Reply To: Equipment: Wood vs Composite Sticks

[Coachy]

I play 4 times a week and use a one piece that is a lower end model a little heavier at the bottom. I broke my good one piece a few weeks ago while taking a snap shot. I think that happened because it got hacked pretty hard once the game before and probably was weakened. I find that sticking on the rubber blade pads instead of tape dampens the bounciness of the blade a little.

To me the wooden stick became much too unpredictable. I used to be able to get 6 Sherwood pmp sticks and they would feel the same. Now each stick has too much of a different feel and that is a big reason I like the one piece. The same make and model feels the same.

I wish I could get the http://www.isacsport.com model from Sweden. I was shown cut outs of it and some other models and the Swedish one is reinforced on the edges and a little thinner on the sides. The blade is also reinforced. The cutout of the most popular brand shows a hollow stick and the expensive model has some foam rubber in it to deaden the puck a little. It costs the manufacturer about $18 to make a top end one piece (which is really a two piece with the connection covered)

The NHL son of one of my friends took him and his other son to the plant in Mexico where they make the $300 sticks. The workers get paid something like $21 a week.

My concern is that the stick manufacturers are pricing many families out of hockey. It is hard for a kid to show up with a wooden stick when his teammates all have the one piece. I think Acoin was the last NHLer still using a wood stick and now he has gone one piece. So I think the one piece is here to stay but if the prices don't drop for the top models there won't be enough kid's still left in the game for the stick companies to make over $300 for the top end and at least 500% for the lower end models.