Hespeler Hockey

Last updated
Hespeler
Hespeler Hockey logo.png
Product type Ice hockey equipment
Owner Canadian Tire Corporation
Country Canada
Introduced1921
Website Archived official website at the Wayback Machine (archived 2002-01-25)

Hespeler is a Canadian brand of ice hockey equipment owned by the Canadian Tire Corporation through its subsidiary FGL Sports (formerly the Forzani Group Limited). The Hespeler brand originated in the Hespeler Wood Specialty Company in Hespeler, Ontario, which was founded in 1921 and produced hockey sticks. In the 1930s Hespeler was merged with a number of other manufacturing companies to form the Hespeler-St. Mary's Wood Specialty Company, which continued to manufacture hockey sticks at the Hespeler factory.

Contents

In 1972, Hespeler-St. Mary's was purchased by Cooper Canada, who discontinued the Hespeler line and used the factory to produce its own sticks and bats. Subsequent owners of the Hespeler factory included Charan Industries, Canstar Industries, Nike, and Roustan Hockey. Hockey stick manufacturing in Hespeler ended in 2022.

In 1987, businessman Steve Davies discovered that the Hespeler brand had never been trademarked. Davies acquired the trademark and formed the company Hespeler Hockey Inc., which revived the brand. In 1997 Davies sold the company, and that year, Wayne Gretzky became an officer, director, and part-owner. Hespeler went through several ownership changes after 1997 until it was purchased in 2004 by the Forzani Group Limited. In 2011, Canadian Tire purchased the Forzani Group, giving it the rights to the Hespeler name. Since 2011, the Hespeler brand has been used sporadically by Canadian Tire alongside its other hockey brands, Sher-Wood and Victoriaville.

History through the Hespeler factory

Hespeler Wood Specialty Company, 1921–1930

The Hespeler brand was created by Zachariah Adam Hall (1865–1952), who in 1921 started the Hespeler Wood Specialty Company in Hespeler, Ontario. The name itself came from Jacob Hespeler (1810–1881), a settler from Württemberg. Hespeler Wood Specialty operated out of a factory at 63 Sheffield Street that Hall and his partner Oscar Zyrd owned. The facilities had belonged previously to the Parkin Elevator Co. Ltd. and Dominion Heating and Ventilating Co., two companies that Hall and Zyrd had purchased. Among the earliest brands of stick the company produced were "Mic Mac" and "Red Flash." It is uncertain when the first "Hespeler" stick appeared.

Waterloo Wood Products/Hespeler-St. Mary's Wood Specialty, 1930–1972

On 3 November 1930, the Canada Barrels and Kegs Company Limited incorporated a new subsidiary called Waterloo Wood Products Limited. The company was intended to act as a new hockey stick manufacturing division. Canada Barrels had been founded in Waterloo, Ontario in 1872 as Mueller Cooperage. In 1914 the name was changed to Charles Mueller Cooperage, and when the company was sold in 1920 to Joseph E. Seagram and Sons Ltd., the name was changed to Canada Barrels and Kegs. In 1928, all of the Seagram interests were acquired by Samuel Bronfman of Montreal. [1]

After the establishment of Waterloo Wood Products, the new company went on an acquisition spree and purchased the majority of Canada's hockey stick manufacturers. All of the companies it acquired were from Southwestern Ontario except for McNiece & Orchard, which was from Montreal. Between 1930 and 1934, the five businesses Waterloo Wood Products acquired were:

Waterloo Wood Products consolidated the operations of all five companies in the former Hespeler Wood Specialty factory in Hespeler. Then, on 7 January 1935, Waterloo Wood changed its name to the Hespeler-St. Mary's Wood Specialty Company Limited. Over the next several decades, the company emerged as a leader in the production of hockey sticks and baseball bats.

Cooper, Canstar, Nike, 1972–2004

On 10 July 1971, Samuel Bronfman died in Montreal. In the wake of his death, on 5 July 1972 the Hespeler-St. Mary's business and factory were sold to Cooper Canada. Cooper had been founded in Toronto in 1905 as General Leather Goods. In 1949 the business was renamed Cooper Weeks, and in 1971 became Cooper Canada. After the Cooper purchase in 1972, the Hespeler-St. Mary's factory produced only Cooper branded hockey sticks and baseball bats. In 1986, Cooper baseball bats, all of which were produced in Hespeler, were used for the first time in Major League Baseball, and by 1988 Cooper bats accounted for 30 percent of the market.

