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A relatable and honest podcast about the highs and lows of being a youth hockey parent. Join us as we share real stories, struggles, and wins from the rink, offering insights and support for parents navigating the world of youth hockey.
This is for the sled dogs in the trenches. Real hockey parents, real stories. The Good and the Gong Show. No filters, no sugarcoating, no politics, just straight hockey talk, and the best guests around the barn. Welcome to the Crazy Hockey Dads Podcast.
Intro:Alright, boys. Grind them corners, chirp responsibly, and bring that savage fire.
Jamie:Alright, everybody. Welcome back to episode 70 of the Crazy Hockey Dads Podcast powered by Pacific Rink, the unfiltered podcast for hockey parents. No politics. No sugarcoating. Just real talk for hockey parents in the trenches.
Jamie:Buddy. Yo. What is going on?
Scott:Yo. 70 episodes in, and you are crushing that intro, I
Jamie:actually I have it memorized. Not gonna lie. Good to go now.
Scott:Feast.
Jamie:Right? Well, don't know about that. But and thank you to Big John Dangles for our awesome intro. BJD, go check him out at Big John Dangles Instagram. You will like what you see.
Scott:A pretty
Jamie:talented guy. So thank you so much.
Scott:Super
Jamie:So Bud, seven zero. Wow.
Scott:That's right.
Jamie:I mean, did you think we were ever gonna get to 70 when we first started this?
Scott:I don't think I had I I don't know. I'd no. So the answer is no because I didn't I didn't think, like, how many episodes are we gonna do? It was more like, we're gonna take this a week at a time.
Jamie:Yeah. Well said. Yeah.
Scott:And then, those those weeks have compounded. They have. And here we are, 70 of them later. Yeah, man. No.
Scott:It's great. It's, you know yeah. We we've said this a bunch of times, but it's just it's been
Jamie:It's wild.
Scott:Yeah. Wild. Yeah. On on one hand, it's wild, but, yeah, I I was doing one of, like, answering one of those ask me any things and just like, you know, doctor Nasr had asked, like, what what's the best part about being a crazy hockey dad? Oh, yeah.
Scott:And, you know, for sure, it's been getting to meet more people in the community, people that have, you know, it all in all different facets, you know, and
Jamie:and learning, you know, from them, you know, their experiences,
Scott:and and it's it's truly it's been, you know, wild. It's it's a bit like a gift, honestly, is the way I think about it.
Jamie:It's a gift, Todd, and it's coming with me?
Scott:Yeah. So, I I'm not exactly sure what movie that's from.
Jamie:It's okay.
Scott:You wanna tell me?
Jamie:It's Wedding Crashers.
Scott:Oh, man. And I've seen it too.
Jamie:I I always it's even worse.
Scott:Like, more than once.
Jamie:I'm sure. It's it's hard not to watch that
Scott:movie. I love the I love the part when they're when they're playing like football in Oh, yeah.
Jamie:Just gonna say that.
Scott:Yeah. That's great.
Jamie:Crab cakes and football. That's what Maryland does.
Scott:Yo, that I'll tell you, man. That that what's his name? Bradley Cooper. Man, he's a talent.
Jamie:Yes, he is. And did you know where they shot that? It's a place called the Inn at Perry Cabin in Maryland.
Scott:You've definitely been there.
Jamie:Yeah.
Scott:Yeah. No. No surprise there. Yeah. Not even a little bit.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah. Very nice place.
Scott:That that snow up your alley?
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It is up my alley. Yeah.
Jamie:You're a 100% right. Yes. It's a cool place, though. Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie:So for any of you that wanna go check that place out, the Inn at Perry Cabin. Pretty cool.
Scott:Let's go. Did they have like a here.
Jamie:They can.
Scott:When you're there, do they have, like, a wedding crashers tour? No. Where they show you where like they filmed this here?
Jamie:If they did, I didn't hear about it. It's it is possible. It is very possible, but I did not inquire. Maybe I should have.
Scott:That doesn't seem like a place like that would do something like that. But
Jamie:Probably not. I'm gonna say. It's a little bit, you know, it's like an upscale type place, but
Scott:It's not it's not like you're getting a Sopranos tour of New Jersey.
Jamie:Is is there I'm assuming there is a Soprano.
Scott:There has to I don't know if it's Right. Those things are still around. But if you want, I'll take you on a sopranos tour. The first stop is Bada Bing. And
Jamie:for those of you who are not in our geographic location, the Bada Bing is a place called the real name, I believe, is Satin Dolls. And I don't know.
Scott:Why do you know that?
Jamie:I think that's what it's called. Oh. I mean, I again and and I and I'm not gonna lie. I've actually never been, but it is on Route 17 South in in Northern New Jersey.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:Not very far from us at all.
Scott:It says like, you know, if you there's like a few highways that go by right there. And I Yeah.
Jamie:I wanna say three is right there too. Right? And 3 and and 80 is not far. 46? 46 is not terribly far.
Jamie:Eighty's there. 3 is right there.
Scott:It's like 173, but whatever when you
Zechariah:when
Scott:but, like, for a long time, it would say, like, on the, like, on the letter board that's, like, outside, like Of the place? To, like, home of the sopranos, but it would it would, like, advertise.
Jamie:Yeah. I'm sure it says something. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway The gentleman's club?
Scott:Yeah. Gentleman's club. Sure. So we should also just shout out sponsors. Let's do that.
Jamie:Yes. We should. Howie's hockey, Crazy ten. Go get your go get any of your hockey accessories for you or your players. Tape, laces, candles, wax, the scissors, the scissors, the yellow handled scissors, my favorite.
Jamie:They will cut anything in your house. I promise you. Trust me. We've tried. Yes.
Jamie:So go go to howie'shockey.com and use the code crazy 10 for 10% off your Howie's hockey gear.
Scott:That's it. And now now that the off season has been upon us for some time and springtime, spring hockey is also probably winding down for a bunch of folks. Those that are looking to get in some extra reps off the ice, go to hockeytrain.com. Coach Kevin's got an amazing platform where he's got a video library of a plethora of
Jamie:Good word.
Scott:Yeah. Very good word of stick handling drills, off ice speed strength agility drills. So I definitely check it out if you're, you know, a men's league, adult league player looking to get, you know, faster, stronger, quicker, you know, kids looking to get the same to, you know, boost their on ice performance, you should definitely check out hockeytraining.com, see what coach Kevin's doing. He's got a lot of great stuff there. So go check it out, and I did hockey training HQ on Instagram, which you should also check out.
Jamie:Yeah. Big library. Really cool library of stuff. Yeah. Yeah.
Scott:It's huge.
Jamie:Huge. Huge. Huge. And then we have Titan Battle Gear. So for those of you who do not have a very protective base layer for your children or yourself for that matter, you play beer league, you should check out Titan Battle Gear.
Jamie:We highly recommend it. It's the most cut resistant stuff on the market as far as we're concerned. It also looks awesome. It's not just black. Right?
Jamie:Like everybody like everybody says, they're not just black and white. They have some pretty cool colors and are pretty pretty snazzy for kids these days. The ice cream, the the palm trees, the USA Hockey one, which is unfortunately sold out on back order. That's kind of a bummer. I saw they did one the other day that was like Boston Strong or something like that.
Scott:Oh, yeah. That's a good one.
Jamie:Yeah. They're coming out with like if you look on their socials, like, they're dropping, like like like like new ones that are limited runs, I think. And they're, like, limited edition type limited run type stuff that's gonna come out. I wanna say one coming out on, like, the June 9, which I think is today.
Scott:It is.
Jamie:Yeah. All day. Yeah. But I and Nancy said they have, like, a bunch of stuff coming. So go check out titanbattlegear.com, or you can catch them in our in our the link of our show, our show notes at titanbattlegear.com backslash crazy hockey dads.
Jamie:Use the code crazy dads 10 for 10% off. Go check out Titan Battle Gear. You won't be disappointed.
Scott:No. No. You won't. And for any of you, coaches, managers, anyone that makes decisions regarding video analytics for your team, go over to athleticperformanceinsight.com. Fill out the contact form.
Scott:Reach out to Eric. He would happily do a give you a demo of his software, which is a robust platform for video analytics. Him and his team, like, break down game footage, you know, give you all the under the hood analytics anywhere from if you're a crazy hockey dad like myself, you can start the kids as mites on video review. Or if you're a less crazy hockey dad or no longer a dad coach and just a regular coach who's, you know, looking to do video analytics you haven't done before, go to athletic performance insight. It has all the bells and whistles, good for all different age groups, and mention Crazy Hockey Dads, get 10% off your season subscription, but can't say enough good things about that platform for video review.
Jamie:Nice. Kisser. Kisser? What what's been going on? Can't seem to fun.
Scott:Fun. I don't know what's fun. Fun. I told you What's one? Whenever you say so there was I was
Jamie:yes. You did.
Scott:I I'm sure I think I told it on the podcast, but I it's it's I was thinking
Jamie:of it. You most certainly have.
Scott:Yeah. So I'll say it again.
Jamie:Might as well tell it again for people But that missed yeah.
Scott:I was traveling with Orly, and we were we were with a group of people, like, hiking, and there was a woman there, and we were getting to know her, just chatting, and asked her where she was from. And she goes, oh, she goes, I'm from Regina. I and we're like,
Jamie:oh, yeah. With a Wakanda Bedard plane.
Scott:Yeah. The Regina Pats. She's like, I'm from Regina. And she goes, you know, the place that rhymes with fun?
Jamie:How many times has she dropped that line, by the way?
Scott:I don't know, but I bet you I've dropped it more than she has. Maybe. You have dropped know it a lot. It's time.
Jamie:Yes. Well, it is a very good story, I must say.
Scott:Anyway, fun. I you know, mountain biking, that that season for Otto's coming up for coming to a close. And Is it?
Jamie:Why? Oh, you mean the the
Scott:Just the
Jamie:team he's on. Got it.
Scott:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're they're just
Jamie:Mountain biking season doesn't really end until it starts snowing. No?
Scott:Yeah. I mean, I don't even know what mountain biking season is. All I know is that what he signed up for, it's finishing.
Jamie:It's stopping.
Scott:Got it. Yeah. Yeah. So Okay. So, yeah, we're looking at a little bit of a transition period.
Scott:He's looking at getting on the ice to do some clinics here and there. But it was funny. Was going over his summer schedule with Orly last night. We got some gaps we wanted to fill in. Yeah.
Scott:And, you know, for all the talk that we're doing Guys, that camps. Know, like, hanging up the skates. I was looking at the calendar. I was like, there's a lot of hockey there. And it got me thinking, less, you know, not not look, he wants to do it.
Scott:It's not like we're
Jamie:I'm sure he does. Signing him
Scott:up for things that he's not he doesn't wanna do. And none of it is like, you know, you know, like these, like, tournament that's not true. He's doing a tournament team. Look at that.
Jamie:He is doing a tournament team?
Scott:Yeah. He's doing one. He got invited to to and and part of the reason why it was interesting
Jamie:Is this around the corner from my around corner from my house? Around the corner from my house? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie:Yeah.
Scott:But but tell me what you think about this one. And I thought it was interesting, and and he was down to do it because, like I said, he hasn't done much hockey, and he he wants to do he wants to do some. But the the coach of the team, like, his focus with the with the group is to, like, go over team concepts. And the team concepts, they're going over, like, you know, he's posting video clips for the kids to review. They're doing, like, Zooms.
Scott:He's an off ice training. Like, it's not very intensive. Like, there's not a lot of, like Right. Stuff be leading up to the tournament. Mhmm.
Scott:But the the goal is really for the kids to work on situational play and team concepts, like Got it. In the games. Right? So the gay the tournament is a vehicle, or maybe that's not the right way of putting it, but it's it's of course, they wanna go out there and, you know, do a good job. No one wants to go out there and shit the bed.
Scott:But the focus is not necessarily to go out there and be like this super high performing team. It's more to go out there and practice the skills that they're they've been learning with the coach and Sure. Stuff that they will, you know, then carry on to, like, other teams. It's not, like, very, oh, I don't know, specific, like, power play strategies necessarily. Like Got it.
Scott:You know, and I'm making this up. Right? But maybe it's like cycling the puck down low. Mhmm. You know, getting kids to work on that, some positional stuff.
