1. Find the X factor in your CX: At first, Joey’s company focused on the value it offered: High-end hockey sticks, refurbished and sold at a fraction of the cost. Over time, it became clear that fast delivery was most important in creating a positive customer experience.
2. Be open to opportunities: HockeyStickMan expanded from selling refurbished hockey sticks to selling manufacture direct to offering its own line of high-end, unbranded sticks.
3. Trust what you know: Joey was raised playing hockey, and his familiarity with both the equipment his customers need and the nuances they’re looking for allows him to understand what products will be successful.
4. Be open about expectations: November and December are huge sales months, and Joey is clear to his team that means longer days and also more overtime pay.
5. Don’t rush a business: Expecting seven figures in sales the first year is not realistic. Start with something you’re passionate about, think it through and then refine it over time.
HockeyStickMan started out as a side hustle for one hockey family in Ontario, Canada. It has grown into one of the largest online hockey retailers in North America. The story of how this mom-and-pop shop grew into an international retailer will show you how even the smallest idea can become a thriving business by practicing patience, being attentive to what customers value most and keep an eye out for opportunities. Perhaps most importantly, you’ll see how Joey Walsh managed the growth while keeping HockeyStickMan true to its roots as a family business dedicated making quality hockey equipment accessible and affordable for players and their families.
Meet Joey Walsh, president and founder of HockeyStickMan.
HockeyStickMan now offers much more than just refurbished sticks, selling direct from manufacturers as well as offering its own line of high-end sticks. A more recent product is high-quality hockey gloves available in the colorways of every NHL team.
Joey grew up in Belleville, Ontario, playing hockey just as each of his three younger siblings would. After college, he spent five years working in amateur sport development with B.C. Hockey, a division of Hockey Canada before returning to the East Coast where his younger brothers were playing college hockey. In 2010, Joey began buying up broken hockey sticks from college and pro teams. His father and uncles would repair the sticks, which would then be sold online at a fraction of the original cost. A stick that originally cost $300 would be sold for $60 or $65 after it was repaired. It was a tidy little business. The teams were happy to get anything for their old sticks. The customers were thrilled to have access to high-end equipment at such a low price point.
“I wasn't sure if people were going to buy broken hockey sticks online, but they did,” Joey said, “and they kept coming back, and it was a good product, so we continued to grow.”
Refurbishing broken sticks turned out to be a beachhead, not the destination. As HockeyStickMan developed a reputation within the game of hockey, new opportunities opened up, and pretty soon the company was offering much more than just refurbished sticks.
“We expanded from broken sticks into new sticks,” Joey said, “into manufacture direct sticks, into our own sticks we sell direct to customers.”
HockeyStickMan is first and foremost an E-Commerce business, which makes it unique among its competitors. It has expanded to include two retail locations, including a shoppable warehouse at the company’s headquarters in Belleville, Ontario. In addition to that 8,000 square-foot warehouse, there is a Toronto-area office, where the marketing, advertising and sales staff work.
For a novice, a hockey stick may seem to be a relatively straight-forward piece of equipment. For Walsh and his customers, however, there are a number of variables: size, flex, curve, hand placement. Over time, Walsh noticed that level of specificity created a hole for a high-end stick that wasn’t quite so customized. “We thought, ‘Hey, wouldn't it be great if we could just have a Steady Eddie stick that was what we think is the best stick in the world and charge $100 for it.’ “That led Joey to find a factory in China that produced high-end sticks. The first run came together fairly quickly, and just like that, HockeyStickMan was offering its own line of hockey sticks.
“We basically just got the best stick in the world,” Walsh said, “and we were able to replicate that with no graphics and sell it for cheaper. Five years later, we're still selling those same sticks, the best sticks in the world, in my opinion, and a lot of people agree with it because they keep coming back.”
