Sportsnet – Interview about the Marsblade I2s making headway in the hockey market

Sportsnet – Interview about the Marsblade I2s making headway in the hockey market

As we talked earlier on this week about wanting to do more about hockey equipment, thought it’d be a good time to catch up once again with one of the leaders when it comes to innovation in hockey technology. The great Per Mårs joins me now. Per, how are you today?

Thanks so much for dropping by. I’m, great. Thanks for having me, Jeff. The pleasure is mine. So, first of all, tell us about the skate skate holder right now, the latest ones, the i2. I want to get to the to the Brock study. But it is fascinating the way that

This technology works and probably best you know best that you tell it in your words because I’m sure I’ll misrepresent it and I don’t want to do that. Tell us about the i2 and what you’ve come up with here. Yeah, I mean, it’s the same technology as used

For our of ice training rollers flow motion technology that gives you the rocker between the wheels, between the the steel and the the boot. So it’s a rocker in the chassis that gives you another dimension of movement that gives you a longer stride, more power, better power transfer.

And like you mentioned in a study with Brock University, the it gives you a more efficient stride so the steel stays on the ice longer. It gives you a more natural and energy efficient movement that saves you energy. More power, more speed. Yep. Tell us about that.

About that study at Brock university, Like what I mean, you’ve given us the broad strokes of what this has revealed. Give us some of the short strokes. Like what type of information? You know, if I’m looking to buy a new blade holder, like what type of information did this study give you?

Well, what they were looking at is the skating efficiency of the players. And they were doing a it was a couple of different phases. First, a treadmill test and then an on ice test. And they were looking at how much force the player needed to apply in the skates during

A set speed of the treadmill so they could see that the players used a lot less force to maintain the same velocity on the treadmill, which then translates to to skating efficiency. So they used less energy on our holders. I’m always curious about

I’m always curious about adjustment periods as well, like if I’m going from a traditional skate holder, blade holder to this, how much of an adjustment period would there be or does it seem completely natural? Yeah, that’s the thing. I mean, that’s a common question regarding the transition time.

And since hockey players are very keen to stick with what they are used to, but pretty much all players, I would say, are really fascinated of how quickly they adapt. I mean, it takes I’ve heard all the way from like a couple of minutes

Or a couple of strides even to one or two sessions maybe. So it’s a really quick adaptation time. We’ve had a number of pro players switch even mid-season here, so which is of course, really extraordinary – That’s rare. That’s rare. That’s really rare for them to switch mid-season as well.

I can understand the, you know, transitioning in the off season and trying new things. Well, the one thing that and listen, you live in this world so you know this, but just so our listeners and viewers have an understanding where once upon a time, you know, players would be fixated and fascinated with

Working on their sticks, like you’d see the blow torches and shaving down blades and things like this at the rink. There was always players working on their sticks. And now it seems more than ever since, you know, sticks are all come factory made And to the players specifics

I mean are you going to do is get some you know shaft shaving because you know they can become a little bit sticky and guys want to shave them down now more so than ever players are more particular about their skates and they’re particular about the boots

And the blade holders and the blade themselves. I mean, they’ll be shuttling, you know, 20, 30 pairs of blades back home for their very specific sharpening to have those, you know, then shuttled back to them like this has become the most important thing for a hockey player

And it’s the area that they obsess about the most. In your conversations with hockey players, what are they looking for in their blade holder technology? What are they looking for in their skates in general? What do you find hockey players most interested in right now? Well, it’s a good point.

I mean, just looking back a couple of years, it’s been a very strong increase in interest in this area of of being in the forefront, especially the younger generation, always looking for the things to improve on and yeah, it’s for us, it’s of course,

A great timing now to come in with our technology. And I mean, they’re always looking to to become faster and more efficient and improving in all areas of skating. And even of course, the smallest advantage is huge for these players because improving a couple of percent in training.

Is really it’s a lot of training. So if your equipment can help you improve, like we saw in the study, even like 5 to 7% is I mean, that’s huge, of course, for these guys. So for a player, that’s enormous. You know, I do wonder, you know, in the off season

When players, you know, try different stick patterns or try different skates or gloves or anything, Do you find now that players now understand how to your point that extra four or five, six, whatever 7% can mean, you know, the difference between, you know, 20 goals and 30 goals

Or you know, five million and seven million on a contract that players now are more willing to at least try something new in the off season. Like, I’ll be honest, when you said that players have, you know, switched mid-season, that kind of stuns me because I know how players get locked in

And they worry so much about their performance. But do you find the players now more in the off season are willing to call you up and say, Hey Per, can you send me the the blade holder? I want to try it here for a few weeks. Yeah.

I mean, we see I mean, a strong week adaptation and quick. The interest has grown a lot. I mean, even just looking back the last year, I mean, like in general, most guys don’t want to be the first one out with something new.

But now when they start to see that other players, top players, teammates, opponents all over are starting to use the holders, now they’re starting to get a quick acceptance in the market and in the players locker room. And so if you see your teammate

The first guy on the team wearing them and loving them and then all of a sudden there’s another guy and then there’s quickly like, oh, I have to try them as well. So it’s like that. It’s of course the best marketing to see, to have the players

Starting to spread the word amongst the players like that. even though the most guys don’t want to be the first one out, it’s always hard to get the first guys. But then you don’t want to get left behind either. So it’s yeah, it’s great.

The first player Per, with a pair of mars- the founder of marsblade. We’re talking about skateholder technology with Marsblade. The first player that I noticed was Michael Backlund. Was he the first? And then, you know, I can’t help noticing to watch London Nights and here’s the fliers first round or Bonk.

I’m like, Oh, hang on a second. There’s Marsblade there too, with the skate holder was was Michael Backlund, the first one, as you mentioned, nobody wants to be the first was Backlund the first. And if he wasn’t, he was the first one that I noticed. But if he wasn’t the first, who was?

Yeah, he was amongst the first of the NHL players. So he’s been on them for it’s his third season. I think. it was a couple of guys the first year like him Nyquist No sorry he was he was one of the first on our last generation. Niklas Kronwall was

The first one utilizing our first generation. I can’t forget him. He was the first, the first on the previous generation. You know, that that leads to sort of another question. Maybe it’s a dumb one because there are plenty of like Brandon Carlo uses it and Michael Backlund one’s a defenseman, one’s a forward.

Does it make any difference what position the person plays like? Is there something specific for defenseman that’s different from something for forwards, for example? No, that’s a good question and something that we get asked a lot, like if there’s a particular type of player that benefits from it the most.

But no, it’s, it helps every player, regardless of position or even the level you’re at. It helps everyone to improve as a skater. And that’s the beauty of it. Just like the carving ski that we relate to our technology, doing it like a technology shift. So it becomes the new stuff, right?

Like the carving ski in the alpine skiing helps everyone to ski better and makes it more fun. And our technology does the same for everyone that skates. So it doesn’t matter. This has been great. Per, thanks so much for taking some time for me today. www.marsblade.com is the website.

If you want to learn more about the i2 specifically and everything that Marblade has to offer, the great Per Mårs, one of the most innovative people in the in the hockey technology industry parking some time for us today, Per thanks as always for stopping by, much appreciated. Thanks Jeff. Thanks for having me.

Sportsnets Jeff Marek talking to the Marsblade founder Per Mars about the Marsblade I2s. Some of the discussed topics include the incredible results from a scientific study done by well renowned Brock University, the quick transition time from traditional holders as well as some of the pro players using them.

Source: Jeff Marek Show Sportsnet