Scott:So I thought that was like a a really potentially, a good way, assuming all the kids, like, buy in and they don't all become, like, you know, wanting to be, like, heroes and whatever.
Jamie:Yeah. I gotcha.
Scott:You know, if the kids are if if the kids are willing to really go out there and, like, practice what the coaches Sure.
Jamie:Like, telling you,
Scott:it's like a non it's like a low a low Yeah. Yeah. Low stress environment Yeah. Yeah. Where it's like, okay, kids.
Scott:Like, go out it's okay. It's it's okay to go out there and fail. You know what I mean? Like, you
Jamie:don't yeah.
Scott:So to that end, I thought it was good. It was also an opportunity to get in you know, play with a different coach and you know, so
Jamie:Is there any other ulterior motives behind that?
Scott:Who? Me? Yeah. No. Oh, because he he's an assistant coach at one of the private high schools around here?
Jamie:Maybe yes.
Scott:That that reason?
Jamie:That reason. No. And it's listen. Oh, okay. Listen, it's okay if it is.
Jamie:Nothing wrong with it.
Scott:Look, I'll tell you
Jamie:this much. Nothing wrong getting on somebody's radar. You know?
Scott:Look, okay. Like, because he is, that's like kind of like a side benefit. We would still do it. Sure. Of course.
Scott:Even if he wasn't the assistant coach at one of the
Jamie:better price. I was messing around.
Scott:Yeah. No. But I I mean, like, but that's look. I I would be lying if I didn't say that that wouldn't be something that would motivate me to like Yeah. Yeah.
Scott:Get him in front of coaches because look, he's going into, you know, seventh grade next year. High school's not too far away.
Jamie:No, it's not.
Scott:You know, so just to get him in front of other people in different eyes is not a bad thing, but that's not what we were No. Going
Jamie:No. Was just busting your jobs.
Scott:You know? I know. No. Can bust my jobs.
Jamie:Listen. A lot of Dom's classmates are going to to that school, you know, to that private school.
Scott:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie:You know? A lot of them, actually. Yeah. Listen.
Scott:They got a lot of sports there.
Jamie:They do have a lot of sports there. Yeah.
Scott:Yeah. Well, I mean, a lot of high level sports.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah. No. They have good the good sports program. No question about it.
Jamie:And the education's good too. You know?
Scott:Yeah. You know? Yeah. Yeah. For sure.
Scott:But that's, you know Education story. Wanted I wanted to switch gears and just hear a little bit more about well, anyway, I just wanna say one last thing because, you know, we've talked about this a lot about, like, just putting those skates away, putting the bag away. Yeah. And what I'm really finding, honestly, with Otto is that he his interests while like, he's in he, like so he plays, you know, pickup basketball, and he'll go throw the ball around. Like, in terms of, like, doing, like, more of, an organized sport or going to, like, get you know, train a a different sport, like,
Jamie:it's
Scott:really hockey and mountain biking. And, like, when we look at, like, his interests and, like, what we're gonna fill his summer with, like, he's going mountain biking. He's going to, like like, Camp Woodward, which he's gone to a bunch. He's doing that. But then it's like, we've we've put some hockey on the calendar and, you know, I was
Jamie:like, yeah.
Scott:Not that I feel like I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth, but, like, I really had a moment last night being like, god, you know, like, for all the talk that we do about hanging up with skates.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah.
Scott:Yeah. You know, it's like, here we are, like, filling up his
Jamie:Well, listen.
Scott:His schedule with his interests, which
Jamie:Well, listen. You gotta you have to do something for the summer, you can't just stay home. Right? I mean, I mean, I guess they could, but that, you know, that I don't really see the benefit of them staying home and doing nothing and just kind of annoying their parents all summer long. Right?
Jamie:That that it's probably not a smart thing. Right?
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:You know? So listen, know, Dominic doesn't isn't playing on any spring teams, but he's been skating. He's been skating, you know, once or twice a week, just, you know, keep, you know, the edges sharp and then, you know, stuff like that. And he's doing a bunch of like, like college hockey camps because I want him to start looking into college stuff and getting more comfortable on the campuses, you know, and kind of just kind of opening his eyes up to like the college scene. Right?
Jamie:Yeah. You know, so but I I so I'm still doing stuff. I mean, he's also boxing. He's doing a lot of other stuff. Right?
Jamie:He's doing jiu jitsu. He's doing boxing. He's, you know, he's training a lot off ice. You know? So just no spring teams.
Jamie:You know? So Dominic's still on the ice, not as much as he was during the season, but but he's still on the ice. You know? Yeah. Just no spring teams.
Jamie:I didn't do any spring teams. You know how I feel about spring teams.
Scott:Yeah. Yeah. I know we yeah. Like, this all came about, like, last minute. Like, literally, we I said yes to doing the team, and then, like, the that was, like, Saturday, this past Saturday, and then Sunday was, like, dry land training.
Scott:And that was Yeah. So any anyway
Jamie:Anyhoo.
Scott:Anyhow. But tell me more about you know, so Dom had a graduation. Well, that you showed me that clip that was pretty sick.
Jamie:He did. Yeah. He graduated from eighth grade. So it was, yeah, it was nice. It was it was last night, Monday night.
Jamie:He had a graduation. They had like a little like video montage of like they had a video montage of all of them at first when we first sat down. And then when they called their name to go up and go receive their diploma, there was a montage of like them playing whatever sport they play and them, you know, training Parisi at the gym. It was cool. Not gonna lie.
Jamie:You know, it was very cool. Yeah. No. It was it was cool. You know?
Jamie:It was very cool. You know? Dom's gonna go back next year. So, like, Nancy got him a cake that said, like, congratulations class of 2026, and that was crossed out and then said 2027 next to it. Yeah.
Jamie:Because he's coming back. So all the kids had what school what high school they were gonna go to right next to their picture on the screen after their video montage. And Dom's just had the Precy logo because he's going back. So Right. Yeah.
Jamie:It was it was nice. That was cool. You know? It was good.
Scott:That he's got one year under his belt and he's going back, like, he must you know, because he's repeating eighth grade in the same exact environment, it's not like he's, like, going from, like, one school and, like, his reclass here is gonna be at this like, he knows the drill.
Jamie:It should be easy.
Scott:So he he he's like, I don't wanna say he's on easy street, but
Jamie:It should be ish er. Mean, we were talk we were talking to a science teacher last night after it, and he's like, oh, man. He's like, I'm have to change up the curriculum next year for Dominic because I you know? Listen, he's not the only person to ever, like, you know, do two years at that school. There's a a quarterback who's actually going to Bergen Catholic.
Jamie:There's a quarterback who did two years at Perisi who's going to Bergen Catholic next year.
Scott:And James, you know what? Let me just interrupt for second.
Jamie:Why don't you tell everyone what Perisi is? So, Perisi Academy, which some of you may be familiar with because they're kind of I know they're in Canada and they're kind of scattered all over The United States. So Parisi Academy was a speed school that was started here in our area in I wanna say the first one was in Wyckoff when Scott and I were kids.
Scott:So Bill was.
Jamie:Yeah. So Bill Parisi started the Parisi Speed School years ago when Scott and I were kids, and it was originally for like, you know, football, and he's very much been on the cutting edge of training and explosiveness and running and jumping and, you know, and just kind of bettering athletes.
Scott:Like speed, strength, agility, bigger, That's stronger,
Jamie:exactly right. So he's always kind of been on the cutting edge, and then I think he he franchised it, you know, so they're kind of all over the place now. And Dominic goes to his academy. So there's it's it's a it's a it's an eighth grade year only. And there's 36 kids every year.
Jamie:And they go into the classroom, they do, you know, like a normal school, they change classrooms and stuff like that, and then they go work out. And the facility that they have is in Fairlawn, New Jersey, and it is a ridiculous facility. Like, the first day Dom was there, he stepped on like a $15,000 scale, and it just measured every single thing in his body, his blood, his the water in his bones. It measured his the fat, the skin. It measured everything.
Jamie:The you know? And it's a very, very it's a very, very neat place to develop athletes. Yeah. So there's 36 kids. So again, it's only eighth grade.
Jamie:A lot of the kids were were second year eighth graders. Dominic was a first year eighth grader. So Dominic can go back next year. But yeah, no, it's great. So he he he's he improved his 40 time.
Jamie:He improved his vertical. He improved his five ten five. He improved his he has personal records in everything. He improved all of his metrics. So yeah, so he went there this past year and he's gonna go next year.
Jamie:Listen, and it's not only good for him athletically, it's also good for his mind, you know, to get a little more mature, a little, you know, a little more, you know, under his belt academically, stuff like that. You know, when when I when most of us graduate high school or graduate college, we're probably not ready for, the real workforce. So what's another what's one more year there? I just gotta be careful now with the whole five for five thing. Right?
Jamie:You know, that's kind of that we've we've talked about on here. But yeah. So that's kind of what what Pre C Speed School is. That's what Dominic graduated from last night.
Scott:Dude, that's awesome. Congrats to him.
Jamie:Yeah. It was cool. Definitely cool. So you you wanna kick it over to to our interview buddy?
Scott:Yeah. I think that that that would be awesome.
Jamie:And then making comeback on the flip side?
Scott:Yeah. And this is gonna be a treat. And, you know, super looking forward to to it, sharing it with everyone.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah.
Scott:Go ahead.
Jamie:Yeah. I I think people are gonna find this pretty interesting since we always complain about how much sticks and gear and skates and everything cost. So we have Zechariah Thomas, the founder and president of Swift Hockey. They are a a newer hockey stick company, and they have figured out a way to deliver sticks that are not as expensive as the big boys bring them to market. So, yeah.
Jamie:So let's listen to Zechariah, and we'll catch you guys on the other side.
Scott:Let's do it.
Jamie:Here we go. Alright. We are here with Zechariah Thomas, the founder, CEO of Swift Hockey. Zechariah, man, I'm really excited to have this conversation. Thanks for joining us tonight, man.
Jamie:Appreciate the time.
Zechariah:Yeah. I know. I'm super happy to be here. Super happy to
Scott:be here. Oh, awesome. Oh, yeah.
Jamie:So yeah. Just kinda tell everybody, like, what you're doing and what you're doing with yourself now, how you started this, and then we'll kinda get into you as a kid.
Zechariah:Yeah. You know what? I guess I've been playing hockey since that age of 10 years old, and I grew up in a small town about an hour outside from Toronto. And wasn't wasn't a great town where I kept seeing, like, one of the biggest factories GM plant, the biggest car factory car manufacturer in the world ended up closing down. And I saw a lot of, like, the repercussions of that, I would say, where a lot of my teammates, they couldn't they couldn't afford hockey alone and equipment every single day was super expensive.
Zechariah:And hockey sticks was, like, the main thing. Like, I was a little bit of a hockey stick nerd at the time too, and they kept breaking. Like, that was really the biggest thing. They kept breaking over and over again, and there wasn't really a solution at they're breaking $4,500 sticks 12 times a season. And even going up through my career, I kept seeing the same problem over and over again.
Zechariah:And even when I ended up playing a little bit of pro and major junior and junior hockey, the sticks end up being free. But it was still the same problem.
Scott:They just kept breaking. It wasn't getting enough quality, ultimately. And that was kinda my style until K. It was swift. Okay.
Scott:And so what what sticks were you were you obsessed with as a kid? What were your favorite? Gotta know.
Jamie:And what kept breaking?
Scott:Yeah. Yeah.
Zechariah:Yeah. You know what? I I hate to say it now, just with competitor in me, but I am like I'm a big I used to be a really big Bauer fan
Scott:Yeah.
Zechariah:Of their vapor lineup. Like, that was kind of my big thing. I think I started with I tried all the sticks, to be honest. Like, I tried the Sherwoods. I tried the Tru's.
Zechariah:I tried the CCMs, but that Vapor, when they started with the APX two
Scott:Okay.
Zechariah:Way back, that was that was kind of my first real stick where I felt the difference. And but, yeah, we I know I don't like to say that too often though. Okay. So Understand.
Scott:That's good.
Jamie:You're you're allowed to say that here.