On 13 May 1987, Cooper Canada was acquired by Charan Industries of Montreal for $36 million. [2] Then, in early 1990, Charan sold Cooper to Canstar Industries Inc. of Montreal. [3] Canstar already owned the Bauer, Daoust, Micron, Mega, and Lange skate brands, and the Cooper acquisition made it one of the largest players in the hockey equipment market. In December 1994, Nike purchased Canstar for CAD 546 million. [4] Through these acquisitions, the factory in Hespeler continued to manufacture wood sticks.

Heritage Wood Specialties/Roustan Hockey, 2004–present

In 2004, Nike sought to divest of its wood hockey stick manufacturing operations in Hespeler. That year, five Nike employees joined together with investor Mark Fackoury to form Heritage Wood Specialties Inc., which purchased the factory and its equipment. By the late 2010s, the company was struggling financially and its facilities required major upgrades. In 2019, the business was purchased by W. Graeme Roustan, who in 2008 had worked with Kohlberg & Company to acquired all of Nike's hockey assets. Upon acquiring the company, the new owner changed the name to Roustan Hockey. In late 2020, Roustan closed the old Hespeler factory and moved the company's operations to Brantford. [5]

History through Hespeler Hockey Inc.

Wayne Gretzky using Hespeler stick, gloves, and pants Wgretz.jpg
Wayne Gretzky using Hespeler stick, gloves, and pants

In 1987, businessman Steve Davies of Etobicoke, Ontario, discovered that the name "Hespeler" had never been trademarked. When Hespeler Wood Specialty was formed in 1921, Hespeler, Ontario was a town, and therefore the name could not be trademarked. However, in 1973, the Town of Hespeler merged with Galt and Preston to form Cambridge, Ontario, and Hespeler became a neighbourhood. After the creation of Cambridge, the Hespeler name was left untrademarked. Davies acquired the trademark himself and formed the company Hespeler Hockey Inc. [6] After he began selling sticks under the name, Davies was sued by Cooper, who claimed it owned the rights. The lawsuit was dropped in 1990 when Canstar purchased Cooper. [7] The first NHL player to use a new Hespeler stick was Colin Patterson of the Calgary Flames, who played with it in game six of the 1989 Stanley Cup Finals. Patterson was a childhood friend of Davies's business partner Eric Niskanen. As Hespeler had not yet paid the NHL brand licensing fee, Patterson was forced to black-out the name. [8] Soon after, Patterson's teammate Doug Gilmour began using a Hespeler stick with a flat blade. [9]

In September 1997, Davies sold Hespeler Hockey to First Team Sports, Inc. of Minneapolis. Since 1990, Wayne Gretzky had worked with First Team as an ambassador for the company's inline skates, and was a major shareholder in the company. [10] A month after the Hespeler purchase, First Team reached an agreement with Gretzky that gave him shares in Hespeler Hockey Inc., and made him an officer and director of the company. Gretzky would also serve as the brand's primary ambassador. [11] The agreement stipulated also that if ever First Team sold Hespeler, Gretzky would retain a 25 per cent stake in Hespeler. [12] From the fall of 1997 until his retirement in April 1999, Gretzky used Hespeler equipment (save for his Jofa helmet) and sticks. In October 2001, Gen-X Sports Inc. of Toronto acquired First Team for $10.4 million. [13]

In July 2001, the Huffy Corporation acquired Gen-X for $19 million in cash plus five million Huffy shares. In October 2004, Huffy filed for Chapter 11 protection and was forced to auction part of its holdings. [14] The Hespeler trademark was purchased by the Forzani Group Limited of Calgary. A year earlier, Forzani acquired Victoriaville Hockey, therefore, the Hespeler purchase allowed the company to expand its hockey holdings. In May 2011, the Canadian Tire Corporation purchased the Forzani Group for $770 million, and then renamed it FGL Sports. [15] Since 2011, Canadian Tire has used the Hespeler brand infrequently, focusing instead on its Sher-Wood and Victoriaville brands.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian Tire</span> Canadian retail company

Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited is a Canadian retail company which operates in the automotive, hardware, sports, leisure and housewares sectors. Its Canadian operations include: Canadian Tire, Mark's, FGL Sports, PartSource, and the Canadian operations of Party City. Canadian Tire acquired the Norwegian clothing and textile company Helly Hansen from the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cambridge, Ontario</span> City in Ontario, Canada

Cambridge is a city in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, located at the confluence of the Grand and Speed rivers. The city had a population of 138,479 as of the 2021 census. Along with Kitchener and Waterloo, Cambridge is one of the three core cities of Canada's tenth-largest metropolitan area.

