The Ride to the Rink: Zechariah Thomas of Swift Hockey on Why Your Hockey Stick Doesn’t Make You Better — You Do

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Hello, hockey skaters and goalies around the world. Welcome back to another edition of The Ride to the Rink. It's Lee with my friend Zachariah Thomas here today. Zach owns a business called Swift Hockey. It's a stick company. Many of you have probably heard from it. He's got an amazing story. You should absolutely listen to our long episode this week if you want to hear that. But kids, I brought Zek on because I want to talk to you about your game gear uh and and what you're doing out there to spend your parents' money on really expensive stuff that you may or may not need. I know that the shiny new stick that comes out every year is the shiny new stick that comes out every year. But the truth is this the ability, the talent, the strength, everything you need to put into that stick to make good things happen is coming from you, not the stick. And so again, we brought on Zec, who owns a stick company to talk to you about choosing your gear and why you make the gear work and not the other way around. Zach, thanks for being here on the ride of the ring.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Yeah, no problem. No problem. Happy to be here.

unknown 1:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

So, Zek, talk to me a little bit about again. You played really high-level major junior hockey. How did you select your gear? And how should the kids listening to this think about selecting their gear and spending their parents' money?

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Yeah, you know, I was I was always a gear nerd as a kid. Like I loved, I loved testing out so many different sticks. And as I kept getting older and especially going through major junior levels and playing at some of the highest levels, the best players in the world are using sticks that are 10, 15 years old. And they're doing that for a reason. If we look at Crosby's one of the best examples, he's still using that original CCM stick from I guess 2016. And it's trying to find a stick that's going to work for you. Like that's all that's going to be the most important. The brand name, how it looks, doesn't matter. All the NHL players, all the best players in the world are wrapping their stick with a different graphic, but it's the same base that from 10 years ago. Because it's to find a good product for yourself, find the best hockey stick and use it throughout your career.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Yeah, you know, it's funny is kids. Crosby's a funny example because if you ever see him in the locker room, kind of with his shoulder pads on, you'll see brands that don't even exist anymore across his across his pads. Yeah. Because he's been saying he's been wearing the same stuff. Uh, and it shows you that that consistency is there. And then Zach, also, too, you know, here's another truth, kids. And Zach, you said this the wrapping of the stick may change for these pro guys, right? Like what you see and what they're using may be two different things. But the truth is this you know, the advancements in the technology, they do happen. I'm not gonna negate that, right? Like again, when I started playing, I was using a wooden stick. All right, one piece sticks are an advancement, but whatever we're being told every year about the big advancement, I just want to say, buyer beware on that, right? There's not usually some stick advancement that's so unbelievable that you're gonna go from 10 goals to 50 goals in one season. So, Zach, as a stick maker, right? As someone who does this, what are the technologies you look at? I'm not trying to get your secret sauce or anything like that. Yeah, but you know, how do you approach this with your own gear? And and and again, for the kids listening, right? Like you're always looking to make your gear better. But I'm guessing the truth is somewhere in the middle here, right? Of like, we just want to make something consistent that you can use.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

So with with us within Swift, where we are honestly the only brand in the world to do this, is we're consistently adapting our sticks, and every single batch of sticks we make is better than the last batch. Like, we're the only brand in the world that can do that. With the same name, though, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Is that yeah, the same name.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

We're not we're not we're not releasing a new stick, right? We're consistently adapting our stick based off of our customers' feedback. No other company in the world can do that, right? I think that's one of the most important aspects, is where we may hear from a customer, and everyone's so important to us. Like, and you're not just another number to us, every single one of our customers, like we consider as family. And if you guys say, Oh, the stick may be a little bit too square, we're gonna round the stick on our next batch of sticks, and like we're not gonna release a new stick. All the other companies are releasing new sticks three, four, five times a year at this point. That's almost the same exact stick when it comes to the manufacturing access aspect of it. Exact same stick. We are trying our absolute best within Swift to make the best product possible and consistently innovate and be become the best product in the world.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

No, I I love that, dude. And I love that brand message too. You know, I think few companies do what you're trying to say, right? And I think that that's what's important. It's about getting better what you've already created instead of just trying to do a cash grab. And for the kids listening to look, here's the deal, right? If you're going to be investing money into something, you know, you need your gear, don't get me wrong. But it's building your game that you should be spending the time investment and your parents' money investment in. What ways can you get better at hockey? I promise you, the stick you're using will work if you invest in the game. All right. And I think that's just something that you got to think about. That the flashy thing does not make you better. You make you better. All right. And again, Zach has done that throughout his career. Go ahead, buddy.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Yeah, you know, exactly. And I think such a big aspect that we don't talk about as an industry or as a community is how much these athletes are getting paid to endorse that product. Right. Like they're getting paid to use that product and to show you that product. It's not something they're doing for free, they're not doing it out of their own goodwill. They're getting paid to show you that product because they're getting paid millions and millions of dollars to for you guys to see them use that product. So you guys can think they're using that stick, but they're using a wrap stick, they're using something else, or they're willing to use anything because if you're a great player, any product's going to work. Especially Swift product's going to work even better. Uh but any product's going to work for that. And it's trying to find the best product for yourself that's you're going to see performance every single day.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Well, what I love about it, buddy, is that we're talking about it right now, right? We don't talk about it enough, but we're talking about it right now. And then my last question for you for the for the kids, uh, Zek, is this is again, you've made a life for yourself in the game, and it it's not what you thought it would be when you were a young kid, right? We all want to play uh at the highest level possible as kids, but you're living the game every day. Can you talk to the kids for a couple minutes here about how there's multiple paths in the game that while dreaming big is something we want you all to do, uh, and that you do have to put the work in with those dreams, there's a lot of ways to stay involved in hockey or be involved in hockey besides playing.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

I would say, I would say hockey is the only sport in the world that there's so many different aspects to technically make it in a sense to get to the highest levels and to play professional hockey. There's hundreds of leagues, there's hundreds of different aspects, even when it comes to the both of us, like running a podcast based out of hockey, like you're still in the game. Uh I feel like when I'm doing the hockey sticks, like I still playing hockey and I'm still having that same passion about how I had when I was in the game. There's so many different aspects, and I think it's going to continue to you have to continue to work so hard at it and do whatever it takes to win and succeed and try and stay within the game as long as possible. I think that's really important.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Yeah, my advice to young players is always play as long as you possibly can. That's always the first thing I say, play as long as you can. Yeah, but just know that it doesn't have to stop. If if if you have the passion, uh, there is a way. All right. And and kids, listen, if you're listening to this show, you are finding that way. I promise that. Zach, great stuff, man. Thanks for being on the episode. Yeah, no problem.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Happy to be here.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

All right, and kids, as I always end every episode, remember very apt today. No matter where you're at on your hockey journey, we believe in you. You should too. See you on the next ride.