Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Sports equipment |
Founded | 1970 | as STX Inc.
Founder | Richard B.C. Tucker Sr. |
Headquarters | Baltimore, Maryland, United States |
Key people |
|
Products | Sports equipment, Apparel
|
Parent | Wm. T. Burnett & Co. |
Website | STX.com |
STX (a contraction of the word "sticks" but commonly called "S-T-X") is a global sports equipment manufacturer based in Baltimore, Maryland, US. STX makes lacrosse equipment, field hockey equipment, and ice hockey equipment, but its main business is in manufacturing of men's and women's lacrosse sticks and protective gear, including gloves, pads, and women's eyewear.
The company was founded in 1970 by Richard B.C. Tucker, Sr. as STX Inc. STX's first stick was the double wall, synthetic lacrosse head (U.S. Pat. #3,507,495 [1] ), which was the first synthetic stick and the only type used to score goals in the first NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship (1971).
STX is one of the largest manufacturers of lacrosse equipment, and in Maryland, part of the $66+ million industry. [2] It is a subsidiary of Wm. T. Burnett & Co.
Richard B.J. Tucker Sr. grew up playing lacrosse in Baltimore and member of the Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse team, [3] earning All-American status in his senior year. [4] Upon graduating from Hopkins in 1951, Tucker joined the family business, Wm. T Burnett & Co.
At Burnett, Tucker and his fellow lacrosse playing colleagues began to play with the notion of a synthetic lacrosse head that would make the game they were all so passionate about more accessible to the masses. [3] Up until and through the 1960s, all lacrosse sticks were laboriously crafted and strung by hand on the Native American reservations where the game had been played for centuries. The very limited supply and relatively high level of inconsistency in the final product made for a relatively exclusive distribution network. In the case of Mr. Tucker, the situation was compounded by the fact that the vast majority of sticks were built and strung in such a manner that they were truly most conducive for right handed players. Being left handed, Tucker grew frustrated that if he broke a stick, finding a quality replacement was exponentially more difficult for him than it was for others.
With a desire to improve and grow the game they cherished, and access to the latest in raw material technology, Tucker and his partners began experimenting with various fabrications for a synthetic lacrosse head. By 1966, Joseph Sollers Jr. (President of Burnett and former Hopkins Lacrosse All-American), Bill Crawford (former University of Virginia goaltender), and Roland Fracalossi (industry leading chemist at Burnett) had, along with Tucker, produced the first synthetic lacrosse head. [5] A patent application was filed in 1967, while a refined prototype was developed over the next year. In 1968, during a game between the US Naval Academy and West Point, a synthetic lacrosse head was put into play for the first time.
In 1970, US Patent #3,507,495 was received by STX, LLC. One year later, in the first NCAA lacrosse national championship, Cornell outscored Maryland 12-6 for the win. [6] Every single goal scored during the match was done so with an STX lacrosse head, a dramatic shift from just 12 months prior when wooden sticks were the standard. The new, synthetic type of stick has become the most common in the sport.
In the mid-1970s, STX began branching out from lacrosse equipment with the development of golf putters, aided by ties with the chemical company DuPont. [7] In 2006, a survey conducted by the Darrell Survey Company on the PGA Tour determined that STX putters were considered among the top five. [8] As of 2021, STX no longer sells golf clubs.
STX produces ice hockey equipment, including shoulder pads, elbow pads, gloves, shin guards, and sticks. They have three lines of equipment: Stallion, Surgeon, and Halo. [9] [10] There are several NHL players who use STX gear, including Jiří Hudler, Matt Moulson, Vincent Trocheck, Ivan Barbashev, and Brandon Pirri. [11]
Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively modified by European colonists, reducing the violence, to create its current collegiate and professional form.
In many team sports that involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting opposing shots on goal. Such positions exist in bandy, rink bandy, camogie, association football, Gaelic football, international rules football, floorball, handball, hurling, field hockey, ice hockey, roller hockey, lacrosse, ringette, rinkball, water polo, and shinty, as well as in other sports.
Box lacrosse, also known as boxla, box, or indoor lacrosse, is an indoor version of lacrosse played mostly in North America. The game originated in the 1930s in Canada, where it is more popular than field lacrosse. Lacrosse is Canada's official national summer sport. Box lacrosse is played between two teams of five players and one goalie each, and is traditionally played on an ice hockey rink once the ice has been removed or covered. The playing area is called a box, in contrast to the open playing field of field lacrosse. The object of the game is to use a lacrosse stick to catch, carry, and pass the ball in an effort to score by shooting a solid rubber lacrosse ball into the opponent's goal. The highest level of box lacrosse is the National Lacrosse League.
