Smarthockey Vulcanized Rubber Blade Tape

Gretzky said he’d like to see all players go back to wood sticks instead of using composite sticks so players would have a better feel and control for the puck. (Read here)  Everyone knows that isn’t going to happen because the advantages composite shafts have over wood shafts in terms of puck velocity.  But what if you could have both? Smarthockey Blade Tape is first major innovation for hockey tape which augments composite shaft technology with the “feel” of a wood shaft.  The patent pending rubber tape has over 40,000 “fingers” to grab the knurling around the edge of an ice hockey puck giving you unbelievable “feel” when you receive a pass, stickhandle and shoot without giving up any velocity.  In fact, when you shoot, the technology makes it feel like you can pick the puck up and basically “throw” it with unbelievable accuracy (almost like throwing a ball with a lacrosse stick). Additionally, the tape makes it feel like you have “pillows on your hands” because the puck feels so soft.  Practice with it for a while and it’s like you have you have the puck tied to a string.  It basically sticks to your blade for toe drags, puck extension and tight turns.   Unlike conventional cloth tape or electrical tape, Smarthockey Blade Tape is hydrophobic which means it won’t become waterlogged and peel off your blade. Unlike wax, it doesn’t freeze or condense causing it to lose its grip after a few minutes on the ice. And if you start to get ice build up, simply tap your stick on the ice and watch it disappear. Last but not least, Smarthockey commissioned a study by one of the leading optometry schools in the US to understand what colors are hardest to process by the human eye. What we learned was that humans have fewer cones and rods in their eyes to process neon yellow, electric blue and powder grey (Gretzky may not have known it,  but he actually had an advantage by putting powder on his black tape).  When those colors are moved quickly in front of the human eye it can’t process these colors which causes a blurring effect. Since stick shaft technology has increased the speed at which a puck comes off the blade, goalies are now forced to react to where the puck is going based on where the blade is pointing as opposed to watching the puck (Read here).  However, if the color of the  tape on the blade of the stick blurs as a player is shooting, it effectively puts the goalie at a huge disadvantage. While Smarthockey Blade Tape might seem pretty ordinary, this might be the biggest innovation in hockey since the curved stick or plastic skate blade.  This is a game changer!