Hockey Gear Review: A New Kind Of Blade Tape, and a Contest For B/R Hockey Fans!

This article includes a contest to win a "new" kind of hockey tape with customised team art for an entire roster, set up just for Bleacher Report ...a "thank you" to B/R members, writers, and staff.  If you don't play hockey right now, it's a good excuse to start! [See Page 3 for more contest details, or just follow the contest link.]

~Vancouver-based equipment firm Blade Pro Products turned personal hockey dreams into an industry reality.  BladeTape co-inventor and company president Richard Findlay has found partnerships with the likes of Brian Burke, Willie Mitchell, and Chris Mason on his way to making his own mark on the game with a new kind of hockey tape.  [Photo: Wild-man Nick Schultz and former Canuck/current Pen Matt Cooke collide on the ice. Both players use BladeTape.]~


Over the next twelve months, we will be testing and reviewing as much hockey equipment as possible, keeping fans and players up-to-date on some of the game’s best innovations.  More than that, I hope to give something back to our passionate hockey community, many of whom either play or would like a reason to start.  In this instalment, a review of a new kind of hockey tape, and a contest for B/R’s hockey readers and writers to win enough customised BladeTape for an entire team to try!

Like the rest of the modern world, technology in hockey is always changing, and it can be tough to keep up.  In this case I did some research, tried the product, asked random players what they thought, had others test it, and luckily gave myself an excuse to spend a bit more time playing hockey.  I also interviewed the inventor, who kindly tolerated my endless questions and provided answers to all of them. 

If you’ve ever played hockey or been a serious fan of the sport, you’ve probably nursed a secret wish to somehow impact the game.  Visions of scoring the OT game-winner in Game 7 of the Cup Final are the norm, but well out of reach for most.  But while we can’t all be NHL idols, it is possible to influence hockey from the dry side of the boards.  Sports writers find a way to do it through reporting; others invent new ways of looking at the game.

I play neither well enough nor often enough to worry much about details like the tape I slap on my stick, but when I learn of any “new and innovative” type of gear it gets my attention.  In this case, I found the product I was reviewing could be handy to anyone with a hockey stick, and it’s uses cover virtually every type of hockey.

BladeTape came to my attention when I noticed players with an odd-looking accoutrement on the blades of their sticks: a pair of long rubber stickers, one on each side, sometimes plain, sometimes coloured, and occasionally with pictures.  Having taped countless hockey sticks over a growing number of years, I had never seen anything like it, and thought at first it was no more than a fashion statement, a new way to pimp your stick.  After some digging I found that there was more to it than that.  As a player the tape met a lot of my equipment needs, as a hockey buff I saw how it was already making an impact on the game, and as a writer I saw a story which illustrated one of the ways ‘average people’ can affect the bigger picture.

St Louis netminder Chris Mason's customised tape. "I tried BladeTape this summer and after the first time with it on the ice I knew I wanted to use it," was one of Mason's comments.  "...Its performance is unbelievable."

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