DUNMORE, AB — Seamless stick repair from a local man is helping hockey parents save money.
Jason Bishell of Dunmore is one of the many franchisers for “Integral Hockey,” a company specializing in stick repair. The company operates throughout Western Canada, and Bishell controls the entire southeast corner of Alberta.
Whether it is a shaft snap, a blade crack or a toe chip, Bishell can fix it.
“The repair process is a vacuum-infused hollow carbon fibre repair that goes in on the inside of the shaft,” he said. “It’s basically the same material that the shafts are made out of. The sticks are made of the same material we’re using to repair them with, so it adheres properly, sticks to the inside of the shaft properly, and it doesn’t come loose.”
Hockey players can pay up to $300 for a hockey stick, and one wrong play can leave it pieces on the ice. Bishell says repairing the sticks can help hockey players and their parents save money in the long run.
“I would say one family buying one, two, three hockey sticks a year, could be easily be spending upwards of $1,000 for a hockey stick, if you’re replacing them with the high-end, $300 sticks,” he said, adding he could potentially save parents hundreds of dollars a year.
Bishell says the feedback from parents and players has been fantastic.
“I’ve got tons of repeat customers, and I’ve got tons of referral customers that keep coming to me from other teams,” he said. “You get one kid repair a stick on a team, as soon as his buddy is brekaing his stick, he’s telling him about the process.”
There’s not only an economic benefit to using a repaired stick. Bishell has saved hundreds of hockey sticks from ending up in the landfill since he started his business.
“As part of the green aspect of this business as well, we take all of those broken sticks which would have ended up in the garbage, and we’re going to end up putting them back on the ice and back into the hands of some hockey players who can appreciate them,” he said.
Bishell’s shop is located in Dunmore. For more information about his business, visit “Integral Hockey Medicine Hat” on Facebook.
