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Why is gear so expensive?


Quadzilla32

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On 2/14/2020 at 9:22 AM, jeff da goalie said:

Simmons cuts costs by knocking off the big boys' stuff.  They are NA made but they're essentially serial intellectual property thieves.  It's easy to keep costs down when your R&D costs are "buy a pair of Vaughns.  Cut them up.  Replicate."  They also weren't the quality of the big companies.  I had a pair of Simmons that went floppy by the end of the first season.  These were senior quality at best.  You get what you 

 

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To answer the original question, because people will pay for it, and because the game has grown.

I am looking at USA only, but here are some interesting numbers.

Player participation has grown over 100K over the last 20 years: https://www.usahockey.com/membershipstats

In 1998-1999, when you could buy a full pro set for $999/$289/$189, there were 401k registered players in USA Hockey.

Last year (2018-2019), 568k registered.  Growth of 167k players just in the United States. 

Inflation also plays a part.  About 2.1% annual average since 1999.  $100 in 1999 is equivalent to $150ish today.

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On 2/15/2020 at 11:18 AM, Scythe said:

That's about the dumbest thing I've ever heard.  

How so?  Simmons is a blatant ripoff of the big boys.  And their products are mediocre that break down quickly.  If you'd like to counter that, other than saying what you did, do they do R&D?  (Spoiler alert:  they don't.)  And I've owned pretty much every type of gear Simmons made -- and bought from the website, not used -- and they broke down quickly or gave sub-optimal protection.  That's my experience.  Yours is apparently limited to ad hominem attacks.

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On 2/15/2020 at 9:49 AM, Scythe said:

I got sticker shock a few weeks ago.. wasn't goalie equipment but some musical gear.. 

Lol, what type of musical gear? I play the violin. Let me tell you just for a decent teaching instrument they run between 18,000-80,000. Found an awesome one in Ann Arbor, MI made in 1870 in Hungary , but it was 22,000.  

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6 hours ago, jeff da goalie said:

How so?  Simmons is a blatant ripoff of the big boys.  And their products are mediocre that break down quickly.  If you'd like to counter that, other than saying what you did, do they do R&D?  (Spoiler alert:  they don't.)  And I've owned pretty much every type of gear Simmons made -- and bought from the website, not used -- and they broke down quickly or gave sub-optimal protection.  That's my experience.  Yours is apparently limited to ad hominem attacks.

I agree.  Simmons idea of research was buying a set of Velocities and reverse engineering them.  Then attacking anyone who dared call them out on it.  I was ecstatic when they folded.

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Have owned a pair of Simmons 997 and currently in 999’s and playing 2/3 times a week and pads have lasted so far. 
 

I can say that Simmons lack of innovation has left me wanting more lately. The pads aren’t the best sliding but they have been protective so far. The pads are pretty soft but haven’t broken down that much and I’ve had them for roughly 3 years now. 
 

the only reason why I like Simmons is you can get a NA made pad for the price of most bigger company SR level pad. My next set though will be something different, a little more technologically advanced. If DS started making changes to their stuff instead of just rebranding their old pads with new numbers I would probably stay in them  

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4 hours ago, WillyGrips13 said:

Well Simmons is still making gear. They moved their operation to Buffalo. So all you haters got to keep on hatin’. Website is simmonshockey.com click on it to hate on it. 

Uh, no.  Simmons folded.  Someone bought them and relaunched.  I despise them for the same reason people piled on Battram.  They steal other companies' ideas and then pretend to take the high road because "our stuff is made in North America."  Ok.  By a company that is as bad as China when it comes to stealing other people's intellectual property (I'm using that in the lay sense, not in terms of actual patents.)  

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47 minutes ago, jeff da goalie said:

Uh, no.  Simmons folded.  Someone bought them and relaunched.  I despise them for the same reason people piled on Battram.  They steal other companies' ideas and then pretend to take the high road because "our stuff is made in North America."  Ok.  By a company that is as bad as China when it comes to stealing other people's intellectual property (I'm using that in the lay sense, not in terms of actual patents.)  

JT Terio aka Keeps33 is their lead designer and builder now

image.thumb.png.649e403f37fa0fcc38d2a37e60a575e3.png

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7 hours ago, estogoalie said:

While we are piling on Simmons....Remember on GSBB, Simmons wouldn't even allow their name to be written there? You had to write S*****s. That, plus blatently cloning Vaughn, and overall arrogance...yea I also can't say I'm sorry to see them go under.

I don't remember seeing Simmons blanked out like that, but I know for sure that Battram was.

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23 hours ago, jeff da goalie said:

How so?  Simmons is a blatant ripoff of the big boys.  And their products are mediocre that break down quickly.  If you'd like to counter that, other than saying what you did, do they do R&D?  (Spoiler alert:  they don't.)  And I've owned pretty much every type of gear Simmons made -- and bought from the website, not used -- and they broke down quickly or gave sub-optimal protection.  That's my experience.  Yours is apparently limited to ad hominem attacks.

Your ad hominem statement just brought back memories of the good old GSBB days. Thanks.

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