Scott:Listen. You're you're talking to you're talking to someone who was playing hockey before there was even like two piece aluminums. So Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Scott:Before the Easton was out on the market, so it's yeah. I think I I I don't even remember what I had Sherwood's for sure, like, coffee curve, I don't know, like, Joe Sackett curve
Zechariah:and Yep. Yeah.
Scott:Whatever. All those things. But, yeah. That's that's that's wild. So so growing up, like, sticks, there was something that you were super into.
Scott:And then when when was it that, like, you started to have ideas about, like, wow. I I might be able to make a difference here. I I, you know, I wanna give this a go. I wanna try to make this this space within hockey better.
Zechariah:Yeah. And you know what? It was it was always something in me to do it, but I never knew what the solution was. And I guess my start into I worked at a sporting store in Toronto called Sport Chek, which is pretty much Dick's. Dick's in The US, where I used to go and give my discount around to all my teammates.
Zechariah:Like, they they gave a massive discount. It was like 60% off, and I was giving it to all my teammates. And, like, I always wanted to, like, help people in that sense, especially with hockey. Yeah. And that was kind of my start into it, but I didn't really see the solution, like how I I could keep doing it.
Zechariah:And then during COVID, I I was in a situation where, like, I lost everything. Like, being an hockey player as almost everybody, like, I had no schedule, no team, no life, I would say. And I turned all my passion into business and ended up creating a couple companies there. And Swift attacked the end of it.
Scott:And did you
Jamie:start with hockey sticks, or was it something else? Then you kind of gravitated toward hockey sticks.
Zechariah:You know, I started with everything. And I start sold teddy bears, bikinis. Like, I tried everything.
Jamie:Oh, wow. Like Okay.
Zechariah:Yeah. Different. Different. I didn't try any on, though, but I tried a I tried a bunch of stuff. No mankinis?
Zechariah:No, no, no. Not yet, not yet. Maybe soon. But yeah, you know what? I tried a bunch of stuff in the early days and we ended up I failed so many businesses.
Zechariah:I ended up doing well. Ended up selling my first business at about 17, 18 years old.
Jamie:Oh, wow.
Scott:And good for you.
Zechariah:Since yeah. Thanks. And you know what? Since that moment, I lost after selling the business, was like I almost got depressed, the best way to put it. Where I I lost like, it just it didn't feel meaningful what I what I was doing.
Zechariah:And I ended up switching all of that into Swift and dumping all the money into Swift after kinda going through that realization in myself. And Swift was like, it's less of a business. It's like, it's I'm super passionate about it. Like, so passionate about save saving hockey is kind of the way I frame it in a sense. So
Jamie:Yeah. I'm curious. I I know what you're gonna say, but why don't you tell everybody what you're saving hockey from? I know exactly where you're going with it. So
Zechariah:Yeah. You know, I I'm I'm I feel like it's we're we're trying to save hockey from lots of things. And hockey, as you guys know, like, I don't have to go into a detailed. It's way too expensive. Yeah.
Zechariah:Yeah. Like, honestly, it's it's unattainable. And especially to put your kids in some of, like, the highest levels or prep hockey, even triple a nowadays, travel league, you're we're talking $20,000 plus a season. That's what's out of equipment. Yeah.
Zechariah:That's right. That's right. Completely unobtainable. And what we're trying to do is we're trying to make more affordable hockey sticks, which is, honestly, it's a very small fraction of the problem. It's a very small fraction of the problem.
Zechariah:But it helps. It's our start. Yeah. It helps for sure.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah. Alright. So I'm curious. Can we rewind and go back to when you were a kid and how you you say you started at 10, kinda how you got into this game.
Jamie:Was a buddy of yours playing or because you were in the Toronto area, everybody's playing hockey and that's why you started? Like, take us from when you started playing hockey to kinda when you stopped. Now I'm curious. You said you sold your business at, like, 17, 18. Were you still playing while you had a business?
Zechariah:Yeah. Yeah. So I guess I'll get into, like, my hockey story a little bit. Yeah. Let's see.
Zechariah:I have a really weird story. I moved about ten minutes down the block from a city in Toronto called about an hour outside of Toronto still, called Whippy Ontario to Oshawa, Ontario. And I was culture shocked by hockey. Like, literally, it was, like, a ten minutes down the block my parents moved during that time. I was culture shocked by hockey with the OSHO generals at that time.
Zechariah:That's when they were winning almost every single year. Right. And every single kid was playing hockey. And I wanted to fit in, especially moving into OSHO. I wanted to fit in so bad, and I really wanted that OSHA minor like, the hockey jackets back
Scott:in the day.
Zechariah:Know every single kid used to wear the hockey jackets and proudly. So I really wanted the hockey jacket, and I was like I I fell in love with the game. My parents put me in figure skating right away. Like, that was kind of my first jump. And I started in figure skating, and I kept kinda going up to the ranks.
Zechariah:I played house league, and I almost jumped one or two levels every year from the first year. And that was kind of my start. I ended up playing junior hockey, a little bit of major junior, and then COVID kinda hit. It was kind of the big thing there.
Jamie:Wow. Okay.
Scott:So just how old were you? So your parents moved down the down ten minutes down the road. How old were you when when you're starting to, like, get on the ice? Were you was this like you were four or you were, like, 10?
Zechariah:I I was I was 10 years old. Oh, yeah. I'm old turning 11.
Jamie:Yeah. So late. Like, technically late for the game. I'm late. It's not late, but technically You
Zechariah:know what? No. Nobody understands that too. Like, it's like, in hockey, if you're not starting at six months, like, you're you're late. Yep.
Zechariah:You're late. So
Jamie:That's right. So what did you do up to ten? Just kinda like basketball, soccer, you know, football. What what you play before that?
Zechariah:You know what? My parents my dad was my dad's a big baseball fan, but I was I was bad at almost every sport. Like, honestly, I was not a great athlete at every sport, and I just didn't love it. Like, I played a little bit of rep soccer before. I was a goalie actually in rep soccer, and I just it wasn't enjoyable going going and getting I don't know how hockey goalies do it, but getting balls shot at me all day.
Zechariah:Like, it just wasn't enjoyable. And it just I couldn't stick with it. Like, it was always something it was hard for me to get into. And then hockey was something where, like, it was difficult enough for me to, like, keep pushing and wanting to progress and be better.
Jamie:Right. Interesting. Okay. And alright. So and and so COVID shut you down?
Jamie:Like, is COVID what stopped your your playing career?
Zechariah:Yeah. So I was in I was in the QMJHL during COVID. Okay. And it just we kept going in and out through bubbles. Like, the the hockey bubble.
Zechariah:So we'd stop, and then we'd go, and then we'd stop, we'd go. And then the season ended up calling I ended up calling the season pretty early, and then I actually switched to one of the craziest leagues, the Fed. Oh. So yeah. So I went from the queue to
Scott:the
Zechariah:Fed under what they would they call the time exceptional status to the Fed, which was one of the weirdest things.
Scott:And and, Zach, sorry. If you if you don't mind interrupting, can you just share for are there our listeners that aren't familiar with these leagues, can you just share with them the you know, where they're located and the difference?
Zechariah:So the QMJHL is like it's like the OHL, the CHL. That's out in Quebec. I played for Acadia Bathers out in New Brunswick.
Scott:Okay.
Zechariah:And then after that, I went to the FPHL, which is it's like a minor pro league out in US, like, all all around US. And that was oh, it played out in New York, Watertown. And that was what that was a crazy experience there. Like, that was that was a different type of hockey that I I just wasn't I'm still still shocked by
Scott:it. Why? Tell us tell
Jamie:us why. I'm so curious.
Zechariah:You know what? The the type of the type of players you're playing with, like, I was I was 18 at that time roughly. And 18 17. And I was playing with people that were they had three, four kids, and they're grown, they're adults, and, like, they they loved the game so much. And they they kind of shook me.
Zechariah:I I don't love the game that much. I don't love the game that much as as they do. Interesting. Honestly. Like, I couldn't see myself consistently playing at that level, and, you know, you're not getting you're not getting a big paycheck.
Zechariah:It's you're not getting a big paycheck at all. It's really just for the love of the game. And that's the way the atmosphere of those games, if you guys are familiar, it's like watching it's like Goon. That's probably the best way to put it. It's like a movie.
Zechariah:It's, like, kind of very similar to Goon where you're seeing full bench brawls, like No way. Fights all the time.
Scott:Yeah.
Zechariah:And I I came out of the queue, which is a super skill league. I mean, like, I was a skill player, and that was kind of I was I was culture shocked. I'd I kind of left after about seven games or so.
Scott:Oh, wow.
Zechariah:And that was kind of the end of my end of my career there.
Jamie:Sage walked away. You're like, I'm done with this. I gotta give you something else.
Zechariah:Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. I was kind of I was in between the businesses at that time too. Like, I was still doing the businesses.
Zechariah:Because Right. During when I was in the queue, we had so much time in between the bubbles.
Scott:It was
Zechariah:COVID, and it was in and out. So I was starting the businesses, and I actually used my stick in I used my, like, first prototype in the queue and in the FPHL.
Scott:Oh, no way. You you got pictures. You must have pictures of it. Like, Nacha, do you have some pictures of you playing with the stick?
Zechariah:Yeah. Yeah. You gotta send
Scott:some so we can post
Jamie:it. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. That's very cool.
Scott:Oh, nice.
Jamie:So you had your prototype, like, when you were playing. Oh, that I didn't realize that. I thought you started the Zwift after that. Okay.
Zechariah:Yeah. Yeah. I I was prototyping, and it was always a scenario where it was like yeah. It was I always wanted to do it. Like, I was still I wanted wanted Swift to succeed so bad.
Zechariah:And my goal my whole career goal, which was super weird compared to any other kid, is I I wanted to make an NHL camp. I couldn't see myself playing in the NHL. I couldn't see, like, me having a whole NHL future. I wanted to make it to an NHL camp, and then I was done, honestly. Interesting.
Zechariah:Because I played against guys, like I was a I was a pretty real kid. Like, I when I was playing against Byfield and some of those guys, Cole Perfetti, that was kinda my age group out in Toronto, Jamie Drazile. And Yep. There was levels to the game. It was there was truly levels to the game.
Zechariah:Like, I always knew I was really good, but I knew there was there was definitely levels to this. And especially going out to the queue and I was playing with a player on Washington and seeing seeing the amount that he trains. Like, he he he and you know what? It wasn't even not it wasn't a lot of training. It was just like, he could show up to the ring ten minutes before the game, and he's the best player on the ice still.
Scott:Right.
Zechariah:Like, every single game. Like, he he didn't have to try. He could be sleeping on the bench, and he goes out and scores six goals.
Jamie:He's had that much ability, just that much talent.
Zechariah:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I realized, like, you know what? I this this might not be for me.
Zechariah:I I a little bit more in my story is at the age of 13 years old, like, was always an entrepreneur. I was selling bracelets and hats, like, out of my backpack at recess. Like, that was kind of my journey.
Scott:That's so cool. I always
Zechariah:had the entrepreneur spirit in me where I knew I I was something in the future was gonna lead to that.
Jamie:Right. That come from your parents? I mean, where'd that come from?
Zechariah:Yeah. You know, my parents nonstop supported me. They even to this day, they support me more than anything, but they kept bringing me like, my mom had when I was 13 years old, she would drive me to the dollar store to buy some of these hats and bring up she would let me bring it to school. And I guess a really good story is, like, I actually got suspended from school for selling bracelets and hats. Because they're not allowed to do anything on school premises.
Zechariah:So I ended up getting suspended, and my parents still supported me and, like, wanted me to find another way to sell it still. And that was kind of my parents and, like, you know, I owe a lot of lot of success even to date to them for sure.
Scott:Well, let me ask you this. Just like now that you gave us a little bit of insight into, like, your parents and their support, but, like, even, like, again, rewinding, I know we're jumping around a little bit, but in terms of your story, like, as a kid, you said your dad was a baseball guy. Like, in terms of, you know, some of the things that we talk about a lot on this podcast are, like, you know, you know, what was the car ride home like? And, you know, for any player, you know, and what was the home life like? And was there pressure to, like, practice all the time and, like, you know, what whatever the deal might be?
Scott:Because a lot of parents that listen, you know, they they wanna hear the stories from people that achieved success, You know? And there's so many people that, like, you know, their dream would be to play in the CHL, you know, play in the queue, get to the levels that you are. And so what what was it like for you as a kid at home? And, like, how did your parents, like support you? Are there like, were they crazy like hockey parents or like can you just like kinda share a little bit about that with us?
