Add one more roller puck to our selection!

As the idea of hockey started to gain some steam as people started to realize its potential as a fun, competitive, team-oriented sport, everyone was quick to conclude that there was one serious barrier that halted hockey season dead in its tracks:  Any season that WASN'T winter.  When the lake or river unfroze with the changing season, people were completely out of luck.  Its dependence on a cold climate made hockey a very unique but equally challenging sport to create an arena for.

Thankfully, with technology bringing ice rinks to a desert like Phoenix or busy cities like Los Angeles and New York, hockey found new life, being able to be played in ice rinks all across the United States and Canada.  But even still, the ice was the key component that remained constant throughout it all... that is, until hockey made another HUGE adaptation that literally made hockey playable virtually anywhere:  Instead of steel holders and runners, it was metal chassis and wheels... Roller hockey was born.

Equipment had to be tweaked around a little bit to handle the generally "rougher" conditions of roller hockey.  Sometimes you're playing on a smooth concrete, so the wheels needs to act differently.  Sticks would get eaten alive on surfaces like streets, so new ideas went that way.  And of course, there was the puck.  While the 6oz puck we know glides effortlessly on ice, it was horrendously grounded on any surface but that.  Some opted for balls instead, but many felt it truly just wasn't the same.  Then, another breakthrough...

TRON S10 Inline Hockey Pucks

TRON Inline Speedy Puck

Soon TRON will have the Speedy Puck in stock.  When designs initially hit the scene to attempt to create an object similar in shape to the puck, but with greater resistance to wear and tear of hard surfaces, as well as an increased ability to slide on surfaces ranging from grass to asphalt, the design we used for the Speedy Puck was widely regarded to be a gold standard for playing roller hockey on any surface.  Hockeytron’s president had an initial patent on a similar hockey puck in 1995.  The plastic "pegs" raised the puck ever so slightly, but it allowed for a "surface" for the puck to slide freely on, similar to pucks on Ice. The grooved design and holes in the middle allowed for the puck to behave the same way ice pucks did at relatively the same weight.  It was so good, in fact, that when roller hockey had its greatest high, a professional roller hockey league founded in 1993 called Roller Hockey International (or RHI for short), the design used for the puck for that league was almost identical to the TRON one we have coming in.  Professional level construction, professional specs, and a professional look at price even a recreational player can smile at: a mere $4.99 ( buy 10 for $3.99 each).

As most of you already know, TRON already has a roller puck.  The TRON S10 Inline Puck has a similar "plastic peg" system that allows it to glide with great ease across smooth concrete or sport court surfaces.  The design we used for it has been around for quite some time as well.  But, like anything else, there is always room for touches of improvement year to year.  Between our first batch of pucks and our newest batch of the S10 Inline Puck, the key difference was the overall hardness of the puck.  While before the pucks only averaged about 70a (You see similar notation for wheel hardness’s), the new pucks average closer to 90a.  This makes the puck all around more durable to handle the abuse of roller hockey.  It will also glide a little bit better.  You've always known this puck to be $3.99 ( buy 10 for $2.99 each ), and even with an upgrade that assuredly makes it better, you can bet you'll still continue to enjoy that price.

For hockey to evolve from a sport available 3 months out of the year to something able to be done 24/7, basically at will, is truly remarkable, with credit to countless hours of research and testing to find the perfect balance of weight, feel, size, and shape.  You may not think about it when you fire that bad boy 85+ miles per hour as you label it for a corner, but countless hours of research, dedication, and production that was done by many scientists go into the round disk we beat senselessly for the love of hockey.

Our Hockey Glove Line Expands!

Once you break in any piece of equipment and it finally has the seamless movement with your body, it’s hard to want to give it up when its clearly had a good run and it’s time to replace.  Hockey gloves are a great example of this.  When you consider that the puck, the stick, your gloves, and your hands are all working together to deliver your shot and passes, it’s important that each part is working great with the others to give you the extra edge.

So what kind of hockey gloves are best?  There is no true answer.  Gloves come in thousands of cuts: Short cuffs, longer fingers, re-enforced palms, tapered fitting.  It's one of the few pieces of equipment that truly has a unique fitting that is totally dependent on the feel the player wants out of them.  That's why, while we have a single model for our shin and elbow pads (With plans for more), we already have 2 successful glove models and are already designing and manufacturing a 3rd!

TRON 80-90 Senior Hockey Gloves

TRON Elite Senior Hockey Gloves

TRON 20K Senior Gloves

The TRON 8090 glove has a roomier, looser fit across the whole hand.  The 4-roll style backing and the breaks in the fingers make the glove very comfortable and extremely easy to break in.  The Nylon shell is light weight and dries much faster than traditional cloth, and stays soft whether they are wet or dry.  When you consider that Eagle put a $230 price tag on this similar glove, it's like you bought those pair at nearly 75% off!  The 80-90 only retails for $49.99!

