They've scored untold millions of goals on rinks, ponds and streets across the country, but in a few weeks' time workers will lovingly fashion the last of Sher-Wood's signature Quebec-made wooden hockey sticks.
It's yet another sign of changing times: After 58 years, Sherwood-Drolet will, starting in January, farm out the mass production of wooden sticks and concentrate on the increasingly popular – and vastly profitable – business of making composite sticks fashioned from graphite, Kevlar and other synthetics.
"Go and look in any arena in the country. The kids from pee-wee into junior are all playing with composite sticks," said Denis Drolet, president of the Sherbrooke, Que., hockey equipment manufacturer.
Drolet said his company will contract out its entire production of lower-end wood models to makers in such far-flung places as Estonia and China – although some small Quebec suppliers could still get a piece of the action.
He expects wooden sticks will still form the bulk of Sher-Wood sales next year – last year the company sold about 1 million wooden and 350,000 composite models – but his plant had to sacrifice tradition to stay ahead of a shifting market.
"Honestly, I never expected (the switch) to happen this quickly. It's grown surprisingly fast," said Drolet.
Montreal Canadiens legend Guy Lafleur – the word "hero" only begins to describe his importance to much of Quebec – recently recalled using Sher-Wood sticks to pepper goalies with pucks en route to 618 career NHL goals.
"I find it really sad that wood hockey sticks are disappearing. It bothers me," Lafleur told Sherbrooke's La Tribune newspaper in a recent interview.
"The P.M.P. 5030 was the best stick in the world."
Lafleur, a member of hockey's Hall of Fame, derided one-piece composite models as "crap," adding "maybe your shot is harder, but what does an extra 20 miles an hour matter when the puck goes 50 feet wide of the net?"
The swashbuckling forward also lamented what he terms the passing of an era, and fretted over the future of a game where parents are being asked to fork out $200 for a single composite stick.
"It's way too expensive. And to think some fathers and mothers will pay that for kids who are just starting out in hockey," said Lafleur, 56, who for a time also endorsed Koho sticks.
"I can't see the future, but bear in mind that everything that's in fashion falls out of fashion at some point. ... In my eyes, the wood stick still has a place in hockey today."
Lafleur's grumpy traditionalism seems like the manifestation of a fear that a piece of Quebec's hockey-playing heritage is being lost.
Since Sherwood-Drolet was founded in 1949 as Sherbrooke Woodcraft, it has made more than 6 million of its flagship P.M.P. 5030s in an Eastern Townships factory.
Founder Léopold Drolet – the current president's forebear – designed sticks for Lafleur.
The company has armed dozens of other legendary shooters including Raymond Bourque, Paul Coffey, Dale Hawerchuk and, until last year, reigning NHL scoring champ Sidney Crosby.
Drolet, a gruff, plainspoken type who answers his own office phone, stressed the company will continue to make custom wood models for professional players such as Jason Spezza of the Ottawa Senators.
Spezza is among the estimated 5 per cent of NHL players shunning composite sticks. (Crosby has a rumoured $700,000 endorsement deal for a Reebok composite but it has been reported he recently asked Drolet to send him some stick blades patterned on the ones he began using at age 12).
Sherwood's decision will have more immediate consequences for the stick factory's 80 workers.
The shift to graphite will mean further automation and job losses for roughly 40 people – craftsmen who have been with the company for, on average, 20 years.
Several workers admitted to profound disappointment at the decision, but there was little in the way of ill feelings toward Drolet because, as one said in an interview, "everybody knew it was coming."
Sherwood-Drolet's outsourcing is another bodycheck for Quebec's beleaguered wood product and forestry industry.
Quebec's political parties have been clamouring for federal intervention for months; this week Economic Development Minister Raymond Bachand said the situation has reached crisis proportions.
According to the province, more than 10,000 jobs have been lost in the sector in the past two years.
As markets and profits have dwindled, several sawmills have closed – largely because of declining productivity, aging equipment and currency fluctuations – and many of the industry's traditional players have sought mergers with larger, U.S.-based companies.
Drolet said cost is a major factor in the move; it's simply no longer profitable to mass-produce wooden sticks using Quebec timber.
Though Sherwood lays claim to about 25 per cent of the hockey stick market, other major players including Reebok-CCM continue to manufacture wooden sticks in Quebec.
But smaller companies like Victoriaville-based Scierie Gilles Charland – which has manufactured wood laminates and blades for virtually all the major stick makers, including Sher-Wood – have cut their production by half since 2003.
Benoit Charland, the company's executive director, said in the most recent edition of Wood Focus, an industry magazine, that "the market is saturated, and orders are falling ... the forestry industry hasn't seen the worst of it yet. The transformation is going to continue, and a lot of small companies will disappear."
As a consequence, Charland has shifted its production to hardwood flooring products and parts for humidors and wine chillers.
The move away from wooden hockey sticks – and increased outsourcing of components to overseas manufacturers – is indisputably an industry trend.
Sports equipment giant Nike shut its Bauer Nike hockey stick factory in Hespeler, Ont., in 2004. The plant was later bought by former employees who continue to make sticks for the company's label.
A perusal of the Nike website shows that three of 12 main models are wood, and Reebok has a similar offering (including wood blades and some fibreglass/wood hybrids). Easton, which helped launch the aluminum stick revolution, counts a half-dozen wooden sticks – but four times as many composite models.
Drolet indicated that he expects his competitors to follow Sher-Wood's lead as demand grows for sticks made of stiffer materials.
Not that he necessarily approves of the new stick fad.
"For me, the real revolution was the 5030, I'll never play with anything else," he said.
Source: Toronto Star, 11/05/07