Zechariah:Yeah. And you know what? My parents never pressured me. Interesting. Never pressured me at all.
Zechariah:Even when it came to schooling, like, I was a horrible student. I failed almost every other every single class other than hockey class. And we we actually had a hockey class being at being from Oshawa too. No. That's funny.
Jamie:I thought you were kidding.
Zechariah:That's funny. No. No. I'm super serious. So they they they really supported me.
Zechariah:Like, they understood. They understood me, and they kind of let me do my thing throughout everything. And I would say even when I was playing, I was by far the hardest worker. And any of my neighbors, like, you'd see me out see me before school, after school, like, until it's dark out. Every single day on the recess, I was playing hockey, training, rollerblading, and it was really a love for it.
Zechariah:And that was kind of my parents. They they pushed me even on the car rides home. It was like, I may have I may have completely crapped the bed all game. Like, completely. Like, I I maybe even scored on my own net seven times, and they would it would just be a regular car road, but regular car ride home.
Zechariah:So that they were really supportive throughout that journey. I would say throughout all of my tens I think it's about ten years of playing hockey, there may have only been one time where my dad was frustrated at me. That was it. Yeah, really calm.
Jamie:And I'm curious. What was that one to a gut, Sat? What was that one time? That was my question, that your dad got frustrated with you.
Zechariah:Yeah. You know what? I remember it so vividly. It's like it's almost scarring a little bit.
Jamie:Oh god. Sorry. Didn't mean to bring it up again.
Scott:No. No. No. No. It was It drama.
Scott:Sorry.
Zechariah:So we we played our I played Oshawa at the time, Oshawa minor hockey, and we played our rival, which I actually moved from originally Whippie, Ontario. So we played our rival, and I just I had such a bad game. Like, I had a probably the the I was always having good games, and my team was honestly, like, I played in a really bad team. And if I had a bad game a lot of the times, you could see it across the team. Like, I played in a really bad team where a lot of my performance had a really big effect, especially at about think it's about 14 years old at this time.
Zechariah:And we lost the game pretty bad, and my dad came home. Like, I came home after the game, and my mom ended up driving me. And he had he had the other team on his shirt. Like, he's wearing the other team on his shirt. And, you know, I was, you know, I was I was I didn't even have words.
Zechariah:Like
Scott:Oh, man.
Zechariah:It worked though. I ended up having next time we played them, we played them like the day after because we used to play like the weekends. Right. And I had a much better game because I was a little bit scared, but I read a much better games for sure. Right.
Scott:Just just real quick, I wanna share something with you. I asked my wife to to bring it down while we've been talking. So I know the audience that's listening to gonna able to see this, but I just wanna share with you could
Jamie:talk them through it.
Zechariah:Yeah. Yep.
Scott:Yep. Perfect. That's perfect. Here we go. This is my this this is my guy.
Scott:This is growing up.
Zechariah:Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yep.
Scott:That this this is my my so I just held up my Oshawa generals, Eric Lindruss jersey, and he was like, my god. Like, when I was when I was a kid. But anyway, all the Oshawa stuff, I figured I'd I'd surprise you No. With that
Zechariah:That's crazy. That's crazy.
Scott:Yeah. Right?
Zechariah:Yeah. Was like it was like Michael Dahl Cole. That's when Dahl Cole was like, he he really ran. He ran the whole whole league at that point. Yeah.
Zechariah:I'm like, hat trick a game. Unreal. That was kinda my error of seeing it.
Scott:So Yeah. Nice. Yep. Amazing.
Jamie:So Go ahead.
Scott:So you
Jamie:were play you were playing with your so you played with your prototypes. You were kind of building this while you were playing. And then take us from there. Like, how did Swift kind of come to? And when did you finally sit there and go, wow.
Jamie:Like, there's something here.
Zechariah:Yeah. You know what? The amount of sticks we we went through in the early days to make a good stick was unbelievable. It was actually it was actually insane. Like, we didn't we don't have a research and development team.
Zechariah:We didn't have a lab. We didn't have anything to technically make a great product. Like, we didn't have anything. So at that point, we were the I made a product for myself. That that was kind of our our message at that point.
Zechariah:Like, I it was a player made a product for a player. And it reminds me, like, now looking back on it, it's like the same thing Nike did in the early days where, like, Phil Knight made the shoe for himself when he was running track.
Scott:Right.
Zechariah:And that was kind of my biggest thing where we didn't we don't have the same budget to compete with some of these guys, but let me make a product this for myself, the best product I can for myself. And that was kind of the early days, and we gave away so many products for testing as well. That was kind of Just our biggest straight player feedback. That was our biggest thing.
Jamie:Made locally in Canada or, like, overseas? Where in The US?
Zechariah:Yeah. We made them overseas. I had really good connections, especially, like, after my background in the businesses and the ecommerce and the drop shipping businesses. I had a lot of connections out there at Get A Stick made. And that we tested so many different manufacturers as well.
Scott:Wow. Yeah. I was gonna say, like, you know, something like a hockey stick is not something like a you know, it's very, very specific, obviously. And it's not like, you know, there's many places where you could probably turn to and be like, I need to make a carbon fiber stick. Like, you know, the technology that goes into it, the know how, all that other stuff, it just I I I give you so much credit for, like, even I mean, you said you had credit no matter what, but then, like, you had the connections.
Scott:But just even kinda, like, take that on, I mean, just thinking about some of the things I've done in my past and, like, the idea of, like, dealing with manufacturers overseas, understanding the facilities where it's coming from, the materials that are going into it, the quality that you're getting, the cost of, like, shipping, the cost of getting limit small runs made, you know, going through all that stuff. Like, could you just, like, share a little bit about, like, what it was like trying to just, like, take all that taking all that on?
Zechariah:Yeah. You know what? It was honestly, I I think hockey built built me for it. Honestly, I think my hockey career, like, I I think sports and entrepreneurship is almost the exact same. I would say entrepreneurship is a lot harder for sure, but it's very like, it without hockey, I don't know how I would be able to do a lot of the things I'm doing and the stress and the management that I deal with.
Zechariah:It hockey, I owe a lot of success too. But dealing with all of those, it was it was always a learning aspect. Like, as I said earlier, like, I was such I was a horrible student. I was a horrible student. So none of this stuff I learned from school.
Zechariah:Like, I did not pay attention. And when COVID happened, I turned right back to I I read, I think, about a hundred hundred books during COVID. I watched what I call YouTube university. I learned everything. Like, I learned absolutely everything I could about business and psychology and selling stuff, and that was kind of my my journey into it.
Jamie:Sounds a lot like Gary Vee.
Zechariah:Yeah. Yeah.
Scott:Right? So, like, was there was there, like, a a point in time where, like, you know, your passion for, like sorry. Got something in my throat. Like, a specific, like, event or time in your life where, like, that light really start to shine bright? I mean, like you I said, you've always had, like, this entrepreneurial spirit, but then to kind of take it to, like, another level.
Scott:It's one thing to, like, you know, sling sling things out of your backpack at school. It's another thing to read a 100 books during COVID that have to do with, like, psychology and, like, you know, business and all this. Like, what what was it that, like, kind of flipped that into a higher gear for you?
Zechariah:Yeah. That's a really good question. I think it was always some I'm I'm not the person ever that I can sit down and just watch TV. It's like I I I never had that in me. My dad was always he still works.
Zechariah:He's about 60 years old now. He works probably twelve, fifteen hour days still. Wow. And that was kind of what I saw growing up, and I I just I could never do it. And even now, like, even in my house, I don't think I've ever turned on the TV in my bedroom.
Zechariah:Like, I am just I'm nonstop working every single second, and that's kinda been the life that honestly needs to happen for entrepreneurship, to be honest. Like, I I don't think it's possible unless you're willing to be able to work that amount of hours.
Scott:Right. I'm sorry, James. Let me Go ahead, bud. Yeah. I got You were just saying before, and we had another guest on who's done very well for himself also in in in business and, you know, also said something very similar that, like, you know, like, hockey prepared him for so much of, like, his success, like, you know, down the road.
Scott:It wasn't the school. It was, like, you know, it was hockey. Right? Could could you just, like, you know, give us, like, an example or two that comes to mind where it's like you see that parallel, that real that real, like, crossover, like, skill that, like, you know, when I was in the gym pushing myself to do this or when I was on the ice, whatever, is there anything that that that specifically comes to mind when you, like, you think about transferable skills?
Zechariah:You know what? I dealt with I dealt with so much pain in my hockey career, I would say. Honestly. I understand. Being being a being a black hockey player, especially when when I was growing up, it was extremely difficult.
Zechariah:And it created something that I owe a lot of success to honestly is me build having really tough skin and being super resilient dealing with some of these problems. And that was kind of the that was kind of the biggest thing for me. And it was been the consistent work that hockey is. Like, it's it is honestly consistent work. 6AM, my parents dealt with a lot of the pain too that I'm seeing now.
Jamie:Yes. They do.
Zechariah:5AM wake ups. We don't get home till 1AM if the game's far. Like, all these crazy things while I'm sitting in the passenger seat sleeping. Yep. Yep.
Zechariah:It's like, it's all of those crazy things that comes with hockey and, obviously, like, the grind of wanting to go up and level up within hockey as well. Right. Of always being super competitive.
Jamie:It's it's funny. So I so Scott's alluding to Scott, I I believe the gentleman that you're talking about, he said something to the effect of, like and he went to, like, an Ivy League college. Right? And I think he said something to the effect of, like, he learned like 10% from school and like 90% of business from hockey. Right?
Jamie:Was it something like that, Scott?
Scott:Yeah. A 100%.
Jamie:He said hockey just shaped him for, you know, for building a business and becoming successful. So alright. So so you start building prototypes. So Swift starts getting off the ground. When did you know that you're like, okay.
Jamie:Like, we've arrived. Like, I know we're here now. When did that realization kick in?
Zechariah:Man, you know what? It was in the first I would I would say, like, the first six months or so, we went on we were on Dragon's Den. Okay. In the first six months of us launching. But what really what really opened my eyes to knowing that this was a scenario was we were I guess, I was we made a we sold a couple sticks locally.
Zechariah:And I pull up to the local rink, and I saw my stick being used. Oh, yeah. And this was in a couple weeks. And That's
Jamie:pretty cool.
Zechariah:I went on the ice and I played shinny with the guy, and he had no idea that I made the stick that he's using.
Jamie:Oh, that's so funny. And
Zechariah:that was kind of where I'm like, you know what? There's there's really something here. Like, there's there's something. I was just there was that one guy that really opened my eyes because I didn't even know who he was either. I remember selling to him.
Jamie:He bought on your website, or you sold it to him, like, a like, where were you where were where were you selling sticks out at the time?
Zechariah:You know what? As as weird as it sounds, I still had no idea how
Jamie:he was Oh, is that right?
Scott:Oh, okay.
Zechariah:I see. I have no idea how he got a stick.
Scott:Right. That's wild. Right.
Zechariah:But he yeah. He had it. He had it he had it on the ice. And, like, that was kind of that was kind of our thing where even, like, in the early days, we sold so many sticks, like, out of our trunk. Like, going to the rink and, like, we didn't have any money to set up, like, a big booth.
Zechariah:Like, we're going to the rink with a handful of sticks. Sally looked like that. Like, we did everything in the first days. So it was kind of a blur. But those are obvious like, those are super fun days.
Zechariah:Those are one of
Scott:the business Only imagine. As well.
Jamie:Yeah. The the the path you have to enjoy the path. Right? The journey. Yeah.
Jamie:The journey. Exactly. The journey is excite Scott and I say it all the time, like, we're enjoying building this. You You really need to enjoy the journey. You can't just enjoy the end.
Jamie:Right?
Zechariah:Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie:And so tell me, so for our listeners, because we have some families that are just getting into hockey. So how would you like size a player, a youth player? Somebody walked in and is like, listen, what kind of stick is good for my 10 year old since you started at 10? What what would you say? What kind of curve?
Jamie:What kind of lie? What kind of flex? Like, what would what would you what would you what would you start that kid off with?
