Grand Rapids-based Kickstarter wants to change youth hockey sticks

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All images from Twig Hockey Company’s Kickstarter campaign

 

By @MichaelCaples –

A Kickstarter campaign launched today from a company based out of Grand Rapids.

Their goal? Offer hockey sticks sized correctly for youth players.

Twig Hockey Company has launched their ‘Junior Twig’ stick, designed with the teeny-tiny hockey player in mind. With flexes of 20, 30 or 40, and a smaller stick and blade to boot, the Junior Twig is designed to serve young hockey players while keeping costs down for parents.

“I and a few guys, we’ve been beer league hockey players for quite a while now and finally using the little bit of manufacturing expertise that we have and a little bit of business savvy, we took this head on,” Twig Hockey Company’s Nathan Wehner told MiHockey. “We started actually with senior-sized hockey sticks, where we put out a crowd-funding campaign on Indie Go-Go, once we found a suitable manufacturer and product and that actually has done really well. It was almost 200 percent of the goal when we were really trying to test the waters to see if the demand was there for the product. It did really well, but what spurred from that conversation was, ‘Hey, we have kids and we’re seeing a shortcoming in the sticks on the market.’ They’re either really expensive, which was the primary focus point, but also they really just don’t fit.

“My kids just kind of slap at the puck and things of that nature. So again, we went back to the drawing board and said, ‘Can we get a product out there that will suffice and solve this problem for the parents?’ and I think we’ve done that at this point. It’s a really nice product. It’s all high-end composite materials, all carbon, super lightweight. We ordered just a handful with the last production of senior stick orders and had some families around testing them out in the area around Grand Rapids, and they loved them. So we said, ‘Alright, I think that’s good enough. Let’s see if we can find a big market for this.’”

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The Kickstarter campaign just launched for the Junior Twig, and the price points represent the various flexes. A $70 donation locks a customer in for a 20-flex stick; a $75 donation is good for a 30-flex stick; and a $80 donation sets you up for a 40-flex stick. The sticks are expected to retail for $10 more per flex.

“The main point in why we’re trying to get it out there is to help the parents out and get them a stick that’s going to perform better for the kids and still not drain their pocket books,” Wehner said. “There’s no point in dumping a car payment on a 10-year-old kid, as they’re still trying to figure out the fundamentals, but you don’t want to lead them into any shortcomings by giving an inferior product, so that’s really where our focus is: trying to give the proper fit, performance and still keep some money aside for the parents.”

Click here to visit the Kickstarter campaign page for the Junior Twig