The leading supplier of pro stock hockey gear credits its rapid success to an ingenious business plan and state-of-the-art marketing.

DOWNERS GROVE, IL, USA, August 18, 2015 /EINPresswire.com/ -- When Pro Stock Hockey CEO David Duerr attended the 2014 PHATS/SPHEM Annual Meeting — a gathering of NHL hockey athletic trainers and equipment managers — he floated an idea for a new company that was met by many with intrigue and some with skepticism. When he returned for the 2015 meeting last month, many of those same people were big fans and excited to be doing business with him.

Duerr’s brainchild, Pro Stock Hockey, has become the world’s largest supplier of pro stock hockey equipment after only one year in existence. The CEO credits the success to a business model that relieves a big headache for NHL teams and gives amateur hockey players equipment options beyond their wildest dreams.

Like many successful, innovative businesses, Pro Stock Hockey is fundamentally simple: It buys excess hockey equipment from NHL teams and sells it to amateur hockey players on its online store, www.prostockhockey.com. NHL teams benefit by clearing truckloads of surplus equipment, and amateur hockey players benefit by finally having steady access to authentic, ultra high-quality pro stock equipment — at prices below retail.

What is pro stock equipment, exactly? NHL teams struggle mightily with excess inventory. NHL players use sticks, gloves, skates and other items custom made to their exact specifications, and are ordered from manufacturers in bulk. If a player decides to change sticks, the team is left with a supply of unused ones. If a player is traded, the team is stuck with all his excess equipment. Situations like this crop up all the time. NHL players are notoriously superstitious; when they hit a scoring slump or otherwise struggle on the ice, their solution is likely to involve a new type of stick or different set of skates. By the end of a single season, storage rooms are bursting at the seams with “pro stock” equipment — equipment custom made for NHL players but, for the most part, never used.

It’s a huge issue for NHL teams. The equipment staff works endless hours during the season making sure the elite players of the world have exactly what they need to perform at their best. However, one of the side effects is that it creates a lot of excess equipment during the course of a season. It’s a brand new product, but once it is determined it isn’t exactly right for a player, it usually finds a home in a back storage room. Multiply this process by numerous players over a long season and 30 NHL teams and the equipment overload is enormous.

Pro Stock Hockey to the rescue: Duerr’s company takes all the pro stock equipment off the NHL team’s hands in one fell swoop, at a price that enables it to transport the inventory to its warehouse, sort it, quality-check it, spec it, photograph it, store it and sell it at prices that are exciting customers from Vancouver to Miami Beach.

To be more specific, Pro Stock Hockey has more than 2,500 customers, in all 50 states, every Canadian province, and 10 other countries. Other significant first-year accomplishments include purchasing arrangements with two-thirds of NHL teams, over 7,500 sticks currently in stock, and over 1,200 unique products on the company’s e-commerce website. It’s become a huge business in just 12 months.

“People are always telling me, this is such an obvious idea, why didn’t anybody think of it before?” Duerr observes. “The fact is, even though Pro Stock Hockey has a great value proposition, it’s still took an enormous operations and marketing effort to get it off the ground and now manage the massive amount of gear coming in and going out every week.”

Operationally, Pro Stock Hockey has a full-time staff of employees that work with NHL equipment managers to inventory and acquire the products. Then it needs to be transported back to Chicago, unloaded, sorted, specified, photographed, warehoused and uploaded on the site ready to be sold. “Our clients are extreme equipment and stick enthusiasts and experts, we need to be extremely accurate in our description of the product and specification,” says Duerr.

To address marketing, Duerr turned to another one of his companies, Straight North, LLC, a leading, national Internet marketing company. Straight North created the Pro Stock Hockey website and initiated an aggressive marketing campaign that includes SEO, PPC advertising, social media marketing, email marketing, and a busy schedule of promotions offering customers a steady stream of free gear and large discounts. For instance, a recent “Stick of the Month Club” winner is receiving a free pro stock hockey stick of his choice every month for a year.

Besides in-house marketing expertise, a big edge for Pro Stock Hockey is Duerr’s passion for the game. Growing up in Buffalo, New York, he was a stick boy for the Buffalo Sabres and logged a lot of hours in the team’s equipment room. He never lost his interest in hockey and the many technical nuances of the equipment. Today, well into his 40s, Duerr still plays competitive hockey, as do his children.

“Hockey is the greatest game in the world,” says Duerr. “I can’t tell you how exciting it is to be involved in the business side of things. If we stay on this growth track, there’s no telling where this could end up.”


About Pro Stock Hockey

Pro Stock Hockey’s mission is to be the best online resource and experience for amateur hockey players and equipment enthusiasts to access authentic pro stock hockey sticks, equipment and information.

We’ve got it all: sticks, gloves, skates, protective, game/practice jerseys, goalie gear, equipment bags, tape. If it’s in the NHL team locker rooms, then we want to get it in your hands.



Press release courtesy of Online PR Media: http://bit.ly/1J0RvuI

Bobby Kilian
Pro Stock Hockey
630.824.2190
email us here