Zechariah:Yeah. You know what? I would there there's a lot. There's there's so much that goes into a hockey stick. I think with what happens first is parents spend way too much on their first equipment.
Zechariah:And now, like my parents did too, where it's like, I'm growing out of that equipment every four months.
Jamie:Mhmm.
Zechariah:And growing out of that stick, and even the stick may the stick's probably not gonna break when you're that when you're that age, but you're gonna grow out of it in three months anyways. So that was kind of that's kind of where I would say, like, don't spend too much because you're gonna you're gonna grow out of it. Your son may want the nicest, splashiest stick, but it's only you're only gonna have it for two months. That was kind of But my thing is where, like, we're we're we're actually developing, like, a super affordable prod like, affordable hockey stick. Like, one of the most affordable hockey sticks in the world is what we've been working on for the last year or so.
Zechariah:And that's that would be kind of the suggestion that I would lead towards parents. I would say more of, like, a p 92 is a really basic curve. One of the best curves used around where it's, like, used by pros like Matthews, Marner still. Some of the best pros still use that p 92 stuff curve. And that would be the suggested curve, I would say.
Zechariah:And Right. Yeah. Something that's not definitely not
Jamie:too heavy though. Expensive. Okay. Not too expensive too.
Zechariah:Not too expensive too, but, like, not super heavy.
Jamie:Right. So they don't need a $199 stick for an eight to 10 year old.
Zechariah:Not at all. Not at all.
Scott:So let me so since we're talking, well, obviously, about hockey sticks, but, you know, the younger age groups and then kinda transitioning into, like, you know, more expensive sticks at some point. Like, when when do you think the stick actually is gonna make a difference in a player's performance if ever? You know, like, you know what I mean? Like, because, you know, I have this conversation with my son or, like, whatever, and he's so convinced that, like, you know, this dick is he's shooting better because of this or that. And I'm like, dude, I promise you, it doesn't make a difference right now.
Scott:But maybe I'm the crazy one. I don't know. That's why we need to hear from you.
Zechariah:Yeah. I would say there's there's definitely levels to hockey sticks. There's definitely levels to it. But I would say once you're at once you're using the top level sticks, the levels get very slim. Like, once you're at you're paying you're either using, like, a you're using one of us or using one of the 4 or $500 sticks or anything comparable to those.
Zechariah:It's very it's a very slim game.
Jamie:Right.
Zechariah:It's a very slim game when it comes to the stick being made.
Jamie:So the the technology, when you get to the top end sticks, there's not a whole lot you could do more to improve the actual technology, the actual hardware in your hand. Right?
Zechariah:Not too much. There's not too much more. Even if we're looking at some of our our competitors, it's like they're actually have to go back up in weight because they made them too light. Like, that's kind of the level that we're playing at right now where it's like, we you can't make the stick any lighter. Like, we really can't because we're losing that quality.
Zechariah:And we look at one of the worst the worst stick launches ever. I won't I won't say any names, but worst stick launch ever by one of these companies, and they got devoured on one of their green it was green colored stick, but I don't have to say too much more after that.
Jamie:Got it.
Zechariah:And it broke every single comment. It was they were breaking in seconds. They were actually breaking in seconds, and that's because they put the weight all the way down as low as possible, and now they're raising it back up. Like, that's kind of like we we've lost a lot of that weight game, so it's like really trying to find a little bit more balance and different kick points is kinda where we're at.
Scott:Right. So do you think for like but in terms of like a kid's ability, right, like, at what point, like, do like, do you think a kid like, I'm getting a little caught up in my words, but I guess I'm trying to understand, like, is there, like, a definitive, like, point in time or, like, or general point in time where it's like, listen. The the kids should start looking at getting a lighter stick or a more expensive stick or stick that's got maybe a different kick point. Like, what what are some of the things you might look for in a player before you'd recommend moving into something that's, you know, more technology forward?
Zechariah:I'd say I would say it's such a preference thing. Like, honestly. And then, like, if we're looking at, like, oh, Vetchkin or some of these guys or Crosby is probably the best example. Like, he's using a stick that he used in his early days. Like, it's still a heavier stick.
Zechariah:It's like the Reebok sticks he's still using just wrapped. And it's really just a preference thing. Like, as soon as you find that stick, you you stick with it.
Scott:Right.
Zechariah:And I I'm not a good example of that. When I was playing, I was changing sticks every single day. But, like, the best players, like, they they stick with a stick for a long time. Even all the pro players and the NHL players, it's just a swap of the graphics. That's all it is.
Jamie:We keep telling people that. Like, these guys might be using sticks that are, like, you know, eight, ten years old. Just they just it's just new graphics on it. It's all it is, you know, because it's it's about marketing. Right?
Jamie:It's all if you see Sydney Crosby, you know, you I don't even know what Sydney Crosby uses, be honest with you. CCM, Bauer. I don't even know what he uses, but they changed the graphics. And I have to tell you, Zechariah, you know, these kids every single year, they're looking for what Bauer and CCM are putting out. And all of this is a change of the graphics, right?
Zechariah:Yep. Yep. Yep.
Jamie:I mean, it's it's alright. So I so I have a question for you. So for because I'm I'm sure this is in it been in our comment section. I know I know it's been in our comment section. Will you please tell the parents that, you know, a kid with a $150 stick can compete just as well and side by side a kid with a $400 hockey stick?
Zechariah:Yeah. You know you know what? The I would say the kid with the $150 stick is going to end up being better because they don't have to they have more money to spend on training.
Scott:There you go.
Zechariah:That's kind of the way we look at it is where they're gonna have double, triple, quadruple amount of money to spend on training. That's kind of like, it doesn't make sense to go spend that $400 to take it off.
Scott:Yeah. So when when when kids are let's just say, like, whether it's a new parent that's just learning about sticks or even, like, you know, kids that have played with plenty of them, like, what like, there's all these different kick points. Like, when I started playing again, like, I I didn't even know about a kick point. I didn't even know because I played men's league now. Right?
Scott:So I didn't a few things I didn't know. One, I didn't know anything about flex. I didn't know anything about kick point. I didn't know anything about, like, I I wanted my skate sharpened, and they said, what hollow? And I said, I don't know what you're talking about.
Scott:So anyway but, like, when when evaluating a stick and, like, the kick points, like, do is there really a big difference between where the kick point is in terms of, like, performance? And then, like, what's up with, like, hybrid kick points? Is that, like, just marketing lingo, or what's what's up with that?
Zechariah:Yeah. There's there's a lot going on when it comes to kick points. Like, I think that I do there is definitely a big difference.
Scott:There is.
Zechariah:Okay. When using a stick when it comes to kick points, there's a lot of mumbo jumbo going around on different kick points, hybrid kick points, things like that. I know a company that's not released yet is coming out with, like, an all kick point stick.
Jamie:Oh, is that even possible?
Zechariah:Who knows nowadays? Who knows?
Jamie:Right? Isn't that kinda counterproductive? I mean, I'm not am I wrong
Zechariah:about Maybe maybe there's AI in the sticks or something crazy.
Scott:My god. A Yeah.
Zechariah:There's yeah. There there's a lot going on. I think the kick points, like, low I'm a low kick point guy.
Scott:Okay.
Zechariah:I I feel a lot of, like, that quick release a lot better. But some of the other players that need a little bit more power, that hybrid kick point's a lot better, that mid kick point's a lot better. And even some of the other six, like the high kick point, no company's really making the high kick point anymore. Like, that used to be popular for a lot more power.
Scott:Interesting. So so what's like technically speaking, like, what what is really the difference, like, with a low kick point versus a hybrid? Like, are we looking at more material in one part of the stick? Is is is that what it is? Like, how how would a manufacturer even, like, create kick point?
Zechariah:Yeah. It's you know what? It's a it's a much more simple process than it seems. So Oh. The stick will go
Jamie:on
Zechariah:It
Jamie:doesn't seem simple at all.
Zechariah:Yeah. You know The stick goes on like a bar with two pressure points at each side, and they will consistently push down on the pressure point on where they want it to bend. Oh. And that's that's mostly it.
Scott:When it's gonna that process.
Jamie:So you're form you're forming the stick essentially?
Zechariah:You're forming the stick a little bit, so it bends in that spot. And what the hybrid kick point does is will technically form supposed to form it in two different spots. So push in two different spots to get it to bend. So when companies are saying they're gonna do an all kick point stick
Jamie:I was just thinking that.
Zechariah:You're just supposed to break the stick, I guess, because I don't know any other way of doing it.
Jamie:I mean, so you're gonna do it in three spots? I mean, is that what it's gonna be? It's gonna be in, like, three spots instead of, like, you're gonna have a high, a medium, and a low all in the same blade?
Zechariah:Yeah. I I have no idea. They'd have to do an eight or 10 spots to have, like, an all kick point stick.
Jamie:Oh, is is that right? Are there that many spots to to to bend the blade in? I didn't realize that.
Zechariah:It could. Like, in the low kick, like, it bends on, like, the whole lower part of the stick, but they have to push multiple times to get it. So I don't I don't really know what an all kick point stick means, but we'll we'll see yeah. When We'll see what happens when it comes out. Most of it's most of it's marketing nowadays.
Zechariah:So Right.
Jamie:Interesting. So so and is is it when this when is is is is it when the stick is being heated up? Is that when you when they when they push on the on the material? Is that what it is?
Zechariah:A mix of things. Yeah. A mix of things. They'll do it when it's heated up. They'll they could they can kind of make the stick a little bit differently with a little bit less carbon fiber where they want it to push to.
Zechariah:Mhmm. But some brands will have some tricks where it's like they'll they'll cheap out on the carbon fiber during the kick point because they know it's gonna break. There's so many little things going on like that in the hockey's hockey industry that nobody's talking about. But
Jamie:Right. Interesting. It's just costing parents a lot of money, though.
Zechariah:Yeah. What about that? Exactly.
Scott:One one of the things that comes up, it would well, not that much, but, like, the lie of a stick. Could you just, like, help our listeners understand, like, what that really means? And and are there even, like, many options? Like, if someone were really to get interested in, like, the lie, like, is that something that you guys offer in terms of, like, you know, diff as a as a choice?
Zechariah:Yeah. I would say lie doesn't matter as much unless you're a pro player. Like, you're you're not you're not gonna feel the lie difference. And as I where we're at right now, it's like it's it's more of a curve difference. Different curves have different lies.
Zechariah:Like, we we do a standard six lie on the p 92 and then, like, a five on the p 28. And that's just that's just basic standard. But lie, it's it's a situation where it's just depending on how your player skates. Like, if you're an upright skater, if you like, your knees bent a lot more, like, that's kind of the big difference. And it shouldn't matter at most stages.
Zechariah:Like, you're you're not you're not gonna feel the difference, to be honest.
Jamie:Interesting. Very interesting. So I'm curious. What do you think? I don't wanna get back into like stick technology and stuff like that, but I'm curious.
Jamie:Are are all are all the sticks made from all the different manufacturers? Are they all made in like the same handful of factories? And how can you deliver a similar product or maybe the exact same product at at a more competitive price than say the big boys without giving away your secrets.
Scott:Yeah. Yeah. For sure.
Jamie:Yeah. I I'll let you do that. To
Zechariah:to like sum up the industry in a whole, there is a total of five factories overseas in China that make about 90% of the companies.
Scott:Got it. So
Zechariah:that's that sums it up. Like, the obviously, a lot of this technology is not necessarily patent either by a lot of these companies. Like, it's very hard to patent it. So even if we're talking about Bauer, Bauer has a patent on their Flylite vapor line where it gets tapered really at the end. That's their patent.
Zechariah:But it's Right. There's very hard to patent those hockey sticks. Very little you could patent on it to just give a little bit more insight where it's like everyone's at that top level, it's very similar. Very, very, very similar.
Jamie:Interesting. Gotcha.
Scott:So another I I wanted to also ask, and, you know, I'm thinking about my son in this in this question. Yeah. And that's like stick height. Now I know a lot of it's preference. I get it.
Scott:But, like, is there, you know, like, kind of like a I don't know, like a general rule of thumb in terms, like, nowadays, like, I remember when I was a kid, like, maybe it was, like, when I'm on my when I'm standing on my feet, like, button comes about to my nose, and then when I'm on my skates, it's like about to my chin, like, that type of thing. Does that does does that, like, stick height, like, trick or whatever you wanna call it still kinda hold true? Or, like, in terms of sizing sticks for people that are, you know, aren't sure.
