Are you buying a new hockey stick every year for your growing child? Thanks to an invention by six Fontys students, that may be a thing of the past. The idea has already won several prizes.
A hockey stick that lasts for no less than four years, thanks to a special fixture that you can attach to the top. Judging by the reactions of hockey mothers and fathers, there is a gap in the market. It was invented by a group of students who are participating in a national entrepreneurship competition for students for their studies in Entrepreneurship and Retail Management. Participants in that competition must come up with a product or service and bring it to market.
Outcome
At first, the boys’ idea was to make a tennis racket, but they discovered that that was almost impossible. “We then started looking at other sports and ended up with hockey,” says Van der Steijn. That’s how the extendable stick saw the light of day and it turned out to be a solution for quite a few people. “Normally, parents have to buy a new stick every year. With the HockeyMate, that only has to be done once every four years,” says the young entrepreneur.
“The funny thing is that none of us have ever touched a hockey stick”
Daan van der Steijn, student Entrepreneurship and Retail Management
The Fontys students’ company, which has been given the name HockeyMate, is still in the running for the main prize of the competition. The six founders are now looking for a producer. Van der Steijn: “I am confident that we will also pocket that prize, but we will see. There are certainly people interested.” The final will be on 14 May in Amsterdam.
Source: Studio040
Translate: Ayşenur Kuran
