California Rubber

California’s and Nevada’s Authoritative Voice of Hockey

New California-based hockey company making sticks that won’t empty wallets

 

Even in a pandemic, Infamous Hockey was able to come to fruition.

After the journey began in 2019, Infamous Hockey was officially founded this year in California, giving youth hockey sticks a louder voice, per se, as the game of hockey slowly gets back to normalcy.

“It was apparent at the time (in 2019) that the youth hockey stick market was very stagnant,” said Infamous Hockey founder Anthony Cuevas. “Most manufacturers focused on the entry-level stick, and if you wanted a high-end youth stick, you either had to purchase a stick from one of the two youth-focused hockey stick companies based in Canada and pay adult stick prices and high shipping, or purchase a junior/intermediate stick with a flex that doesn’t cater to the youth athlete, and then cut the stick 5-6 inches and raise the flex value even higher.

Elite1-Blue-Side“I made it my mission to develop a high-quality youth stick that didn’t break the bank.”

Cuevas said his business worked with multiple manufacturers that also manufacture sticks for the “big boys” and after many prototypes, came up with two models that really nail “what we feel the market was missing” – the Elite-1.

The Elite-1 is a full 18k one-piece stick at the foundation, and Infamous added a raised 3D grip typically only found on pro-level sticks, added a PMI foam core blade with carbon reinforcement and a micro-texture feel for great puck control with or without tape, also profiling the stick lengths based on player profiles.

“This means when you purchase a 20 flex stick, you will receive the true 20 flex with very little to no cutting, but we didn’t stop there,” Cuevas said. “After talking to potential customers, we found two subsets that weren’t feeling taken care of. The first was the highly-skilled Mite- and Squirt-age shooters. For them, we worked with our partner to redesign and taper the hosel of the stick, creating a true low kick. All of our core features combined with a low kick made our Elite-1 Special edition an extremely popular stick for us.

Elite1-Orange-Vert“The other group of customers that we wanted to focus on were the sub-20 flex kids, so we decided to release a 17 flex stick just for them. And the best part about our 17 flex is minus the 3D raised grip, you receive every other feature of the big brothers. We did all this while keeping the customer at the forefront of our thought process. We decided to decrease the high margins found in hockey and price the sticks where they are accessible to more family. That’s a big part of what makes us ‘Infamous.’”

Cuevas added that Infamous, while still in its early stages, is growing in leaps and bounds.

“We are excited to continue to grow,” said Cuevas. “We have two big surprises coming this month, and one may be a something for the intermediate and senior players. Stay tuned because we will be continuing to work daily to change the game.”

For more information, visit www.infamoushockey.com, email support@infamoushockey.com, or check out the website’s chat function.

— Matt Mackinder

(Nov. 3, 2020)

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