Zechariah:Yeah. I would I would say it definitely holds true. Clint, would say between standing or on skates on your tippy toes, like, nose to chin roughly, but it's it all comes down to a preference thing I've noticed. Like, some players, especially the amount of hockey sticks we've sold at this point, people are very weird and particular is what they want.
Jamie:Yeah. Is that right?
Zechariah:Yeah. Even if you're a six three player, like, you're you're still cutting the stick. You're cutting our tallest stick with no extensions. Like, there's a lot of weird things because people wanna stick a certain way. They need it to feel a certain way.
Zechariah:Even if you're a beer league player, you'd still like, they're still really picky.
Scott:Yeah. And you just brought up extensions because that was also something, like, I thought for a little while as Otto was, you know, with the the youth sticks, like, you don't really have extensions for that. But, like, when they start to get a little bit older, using an extension versus, like, you know, either to make a an uncut stick longer or to, like, re lengthen a cut stick. Like, is that is that, like, a reasonable strategy for parents to, like, deploy, like, when going through sticks if, like, the rest of it's in good shape?
Zechariah:Yeah. It's definitely a scenario. It's definitely a cool scenario. Yeah. I think the extensions on the sticks, if your player's old enough to feel a difference in flex the stick, the extensions are a little you're playing in a different ballgame because you are changing the stick a lot.
Zechariah:Yeah. You're changing the stick a lot with an extension. It's gonna become way way flexier, way whippier. But, yeah, it changes this the whole it changes the feel of the stick, but I think at some case scenarios, like, players like extensions. A lot of players we sell a lot of extensions as well.
Scott:Interesting.
Zechariah:And Oh, okay. And some players will want especially nowadays, like, I remember there's been a big change in the last, like, five years or so where everyone's trying to get whippier sticks. Like, they want less and less flex. So top players will add the extension, and they'll get a 70 flex stick, add the extension. So now it's they have a 50 flex senior.
Zechariah:And Phil Kessel is one of the best examples where or even yeah. Phil Kessel is probably the best example where he uses a 70 flex, and he's he's a big dude. Matthews uses an 82 flex. He's still a big dude. Ovechkin, they they use flexes like that, and they're really big dude.
Scott:Right. So
Zechariah:Interesting. They when you don't have the capability of getting a pro custom stick, you add the extension so you can make it really looking sick. Interesting.
Jamie:You see a trend with kind of going does it kind of the pendulum bounce back and forth in different years? Like, people want more flex, then they want less flex, then they go back to more flex. Does it kind of just keep bouncing back and forth every couple years? Is that kind of how the industry works?
Zechariah:Yeah. It's whatever's trending. Like, I think I think this low flex trend will stay there for a while because people are getting lazier. Like, honestly, what the low flex does, it's real it's it's a lazy thing because people are able to whip pucks off their stick while shooting very fast.
Jamie:Without, like, getting down and using your body.
Zechariah:With without a lot of effort. Like, players aren't taking as much one timers or slap shots anymore. Like, they're just making quick snap shots and Right. Lower lower the flex the better for
Jamie:those. Interesting.
Scott:Very interesting. Now here's something. And I and I I should I should know this, but I don't. So I'm just gonna call that out. But are you is Swift making goalie sticks?
Jamie:Oh, yeah. Yeah. The website. I I checked them out today. Yeah.
Scott:So
Zechariah:We we had, you know, we had a cool running with the goalie sticks too where we actually launched we pretty much launched with the goalie stick really early on. And that goalie stick, we sold about 200 in a day. We had the craziest demand for a goalie stick. Every single goalie stick broke within twenty four hours. No.
Jamie:We just
Zechariah:launched it. Every single one of ours.
Scott:Oh, man.
Zechariah:Honestly, we were scarred for two years to launch another one. Like, why we didn't I didn't touch another goalie stick. Like, we developed a better goalie stick for two years. And we just launched that goalie stick recently, and there hasn't been one complaint.
Jamie:You fixed it, whatever it was at the time.
Scott:Where was it breaking? Everything. Where where was it break? Everywhere. Like, stopping shots?
Zechariah:Everywhere. Yeah. Stopping shots. Getting hit by pucks
Jamie:and and just like Woah.
Zechariah:Everything. Everything. And what I noticed, it took us honestly, it was it was a financial thing because I'm not a goalie. Like, I I couldn't go out there and test a stick like how we did with the player sticks. Yeah.
Zechariah:Right. That was kinda like, it took us so much more development, so much more testing actually to make that goalie stick. And honestly, like, I was I say we have one of the best goalie sticks in the world right now. And I can definitely stand by that statement.
Jamie:So it's funny that the quest the question I was gonna ask is, what was your biggest mistake that if you had to go back and redo with Swift, what would you do over? Is it the goalie stick, or is it something else?
Zechariah:The goalie stick was such a bad mistake
Scott:as far as it could be.
Zechariah:Because what we did too, like, we we said we're gonna we gave all those customers a new stick once our new one came out two years later, if they were still playing. We let them keep the stick too, and we refunded them. So we were down like hundreds of thousands of dollars. But
Jamie:you did the right thing by the customer, which is
Zechariah:stand up. Did the right thing. Stand up. Yeah. Did.
Zechariah:Like, we really wanted to we wanna grow a longevity brand. Like, that was the most And important I knew if I screwed customers in the early days, they would have not stuck with us later on. Smart.
Scott:And
Zechariah:we we we took we took we we we've lost so many things, like, the early days, like, trying to grow a brand. And I think growing a brand is one of the hardest things to do because it's it costs so much. And my background before was like drop shipping ecommerce where we just run ads and it people will buy it without a brand. And that shift to a brand, it's very expensive. Very, very, very expensive, I've noticed, because you have to do whatever it takes to make the customer happy.
Jamie:Yeah. Right. That's not easy. Yeah.
Zechariah:Yeah.
Jamie:That's definitely not easy. So I'm curious. What would you say is the biggest waste of money that that youth hockey parents go out and spend money on?
Scott:Oof.
Jamie:There's a lot of them. That's it's like
Zechariah:So there's there's a way to
Jamie:Right? I know. It's
Zechariah:I would say I would say a a lot of a lot of these programs that they put their put their child in, especially in our early days, is not smart.
Scott:Mhmm.
Zechariah:I would say, like, some of these prep schools may keep kids out of trouble for a while, but they're super, super, super expensive, I would say. As to this, there's better places for your kid to play. And dealing with a lot of agents over my career, like, you see a lot of these kids, they do better success success out of regular triple a than an 80,090 thousand dollar prep school. That's kind of the difference, I would say. And, you know, really making sure you're make you're making calculated purchases and equipment.
Zechariah:Right. Like, that is the most important thing. You have to make really calculated purchases on equipment where you're not paying $500 on a stick. Like, honestly, especially if your kid's young, it's it's the dumbest thing you can do is pay that sort of money on a stick.
Jamie:Yeah. Especially when they can't even trigger the flex or any of that.
Zechariah:Like, it doesn't even matter what they're using. Can't use the stick at all. Cannot they're not gonna get the benefit out of using the stick properly. And that was kind of our thing is where your kid will get he's gonna get all the benefits out of using the stick properly with us, but not paying that 4 or $500 price tag. And that's why we've been working so hard to develop that other product that's coming out soon where it's like a drastically more affordable hockey stick.
Jamie:Like, one of most affordable hockey for the younger end kid, like five, six, Everyone. Oh. Oh, okay.
Zechariah:Yeah. This is like a
Jamie:a more reasonable version of what you already kinda have.
Zechariah:Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. We're we're trying to make a stick under a $100. Like, a really good stick under a $100 still.
Zechariah:And really, like, our mission is simple. Like, we really wanna grow the game. Yeah. Like, we we we still have to have a business that's surviving, but growing the game is the most important thing.
Scott:Yeah. So where in in terms of, like, your reach now and, like, as swift as, like, you know, the brand is growing and you've obviously put in a ton of effort and, like, seeing great success and congratulations on all of the honestly.
Jamie:Kidding. It's awesome.
Scott:But in terms of, like, where where you're seeing, you know, the most reach or, like, you know, Canada, United States, like, you know, seeing sticks overseas as well. Like, like, how far is are you getting like, how far and away from home are you getting the sticks?
Zechariah:We have shipped to almost every single country that plays hockey, I would say. Every single country that plays hockey, we have shipped a hockey stick to. And honestly, those people I've I love those people that buy from us that are in Australia and all over the place because they're paying double the shipping cost to get a product there.
Scott:Sure.
Zechariah:So that's like a true love for the brand. Like, that's really what it is there. And it means so much to me at that as well. But, like, after being seen on like, we've been seen on, I would say, almost every major publication at this point, especially in Canada, almost every major publication. And it's our story that resonates so deeply with people that we're able to be able to ship all over the place and people to love our product.
Zechariah:Because as we talked about, like, we make we we make we make the best hockey stick in the world. And, obviously, I'm gonna say that too. We make the best hockey stick in the world. But it's the branding, as we kinda talked about a little bit, it's a branding that means everything.
Jamie:Right.
Zechariah:Like, that's really what stands for. Like, the kids are choosing like, we don't have we don't have a big athlete with us. We don't have the miners, the McDavid's signing with our company, but kids are choosing us because of our story, because of our mission, and because what we do on social media.
Scott:Mhmm. So
Jamie:I'm curious. Hold on, Scott. Have to ask I don't wanna lose it. And it's a quick one. So you'll be obviously what's the country that you're like, we have to somebody's like, hey.
Jamie:We have to ship a stick here. And you're like, wait. Where are we shipping a stick? Where's the one where you're like, where? Where are we shipping?
Scott:Yeah. Yeah. That's good.
Zechariah:Because we
Jamie:have a similar story, so I'm curious. You're like, wait. Where? We're shipping it where?
Zechariah:Man, you know what? I thought we've shipped to Hong Kong and China many times. Like, that was a really weird spot. Right. And, like, we've shipped we've shipped everywhere, but those were the weirdest spots to me because Mhmm.
Zechariah:That's where the hockey sticks are coming from.
Scott:Right.
Jamie:That's a very good point, actually. He just could have walked in a factory and be like, hey. Listen.
Zechariah:They're they're coming down to us, then we're shipping
Scott:them right
Zechariah:back to them. And I'm I'm confused on, like, me I I feel like hockey sticks should be more affordable there. That's just my Right.
Scott:Feel like they should be more affordable.
Zechariah:Yeah. They're not they're not going anywhere.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah. It's funny. We we actually have a have had a similar, you know, situation with our podcast. So we're in, like, 93 countries now.
Zechariah:And Yeah.
Jamie:Not gonna lie. Like, Hong Kong was one where, like, would they play hockey? Where? Where where where? Like, Vietnam, China, same general idea.
Jamie:So that's that's why I asked that question.
Zechariah:Yeah. You know what? We we ship to Africa a lot of the times too. Like, we've shipped all over the place where hockey is accessible, honestly, everywhere. And we get a lot more we get very similar percentages.
Zechariah:Like, our percentage of sales breakdown is we ship about 70% US sales, to be honest.
Jamie:Mhmm.
Zechariah:We're about 20% Canadian, and then the rest 10% rest of the world.
Scott:Wow. Which
Zechariah:is absolutely insane. Where Canada and the rest of the world are very similar, and we're a Canadian company. Right?
Jamie:You know, that's actually very funny because our podcast breakdown is 70% US, 25% Canada, and then the rest is everywhere else. Yeah. That's funny. Yeah. Interesting.
Scott:So I wanted to ask, so the name of the company, what was the origin of the name?
Zechariah:You know, I I always I need to come up with a better better story for this. Like, I really need
Scott:to call it a better story.
Zechariah:Just make
Scott:one up.
Zechariah:But I know. I've been thinking of one. It's not coming, but we I put a bunch of friends in a group chat in the early days, and I, like, I had this idea of wanting to start this company. And I put so many friends in this group chat. I'm like, what is the best name for this company?
Zechariah:It was like, I really wanna do this. I but the naming convention was obviously the hardest, especially my background, ecommerce, drop shipping. I was like, if you search the name, you have to be able to find it. And Swift was something that one of my friends said, but it stuck really heavily with our story or our mission. Stuck super heavily.
