Brooklynite Hockey – An Introduction

Brooklynite Hockey is a new player in the hockey stick market. Their first round of production hockey sticks went on sale in the fall of 2008 after a year of research and development went into their hockey sticks. Brooklynite Hockey is based out of New York and the major players include

• Joseph Cartigiano (Founder/CEO, Marketing and Sales, Product Development)
• Marco Taffo (Vice President, Product testing, Finance)
• Michael VanTassell (Co founder, Vice President , Graphic Design)
• Charles Monfasani (Vice President, Day to day operations, Customer Service)

Although they are new to the market, they have already enjoyed early success. They quickly sold out their first production run of hockey sticks and initial reviews have been positive. Additionally, very low stick breakage numbers have been reported so far.

As far as their future goes, they have new models of hockey sticks and gloves ready to hit store soon and they have ambitions to enter the NHL next season.

Now to the interview questions and answers…

What products does Brooklynite have in production today?

3 High End Hockey Sticks

Almighty Senior size weighs under 425g Junior weighs under 295g
Redeemer Senior weighs under 440g Junior under 395g
Underground Senior weighs under 460g Junior under 395g

1 Price Point hockey Stick

• D-Force this senior stick weighs from 570g (440g Junior). It can break windows and get hit by a truck. It should have been called “Indestructible”.

Hockey Gloves

Genesis - Traditional 4 roll glove
Exodus - Sleek design

What are the main differences between your high-end hockey sticks?

Common features of all three of the high end sticks:

• Are true one piece sticks
• The shafts are using HAMEI for reinforcing the corners
• The blades have dual bridging and AFS reinforcing wire for added strength, durability and feel

The Almighty (weight: Senior 425g)

• a 2.58cm hozel for improved flex
• Imperial shaft design and full 12k shaft wrap in blade and shaft

The Redeemer (Weight: Senior 440g)

• Power hozel and full 12k shaft and blade wrap

The Underground (Weight: Senior 460g)

• Power hozel, a 3k wrap blade and the shaft is not wrapped in 12k.

The price point of the Brooklynite Almighty stick puts it in direct competition with the elite hockey sticks on the market today. What differentiates your sticks from the rest of the high end market?

Our Almighty is one of a kind; it is a pure performance stick. What sets it apart is the weight, number one. The weight on the Almighty stick is the truth. Personally I think it may be the lightest stick on the market and if it’s not its very close. I have weighed a lot of sticks and have not found one to be as light.

Also our stick is a true one piece with a 2.58 cm hozel that acts almost like a sling shot. Most other sticks have a fatter tapper which takes away from performance. I am extremely confident in the performance of this product and I will put up against any stick on the market performance wise.

The entire Almighty stick has a 12k sock wrap. Most other sticks only have the sock wrap on the blade. When you wrap the entire stick it ends up with a unique checkered pattern and gives the stick slight durability improvements.

I gave the stick to a couple NHL players and they loved the performance. I was told the same thing by all of them. Please make this a little thicker. They love it but they want it to be a tad thicker as it gets lost in a bigger players glove. So if there is one fault of the stick it’s that if you are 6”4 210 lbs, unless you like a thin feel, this stick is not for you. For the average size player and youth player the stick is unreal.

Shafts

What is an Imperial Shaft Design and what are its advantages?

Ok the imperial shaft is a slightly thinner shaft with a deep concave. This design makes the shaft slightly thinner improving weight and it also allows the hozel to be 2.58cm which improves the whip when you’re shooting.

Your stick descriptions mention HAMEI as a performance advantage. What is HAMEI?

This is a glue type material that we used to enforce the shaft corners.

Why do all of your hockey sticks come with light grip coating and none in clear?

Well they do come in clear coating also. Our first shipment was small, only 500 sticks, so we went with all grip. The second shipment we have Grip and non grip in every model but the Almighty.

The Almighty stick is meant for grip, pure performance. I had a few people who use non grip sticks buy the Almighty and now wont use a non grip stick….Its a very light grip. You can still slide your hand down the shaft without a problem. It’s a nice level of grip. No complaints on the grip, yet…

Blades

What is AFS Wiring? Isn’t this just Kevlar?

I was waiting for this question, and it shows that you’re good at your job for noticing this. I want to be totally honest with my customers and this situation did bother me. When I was developing my product we started with the bottom of the blade as Kevlar. That was my plan…..its lighter and more durable. Right? Wrong! During our testing phase we found that when the Kevlar got wet it caused the bottom of the blades to crack. When we discovered this we switched over to AFS wiring.

AFS Wiring is a carbon fiber wire that is twisted a certain way to improve the durability of the bottom of the blade. We tested it over and over and we had only one blade crack in our first shipment and it was amazing because the top of the blade cracked not the bottom.

We really did a lot of work on these sticks. We tweaked and tuned a lot for 2 years, before we released the product.

What is the “dual bridge” in your blades?

This you can see in our pictures is how the blade is constructed. Most blades are hollow and filled with foam and most companies only have one Bridge. We enforced our blades with two 2 bridges of solid carbon fiber. Most companies have the bridge located at the bottom end of the blade, where the stick has the most contact with the ice or ground. The way these kids are doing tricks and using their sticks these days, I thought (and testing proved) that it would help cut down on blade breakage. In my testing process it showed very good results.

What are the available blade patterns and lie for your current production sticks?

• Avenue M is lie 5 (similar to Modano blade pattern)
• Avenue S is 5.5 (similar to Sakic)
• Avenue D is 5.5 (similar to Drury)

Production #s and Breakage

How many Sticks have you produced so far?

Well we went through a ton in our testing phases but I won’t count those. 1933 sticks have been produced as of early December 2008.

Brooklynite hockey stick breakage numbers so far (as of January 2009).

• Redeemer under 1% this stick has been amazing, extremely durable for a high end stick.
• Underground 1%
• Almighty 4% it’s still a durable product but our Redeemer has been superb.
• D-Force No breaks yet. It may have to be hit with a truck before it breaks. It is a heavier stick but it can take a beating.

Brooklynite’s Future

What is next for Brooklynite Hockey?

We are about to release two new hockey sticks. The first is our new high end model in our Dark series! The Brooklynite Marksman

• 425g Senior size
• Fish scale grip
• Available in sticky or clear
• Shaft shape is standard
• 12k blade
• Curves for the Brooklynite Marksman
• Black Coffee (similar to Coffey)
• Avenue M (Modano)
• Avenue S (Sakic)
• Avenue D (Drury)
• Avenue L (Lidstrom, available in square toe)

The other soon to be released stick will be our first goalie stick… The Brooklynite King Mojo. The King Mojo is a composite goalie stick weighting in at 750g.

We are also working on our new model of high end hockey gloves, the Brooklynite Brass Knuckles. The Brass Knuckles are going to be a high end gloves that will be made in Canada and we will be able to provide customization options on our website. We have been working on this model for over 10 months now to make sure it will be perfect.

Thanks a ton for taking the time to share Brooklynite Hockey with Hockey Stick Expert!

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