CCM Hockey is a Canadian brand of ice hockey equipment owned and manufactured by Sport Maska Inc. The history of the brand traces to 1905, when the Canada Cycle and Motor Company, which had been founded in 1899, began manufacturing hockey equipment as a secondary business. After Canada Cycle went bankrupt in 1982, it sold off its cycling and hockey divisions to separate owners. The hockey division was acquired by Sport Maska of Montreal.

Founded in 1907, Electrohome was Canada's largest manufacturer of television sets (TVs) from 1949 to 1987. The company was also involved in television broadcasting, and was a leader in data, video, graphics displays and projectors.

Galt is a community in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario on the Grand River. Prior to 1973, it was an independent city, incorporated in 1915, but amalgamation with the village of Hespeler, the town of Preston and the village of Blair formed the new municipality of Cambridge. Being the largest constituent community in the city, it is commonly seen as the downtown core of Cambridge. The first mayor of Cambridge was Claudette Millar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Rubber Company</span> American manufacturer of tires

The company formerly known as the United States Rubber Company, now Uniroyal, is an American manufacturer of tires and other synthetic rubber-related products, as well as variety of items for military use, such as ammunition, explosives, chemical weapons and operations and maintenance activities (O&MA) at the government-owned contractor-operated facilities. It was founded in Naugatuck, Connecticut, in 1892. It was one of the original 12 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and became Uniroyal, Inc., as part of creating a unified brand for its products and subsidiaries in 1961.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mission Hockey</span> American hockey brand

Mission Hockey is an American brand of inline skates currently owned by Bauer Hockey. The company Mission Roller Hockey Inc. was founded in California in 1995 as a roller hockey business, and then in 1997 changed its name to Mission Hockey Inc. after it expanded to ice hockey. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Mission equipment was used widely in the National Hockey League. In 2004, Mission merged with Itech to form Mission-Itech Hockey Ltd. Mission equipment remained in production until 2008, when Bauer purchased Mission-Itech. Bauer continues to produce inline skates using Mission branding, while the name has been absent in the hockey market since it was taken over.

Bauer Hockey LLC is a manufacturer of ice hockey equipment, fitness and recreational skates and apparel. Bauer produces helmets, gloves, sticks, skates, shin guards, pants, shoulder pads, elbow pads, hockey jocks and compression underwear, as well as goalie equipment. Some of its equipment, such as its ice hockey skates, are also approved for use in the sport of ringette.

The Hockey News (THN) is a Canadian-based ice hockey magazine. The Hockey News was founded in 1947 by Ken McKenzie and Will Cote and has since become the most recognized hockey publication in North America. The magazine has a readership of 225,000 people per issue, while the magazine's website counts two million total readers. It is the top-selling hockey magazine in North America and is available through subscription in North America and digitally to the rest of the world. The Hockey News is also available at many newsstands in North America.

Joseph Emm Seagram was a Canadian distillery founder, politician, philanthropist, and major owner of thoroughbred racehorses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Borden (company)</span> Disbanded American producer of food products

Borden, Inc., was an American producer of food and beverage products, consumer products, and industrial products. At one time, the company was the largest U.S. producer of dairy and pasta products. Its food division, Borden Foods, was based in Columbus, Ohio, and focused primarily on pasta and pasta sauces, bakery products, snacks, processed cheese, jams and jellies, and ice cream. It was best known for its Borden Ice Cream, Meadow Gold milk, Creamette pasta, and Borden Condensed Milk brands. Its consumer products and industrial segment marketed wallpaper, adhesives, plastics and resins. By 1993, sales of food products accounted for 67 percent of its revenue. It was also known for its Elmer's and Krazy Glue brands.

CCM is a Canadian bicycle brand owned by Canadian Tire. The brand was first used by the Canada Cycle & Motor Co. Ltd, founded in Weston, Ontario in 1899. CCM dominated the Canadian bike market for much of the 20th century before becoming bankrupt in 1983. The CCM trademark was then acquired by Procycle Group, while the company's hockey assets were sold off.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sports Experts</span> Canadian sporting goods retailer

Sports Experts Inc. is a major Canadian sports-retailer franchise primarily located in Quebec. It is part of FGL Sports, itself part of the Canadian Tire group.