Jamie:Interesting. So he just came out of the blue? Wasn't like a something?
Zechariah:Yeah. You know, it came out of the blue. Like, there was nothing cool to it. Like, I got hundreds of feet like, hundreds of names. And Swift was a name where I saw it, and I was like, you know, it makes sense.
Zechariah:And after really thinking about it, it was one of the worst names to pick because we're going up against Taylor Swift. Like, on all searching conventions, like, if that's who we're going up against. Interesting. But it it resonates a lot with the company. Like, that's how we wanna move as a company even internally with our staff.
Zechariah:Like, we move swift. Like, we move fast. Like, we do everything in that speed. That's why it stand stood for us a lot more. So
Jamie:Okay.
Scott:That's awesome.
Jamie:So where do you see the company going? What's your goal? Moving or like, at the end of the rainbow, what would be like the perfect situation for you if it played out?
Zechariah:Yeah. You know, we're we're gonna win. Like, that that's that's the most my competitive side is we're we're gonna win. We're gonna beat the competitors pretty bad and change hockey for good. And I think with us truly beating the competitors, we have changed hockey.
Zechariah:As soon as we beat the competitors and we're affordable hockey stick, we've changed hockey. We've made hockey more accessible, and we've grown the game seven, ten x right there. And on top of that, like, we're seeing where I see the company going is we're we're we've signed our first pro athlete, landed halfway. On the male side, we've signed many female professional athletes as well. So we're growing into that aspect to really cause any damage pretty soon on that pro side.
Zechariah:But I really like, I posted something on LinkedIn, my favorite platform for some reason. It's a business platform nowadays. Yeah.
Jamie:Yeah. It's
Zechariah:true. I got over 300 comments saying, try it in this sport. Try it in this sport. And I didn't really understand that the issue was parallel in almost every single sport where equipment Oh, with the equipment. Much money.
Zechariah:Way too much money. And my nephew plays baseball, and my my my mom bought him a bat, and it was $450 for a
Scott:baseball bat.
Zechariah:And I was I was like, what what in the world is going on? And that's kinda where I see the company going is being kind of that Nike for just really good quality gear that just happens to be affordable.
Jamie:So are you thinking of expanding into like lacrosse sticks and baseball bats? And Yeah. I mean, you know, you are. Right?
Zechariah:Yeah. Very soon. Very soon. That's where I see the company growing. And obviously that's we're going up against everybody at that point.
Zechariah:Every weekend, we have no friends, but
Jamie:That's okay. It's where
Zechariah:yeah. No. I love it. That's where I see the company going and where how we're gonna be able to win. And ultimately, that's how Nike was able to catch some of these other brands because they were so wide in the market where they're able to grow a global brand, where Bauer, CCM, Warrior, they have about a hundred years on us.
Zechariah:They have a hundred years of growth on us. So it's trying to make that gap a lot smaller by closing it.
Scott:Yeah. And what and and besides sticks within the sport of hockey specifically, is there any other like, are you thinking about other equipment or just sticking you know, keeping it with sticks? I was about to say stick it with sticks.
Zechariah:Yeah. You know what? I'd I don't like anything else within hockey for many reasons.
Scott:Okay.
Zechariah:Like, I I really love the sticks. I know it's such a weird thing to say, but the skates are something I've always wanted to do because that's a really expensive good. Like, that's the most expensive thing to buy. Oh, yeah. But it's it's very difficult to make a good skate.
Zechariah:Very, very difficult. We have tried it before. Even on the protective side, my my heart doesn't really like it too much. Like, even making a helmet or something like that, I don't wanna be liable for some kid having a concussion, especially in my helmet. So that soft side of me, I don't really wanna do too much protective.
Zechariah:But I think the carbon fiber goods for us when it comes to hockey sticks, when it comes to lacrosse, when it comes to ring hat, when it comes to pickleball paddles, it really aligns well with our brand.
Scott:That makes sense. Right.
Zechariah:But, yeah, I think the protective the skates are something always gonna be on the top of my mind, but it's Maybe one day. Where we wanna master. Yeah. We wanna master the sticks for sure.
Jamie:Right. Yeah. Okay. And where can everybody find you, Zechariah?
Scott:Yeah. Tell everyone where Yeah. Exactly.
Zechariah:Swift Swift talking on all platforms. You can find Swift talking on all platforms.
Scott:Okay. That's amazing, man. Gotcha. Well, listen. We we've kept you for an hour, and I gotta say this has been super enlightening just learning more about
Jamie:Very cool.
Scott:Pics, like the industry, and honestly, just learning more about your brand. I I I hope all of our listeners check you out. I mean, it's just, like I said, a great story. Your story is amazing and Yeah. The entrepreneurial spirit and, like, hats off to you.
Scott:I mean, I've I've owned and operated businesses before and, like, it's just it's it's not easy. It's not for the faint heart and just really
Jamie:That's true.
Scott:Wishing you, like, all the success because what you're doing is great.
Zechariah:I appreciate that. Thanks, man.
Scott:Yeah. A 100%, man.
Jamie:Thanks so much for coming out with us, man.
Scott:Appreciate your
Jamie:time, man.
Scott:Appreciate it. Yeah. No.
Zechariah:It was great. It was nice talking to you guys.
Scott:Alright. Thanks so much, man.
Zechariah:Pleasure. Alright.
Scott:Alright. Alright, everybody. Welcome back from a tremendous interview with Zechariah Thomas.
Jamie:Cool, man. So cool to hear, like, about the the stick technology. That was eye opening.
Scott:Yeah. You know, it's it's interesting. Like, I even yes. A 100%. But then,
Jamie:like Yeah.
Scott:As he was, like, sharing with us and, like, learning about it, it, like, it almost, like, wasn't surprising either to hear some of that, like, that there's only, like, five factories that would be primarily coming from, that, like, you know, flex is not really something that's, like, like, scientific necessarily. You know, it's what do say? It was, like, simpler than, like, what you might think.
Jamie:Yes. The kick point stuff was pretty cool, how they developed the kick point.
Scott:Yeah. No. For sure. That part
Jamie:That was kinda cool.
Scott:Definitely. I I'm just I was trying to picture in my mind, like, the factory where you have these sticks and God knows how I mean, I probably could just YouTube it. Right? But like, like, are they like, do you do you could you imagine, like, are they doing like one they're not doing one stick at a time. There must be like a whole bunch of sticks getting like pushed and depressed.
Scott:Right?
Jamie:You know, my guess is probably no because if they're doing multiple, the ones on top are getting like, the ones on the bottom and the ones on the top are not getting the same amount of pressure. No?
Scott:But they're probably a sync it's probably like a flat, like, a flat layer that just goes out low.
Jamie:Oh, that just does oh, yes.
Scott:You know what I mean?
Jamie:Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. That I could see.
Jamie:Yes.
Scott:I don't know. I kinda wanna check out, like, hockey stick factory.
Jamie:Listen. I mean Let's go to China.
Scott:So I I think Let's go let's go let's go record a pod outside of the hockey stick factory.
Jamie:I I have already been To China? Lived that world. Is Oh, yeah. Know, it's fun it's funny. He mentioned he mentioned, like, he sold, like, teddy bears.
Jamie:So I don't know if you remember when I got out of high when I got out of college. I was gonna say high school. That's not true. When I got out college. I got out teddy bears.
Jamie:I did. I my godfather got me hooked up with two friends of his, Alec and Stu. And they own or they were partners in a plush toy company with Yeah. With two other guys. This guy Danny, who was the Chinese gentleman who ran the factories.
Jamie:And this guy Bob, who I wonder if kinda wonder if he's still alive. Bob ran like the the carnival line. So so Bob made really, really cheap stuff. Yeah. I mean, really cheap stuff and sold to like the boardwalks.
Scott:Right.
Jamie:And like Circus Circus in like Vegas for like, you know so so that they had the the carnival line, is a really cheap stuff. And then and then Alec and Stew had like the retail line.
Scott:Right?
Jamie:So like they had like I wanna say like JCPenney was a big was a big customer of theirs at the time. And then I I went in and I started doing outside sales. So I started traveling all around for this plush toy company, and it would be like seasonal. So it'd be like Valentine's Day, Easter. I don't know.
Jamie:Like, see, it was it's seasonal, like fall lines and summer lines and spring lines and winter lines. Right? So it was like, you know, so we had all these different lines depending on like, you know, where you were on the calendar. And we manufactured everything overseas. And we shipped out of Shanghai.
Jamie:And I would go over to I would it's funny he mentioned Hong Kong. I would go over to Hong Kong and I would stay in the Hyatt on Victoria Harbor there.
Scott:Downtown?
Jamie:Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's downtown. Yes.
Jamie:Oh, yeah. Yeah. Downtown. Yes. Definitely downtown.
Jamie:Hong Kong is not a big area, so there's not a whole lot of non downtowns. But, yes, I was I was at the Hyatt on Victoria Harbor, you know, which is a beautiful, beautiful hotel around the water. And across from you is Kowloon, Mainland China. So I would take a I had I had two options. I could I could lug my and I I I traveled with, like, big bags of samples, like, huge bags of samples.
Scott:With, like, a bamboo stick
Jamie:over your shoulders? I'm kidding. I'm not joking. I I traveled with massive, massive duffel bags of samples. We would jam our samples into these two black it looked like I was carrying dead bodies.
Scott:I'm imagining you, like, on a rig shot with Bro, a
Jamie:think you I'm kidding. Like, I I would travel with these I would travel dude, I traveled all around The United States. I've been to Winnipeg, Canada for that company. I was I I That's
Scott:not in The United States, though.
Jamie:No. No. No. I'm saying I've been all over The United States, and I'm saying we have a lot of Canadian listeners. I've been to Winnipeg.
Jamie:Oh. I've been to I've I've been all over the from. Is he? Yeah. Winnipeg's an interesting city.
Jamie:You know? A lot of strip clubs from what I remember.
Scott:You got Bob Bing on your mind.
Jamie:No. I just when I when when you're in when you're taking a taxi home or to to your hotel from the airport, you know, or a car service
Scott:like Or you have a duffle for teddy bears.
Jamie:And they see that you're single, traveling by yourself, that's what they ask you. They're like, Oh, really? Oh my God. Yeah. You know, so I've traveled all over The US.
Jamie:Like I I've traveled a bunch of places in Canada, and I've traveled overseas. So I I would I would go stay in Hong Kong. Again, I would carry I would have these massive these massive duffel bags, and I could have jumped on the ferry from Downtown Hong Kong over to Kowloon with these massive, massive duffel bags, and I didn't wanna do it. So I remember the dude that picked me up from the airport, the first time I flew into Hong Kong. So I remember I flew from JFK to Paris, Paris to Hong Kong.
Jamie:That's a fucking flight. Jesus Christ. Talk about like far and long. But I flew on Cathay Pacific. Have you ever flown Cathay Pacific?
Jamie:No. Lovely airline. Really, really yeah. Like really great great airline if you're flying over to the Far East. So I land in Hong Kong, and I'm like, exhausted.
Jamie:I'm like, you know, jet lag doesn't even begin to describe it. You know, I'm traveling since like, I think I think my flight took off at like 11PM from JFK. I was in I think I was in Paris at like, I don't know, five in the morning ish, whenever it was, and then on over to Hong Kong. But so I land, and the dude picks me up. He worked for the hotel.
Jamie:He worked for the Hyatt and Victoria Harbor, and he was a Canadian dude. He's a Canadian Like
Scott:an expat type of thing.
Jamie:A Canadian dude that moved to Hong Kong, married girl from Hong Kong, and never left. Right? So I I remember I hired him for the entire so I hired him the entire time I was there. I'm like, dude, I'm like, can you drive me around? Like, he he drove me to my appointments in Kowloon so I didn't have to jump on the ferry.
Jamie:You know? Yeah.
Scott:And I But that was just by chance that you got, like, a Canadian or,
Jamie:like, a North American.
Scott:A 100%. Totally by chance.
Jamie:A 100%. The guy spoke yeah. He was Canadian. Like, you know, and and he would take me around. He's like, you know, when we had he showed me around the entire island.
