Last week, we had another of Mike Chamernik’s “Question of the Week” series, the response was great, and Mike is back again with his next question.
Question of the Week
by Mike Chamernik
Over the last few years, I’ve gotten into basketball shoes, tracking the new releases of players with signature models. I might buy a pair that catches my eye (and is on sale) but I’m no sneakerhead. Hoopers take their shoes seriously.
I play rec-league softball, and players get excited about getting new bats and fielding gloves. I also play darts, where spinning shafts draw attention.
For the sports you play, what equipment and accessories are the biggest deal to the people in the subculture? What new releases are people most enthusiastic about? To what extent have you or fellow players gone to keep up with new gear?
Thanks, Mike. This is definitely a little different.
I know I’m not the only one on UW who is a curler … but our numbers can’t be more than double-digits. The equipment doesn’t change much (although less than 50 years ago, brooms were literally what you could sweep your front porch with), but the only things we really get excited over are the newest, lightest brooms, and the decision by each curler whether they want brand name shoes or custom shoes, that were once sneakers. Of course, many in my club also wear custom pants, although that’s techncally not equipment.
Can’t wait to hear the readers’ responses! OK guys…fire away!
As a high school soccer coach I feel that players love true socks and the art of sock positioning. Whether that be how high or low socks are or how much cutoff is shown with under sock. Fun question Mike!
When I played in high school (late 90’s, early 2k’s) it was just a sock. Now playing adult rec leagues I am super picky, since we have sock options now hah.
Hockey for sure it’s sticks and goalie pads. When skating out the newest and lightest sticks were always what I and my teammates cared about. When I played goalie the only thing other goalies talked about were new the new pads that come out each year (leg pads, blockers, gloves, less so on pants or chest protectors but still some buzz around those). I remember in college one of my friends and I always looking at the new goalie gear the NHL guys were wearing and then going and checking them out in person when they hit the retail stores. We’d also sit in class and use the online gear customizers to make our dream sets. Heck I still look at the new goalie gear that rolls out each season!
Hockey equipment for sure has always been this. It is applicable to every era as time goes by with the evolution of equipment. I used to be a regular hockey player up to 1994. Only used a wood stick. They are not particularly heavy but first time I picked up one of the newer sticks in sporting goods store it blew me away how light it is. Would definitely take me a shift using it to get used to how light they are now.
It’s crazy now. The sticks I have are from around 2016-18ish range and a friend of mine picked one up and goes “this is so heavy how do you use it?” I was shocked because I thought they were pretty dang light but even in the short time since my sticks were “top of the line” they’ve gotten even lighter. Always amazes me
Helps that hockey sticks have a few more options compared to equipment from other sports. The weight and length varies of course, but the blade shapes, lie angle, shaft flex, etc. all make each stick feel so different. I’m not sure what compares in other sports other than golf clubs.
Phil, loving those 1980s Brier highlights! Brier a bucket list sports event for me, or any sports fan in general. Not just for what happens on the ice but for the event itself. 2025 Brier is in Kelowna, BC…hmm I might need to make some plans.
I would kill to see a Brier. I’ve seen a couple US Championships, but that’s small potatoes compared to the Timmy…
I’ve been to a couple, and they’re a LOT of fun. I had tickets to the 2021 Brier here in Calgary but it got played in a bubble (total bummer, a buddy of mine was curling)
Nobody calls it the Timmy, and they aren’t the title sponsor now either.
The Scotties is a lot of fun. (That one gets called by the sponsor name, I don’t know why). I got to a few days this past year (including Jennifer Jones’ last draw) and it was really awesome.
Just so you’re aware, Phil, the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax will host the Canadian Curling Trials in November 2025. Winners go to the 2026 Olympics. Might be a good time to see the best of the best from the land of maple syrup and beavertails compete!
Trevor!
Thanks for the head’s up. I’ve been to Nova Scotia (and Halifax) and it’s an absolutely gorgeous place. The Brier is still my ultimate bucket list, but this could be up there.
As an occasional 5k participant/finisher, I’d say it’s footwear, maybe ‘ear buds’.
I don’t keep pace with trends for either.
I don’t use (I Still Call Them) headphones… I was gifted a set of those new-fangled open-ear blue-tooth jobs – there’s still mint in box. My shoes are tried and true, well worn but by no means worn out, so they’re keepers.
I got a set of Shokz earlier this year and they’re amazing. I can’t recommend them enough. I feel way safer running in traffic.
IMO runners break down into two categories: gearheads and old-school. The gearheads I know have every gadget, GPS, bottle holster, sweat wicking hat, high tech socks, sunglasses, etc. The old-school runners aren’t quite running in cotton but not far from it.
I played tennis in high school in the mid 1970s, when rackets were going through radical change. I was a serve & volley player, so the more power the better. I initially played with the Wilson Jack Kramer wood racket. I changed fairly quick, looking for more power. I tried the Jimmy Connors T-2000, but had no control. Then went to the aluminum Head Professional, with its teardrop head and red yoke. Many called it the “redhead”. Then the PDP rep gave me free PDP rackets that were very similar to the Head Professional. By college I had switched to the Pro Kennex composite. I never understood how many of the pros were still playing wood. When Borg came out of retirement, he tried to continue playing with his wood rackets, but the power game had pass him by.
Good stuff, everyone! I was expecting more golf replies. The entire sport is gear and accessories.
I think it’s just assumed that golfers are obsessed with gear. It’s just kind of part of the sport by definition.
I play disc golf and ultimate frisbee.
