August 18, 2022 · 0 Comments
The Alliston Junior C Hornets Hockey Club are partnering with a local manufacturer to test and improve the design of hockey equipment.
Grit Inc. is based in Loretto and primarily manufactures sports equipment and apparel bags for hockey, golf, baseball, and dancers.
Hornets players have been testing a new hockey glove design developed at Grit and several of the players wore the gloves during practice and games last season.
Old school hockey gloves covered a majority of a player’s forearm and were designed to protect from slashes and injury. However, they also limited the ability to flex your wrist when taking a shot.
The trend moved to hockey gloves with a shorter cuff which allowed more flexibility but that design exposed the player’s forearm and left them vulnerable to slashes and, in a worst-case scenario, a broken wrist if you get hit hard enough.
The Grit glove is designed with a special hinge that slides a protective shield over a player’s arm when the wrist is flexed. Grit designers have also been working on creating a glove that fits a hand in a more natural position as well as tailoring sizes to accommodate hand sizes of both male and female hockey players.
“Two years ago, we were approached by Grit,” explained Hornets General Manager Blair Molto. “They wanted to branch out to more hockey related things and one of the things they designed was this new glove. They wanted to give our players some gloves to try out in practice and give opinions on what they like and don’t like, and what can be tweaked in the design. It’s grown into a partnership. They are still developing the glove and it’s coming out this year. The glove was a good design from the get-go, but there were some things, like hand sizes, that needed to be tweaked. We’ll be using them this season on our team. Every other glove on the market – as soon as you flex your wrist, it opens up your wrist area. This new system covers that area. It’s a huge safety issue. This new glove takes away that potential risk of getting slashed and getting a broken wrist.”
Greg Collins, president of Grit Inc., said he got the idea for the new glove after using a tensor band to help with an elbow injury.
He refers to the system as a “coil” which slides over a player’s wrist.
“I coiled a tensor bandage around my arm,” Greg explained. “Then I had an epiphany. Don Cherry mentioned many times that short cuffed gloves didn’t protect your wrists. So, I decided to apply the coil idea from the tensor bandage to a new hockey glove. We reached out to the Hornets and they really helped us out. The feedback gave us some time to make improvements. We have two different designs of the gloves for men and women.”
Greg himself is a hockey player and understands what players need and want. He referred to a typical player’s way of expressing satisfaction with a piece of hockey gear as “it feels right.”
The glove is called the Grit Python 900 series.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, development of the golf was put on hold as many teams sat out the season. The Hornets were still practicing on a limited basis.
“The Hornets’ manager, Blair Molto, was crucial in getting this product tested,” Greg said. “They got their players to gives comments and notes – it was like a team design meeting.”
The glove’s concept was well received but the glove was not wide enough for most of the players.
“Since this was our debut with gloves, they had to fit perfectly,” Greg explained. “After sharing the narrower designs with female players, the original prototypes were adapted into the G900 women’s glove and sizes expanded for the G900 1 men’s glove.”
The glove is being introduced this summer on a limited basis in Canada and the U.S.
The Hornets have adopted the glove as their new team glove.
By Brian Lockhart