We came out with the TRON Elite glove next.  Whereas the 80-90 was designed to be looser fitting all around, the Elite glove is the exact opposite.  The fingers, palm, and cuff are all a comfortable yet snug tapered fit.  Triple segmented fingers and Ergo-thumb positioning lock the stick in place while providing an unmatched range of motion.  At $59.99, you'd be hard pressed find a glove that feels like it at such a great price.

Soon ( July ), the TRON 20k hockey glove will be a part of the glove family.  Where out last 2 gloves had the nylon/cloth look, we opted for the leather finish on the 20k.  While it does make the glove slightly heavier, it's still fairly light.  It also has many pro-style plastic inserts and a heavy-duty lock-thumb to prevent painful hyperextensions.  We don't quite have stock on them, but we have tested the sample set, and it feels amazing.  We're very proud of how the glove will arrive to us and the quality we will be able to offer for our customers at only $69.99.

So do the gloves you have now have a couple holes in them BESIDES the big one you slip your hand through?  Did they just never break in the way you wanted?  Not even sure if you have the right size for yourself?  Pick up a TRON glove.  I'm sure with our 3 varying models, we have something to sell you that’s exactly what you’re looking for. 

The State of the Hockey Equipment Industry!

Over the past 10 years, the hockey industry has been dominated by 3 brands:  Bauer, Reebok/CCM, and Easton.

We have all seen the trend of high end equipment pricing:  They add some new "feature" or "design" that they feel warrants increasing the price another 5-10 % from the high end model of the previous year.  Skates going for $800 cost the company making them less than 1/7th of that price.  Sticks suffer the same crazy mark-up:  A stick like an RS from Easton or APX from Bauer cost about $60 at most to make, yet retail for nearly 4 times that amount.

I believe that prices will start to fall next year because of what we are doing at HockeyTron.

As we continue to roll out product that has all the features of the high end vendors but at fractions of the cost, the other companies will feel the pressure and be forced to compete.  Since they will be unable to produce any products that are vastly superior to ours, they will be forced to match prices with us. The only way they can match our prices is if they sell direct to the consumer and eliminate all the re-distribution mark-ups.

Take a stick for example.  Other than curve and flex, the main feature of a stick that drives the price sky high is the weight. Grab the Elite Blank or the 405 and grab ANY other stick with a price tag that DOUBLES it.  You could literally grab scales and weigh them yourself.  The numbers won't lie to you.  These sticks are so comparable, you will almost feel silly for choosing anything else.  Backed by the industry-wide standard 30-day warranty, it's looking more and more like choosing TRON equipment is a no-brainer.  All of our $129.99 high-end sticks will offer a guaranty unlike anything else on the market: “If you purchase one of our three high end sticks for $129.99 and feel that the stick is not lighter, more balanced and performs better than your $250 Bauer, Easton or Reebok stick we will take the stick back and give you a full refund."

Let's face some facts head on:  Since the better part of 2007, the economy has been suffering.  During these times especially, people turn to their hobbies and past-times as much needed stress re-leasers.  But what good is your hobby doing to relieve your stress if half your paycheck buys 1 stick that very well COULD snap in your hands the very first time you you use.  If the companies feel like they can continuously nickle and dime even their LOYAL customers for all their worth, our company will continue to grow with customers who aren't fooled by gimmicks. 

If you change something every year, you drastically cut into yourself over time.  They need the sales, so they change products year in and year out.  What happens to the old stuff?  It still cost the same to make, but now they have to sell it for 219.99 because the NEW thing (The exact same thing in a different color) has the $249.99 tag on it.  That hurts manufacturer margins, the retailers margins, and customers STILL get the raw end of the deal.  It's a completely broken system.

Bauer, Easton, and other companies have already taken notice of us and are doing everything they can to stop us.  We've gotten letters and e-mails from the lawyers and representative from various companies regarding products on our site.  No one knows exactly what the future may hold for any of us, but at HockeyTron, trust us when we say this:  We have only just begun to do the damage we know we can do in this industry.  All because we know what the customers want:  Something the other companies just seem to have lost touch with. 

This is the 3rd company I've founded, and much like the first two, HockeyTron will grow to be a formidable force in the industry, with many great years to come.  Enjoy the ride!

Free Ice Hockey Skate sharpening - Classified Ad

Free Ice Hockey Skate sharpening - Classified Ad