Disc golf unsurprisingly generates a lot of hype around new discs, new molds (the shape of the disc), and new stamps (a new design on an already existing disc). For example, Bill Nye did a collaboration disc a few months ago that generated a fair amount of hype. Discs will get fairly beaten in over time, so there’s almost a constant ongoing cycle of getting new discs.
Ultimate, on the other hand, has a weird counter-culture around accessories actually. Gloves, jerseys, and sand socks (for beach tournaments) are pretty much a solved technology, with no new innovations really. But cleats are where it gets interesting. Ultimate-specific cleats aren’t much of a thing, so most players will wear soccer, lacrosse, or football cleats. But because frisbee is also a second-hand sport in many ways, players will often take great pride in getting second-hand cleats, or wearing new ones down until the absolute last possible stitch, repairing them with duct tape for MONTHS at a time, until the shoe finally completely falls apart.
I think in broomball, it’s the stick (“the broom”), followed by the shin pads.
I’ll ask my team on our email thread.
Not a sport thing, but as an artist, my colleagues and I get pretty geeked out about new colored pens, pastels, or pencils and things like that when they are good, or an improvement, or comfortable to use/hold, or are offered in a particularly nice/unique color.
Similarly (though not equipment or even a thing you can collect or purchase) in animation school we geeked about about people’s “walk cycles”. Animating walking can be done in a handful of frames repeated over and over, but there are endless variations, so we loved observing the way people walk and breaking it down from a technical animation standpoint. Again not gear or accessories, but we tended to respond in the same way a sneakerhead would respond to a new shoe drop.
In the sport of orienteering, it’s the electronic timing chips (aka “e-punches”) that we carry. We need them to prove that we’ve visited each checkpoint flag.
Back in the olden days, we actually had to carry around a punchcard for each race, and each checkpoint had a holepunch, each with a unique shape/pattern to it. You’d run up to the flag, come to a complete stop, align the holepunch with the appropriate location on your punchcard, punch it, and then run off.
Then, “e-punching” was introduced ~25 years ago. Instead of a punchcard, you’d carry a little timing chip (an “e-punch”) strapped to your finger (it’s about the size of a thumb drive), and each checkpoint flag had a receiving unit: a small box (about the size of a bar of soap) with a hole in it. Stick the end of your e-punch into the hole, and the receiving unit would beep. After you’d finish the race, you’d upload the data from your e-punch into the computer, and you’d get instant results (removing the need for someone to double-check all of the paper punches). With e-punching, you’d still need to stop running, but the stop would be very short, just a second or two.
But the most recent upgrade to the technology is “touchless e-punching”, whereby you carry a special new type of e-punch that only requires that you wave your hand over the top of the receiving box (same boxes as before), and the e-punch itself beeps to let you know that it worked ok.
With this latest technology, you literally do not have to stop running! You can just run by the checkpoint, stick out your hand to the flag, and then as you run away, hold up the e-punch to your ear to hear the beeping, and that’s it. No stopping.
In short urban races where every second can matter, you basically need to have the new touchless e-punches if you want to win. The touchless punching technology also changes the nature of the sport a little bit. With the old tech, if you were presented, with say, two similar-ish route options between checkpoints, it might not matter that much which one you chose, because you’d have to come to a complete stop (even if just for a second or two) at the flag anyway.
With the new tech, since you literally don’t have to stop, there’s a benefit to choosing a route where you get to “flow through” and not stop, as opposed to choosing a route where you would have to stop and backtrack (ie: the way into the checkpoint is the same as the way out to the next one).
Because of the new tech, there are currently some debates going on with the North American orienteering community about whether or not the race organizers should provide the touchless e-punches to all participants. Traditionally, each athlete owns their own e-punch and uses it in whatever races they enter. Each e-punch has a unique ID and can be assigned with specific athlete info: name and club/team. The touchless e-punches cost about twice what the classic ones do: ~$80 vs. $40.
And then there’s the debate about whether race organizers should be required to set up the receiving units in “beacon mode” or not. The same old receiving units have the ability to receive both touchless and classic e-punches, but the touchless e-punches are only touchless when the receiving units are in “beacon mode” (when the receiving units are not in beacon mode, the touchless e-punches still function like a classic one: you have to stop and stick the e-punch in the hole).
I’m sure you’re asking, “Why not have the receiving units in beacon mode all the time?” This setting requires more power, and the batteries inside don’t last as long. And in order to ensure weatherproofness of the tech, the batteries are EXTREMELY hard to replace. So the debate is around which events should be required to do this. All? Only ones with national ranking points on the line? Only championship events? Only races with short winning times? Anyway, we’ll see what happens!
Wait, it’s GOTTA BE THE SHOES
Circa 2019, Hagan came out with new broomball shoes that had a much better grip on the ice.
Seconding the talk of curling: A decade ago, high-tech brooms were all the rage, and a focus of controversy. (Check out the podcast Broomgate from the CBC for a deep dive into the era’s broom shenanigans.) Today, custom shoe conversions have exploded. Used to be most curlers wore black shoes from one of two curling shoe makers. But since 2019ish, a number of businesses have popped up to convert regular street shoes into curling shoes. Today, you see a lot more personalized variety of shoes. The real upside isn’t so much visual individualism but that you can wear legitimately comfortable shoes. In my cases, Asics and Adidas are the best-fitting athletic shoe brands for me, so I converted a pair of Adidas shoes for curling.
The fight between brooms and brushes was intense. IIRC, it took a couple years for the powers-that-be in the curling world to allow brushes into the highest level competitions.