Monday 29 June 2015

THE CROWN STICKS HAVE BEEN RELEASED

Hi All
We have BIG news, the first few Crown Sticks have been posted!

They are officially out and in the hands of players. It has been a hugely ambitious project and we have certainly selected the most difficult route possible, but it is the route with the highest reward. It would have been easy to go over to Pakistan and produce yet another brand with different graphics, but that's not how we roll at Crown. Developing a new manufacturing process and producing all Crown sticks in England has been beyond challenging, incredibly technical but enjoyable, I hope those lucky enough to get their hands on a Crown stick enjoy using it as much as we have enjoyed making it. 
Let's hit the hockey world by storm and continue to push hockey forward.
Best Regards from,
Evan, Matt and Matt M @ Crown




All the best from the Crown Team 
All the best from the Crown Team


Thursday 25 June 2015

Hi Everyone

My name is Victoria and I'm new to Crown Hockey. I'm an Aerospace Engineering student at the University of Bath. I captained the Bath Uni 2s this season and played for Team Bath Buccaneers 1st Team.

My role at Crown is to test our sticks so we can show you how good they are and help everyone understand the benefits of our unique manufacturing technique. We want to know what kind of testing you want to see, so please help us by filling out our short survey here: Performance Testing Survey


Please feel free to contact me at victoria@crownhockey.com if you have any great ideas or want to find out more. 

Victoria @ Crown

Thursday 18 June 2015

Hockey World League

Hi everyone,

Here at Crown, as you can probably tell, we've been getting really into the Hockey World League and watching as many games as we can.

Its been remarkable to see the level the players are at this year and watching the Great British women's team play has filled us with a lot of confidence in the team going forward, they have been the highlight of the tournaments for us, especially the incredible play of young Sophie Bray.

Sophie Bray, our player of the tournament so far. Photo from FIH

Today GB play South Africa in what we hope will lead them into the semi-finals. This promises to be the hardest test for the girls yet with South Africa being ranked 13th in the world currently.

From a personal perspective these championships seem to have really been taken into 2015. The FIH twitter has been posting replays of the goals and other key events, virtually the instant they happen. This seems to me like they are really investing in Hockey for the future and this is great for the sport.

It's always refreshing to see things moving in the right direction and we are all looking forward to seeing the men play in Antwerp next week.

Matt.M @ Crown

Tuesday 16 June 2015

World Hockey League Argentina

Hi everyone,

When the World Hockey league semi-finals in Argentina recently finished, we decided to put an infographic together for those of you that may have missed it or just want more.


Matt.m @ Crown

Thursday 11 June 2015

My summarized opinion about sticks - Bernardo Fernandes of Self-Pass

My name is Bernardo Fernandes, I am a professional Hockey coach originally from Portugal but living and coaching in the Netherlands. I am part of the European Hockey Federation Top Coaches Program and author of the Hockey blog www.self-pass.com where I write my own coaching publications and invite other International coaches or players to contribute.



Self-pass has many guest bloggers
including England international
Susannah Townsend
My life revolves basically around what is happening inside a hockey pitch and while I don’t consider myself an expert regarding sticks manufacturing or specs, I accept the invitation from Crown Hockey and will have a go about my preferences in this regard.

It is difficult to give a general appreciation about an ‘ideal’ stick as different positions, players characteristics and game level demand a different type of stick but personally I always looked for a ‘balanced’ stick in terms of weight and bow. Being a youth hockey educator I also believe it is important, especially in early development stages (until 16/17 years old), that players are not raised with extremely light/heavy sticks or exaggerated curved sticks as that can have a very negative influence in the mastering of some core technical basics as the hit or flat passing.



"I also like a stick with a
reasonable ‘wide’ and ‘open’
hook to allow a better
backhand control."
When I try a new stick the first things I notice are the weight distribution (if the stick is evenly balanced) and the ‘touch’ and by touch I mean ball tension feeling, then I also like a stick with a reasonable ‘wide’ and ‘open’ hook to allow a better backhand control.



If we attend to the international level we realize that players are using more and more an extensive grip area as especially for different type of receivings (mainly in a more static body positions) the right hand is getting lower, in the other hand I dislike this recent habit to overload the grabbing area of the stick with 2 or 3 grips in order to make it thicker (and eventually prevent ball vibration) as I believe this affects the grabbing - the bigger and larger is the volume your  hand need to hold it and the less movement ability you have mainly in rotation situations.


The amount of passing and shooting with the backhand blade in the modern game tell us that this area of the stick has become fundamental and must be is properly reinforced.  

In terms of design I like a sharp, minimalist design with some colour details especially to differentiate collections or models.



I understand Crown Hockey efforts trying to produce a new hockey stick with an innovative manufacturing method, a stick that will have less vibration during the impact with the ball and I hope you can succeed and eventually bring stick manufacturing to a different level.


Trainings will be funnier and players (mainly in the winter) will appreciate to smash some balls without an uncomfortable shiver running along their bones!

Bernardo @Self-Pass

- A huge thanks to Bernardo for writing this piece and helping our blog grow!

Monday 8 June 2015

New Shop Page


Just like our stick we are always developing our website, we now have a much fancier shop page. We have chosen shopify as our eCommerce provider, so your payment procedure will be both easy and secure.

We are continuously upgrading each part of the website as we grow, we have plans to upload more detailed pictures of the Crown stick, as well as having a video to show it from every angle. If anyone has an idea for what they would like to see on a shop page please let us know.

All the Best

Evan @ Crown

Tuesday 2 June 2015

Performance Packaging


Yesterday we visited a creative packaging company in Brighton, where we discussed our packaging ideas. It was great to see the work that they have produced for their clients, who range from The Simpsons to Led Zeppelin.

Over the past few months we have been developing packaging for the Crown hockey stick, our self proposed brief is to produce a piece of packaging that mimics the innovation leap of our stick. We want everything we produce to be of the highest standard, including the packaging.  

On a personal note is as always been a disappointment to me to receive expensive sport equipment in a boring box, but what do you guys think? and what would you like the packaging to look like or include?

As always we are all ears!

Best Regards

Evan @ Crown