New England Hockey Journal - December 2015 - 50

NEHJ BUYER'S GUIDE
By Phil Shore

IKE ERuZIONE is the star
of one of the most historical
moments in hockey history
when he scored the game-winning goal
to beat the Soviet Union in the semifinals
of the 1980 Winter Olympics, which would
lead to the Americans winning the gold. In
fact, that play was voted the greatest highlight by ESPN viewers in March 2008.
The Northland stick Eruzione scored
that game-winner with also played an
important role in history and was sold in
an auction in 2013 for $262,900.
That stick is a relic of the past, though.
A relative of Eruzione's is the head of
one of several new equipment companies
trying to revolutionize the stick market.
"I grew up in Winthrop (Mass.), in the
same house as Mike Eruzione. We're first
cousins," said Richard Fucillo, COO of Carbon
Sports. "My enthusiasm for hockey came
from watching my cousin. He's a few years
older and is a mentor to me."
Fucillo is part of a team at Carbon
Sports in Massachusetts that developed
the AirBlade hockey stick and made its first
sales shipment in October. The AirBlade is
a lightweight carbon-fiber stick that -
unlike most sticks - does not have a foam
core, which is designed to feel the vibrations and allow for better stick control.
The blade is filled with diamond-shaped
openings to make the stick lighter and more
aerodynamic. According to the company's
website, the opening help create a 13
percent increase in average shot speed.
"It won't soften. It won't delaminate or
fray at the bottom. It will not deaden," Fucillo
said. "Most remarkably, we brought the feel
back, the feel of the puck, that was lost with
the traditional carbon sticks. It's like a wooden
stick because there's no foam core. You feel the
vibration of the puck on the blade wherever
it is. It creates a bigger sweet spot because of
the multi-directional carbon fiber. Because
of the strength of the carbon fiber and multidirection fibers, we could perforate it to create
a far more dynamic design.
"We think we have something that is

Presented by

Hockey Sticks

INNOVATION
NATION

n Boutique stick manufacturers Carbon Sports, Zeal serve up bright ideas
truly revolutionary, but we also think it
makes the game of hockey a better game,"
he added. "It's a better piece of equipment
than
currently
available.
We think
it can save
money
because
it lasts
longer, but
more than
that it can
perform
better."
The
blade looks
radically different from traditional sticks,
but Fucillo and his partners have hockey
backgrounds, and he was quick to assure
that the stick is perfectly legal.
"There's no regulation surrounding
how fast you can shoot a hockey puck," he
said. "We built this stick very specifically
to the rules of hockey and rule book. Of we
know of, there's no restrictions as far as the
stick goes. It's the proper size and weight.
It's built within the rules and rule book of
the stick. There are no restrictions. We built
it from the specifications outlined in the
hockey rule book."
Carbon isn't the only new company attempting to break through with a new product.
Zeal Hockey was founded in Providence,
R.I., in 2014. President and co-founder
Mickey Silva said he did it for one simple
reason. "We wanted something specific that
didn't really exist: a high-quality custom
hockey stick that was easy to order and

Carbon
AirBlade

affordable," he said. "Until Zeal, if a player
wanted a fully customized stick with their
specs and a graphic that fit their personal
style, that player would be out of luck."
When people think of customization,
they often think of imagery: colors, logos,
names and numbers. Zeal does all that, but
that is only part of how they make each
stick unique for the specific player.
"Nowadays players are sophisticated about stick buying. They know their
individual needs. They know which blade
pattern is best for their shooting style and
what flex improves their performance,"
he said. "Zeal wants to empower the
player with the exact tools they need, and
through our website we have made the
custom-ordering process simple and fun."

50 NEw ENGLAND HOCKEY JOURNAL December 2015

The company isn't just about how the
stick looks, however. The company's website markets the stick as "superior" and says
the "wide kick-point optimizes balance to
accommodate all shooting styles."
"Our engineering partner has taken
great care and attention to our overall
molding process," Silva said. "Zeal sticks
are genuine one-piece construction with
the highest-grade carbon we could source.
Countless hours were spent in consideration of every fine detail from the exact
resin used in each layer of laminate to the
proportion of the taper of the shaft."
Both of these companies are enthusiastic about their products, and part of their
optimism is because of the feedback they
have received. "Feedback has been very
positive. The players who have our sticks
really like them," Silva said. "Zeal is very
passionate about bringing to market the
highest-quality, affordable, customizable
hockey gear. You can say we are zealous
about being the best at what we do."
Carbon has testimonials for its AirBlade
from several players who have used the
stick, including former Stanley Cup winner
Ken Linseman and Eruzione himself.
"It's the first time in a long time that I've
seen significant improvement in hockey stick
manufacturing," he says in promotional material from Carbon. "I can see how the stick
has potential to improve a player's potential
and the game of hockey as a whole."
With such innovative designs and ideas
and significant praise, the question both
Fucillo and Silva face is how do they get
players to break their traditions of using
the same things and try something new?
"Our only criticism to date has been,

'I've never heard of you guys,' " Silva said.
"We like being the new up-and-coming
hockey brand in an industry dominated by
only a few major companies."
Another issue these bosses face is doing a lot of the work themselves because of
how small the operations are.
"So after a year we build the first model.
I can't wait to get on the ice and we get the
stick and I was the proudest guy," Fucillo
said. "I took three slap shots and it exploded
into 300 pieces. It's the culmination of four
years of research and development. My partners were used to this though. Every Tuesday
it was giving the rink manager an extra 25
dollars to give me an extra 45 minutes to try
the stick out."
None of what the people at Carbon
and Zeal do is easy: coming up with new
innovations to an old piece of equipment,
developing it, testing it, manufacturing it
and selling it without being in retail stores
(at least in the case of the AirBlade).
The hours spent poring over the products
are immense. Both companies have enjoyed
the excitement of the process and see more
development coming down the pipeline
relatively soon, and doing that locally.
"We want to continue to grow our
product line here in Rhode Island and
create a much better buying solution for
players, coaches and teams as we continue
to improve upon our website ordering
system," Silva said.
Fucillo had a similar sentiment.
"We have a business plan we feel we
can capture more than 10 percent of the
market in the next three years," he said.
"We're going to grow it organically, grow it
in New England, and create New England
jobs. We're building everything here. The
blade itself, the materials are manufactured here in the United States. The blade
is built in the United States and the stick is
assembled in the United States."
It makes perfect sense that the creators
with roots in local hockey would keep their
companies forging forward in the same
place.
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New England Hockey Journal - December 2015

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