie is their #1 selling brand in several important categories and that Warrior’s factories are already at capacity trying to keep up with growing demand.  This growth is mostly due to goalies relying on their own impressions of Warrior’s equipment, the reputation Warrior has garnered from within the goalie community and reviews from credible goalie gear pages (cough cough) when deciding whether to give Warrior’s goalie gear a try.  Every goaltender should put more stock in those factors when deciding which gear is best for them, over simply relying upon what their favorite NHL goaltender is wearing. To us, it seems like an intelligent move to put all your efforts towards R&D if you’re selling large amounts of gear without advertising in the NHL. 

Photographer: Al Goold

Welcome to Goalie Gear Nerd!

Welcome to GoalieGearNerd.com!!!!! For those of you who are reading about us for the first time, Goalie Gear Nerd was launched in January 2016 on Instagram and Twitter to celebrate “the art and engineering of goalie equipment design.”  Since that time we’ve grown to nearly 40,000 followers between the two channels.  

With GoalieGearNerd.com (GGN.com) we are excited to bring even more goalie gear coverage.  GGN.com will feature premium content, unique from our other social media channels, including in-depth equipment reviews, interviews with pro goalies and industry professionals, a comprehensive equipment matrix detailing what is being worn by every NHL goalie, an archive of equipment catalogs from years past, GGN merchandise and much more!!!  

We are also very excited to welcome an exclusive list of GGN Supporters.  These organizations have put their support behind us, and it’s because of their partnership and GGN.com can happen! 

Thank you for taking the time to visit and check in with us often for exclusive content!