The revolutionary goalkeeper stick

A traditional goalkeeper stick is made in a single piece. The shaft, the shield and the blade are made of wood or a composite material. How do you get the idea of making a goalkeeper stick which consists of three parts? And why use aluminium profiles? We ask Jörgen Wikström, the CEO of ProMask, the company that has developed the XV2 stick.

—– When you sell sports equipment, there are always two target groups: the sportsmen themselves and the clubs’ financial managers, says Jörgen Wikström, and he continues:

– A traditional goalkeeper stick costs upwards of 1000 kronor. A premier league goalkeeper needs between 50 and 60 sticks per season. We could change the material and make the stick so strong that it would not break for a whole season. But still we would not be able to find a single buyer of such a stick.
 

The feeling is decisive

In the 1980s aluminium sticks were tested by, among others, Wayne Gretzky. But the players soon went back to the wooden or composite variants. Aluminium sticks lacked the right “feeling”.  Jörgen himself played 21 seasons as a goalkeeper in the premier league. So he knows that the “feeling” is decisive.
– When we looked at how a stick is built and how it works, suddenly the solution became obvious: The shield is the weakest point in traditional sticks. But the stick does not have to be made in a single piece. We can combine materials and in this way get the properties that we need. We started to draft a solution, Jörgen remembers.

Together with his colleague Esbjörn Berglund, also a former ice hockey goalkeeper, Jörgen contacted Sapa. It was now a question of how to take advantage of the properties of aluminium –  the low weight combined with the high strength – in the best way. And how to join the parts together so as to obtain a homogenous entity. Apart from his goalkeeper experience, Jörgen also has a background as the head of the development department at Volvo Trucks. “I know so much about the possibilities of forming aluminium profiles because I know how little I know.”

The stick had to give the feeling as if it were made in a single piece. How should the shield be formed? How “soft” aluminium alloy could be used? And how thin profile walls? These are important aspects if you want to avoid vibrations in the stick. How should the sockets for the wooden/composite elements be designed? There were many questions. The solution was a successful combination of Jörgen’s goalkeeper knowledge and Sapa’s experience.

The result?

The XV2 has the flexibility and “feeling” and it is vibration-free. It is the world’s first divided stick and ProMask is the world patent holder. The shield is made of an aluminium profile, while the shaft and the blade have a wooden core with a composite coating or are made fully of composite. There are many advantages. In order to meet the style and satisfy the taste of all goalkeepers you need about 50 models with different stick blade angles and lengths. The XV2 is assembled exactly according to the goalkeeper’s wish.

The number of variants is reduced radically. When the stick is broken, you only replace the damaged part. The cost of goalkeeper sticks paid by the club can be reduced by as much as 80%. – It is also the world’s lightest goalkeeper stick. It weighs 40 per cent less than conventional sticks, says Jörgen Wikström.

And what are the visions for the future? The next step could be a three-part stick where all the parts are made of aluminium, Jörgen Wikström concludes.

(Article from Profilenews, the digital newsletter of Sapa, no. 1 # 2005)