Best Bang for your Buck Stick on the Market?

[Jarick]

There are some quality clearance sticks at most shops around me, but for new the Ai5 seems decent as well as the Vapor 5.0.

 

[michaelshu]

There are some quality clearance sticks at most shops around me, but for new the Ai5 seems decent as well as the Vapor 5.0.

Really? How cheap are they?

 

[Jarick]

The Ai5? $100 give or take. Clearance are all over but I can find SE16 and EQ50 for a little over $100.

 

[michaelshu]

that's a pretty good deal.. perhaps you could help me out some time? I have a US address in Sarasota, Florida

 

[ponder]

that's a pretty good deal.. perhaps you could help me out some time? I have a US address in Sarasota, Florida

If you live in the States, but don't have a shop close to you, there are TONNES of online retailers. For example:
http://www.icewarehouse.com
http://www.hockeymonkey.com

 

[Jarick]

I'm sure once you add shipping it gets way up there.

Check out Total Hockey, Hockey Monkey, and Ice Warehouse. You'll usually get free shipping and it's not much money for clearance sticks.

http://www.hockeymonkey.com/clearance.html

Lots of great sticks around $100.

 

[michaelshu]

Thank you. I usually buy from those two, though only some items in hockeymonkey are eligible for free shipping and IW's stock is often limited (they are fast though)

ebay is always on and off, but when it's a lucky day, the prices there are great. A few weeks ago i got a totalone LE for $140. however most of the time i will lose bid on popular items because my internet is slow lol

and no, i don't live in the states.. i use a forwarder called MyUS.com, they gave me a US address so i ship my purchases there first, and then they will forward it to my country.

 

[salty justice]

If you aren't that serious but you want a legit stick you won't care too much about breaking try the "entry" level Warrior Esquire.

http://www.icewarehouse.com/descpage.html?pcode=WES

For $50 or 25% the price of most Warrior sticks there's not going to be too much a noticeable difference for beer leaguers.

 

[ponder]

If you aren't that serious but you want a legit stick you won't care too much about breaking try the "entry" level Warrior Esquire.

http://www.icewarehouse.com/descpage.html?pcode=WES

For $50 or 25% the price of most Warrior sticks there's not going to be too much a noticeable difference for beer leaguers.

I'm pretty sure that the Warrior Esquire is a pure fiberglass stick, with no carbon fiber, personally I wouldn't touch that thing with a ten foot pole. Fiberglass sticks are every bit as heavy as wood sticks, they have awful puck feel, and feel funny when they flex, they just suck. Also, while the mid-low end sticks that have a mix of carbon fiber and fiberglass seem to have decent durability, the pure fiberglass sticks often break really easily. I'd WAY rather spend $100 on a good mid range or clearance high end stick than $50 on a pure fibreglass stick.

If you really want to spend closer to $50, off the same site you can get a Bauer Supreme one30 for $60, which at least has a fair amount of carbon fiber. For that extra $10 you'll get much better performance and durability.

http://www.icewarehouse.com/descpage.html?pcode=BS3

Again, though, I think that in general, all sticks under the $100 pricepoint have issues, they all seem to be either partially or fully fiberglass, and fiberglass is just not a good material for hockey sticks, it's only used because it's really cheap. At $100 and up most companies will give you a stick that is entirely carbon fiber, with no fiberglass.

and no, i don't live in the states.. i use a forwarder called MyUS.com, they gave me a US address so i ship my purchases there first, and then they will forward it to my country.

Out of curiosity, I see you have your country marked as Indonesia, are you actually playing hockey in Indonesia? If so, pretty cool! Are there many leagues there?

 

[Jarick]

Yes. Cheap sticks have tons of fiberglass, and there is no benefit to fiberglass except durability. And in the case of those sticks, being durable sucks because you end up having to use it forever.

On the plus side, if you're already awesome at hockey, you'll still be awesome with a crappy fiberglass stick. A guy I played with used one of those $30 Easton Octane shafts with the mushy wood blade for 3 years and always led the team in goals. Then he broke it and went out and bought the S5 $30 shaft with mushy wood blade and continued to lead the team in goals. Had a bomb of a shot. Old school guy (well old too).

 

[michaelshu]

Yes we do play ice hockey here, but we've only got about 300 players or so.. We have no leagues, only some occasional east-asia tournaments, about once every 6 months or so. Still no decent hockey rink though, but this year we'll work on that... I'm one of the few old timers left trying to make it happen

I think $100 OPS is worth the investment, but I'm always looking for better deals. It's like this.. in my country there's a lot of clothing/shoes factories (Nike, Reebok, Adidas, etc), therefor it's easy for me to find cheap shoes, I can even get them directly from the factory (some workers often smuggle them too)... So I'm kinda used to looking for deals like that lol

Bauer, CCM, Reebok? I think they're made in China now.. but up to this date I cannot find any links to it.. probably because I don't speak their language (even though i'm of Chinese descent).