Stick or the stick may refer to:
Women's lacrosse, sometimes shortened to lax, is a field sport played at the international level with two opposing teams of ten players each. Originally played by indigenous peoples of the Americas, the modern women's game was introduced in 1890 at the St Leonard's School in St Andrews, Scotland. The rules of women's lacrosse differ significantly from men's field lacrosse. The two are often considered to be different sports with a common root.
Field lacrosse is a full contact outdoor sport played with two opposing teams of ten players each. The sport originated among Native Americans, and the modern rules of field lacrosse were initially codified by Canadian William George Beers in 1867. Field lacrosse is one of three major versions of lacrosse played internationally. The rules of men's lacrosse differ significantly from women's field lacrosse. The two are often considered to be different sports with a common root. An outdoor six-a-side version, lacrosse sixes, was established in 2021 and features six players per team, reduced field size, and shorter duration to be conducive for daily tournament play. Another version, indoor box lacrosse, is also played under different rules.
Street hockey is a collection of team sport variants played outdoors either on foot or with wheeled skates, using either a ball or puck designed for play on flat, dry surfaces. The object of every game is to score more goals than the opposing team by shooting the ball or puck into the opposing team's net. All games are derivatives of either the sport of ice hockey, floor hockey, bandy, and/or field hockey.
Sports equipment, also called sporting goods, are the tools, materials, apparel, and gear, which varies in shapes, size, and usage in a particular sport. It includes balls, nets, rackets, protective gears like helmets, goggles, etc. Since the performer must use a sport equipment, it can also be serve for protection.
Lacrosse has its origins in a tribal game played by eastern Woodlands Native Americans and by some Plains Indians tribes in what is now the United States of America and Canada. The game was extensively modified by European settlers to create its current collegiate and professional form.
In ice hockey, the goaltender wears specialized goaltending equipment to protect themselves from the impact of the puck, and to assist in making saves. Ringette and rinkball goaltenders use the same equipment with some exceptions. This article deals chiefly with the sport of ice hockey.
A lacrosse stick or crosse is used to play the sport of lacrosse. Players use the lacrosse stick to handle the ball and to strike or "check" opposing players' sticks, causing them to drop the ball. The head of a lacrosse stick is roughly triangular in shape and is strung with loose netting that allows the ball to be caught, carried, passed, or shot.
Sportswear or activewear is athletic clothing, including footwear, worn for sports activity or physical exercise. Sport-specific clothing is worn for most sports and physical exercise, for practical, comfort or safety reasons.
In ice hockey, players use specialized equipment both to facilitate the play of the game and for protection as this is a sport where injuries are common, therefore, all players are encouraged to protect their bodies from bruises and severe fractures.
Lacrosse gloves are heavily padded, protective gloves worn by men's lacrosse players. The gloves are designed to protect players' hands, wrists, and forearms from checks, or legal defensive hitting common in the sport. Gloves consist of thick padding on the back of the hand and forearm covered in leather or canvas material, and a palm area made of synthetic and mesh material. A goaltender's gloves may have extra padding for the thumb to protect against injury from shots. While NCAA collegiate rules require that men's gloves have palms covered, other leagues, including post-collegiate club lacrosse, the National Lacrosse League, Major League Lacrosse, and international play, permit players to cut out the palm area for greater grip and control of the lacrosse stick.
In field lacrosse, the goaltender is the most important and last line of defense between the opposing offense and the goal. The goaltender's primary roles are to defend the opposing team's shots on goal and to direct the defense.
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.
Pads are a type of protective equipment used in a number of sports and serve to protect the legs from the impact of a hard ball, puck, or other object of play travelling at high speed which could otherwise cause injuries to the lower legs. These are used by batters in the sport of cricket, catchers in the sports of baseball and fastpitch softball, and by goaltenders in sports such as ice hockey, ringette, bandy, rinkball, field hockey, rink hockey and box lacrosse.
David K. Morrow is an entrepreneur, businessman, and former lacrosse defenseman. He starred as a member of the Princeton Tigers men's lacrosse team from 1990 through 1993. He was a three-time United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) All-American. He is a co-founder of Major League Lacrosse (MLL) and an innovator of the titanium lacrosse stick and hockey stick.
Vaughn Hockey is a manufacturing company of ice hockey equipment founded in 1982 by company President Mike Vaughn.
The goaltender or goalie is a playing position in indoor or box lacrosse. More heavily armoured than a field lacrosse goaltender, since the invent of indoor lacrosse in 1931, the box lacrosse goalie has evolved into a much different position than its field lacrosse cousin.