Jamie:The guy was great. He literally was with me the entire time I was there. He would take me to all he's like he showed me around the entire island. We went to the other side of the island on Hong Kong. There's like a little fishing village.
Jamie:We went to the top of the mountain there, and and and he translated for me. You know, we'd be in like the we we be over in Kowloon at like in like living like almost like a bizarre type place. Yeah. And he's like and I'd see some because I was I was trying to pick up like tchotchkes and stuff for for people at home. Right?
Jamie:Like Yeah. You My know, first time in Hong Kong, I had to bring something home for people. So he's like, I'd be like, Look at something. He's like, What do you want to pay for it? So I'd tell him I don't want to pay for it, and he would haggle for me, you know?
Jamie:Right? But but yeah. So so we manufactured over there, and I met all the buyers over there. I would meet all the buyers in Kowloon. So, like, Russell Stover, Kmart, Safeway Yeah.
Jamie:Stop and Shop, dude, you name it. They were all Walmart. They were all over there. Yeah.
Zechariah:I'm sure.
Jamie:I mean, it's big lots. I mean, like, we had some I opened up some sick accounts for that company, you know? So I have lived that lifestyle, what he's what he's doing right now, manufacturing overseas. That is not easy.
Scott:No. No. Especially and and especially nowadays.
Jamie:That is a very, very difficult A
Scott:whole another animal.
Jamie:I remember that, you know, I remember Alec, the son that I worked for, it was even me and his dad, but the, you know, kind of had the retail line for that company. And I remember like when we had samples made, I mean, he would go back and forth at the factory over email and dude, shit would always come over just not looking way it's Yeah. Supposed to mean, I mean, the amount the amount of like back and forth you need to do to get something right is awful. And I'm sure his business is the exact same.
Scott:Yeah. I did a little bit of I dealt a little bit with, like, overseas, like, manufacturing. I never went over there, but, like, stateside, just working in like, when I worked in purchasing for a company that, you know, sold a lot of disposables to cafes and coffee shops and looking at, like, custom cups and, you know, all these other things that are, you know, like, coffee sleeves and all this other stuff. And, you know, like, just like like you said, like, the back and forth, like the sending over the samples and then like, you know, the ninja samples, but then like it's not necessarily what you might get, you know, like you need to have someone on the ground like or these
Zechariah:are trust.
Jamie:100% you do. Yes.
Scott:Yeah. With wings pretty easily and like you gotta fill a container or if you're doing like less, you know, less than truckload and all these things. But yeah.
Jamie:Absolutely. Not an easy lifestyle to that's not I mean, he's doing the old man's work, man. That's not easy what he's doing.
Scott:Yeah. But it's gotta it's gotta be super interesting. Know, like and again, it's like I'm
Jamie:It's definitely interesting.
Scott:Still I I don't know that I could look at a hockey stick and be like, yeah. I'm gonna take that on. Like, that that's like, you gotta have some balls. No? Oh.
Scott:I He he he said he had contacts. Right? But, like, still, I'm just saying, like
Jamie:Listen. I think that he was he was familiar with the factories over there. Right? I I it sounded like he was from his earlier days on the on the early businesses that he had. And it was something he was obviously passionate about, and he obviously took it on.
Jamie:And listen, they make a nice product. I've never seen one up close. I'm hoping he's gonna send us, you know.
Scott:I'm gonna one from Beer League, dude.
Jamie:You know? You should, by the way. You definitely should.
Scott:No. A 100% I will. But, like, but think about that though. Right? Like, okay.
Scott:It's I I can I can seriously wrap my head around, like, having connections overseas, understanding, like, the the manufacturing facilities, like Yeah? Getting know, going there, seeing it. But then, like, once you once you're able to, like, put together an order to actually have one of these manufacturers, like, run a line for you.
Jamie:Yeah. Right?
Scott:Yeah. It's it's it's it's not it's not a little bit of hockey stick. Right? No. It's it's a lot of bit of hockey stick.
Jamie:Yeah. It's probably a thousand pieces or it's gets I'm sure
Scott:it's a lot. Whatever the the MOK Whatever the number is. Right?
Jamie:Yeah.
Scott:But then now you have inventory. Right? So, like, where where
Jamie:does Yeah. It No. That's true.
Scott:And then you gotta move the inventory. It's like that that part is like the daunting part. Like, I can totally see how you can end up with, like, a container at the port with your hockey sticks in it. But now now you gotta penetrate the market and try to, you know, clearly from, like, a cost perspective, I I see I see that angle because they are so fucking expensive. But still, like like you said, he was, like, slinging them out of the back of his, like
Zechariah:Isn't that crazy? They were
Jamie:just walking into rinks with, like, sticks under their under their arm.
Scott:But can you imagine, like, what it must felt like when he got, like, all the complaints that, like, every goalie stick broke in, like, multiple places?
Jamie:Just gonna say that. That goalie stick story he had was nuts.
Scott:I would I would be like, oh. What did he say
Jamie:two did he say 200 of them? Is that what he said, or are they more than that? I don't I don't remember the number. I don't
Scott:remember the exact number.
Jamie:Yeah. I don't remember the number, but it was a it was the crazy part about it was is every single one of them broke. That's wild to me. You know?
Scott:Yeah. Right. That's Within twenty four hours. Can you imagine getting that news? Like, I just threw up in my mouth.
Jamie:Their customer service people were probably on, like, suicide watch, dude. I mean, can you imagine surprised
Scott:if he was customer service.
Jamie:He might have been. He might have been at the time, but like, can you imagine the damage control? I mean, that is listen, you know, like he was mentioning early on, you know, he said, you know, it was hard being a black hockey player where he was playing. I mean, clearly he's gone through a lot of adversity, and he said that hockey kind of gave him tough skin to do this kind of stuff. So when you get knocked down in business, you know, he's used to getting back up.
Jamie:And clearly when the goalie stick story happened and that went bad, you know, you deal with it and you move on. You know, if you have a vision, you keep pushing toward the vision. You know? So I give him a ton of credit, man.
Scott:Oh, I get a ton of credit. Yeah. Yeah. It's not easy. Uncoverished story.
Scott:Not for the faint of heart.
Jamie:Super cool story. Yeah. You know? He mentioned Dragon Den. Is Dragon Den is that our shark tank?
Scott:It must be. What I you know, let's look that up.
Jamie:Gotta be. Right? I'm assume mean, I meant to stop him and ask him what that was. I'm assuming it's our shark tank. Right?
Jamie:Gotta be. Or something Yeah.
Scott:So Dragon's Den is a it's a British reality television business program
Jamie:That's right.
Scott:By a name. Shark Tank. Yeah. And based upon the original Japanese series, the show allows several entrepreneurs an opportunity to present their varying business ideas to a panel of five wealthy investors.
Jamie:Shark Tank.
Scott:Yeah. Sounds like Shark Tank.
Jamie:Yeah. Got it. That's what I thought. I thought that's what that was. I think I again, I didn't wanna interrupt him.
Jamie:But listen, man. Good for him. You know? It's again, if you look on if you guys you guys were listening to this, go to Swift hockey. They have some very cool stuff, I must say.
Jamie:Their sticks are very nice looking. Swifthockey.com. Really good looking stuff. Yeah. Oh, I meant to ask him about the Spectre.
Scott:That's one
Jamie:of the sticks I meant to ask
Scott:him about. You messed up.
Jamie:Shit. Well, I I could've gotten another one. Shit. I could've gone another hour and change with him easily, man.
Scott:Oh, shit.
Jamie:But, yeah, man. Good for him that that he's doing. Shit. You know? Are you looking at the website now?
Scott:Yeah, man. I'm shopping.
Jamie:They have good stuff. Nice. Meanwhile, speaking are the is is the Vegas game on right now, by the way?
Scott:Oh, yeah. We should probably wrap this up.
Jamie:I mean, you know, I mean, I'm assuming it's on right now. Oh. Well, Did mean did you watch game three, by the way? What if not?
Scott:Dude, I was literally, I I I we didn't take a picture, but I was in bed with Orly and Otto. The three of us were in bed together Right. Watching the game, and we were, like, the three I we were, like, jumping, like, when when Carolina, like, scored three goals.
Jamie:Did you watch oh, so you did you guys watch the double o t?
Scott:So no. So I watched we watched all of the first overtime. And then Otto was like he he was like falling asleep. He was like, I gotta go to bed. I'm like, no.
Scott:The the game is is not a deciding game. So, like, you know, do it. And then I I I actually I fell asleep watching it. I'm the looking
Jamie:score right now.
Scott:Don't tell me.
Jamie:I'm not going to. Bussie's a net, by the way. Oh, he is. Yes, he is.
Scott:That's I that's what I would have done too. Yes.
Jamie:I dude, how could you not?
Scott:I you know? Yeah. Listen. I hear you.
Jamie:And I don't wanna say anything, but
Scott:It looks like it's working.
Jamie:You said it. I didn't. You know?
Zechariah:It looks like it's working.
Jamie:I don't wanna jinx anything, but this baby might be going seven games. Just saying.
Scott:Dude, can you I mean, the the thing that the thing that I guess has me we'll see how this game turns out, and I I do wanna go upstairs and turn it on. But Yes. Like, I I will say that the Vegas has made despite the fact that Carolina has come back, it it it Vegas has demonstrated that they can dominate the game, I think Yes. More than Yes. Carolina has.
Scott:And, like, if you go back to, like, the last game, like, there were two goals that were called back before the score even got started. Right?
Jamie:Yes. Yes.
Scott:True. True. So, I I mean, I don't know. I I just True. I I I still think I'd be surprised if Carolina ended up winning the series based on what I've seen so far.
Jamie:Agreed.
Scott:Agreed. If I'm Carolina, I'm also saying to myself, like, we can do this. Like, we can turn this around. Like
Jamie:What's crazy is that you literally might have it beat two two after this this after tonight, and and the home team would have lost all four games.
Scott:Yeah. That's pretty wild.
Jamie:Can you imagine when was the last time that happened, by the way? Oh, I When was the time the home team could not win a game? You know? Can you imagine that?
Scott:Listen. I'm still looking for sticks on Swift.
Jamie:Are you? And, man, Mitch Marner Jesus Christ, man.
Scott:Oh my god. You know, I will say this. Like, I don't know. I'm I'm, like, really happy for that dude. Natural hat
Jamie:trick.
Scott:I do. And
Jamie:he coulda had four. He the breakaway. He missed. Yeah.
Scott:You know what? Yeah. I I was listening to Chiclets, and I don't know if this is true because I just I I think I heard this correctly, but that he didn't even know that they had switched goalies.
Jamie:Oh, he I heard that.
Scott:And if I if I understood what they were saying correctly, it might have been a situation where when he was when he was I mean, I can't believe he wouldn't have noticed before he started his breakaway.
Jamie:Mean, one's a lefty and one's a righty. I mean, right? He's he mentioned that it was
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:Which is nuts. Right?
Scott:Gray, cray, as the kids say.
Jamie:Yes. Is, which is pretty wild.
Scott:Anyway. Yes. Anything else you want to touch on or you wanna wrap this bad boy up?
Jamie:No. We can wrap this one up. We can see you very next time. I hope everybody enjoyed our interview with Zechariah Thomas from Swift. Stay tuned for the next couple episodes from Crazy Hockey Dads.
Jamie:We have some really cool interviews coming up. Some really Scott and I have a really cool interview tomorrow night that we have that we've been talking about for maybe a little less than a year now?
Scott:We've only been doing this for like a year or so.
Jamie:Yeah. But that's what I'm saying. I think we've talked to them like three months into this, you know? Yeah. So that's tomorrow night.
Jamie:So stay tuned.
Scott:Part of that convo.
Jamie:We had some yeah. I am too, by the way. That's gonna be a lot of fun. So we have some really cool things coming for you guys. Please share the show, subscribe, tell your friends about it.
Jamie:We're trying to become the number one youth hockey podcast in the space. We're getting there very quickly, and it's all thanks to you guys. So thank you so much for supporting us and being on this journey with us. We hope it's helping. So, yeah, man.
Scott:70. In the books. In the books. In the books.
Jamie:Right, buddy. Enjoy your night. You so much to everybody again for listening and putting up with us, and we'll see you at seventy one.
Scott:Seventy one. Thank you one. Thank you all. Later.