By Mitchell Pangle
In 2013 Bauer Sports was relying on baseball, lacrosse, and clothing to turn profit more than they ever had before. Kevin Davis, president and chief executive officer of Bauer, stated in 2013 that the hockey market is "challenging." He stated hockey sales fell as competitors Easton and Reebok-CCM Hockey Inc. cut stick prices amid high inventories making them a more desirable brand based on quality of equipment and lower prices at the time. This ultimately led to Bauer's parent company Performance Sports Group to file for bankruptcy in 2016.
As informed from my previous blog post, according to Google Trends, over the past half-decade Bauer has been the hockey equipment leader worldwide in terms of interest. Recently with the development of stick technology, CCM has been closing the gap between itself and Bauer. In October 2012 Bauer had an interest rating of 95 while CCM had a rating of 19. Fast forward a half-decade later and Bauer has an interest rating of 57 while CCM has an interest rating of 40. This would also be indicative of Bauer's failure to be able to lower hockey equipment and stick prices to keep as the top competitor but instead it opened the doors for companies such as Reebok-CCM, Easton, Warrior, etc.
While Bauer during the time period of 2013-2015 saw a decline in consumers, they are now back on track and once again a top, desirable hockey brand throughout all levels of competition. In fact, Bauer will be releasing the brand new Advanced Carbon Layering design to improve the 1X Lite stick. This new design uses stronger and thinner internal carbon fiber layers that have helped to create Bauer's lightest blade ever constructed. The carbon fiber layers on the 1X Lite are 13% thinner than the previous version the Bauer Vapor 1X stick. The Advanced Carbon Layering technique used in the new Bauer Vapor 1X Lite stick will result in an 11% faster release when compared to the previous 1X stick. By improving equipment durability, structure and design, companies such as Bauer will continue to rise to the top of the consumer's desire chain, ultimately propelling consumers into paying the higher prices for the newly introduced and improved sticks and equipment.
References
https://www.hockeystickman.com/products/bauer-vapor-1x-lite-18
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauer_Hockey
Google Trends
Google Analytics
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