I did however, found a lot of custom composite sticks manufacturers in China, you can have them painted whatever you want, length, flex, curve, etc. Found a lot of X60 and TotalOne knockoffs too. Not sure how they'll perform, though.

 

[ponder]

Yes. Cheap sticks have tons of fiberglass, and there is no benefit to fiberglass except durability. And in the case of those sticks, being durable sucks because you end up having to use it forever.

On the plus side, if you're already awesome at hockey, you'll still be awesome with a crappy fiberglass stick. A guy I played with used one of those $30 Easton Octane shafts with the mushy wood blade for 3 years and always led the team in goals. Then he broke it and went out and bought the S5 $30 shaft with mushy wood blade and continued to lead the team in goals. Had a bomb of a shot. Old school guy (well old too).

While I think that may be true for the sticks that are a mix of carbon fiber and fiberglass, I don't think it's true for pure or mostly fiberglass sticks. AFAIK if you have a bit of fiberglass in there, it can help absorb slashes, but in terms of resisting breaking on shots fiberglass is pretty weak, you need carbon fiber for that. I see people break true bottom of the line, pure fiberglass sticks a lot, even at stick and pucks. You can tell when it's a pure/mostly fiberglass stick breaking because the break looks like some nasty, mess mush of fibres, they really fray out when broken, instead of the more thin, discrete layers you see when a carbon fiber stick breaks. I've heard that durability is one of the main reasons pure fiberglass sticks have largely been taken off the market, but some companies still have them for their worst sticks (like the Warrior Esquire). Companies like Bauer, though, won't make pure fiberglass sticks anymore because they're garbage, even their bottom of the line sticks like the X20 and one20 are fiberglass/carbon composites.

Companies will rarely tell you just how much fiberglass vs. carbon fiber is actually in a stick, but a good way to tell is the weight, since to get decent structural integrity, you need more mass of fiberglass than you do carbon fiber. If a senior stick is around 600 g, it's probably mostly fiberglass. If a stick is around 550 g, there's probably a fair amount of carbon fiber. If it's around 500 g or less, there's probably no fiberglass at all. These are just general rules of thumb, obviously not always true, but a decent benchmark IMO.

 

[ponder]

Yes we do play ice hockey here, but we've only got about 300 players or so.. We have no leagues, only some occasional east-asia tournaments, about once every 6 months or so. Still no decent hockey rink though, but this year we'll work on that... I'm one of the few old timers left trying to make it happen

I think $100 OPS is worth the investment, but I'm always looking for better deals. It's like this.. in my country there's a lot of clothing/shoes factories (Nike, Reebok, Adidas, etc), therefor it's easy for me to find cheap shoes, I can even get them directly from the factory (some workers often smuggle them too)... So I'm kinda used to looking for deals like that lol

Bauer, CCM, Reebok? I think they're made in China now.. but up to this date I cannot find any links to it.. probably because I don't speak their language (even though i'm of Chinese descent).

I did however, found a lot of custom composite sticks manufacturers in China, you can have them painted whatever you want, length, flex, curve, etc. Found a lot of X60 and TotalOne knockoffs too. Not sure how they'll perform, though.

Cool about there being a little hockey in SE Asia, even if it sounds really limited.

And yeah, most sticks and gear are now made in China, only limited amounts of hockey equipment is actually made in North America anymore, and most of that is in Mexico, not Canada or the US. Makes sense, labour is so much cheaper, and the quality of the product coming out of Chinese factories is as good or better than what comes out of American factories for the most part.

I don't have any tips on getting stuff directly from the factories in China, but there's a site called hockeytron that are basically getting knock off gear made in China, then sold under their own brand name in the States at low prices. Probably not quite as good as the real thing, but they're getting decent reviews, this is probably a pretty good stick for the price:
http://www.hockeytron.com/tr154.html

Only comes in a 90 flex though, and basically only comes in 2 patterns (comes in 4 patterns, but the C1 and C3 are virtually identical, as are the C2 and C4).

With the random knockoffs, I'd be concerned that they'd be putting in more effort to make them LOOK like a specific stick than PERFORM like said stick. Never used one myself though, so can't really say.