HockeyStickMan started as a self-financed side hustle, which turned out to be a blessing as it gave Joey time to learn about both his business and the market. Early on, growth was fueled by word of mouth and the connections and reputation the company built within the hockey community. When the growth began to accelerate, he had accumulated a great deal of experience. The company now uses both advertising and social media to grow, but even that is monitored closely. “If we start to have big, big months,” Joey said, “we curb our ad spend, managing it so that our staff and our inventory and all that stuff can remain in place for our existing customers.”
Online content has been a significant sales driver from the beginning. Back when the company started repairing sticks, Joey would write articles which he search optimized about topics like how to find the right sized hockey stick. He would include links to the refurbished sticks his company was selling. Now the company has a team dedicated creating social-media content to keep fans engaged. They’ll create posts about the stick preferences of rising stars. There are also giveaways, but the biggest promotional tool the company has is the email newsletter it uses to announce new inventory. Joey said customers know to keep an eye out for those announcements.
“If they're looking for a certain product that really is sold out 99% of the time,” he said, “you've got to kind of watch for those inventory drops via the email.”
The final three months of the calendar ar the busiest three months of the year at HockeyStickMan. Orders start to pick up in September in anticipation of the North American hockey season, which begins in October. Then comes the holiday shopping rush that starts the final week of November and then picks up speed over the course of December. “We try to basically staff people around the clock for fulfillment and customer service during those times,” Joey said. Joey said the company will be using some seasonal workers this year, but he’s also up-front with his employees about the fact that they’ll be working overtime. “Honestly, everybody has to work harder that time of year,” he said, “because we try to make sure that the same standards are upheld throughout the year.”.
HockeyStickMan has situated itself at the intersection of quality and affordability. That requires Joey and his team to stay alert to potential opportunities whether it’s a closeout sale from a big brand, products sourced directly from a manufacturer or maybe even working with pro teams. “We'll keep our ears to the ground, our eyes open,” Joey said. One avenue the company is exploring is increasing the amount of customization. “The kids think it's cool to have their name printed on the stick, names on their gloves and stuff like that,” Joey said. “It's going to be a challenge to actually customize things at scale, but we're going to attempt some of that.”
Joey said the starting point for a strong is to find an industry or idea you are passionate about and take the time to really think it through it. “If you're passionate about it,” Joey said, “then you don't mind working hard at it and going through the trials and tribulations of what that might entail.” Some entrepreneurs feel pressure to be brilliant, pushing themselves to come up with a concept capable of producing $1 million in sales that first year. Joey said that’s just setting yourself up for failure. “Patience and hard work,” Joey said. “The younger generation wants everything faster, quicker, and I think that the hallmark of building a good business, whether it be E-Commerce or otherwise is about patience, hard work, and putting in the time to get to where you are.”
Shopify
Joey had a friend who was one of the first employees at Shopify, and he suggested Joey set up a Web site using Shopify.
“I wasn't sure if people were going to buy broken hockey sticks online,” Joey said, “but they did, and they kept coming back.”
Can’t-live-without tool? Support from family. I certainly couldn’t do it without my phone, but if you go deeper there's always a supporting cast behind you whether it is money or time or the firm or your wife raising your kids while you're running a business, you know, that's the hallmark of what really makes it tick.
Key hiring trait? Passion and intelligence. If you really believe in what we're doing, I think that that goes a long way. There's different types of intelligence, obviously, but for me, it's the ability to get things done. The capacity to be able to move a project from point A to point B, and I look for that in interviews and examples of people that are driven and can showcase the ability to do something and not just talk.
Recent podcast: I enjoy listening to John Grisham. He has a unique way of writing. He writes about the law and different intriguing stories. For me, I put on the cruise control when we're driving on these long road trips that are required through my business, and I kind of escape into six, seven hours of escape from the hustle. Most people probably don't look at driving seven hours in a car as relaxing, but when I’m by myself and I have a good novel that I can get into, I do. I like Grisham. I like Tom Clancy. I like Dan Brown and other really good writers that often bring a little bit of historical fiction to the table so you're learning something while you're, while you're, while you're being entertained.
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