Sherwood, styled sometimes as Sher-Wood, is a Canadian brand of ice hockey equipment owned by the Canadian Tire Corporation through its subsidiary INA International Ltd. The brand was created by Léo Paul Drolet (1919–2001) in 1949 and was manufactured originally by his company Sherbrooke Woodcraft Limited, which in 1969 was renamed the Sherwood-Drolet Corp. Ltd. In 1991, Leo's son Denis S. Drolet (1951–2023) succeeded his father as president. That year, the company expanded beyond hockey sticks and began producing protective equipment.

The following is a timeline of notable events in the history of Nike, Inc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cooper Canada</span> Canadian sporting and leather goods manufacturer

Cooper Canada Ltd. was a sporting goods and fine leather goods manufacturer based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In its heyday, the 1960s through to the 1980s, the company was Canada's leading producer of fine leathergoods, hockey, baseball and lacrosse equipment. The company pioneered team-coloured hockey equipment and the use of nylon, foam, and modern plastics in equipment manufacturing.

Jofa is a Swedish brand of ice hockey equipment owned by Sport Maska Inc. of Quebec. The brand originated in the company Jonssons Fabriker AB, later renamed Jofa AB, which was founded in Malung, Sweden in 1926 by Niss Oskar Jonsson (1909–2002). Jofa was a pioneer in the development of the plastic helmet, which was worn most notably by Wayne Gretzky.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hespeler, Ontario</span> Place in Ontario, Canada

Hespeler is a neighbourhood and former town within Cambridge, Ontario, located along the Speed River in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. In 1973, Hespeler, Preston, Galt, and the hamlet of Blair were amalgamated to form the City of Cambridge. The first mayor of Cambridge was Claudette Millar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Easton Sports</span>

Easton Sports, Inc. was an American sports equipment company that existed from 1985 to 2014. Easton was formed as a subsidiary of Jas. D. Easton, Inc. through the acquisition and renaming of the Curley-Bates Co. The company grew to become a major player in baseball and hockey equipment production. In the early 2000s, around 40 per cent of National Hockey League players used Easton sticks.

Titan is a brand of ice hockey sticks owned by Sport Maska Inc. of Quebec. The company Titan OY was founded in Tampere, Finland in 1966 by Antti-Jussi Tiitola (1936–2021), and began by making alpine skis. Later in its first year of operations, Titan began manufacturing ice hockey sticks. Until the 1960s, hockey stick manufacturing was seen primarily as carpentry. Tiitola, an engineer by training, introduced science and technology to the design and production of sticks.

References

  1. ↑ Proteau, Adam (2023-01-05). "Hockey's Oldest Business – Since 1847". The Hockey News. Retrieved 2024-02-15.
  2. ↑ Karen Howlett, "Cooper firm is bought by Charan," Globe and Mail, (7 April 1987), B1.
  3. ↑ "Cooper 'natural fit' for Canstar," Globe and Mail, (13 March 1990), B15.
  4. ↑ Tom Nunn, "Nike to buy top area sports gear company," Waterloo Region Record, (15 December 1994), B8.
  5. ↑ Brent Davis, "Gretzky's hometown scores historic hockey stick maker," Toronto Star, (20 November 2020).
  6. ↑ Mike Beggs,"The world's oldest brand name for hockey sticks is back," Toronto Star, (8 November 1990), W10.
  7. ↑ Mike Beggs, "Businessman hopes to score with old stick," Toronto Star, (15 November 1990), E9.
  8. ↑ Al Strachan, "By any other name, Patterson's stick is still a Hespeler," Globe and Mail, (7 October 1989), A21.
  9. ↑ Bob McKenzie, "Gilmour loves his Hespeler stick," Toronto Star, (8 April 1993), E2.
  10. ↑ "First Team Sports, Inc., announces the signing of Wayne Gretzky and Janet Jones Gretzky," PR Newswire, (7 February 1990).
  11. ↑ "Hockey Great Wayne Gretzky and First Team Sports Partner in Hockey Equipment Company," PR Newswire, (4 October 1997).
  12. ↑ Robert Faulkner, "Gretzky to get stake if firms merge," Toronto Star, (17 July 2001), E1.
  13. ↑ "Gen-X Sports Inc. Completes Its Acquisition of First Team Sports," PR Newswire, (16 October 2001).
  14. ↑ "Bike maker files for Chapter 11," Toronto Star, (21 October 2004), B6.
  15. ↑ David Berman, "Now, eyes turn to Canadian Tire," Globe and Mail, (9 May 2011).
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.