 

[Jarick]

Companies will rarely tell you just how much fiberglass vs. carbon fiber is actually in a stick, but a good way to tell is the weight, since to get decent structural integrity, you need more mass of fiberglass than you do carbon fiber. If a senior stick is around 600 g, it's probably mostly fiberglass. If a stick is around 550 g, there's probably a fair amount of carbon fiber. If it's around 500 g or less, there's probably no fiberglass at all. These are just general rules of thumb, obviously not always true, but a decent benchmark IMO.

Very true, that's how I usually judge them.

450 or less - very light, high end
450 - 500 - "value" stick should be about $100-150, good mix
500 - 550 - "pricepoint" stick should be at or under $100
550+ - garbage, stay away

 

[Jacob8hockey*]

If you can get the One 95 for $125 (Sportchek seems to have this deal a lot and it was 200 regular or it use to be) do it. Best bang for you buck like you wanted. It will do amazing things to your shot. It might take once or twice to get use to it but I garraunte you will love it. And if your worried about breaking it don't go and rip slap shots every shot you take.

 

[AIREAYE]

If you can get the One 95 for $125 (Sportchek seems to have this deal a lot and it was 200 regular or it use to be) do it. Best bang for you buck like you wanted. It will do amazing things to your shot. It might take once or twice to get use to it but I garraunte you will love it. And if your worried about breaking it don't go and rip slap shots every shot you take.

No one does that, kid.

The One95s are tank. Most Sportcheks are clean out, though you should ask an associate to check the computer for you.

 

[IDuck]

warrior AK27 at 89, or even the dolo DD at 110....im a warrior guy though so im pretty biased, would also look at the bauer X 4 (assuming were are the $100 mark)...if your not picky about flex/curve prostock can be a great deal

 

[r3cc0s]

warrior AK27 at 89, or even the dolo DD at 110....im a warrior guy though so im pretty biased, would also look at the bauer X 4 (assuming were are the $100 mark)...if your not picky about flex/curve prostock can be a great deal

I just bought the AK27 w/ a iginla wood blade for $89 together... the shaft is $79 @ sportcheck, but at hockey monkey its even cheaper

mine is an 09 model and I dunno, w/ the wood blade its super light, though people say the shaft is heavier than advertised (maybe not the 09?)

my buddy's S19 weight in comparison was very close, and he was impressed w/ the wood blade feel

 

[Wildturkey12]

Has anyone tried the Eagle sticks yet. I checked one out at my local shop today and it seemed pretty nice. Way under 100 bucks too.

 

[Robs789]

Picked up a 65 intermediate Easton s15 sakic on Hockeymonkey clearance for 85 bucks with shipping. Was using a 85 senior SE6 before that and gotta say its a huge difference. Much lighter, just feels better in the hands.

 

[michaelshu]

Cool about there being a little hockey in SE Asia, even if it sounds really limited.

And yeah, most sticks and gear are now made in China, only limited amounts of hockey equipment is actually made in North America anymore, and most of that is in Mexico, not Canada or the US. Makes sense, labour is so much cheaper, and the quality of the product coming out of Chinese factories is as good or better than what comes out of American factories for the most part.

I don't have any tips on getting stuff directly from the factories in China, but there's a site called hockeytron that are basically getting knock off gear made in China, then sold under their own brand name in the States at low prices. Probably not quite as good as the real thing, but they're getting decent reviews, this is probably a pretty good stick for the price:
http://www.hockeytron.com/tr154.html

Only comes in a 90 flex though, and basically only comes in 2 patterns (comes in 4 patterns, but the C1 and C3 are virtually identical, as are the C2 and C4).

With the random knockoffs, I'd be concerned that they'd be putting in more effort to make them LOOK like a specific stick than PERFORM like said stick. Never used one myself though, so can't really say.

Yeah, it's pretty cool actually. The fact is my team has a program for public to try and play, and we teach them too all for free. They can borrow some of our used gears but the amount is limited. Suprisingly, there were a lot of people who are interested but always got thrown off when they hear the equipment price

I found Hockeytron before but didn't really thought it's legit hahah this forum rocks, so many useful information. Thanks, I'll be sure to check them out!

I'm actually thinking of trying those knockoffs but my knowledge of today's stick technology is pretty limited. Gonna wait until i get my APX, then some TotalOnes and Eastons that my friends ordered. Maybe I'll get a view solid grounds for comparison.

 

[Tyler Durden]

A Good Hockey Stick?

What do you recommend as a good hockey stick? I'm not looking to spend too much definitely not over $100. At the beginning of the season I bought the Bauer One Stamkos stick it broke on me on Friday night after going for a one timer. Any suggestions, any good brands, what stick do you like or play with?

 

[ZetterBurger]

RBK Ai5.

 

[Squidriss]

easton eq20

 

[hockeymass]

Easton Stealth 65S or 55S.